Catching Up on Inside Higher Ed

Student Affairs and Technology at Inside Higher Ed

Being a blogger for Inside Higher Ed (IHE) has been one of the greatest opportunities in my professional career. Thus far, as the Student Affairs and Technology blogger, I’ve written 346 blog posts in 5 years. The site and its team of reporters, bloggers, and editors is a constant source of camaraderie and support…and when you’re an independent consultant, it’s nice to have at least some connections to a regular business/journalistic operation.

As previously mentioned, it’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog (today being the exception as I’ve been cranking out post after post after…you get the idea), I wanted to share several of my most recent IHE posts on this blog because I think it’s always a good idea to let one blog know what the other blog is doing…especially when you’re the author. So, get ready, because this is going to be a long post…seriously, this a good one:

Social Media Questions and Answers
Social Media Questions and Answers

CSSA 599 sounds like the name of a new droid for the new Star Wars movie. However, CSSA 599 is a special topics class at Oregon State University. Recently, students from the class tweeted a series of questions about social media/technology and invited me to respond. Giving answers in 140 character bursts makes you be extremely concise with your responses. After ruminating on their tweets/questions, I decided to write up some longer responses.

Pass the cast with Periscope
Pass the Cast Using Periscope

When Periscope came on the social media scene a mere 7 months ago, they made quite a splash. Acquired by Twitter before their official launch, Periscope (a direct competitor with Meerkat) is all about live-streaming mobile video with a social media twist.

Hello is a reintroduction
Hello is a Reintroduction

Sometimes you just need to say “hello.” From Apple to Adele, hello is oftentimes a reintroduction. Lately, it’s been an interesting professional exercise. When work takes you to multiple countries, colleges, universities, departments, disciplines, topics, etc., the act of saying “hello” and filling in the blanks of “what is it that you do?” takes a bit more time/effort than it did when titles were familiar and employment wasn’t the “self.”

Observations From the Frat Subreddit
Observations From the Frat Subreddit

Recently, I’ve been observing the r/Frat subreddit. It’s a fascinating space on reddit. If you work in student affairs, especially Greek Life / Fraternity Sorority Life (FSL), I would suggest that you take a look. The comments/posts are a melange of good, bad, and ugly.

Digital Identity Dev is a Process
Digital Identity Dev is a Process

Our digital identities matter. What we post, share, say, upload, snap, and tweet represents our digital identity. It’s our online presence.

Getting Digital is Required
Getting Digital is Required

When every individual in an organization gets digital, the entire organization benefits. In higher education, being digitally capable has to be required. Most students are paying a lot of money for their higher education. They deserve a tremendous experience. It’s unacceptable for anyone who works in higher education to be anti-technology or digitally underdeveloped. Get digital or get out of the way.

Blogs, Stats, Twitter, and Higher Education

Use Twitter as the tip of the iceberg for linking communities with blog content in higher education

If you were ever wondering if Twitter was the tip of the iceberg for connecting short bursts of 140 characters to longer form blog content, look no further. A quick check of web stats for this blog shows an amazing number of college and university IP addresses for visitors who have visited after clicking on links from tweets. These schools are from today…not too bad:

Valparaiso University, SUNY Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, University of Texas at San Antonio, Oregon State University, Miami University, The College of New Jersey, Hofstra University, University of Texas at Austin, Albion College, William Paterson University, University of Washington, Arizona State University, University of York, Claremont University, Simon Fraser University, St. Louis University, Loyola University Chicago, Grand Canyon University, Colleges of the Fenway, North Carolina Central University, University of Wisconsin Madison, San Jose State University, Lincoln University, Texas A&M University, University of Central Florida, North Carolina State University, College of the Holy Cross, University of Cincinnati, Loyola Marymount University, Nova University, Central Methodist University, Merrimack College, Georgia Southwestern State University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Iowa.

Once again, blogs are super useful for content/sharing and Twitter is great for engagement/sharing. I’m frequently sharing all sorts of content on Twitter. Curating useful links and stories via 140 character tweets and leading folks to content that they might not find while surfing.

Original image courtesy of Pexels.

Where is Eric?

Eric Stoller and my watch

Wow. The last post on my blog was in July. JULY! How did this happen? Well, it turns out that being a speaker/writer/consultant is a full-time job (x) 1000. According to my TripIt.com account, in 2012 I took 44 trips and was on the road for 148 days. Coming up, I plan on putting together a post that lists all of the trips/cities from last year. I’ve never traveled so much in my entire life. Whenever anyone asks me if enjoy traveling, I usually respond with “sometimes” or “it depends.” My enjoyment of travel tends to be modulated by my fellow travelers. It’s always more fun when people on flights are happy. Trust me.

One of my foci for 2013 is to be more mindful of my time when it comes to blogging. Writing is something that I did a lot of last year, but it wasn’t always on my terms. As much as I love writing my Student Affairs and Technology blog for Inside Higher Ed, sometimes, it’s tough to generate content when you’re always on the go. Additionally, I realize that many of you are coming over to this blog because of something that I shared on Twitter or because of a Google search for a variety of topics. And, when you get to the blog, you’re probably wondering, “hey, where’s the new stuff?!” Well, here’s the deal, I’m going to make a more concerted effort to post, ponder, write, question, and get my thoughts on “the page.”

Now, I realize that saying and doing are two different things. To that end, I think I’ll reduce my consumption of television programs, minimize my time on Facebook (we’ll see how that goes!), and be mindful of how writing for the love of writing energizes me. There’s always time for writing and thinking.

Social Media and the SSAO

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. Continue reading Social Media and the SSAO

Blackbird Pie – embedding individual tweets

Are you a blogger? Do you ever reference tweets in your posts? If yes, then you really need to use this http://bit.ly/b6dERc #BlackbirdPieless than a minute ago via TweetDeck

Have you ever wanted to embed an individual tweet from Twitter into a blog post? A couple of months ago, Twitter released “Blackbird Pie.” It’s a nifty web-based tool that generates embed code for a single Twitter post that you can paste into a blog post.

blackbird-pie-twitter-blogging

Continue reading Blackbird Pie – embedding individual tweets

Blogging Student Affairs and Technology

Inside Higher Ed - blogging about student affairs and technology - Eric Stoller

I am thrilled to announce that I’m going to be blogging about Student Affairs and Technology for Inside Higher Ed (IHE). As an avid reader of IHE, I am very excited to join the IHE blogging team. I think that my posts on student affairs + technology will complement Joshua Kim’s blog on Technology and Learning.

Recently, I held a contest via Twitter to name my new blog. The incentive — a $100 Amazon gift card — courtesy of Inside Higher Ed. Several folks came up with interesting/creative blog names. I think the #SAChat Community provided the majority of ideas. Student Affairs folks are uber creative.

Here are my 3 favorite submissions:

  • Jeff Jackson: The Stoller Strikes Back, Return of the Blogosphere, Student Affairs….I am Your Blogger
  • Zack Ford: Challenge and Tech Support
  • ACUHO-I (sent via DM): Binary Code of Conduct

Choosing a winner from these 3 has been extremely challenging. Star Wars references, Sanford, and an entire Association…how cool is that?!! After more than a week of deliberate (intentional ;-) ) deliberating I have decided that the winner of the gift card is:

eric-stoller-challenge-and-tech-support

Zack Ford’s submission made me laugh. It’s subtle….and I love subtlety. The obvious nod / homage to Nevitt Sanford warms the heart. Challenge and Support is one of my all-time favorite, and oft-used, student development theories.

It should be noted that Julie Larsen was correct…the official name of my new blog is going to be: Student Affairs and Technology. The name needed to be something that would be simple enough that any IHE reader would know exactly what it was about. The blog also needed to be search engine friendly…”Students Affairs + Technology” is simple and searchable.

Stay tuned for my first official post on Inside Higher Ed!

Honorable mention:

Julie P-Kirchmeier: Stoller: Resistance is Futile

Niki Rudolph: Epic Stoller

Justine Carpenter: Tech Tips for SAPs

Christopher Conzen: The Stoller Coaster

Link spammer targets higher education sites

I received the following comment on my blog a couple weeks ago:

“Yeah blogging is really a great way to help people. Great job. I salute you for doing such a great job. ;)”

link spam comment on wordpress blog

The comment felt like it was spam. The post that was commented on was almost a year old and the comment seemed like it was just a way for the commenter to get their link on a blog post on blogging and academic advising.

As most of you know, I am an avid web statistics aficionado. The same day that the spammy comment was submitted (I moderate all new comments) I noticed two inbound referral links from a couple of Google Docs spreadsheets. My concerns that the comment was from a spammer were confirmed. In fact, I had stumbled upon two link spam documents that had been left open for anyone to see. A SEO company known as “Virtual Assistant” (link is to the Better Business Bureau listing…I love the irony!) was waging a concerted link spam campaign and my site had been “selected” for one of their spam comments.

I quickly saved copies of the link spam documents.

Continue reading Link spammer targets higher education sites

Will you vote for my blog?

My blog has been nominated to be included in the BlogHighEd network. This higher ed blogging network is jam packed with a lot of webmasters, marketers, counselors, vendors, and consultants.

It would be wonderful if you could take a couple seconds and vote for my higher education blog posts at:

http://www.bloghighed.org/vote/

My higher education posts can be found at:
http://ericstoller.com/blog/tag/higher-education/

If my site gets enough votes, it will be the only BlogHighEd blog that is authored by an Academic Advisor. Many thanks to all those that have already voted. I really appreciate it.

Cheers!
~Eric

Using Line Rider to teach mathematics

Line Rider math assignment

I am an avid web statistics viewer. Recently, an inbound link to my post on Line Rider Badminton caught my eye.

A teacher at Lisgar Collegiate Institute had linked to my Line Rider blog post on a wikispaces.com site for an advanced function math course. My post is listed as a resource for determining where the Line Rider .sol file is located. What a nifty way of teaching math. Create your own Line Rider track.

Here’s a snapshot of the Line Rider assignment for Mr. Tang’s math class:

Continue reading Using Line Rider to teach mathematics

Silly comment trolls

Comment trolls
I love it when an individual commenter attempts to comment with multiple identities. Silly comment trolls. I can see your IP address. Moderated, first-time comments go into the moderation queue. When commenter “A” responds to a comment that “B” just left and both comments are in the queue, klaxons go off in my inner-thought-o-sphere. How could “A” know what “B” just said when “B’s” comment is still hidden from public viewing.

Silly comment trolls. Keep trying to comment with as many false names as you want. You will not be fed.