Technology and Student Affairs
Every time I think that I can shift my focus away from technology in student affairs…they pull me back in! This (see blockquote) is an online course that is being offered by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA). Can someone please inform ACPA and NASPA that technology is not an “emerging discussion.” It is this kind of language which causes student affairs administrators to remain stuck in 1995. Technology is CURRENTLY in use in student affairs! We have blogs, databases, wikis, rss feeds, vpn clients, web statistics, screenreaders, podcasts, etc. This course should be technical!
Who can I look to as a technology mentor in student affairs when almost everyone seems to think that technology and student affairs are mutually exclusive. NASPA needs to bring back the information technology knowledge community. ACPA needs to have highly technical classes on technology for student affairs practitioners. It is 2006. Technology needs to be part of our educational competencies. [end rant]
ACPA: Technology in Student Affairs
Course Description
iPods, Blackberry, MP3, and more! Today’s college students are awash in technology and have adapted it to their lives. How comfortable are we as college student educators with integrating technology into our professional lives?
This e-learning course is designed to provide an overview of the issues related to technology and the field of student affairs. Included in the course are sections on the current issues, decision-making, and practical applications. Discussion will center on the implications of technology in higher education and how it can best be managed within student affairs. Although technical aspects of technology will be discussed, it is not designed to be a “technical” course. A main objective for participants is to research and address a current technological issue with which they (or a functional area of interest) are dealing.
Course outcomes:
Participants will be introduced to the emerging discussion of technological decision-making in student affairs.
Participants will reflect on and discuss how professionals make technological decisions on their campus.
Participants will research an upcoming decision (or potential decision) related to technology, develop specific goals and strategies to address the issue at hand, and share results with other participants.
A comprehensive list of resources for participants will be provided by the instructor and expanded upon by the participants.
Related posts:
Hey Eric, it’s Laurie. If ya wanna know “which” Laurie, just take a look at my website, as I prefer not to post my last name to the www.
Anyway, I’m TOTALLY with you. I’m working on my second masters right now and getting a Master of Library and Information Science. It constantly amazes me how behind most student affairs practioners are with technology. I give it 10 years, and when the students who are now 20 are 30 and working in student affairs, the folks who are 40 and 50 aren’t going to be looking very with-it. They’re going to lose a lot of credibility if student affairs doesn’t start making some real strides in the use of technology and understanding how it’s a part of students very existance. I can’t mention the number of times I say “blog” and everyone asks me “what’s a blog” or when I go into detail about what it means to be a distance student, which I currently am….grumble.
Laurie
21 Apr 06 at 11:16 pm
While I don’t care so much about the technical aspect of technology, I am interested in how students are using it. I try to keep up-to-date, but I always seem a day late and a dollar short. I went to a session at ACPA about blogs and was BORED out of my mind. I could have run the session better, but unfortunately many people had no idea what a blog is so we started at square one. We never quite made it to beyond the basics. Maybe you can lead the way a become a mentor for others!
Sheesh
24 Apr 06 at 5:22 pm
@ Sheesh:
It is definitely difficult to find the time to effectively learn about technology in this profession. Our students are usually our best sources of information.
Eric Dwight
25 Apr 06 at 10:40 pm
[...] Eric Stoller echoes some of my thoughts in a blog entry in which he writes: “Can someone please inform ACPA and NASPA that technology is not an ‘emerging discussion.’ It is this kind of language which causes student affairs administrators to remain stuck in 1995.” In another entry he discusses an online professional development course he (accurately, judging from the description) labels a “fear session.” His question “Why do we not think holistically about technology?” is a fantastic question that I believe most have at best ignored and at worst disdained. Eric is presenting a session at a two-day professional development opportunity in January but judging by the titles of some of the other sessions (”Virtual Affliction: Understand the Power and Addiction to the Internet” and “Crossing the Line Online: How Cybersex, Cyberaffairs, and Pornography live in the shadows of the Net”) it’s clear that we have a lot more work ahead of this to counterbalance these fear sessions. [...]
MistakenGoal.com: Where Student Affairs and Technology Meet » Blog Archive » Inspired by Rejection? Or Merely an Idea Whose Time Has Come?
20 Nov 06 at 5:35 pm
Good news. The NASPA “Technology Knowledge Community” has recently been resurrected. A proposal to bring it back to life was approved by the NASPA Board of Directors in early December. Look for more information soon.
Leslie Dare
7 Dec 06 at 4:48 pm
This is wonderful news! Thanks Leslie.
Eric Stoller
7 Dec 06 at 4:51 pm
[...] Technology panel: I’ll be on a panel for Academic Advising + Web 2.0 at the regional NACADA conference in Vancouver in March. I guess I’ll be chiming in on anything to do with accessibility, blogging, wikis, web statistics, podcasting, rss, etc. I’m walking out if someone calls Facebook an “emerging technology.” Academic Advising Wiki: I have convinced my colleagues that an internal knowledge base a.k.a. a wiki, would be highly beneficial for our office. I demoed an installation of MediaWiki (similar to the Oregon State University wiki) and hope to get it up and running next month. For more information on higher education and wikis, check out these videos on “21 days of Wiki Adoption“: [...]
Technology and Student Affairs » Eric Stoller’s Blog
24 Feb 08 at 8:46 pm
[...] What is going on with the state of student affairs and technology? 3 years have passed since I last wrote about ACPA, NASPA, and technology and it’s hard to tell if anything substantial has happened. Tags: acpa, Higher Education, Higher Education Administrator, Misc. Technology, NASPA, student affairs, student affairs technology, technology [...]
ACPA + NASPA + Student Affairs Technology » Eric Stoller’s Blog
6 Dec 09 at 3:46 pm