Eric Stoller's blog

Ben Harper is one of my favorite artists…11 years since I first heard him play live in Chicago and he just keeps getting better and better. Enjoy this set over a nice cup of coffee. Cheers!

CBS seems to have messed up their embed code…here’s the link to all of the songs and videos over at Ben Harper’s website.

Quick EDS Update: In May, I moved to Columbia, South Carolina. In August, we moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Val is working at Boston University and I am writing, speaking, and consulting.

Here’s the view from our apartment. What a lovely city. Cheers!

There are at least 3 student affairs panels up for vote in the SXSW panel picker. I wrote a description of each one over at my Inside Higher Ed blog.

In order for a panel to be accepted, it has to get enough votes. Sue Beckingham – Sheffield Hallam University, Laura Pasquini – University of North Texas, and Jeff Jackson – University of Texas Health Science Center and yours truly have submitted a panel on alternative forms of professional development for higher education practitioners.

If you get a chance, we’d love it if you took a look and wrote a comment. We’re going to take your thoughts and ideas and implement them into our presentation. #AltProDev is most-likely the future of professional development for a lot of higher ed folks. We’re going to show you how to access worthwhile content and introduce you to networks that will assist you to do your best work.

The 2011 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Annual Conference and Exposition is the largest education technology (EdTech) event in the United States. In this recap video from the conference, attendees share their thoughts about why they attended ISTE and what they think is the future of EdTech.

It was my first time attending an ISTE event and I was greatly impressed. Educators + Solution Providers + Technology + Strategy = Awesome!

For more info about ISTE, check out my ISTE recap post at InsideHigherEd.com

Disclosure: My attendance at #ISTE11 was supported by the Adobe Education Team.

My trip back to Columbia, South Carolina on Tuesday was an aeronautical marathon. Using the ACUHO-I travel service, I had booked my flight with Delta. Flying out of Columbia is super convenient. The trip to New Orleans via Columbia to Atlanta went smoothly. However, the return was another story. I fly quite a bit and this was the first time that I had the pleasure of experiencing significant travel delays.

The flight from New Orleans to Atlanta was going well until we actually got near ATL. According to the flight crew, bad weather in the form of a thunderstorm was keeping flights from landing or taking off. We were in a holding pattern over Atlanta for more than an hour. Things would have been remarkably unremarkable had it not been for the extremely negative attitudes of our flight attendants. Their negativity and overall lack of service made what would have been a tolerable situation and made it a less than desirable plane to be on. Running out of fuel, we ended up being re-routed to Savannah to refuel. It took about another hour and a half for our plane to land, refuel, and take off from Savannah. The flight attendants were quite rude when they talked to us. We were all ready to get off of the plane.

Read the rest of this entry »

In about a week’s time, I’ll be heading out to New Orleans to give a featured talk at the ACUHO-I Annual Conference & Exposition (ACE). In addition to speaking, I’m also meeting with ACE attendees as the “social media expert-in-residence” for the conference. I’m really looking forward to connecting with so many fantastic professionals. Here’s the description of my talk:

“We’ve Always Been Social (Media)”

Our communications and marketing tools evolve on a continual basis. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have become mainstays in our communications strategies. Learn how you can use the “big 3” to enhance your marketing endeavors, create opportunities for engagement, implement a content-based social strategy, and build measurable/sustainable connections.

After moving 3,000 miles in May, writing for InsideHigherEd.com and spending time getting to know my new home of Columbia, South Carolina, I inadvertently missed posting some of my #SAlive show archives. So, having said that, head on over to http://higheredlive.com to catch up on all sorts of student affairs related shows.

Recent topics/happenings included: residence life, student conduct (conceal and carry was the topic), an epic conversation with Gwen Dungy (Executive Director of NASPA), Semester at Sea, the #NASPACPA Consolidation Vote, Dean of Students, and Academic Advising

Social Media and the Senior Student Affairs Officer (SSAO)
Educate, Engage, and Energize Students

With the rapid growth of social media and accompanying surge in online activity, particularly among university and college students, student affairs staff are using the latest technologies to engage students and forge stronger ties to programs, services, and events. Increasingly, senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) are building their own communities and initiating important conversations through a variety of social media sites. This article provides an overview of social media and how it can help student affairs make and keep vital connections. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re looking for a job within student affairs, you really need to listen to this podcast interview from Higher Ed Career Coach.

Ann Marie Klotz, Assistant Director for Selection and Training in Residential Education at DePaul University, shares her thoughts on mentors, finding the right fit, and gives a ton of tips for folks who are conducting a student affairs job search.

Well, Delicious doesn’t really have a taste per se…it’s a website. However, users of the site were pleased to find out this week that Yahoo! had sold Delicious:

“Yahoo! is excited to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, Hurley and Chen have firsthand expertise enabling millions of consumers to share their experiences with the world. Delicious will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS.”

If you’re wondering why the sale of Delicious is important, feel free to surf over to a blog post that I wrote for Inside Higher Ed. I currently have more than 3,800 bookmarks in Delicious. It is my brain’s external hard drive. I use Delicious to keep track of a variety of sites that I come across.

When it was announced last year that Yahoo! might be closing down Delicious, I was devastated. The news this week is terrific because it means that Delicious should be available for several more years. For users of Delicious, the utility of the site is tremendous. Long live Delicious!