Intersection of @saTech and @saComm

BreakDrink
BreakDrink

I had the pleasure to serve as a guest co-host on the great BreakDrink Campus Tech podcast series this week. Thanks to Laura Pasquini for the invite. She and Bruce Mann are delightful hosts, and Eric Stoller jumped in to the conversation as well (with a very nice recap of @saTechBOS, which, as you have heard, I missed to do a delayed flight. I may blog on my bitterness later.)

An interesting side note: Don’t know if you can hear it or not on the podcast, but there is a lot of background noise coming in at the beginning from my end. My office is in a residence hall. I don’t work for our University Housing department; I just happen to have an office space that’s off the lobby of one of our many residence halls on campus. The Resident Advisors had just moved in the weekend prior. Just as the live broadcast started, a whole gang of RAs congregated in the lobby and were fairly loud. I loved it! I’m one of those Student Affairs professionals who doesn’t usually work directly with our students (anymore); I work behind the scenes to make sure our in-the-trenches folks have the technology they need to be successful. But the location of my office is always a treat this time of year as the staff returns to start training and prepare for the onslaught of the students and the fall semester. As a former RA and hall director, it brings back fabulous memories. As I think about it, most folks probably could not hear this over the loud clicking of Eric Stoller’s keyboard. :-)

I have no idea how many folks tuned in live, or have/will listen to the podcast. But it’s always fun to just blather on when others are required to listen. In this case, I did not feel that what I had to say was very coherent. Mostly because I just currently have some general thoughts on the topic of the intersection of technology and communications in the student affairs profession. I don’t have any conclusions — good, bad or indifferent — at this point. Just some observations that I think are worth noting. What follows is mostly a copy/paste of my notes in preparation for the program. Maybe some day it will start to gel and I’ll revisit the topic on this blog.

  • Relatively new interest in communications in the field of Student Affairs
  • Who is in charge of #sacomm in SA organizations?
    • Those who control the comm resources and comm technology (initially websites and print media, primarily, now social media) seem to control the message — and that’s the techies in many cases.
    • At the Division level there may be #sacomm staff or the #satechies
    • At the department level, usually not a a #sacomm specialist unless a LARGE organization on a large campus; typically a staff member who wears the comm hat
    • My campus — I lead the central, Division Technology unit that also has responsibility for #sacomm (though right now doesn’t translate into actual services for others except for consulting…mostly leadership and respresentation, and Division-level communications like our website)
  • #satechies and #sacomm
    • Why are we #satechies so involved with #sacomm? Is it because we love the technology? Because no one else is doing it? Because it’s a natural cross-over of interests and skill? All the above? (Would love to hear what audience thinks on this!)
    • #satechies seem to use social media at a much higher rate (anecdotal) than other student affairs staff. Again, is it because the technology is fun? We tend to be early adopters? (Would love to hear what audience thinks on this!)
    • Content of recent and upcoming conferences is amazing — HUGE focus on social media!
      • #unccause – UNC CAUSE (North Carolina’s versions of an EDUCAUSE conference) – Link #2 below – This is a techie conference but includes a whole track and closing keynote on social media.
      • #satechBos –
      • #NASPATech – 2 of the 6 topics are social media, and the “Audience & Format” description starts with: “Whether you have no idea how to create a Twitter account or you are an active blogger, this conference will deliver for you.”
      • 9820 hits when you search “social media” on the EDUCAUSE website!
    • With web work, there’s a move (at least on my campus) to hand over content management to the staff in departments and let professional techies handle the back-end. In other words, #satechies now have good tools (WordPress, Drupal, etc) to get out of the content business. Will the same thing happen with social media? Is that a good thing, or no?

Geeks and Gender

I recently came across the Student Affairs Women Talk Tech blog and was reminded of a recent post titled “Geek Girls Unite” by my colleague Jen Riehle at NC State. In general, there seem to be fewer females than males in the tech world, although females tend to have the numbers in the the student affairs profession (just observation, no data here). Nonetheless, here at NC State, half of our senior IT directors in the central IT unit are women. But I’m the only woman among the college/unit directors. It’s really a mixed bag. Still, the bottom line is that I’ve only sensed that being female was really a factor in one or two occasions in my IT career.

A completely different story in my previous higher ed position as  the harassment prevention officer for our university. Much of that came with the territory and the very nature of the position and the backlash associated with it. Almost daily I encountered the gender factor in some form or fashion in my almost 8 years in that role.

It may be that being in student affairs mitigates any of the gender bias that might exist in the IT profession. Certainly among my student affairs colleagues I never feel gender come into play, but it does rear its head occassional in other venues on our campus.

No answers, just some observations. Would love feedback on this topic.

Backchannel: ACPA & NASPA Consolidation Webinar

I was one of those who could not participate live in the webinar. Fortunately, I was able to see the Presentation Slides and then read through the Twitter Backchannel. Here are some of my responses.

Tweets That Caught My Eye

  • KevinRGuidry: Hah! I love how ACPA keeps hammering the “everyone gets a vote.” Small dig at NASPA who won’t let students vote? #NASPACPA
  • ValerieHeruska: 17,400 members combined members, 7,634 conference attendees, 33 staff members, 6.5 mil budget, net assets 7.2 mil #NASPACPA
  • clconzen: Professional Association is so much more than conferences, though, although for some its their only real experience #naspacpa
  • danbureau: #NASPACPA ppl will connect as they need – so I think state and regional meetings will still happen – that is how some make big assoc. small
  • clconzen: With the continued growth of social media networking & access to webinars, I think the needs for annual conference will change #naspacpa
  • cindykane: I agree w/ need for critical mass on regional level…I think it will improve regional opportunities! #naspacpa
  • KevinRGuidry: Make sure all of these documents, including comments, eventually make it to Bowling Green. These are important historical docs. #NASPACPA
  • freerangekarma: Wow! 68% said yes, consolidation is in the best interest of the profession! #naspacpa
  • ValerieHeruska: framework for new association: Institutional Delegate, pro, stdnt, affiliate, transition, emeritus, all except 4 affil can vote #NASPACPA
  • PKirchmeier: Glad to see that ‘Communities of Practice’ will help with Commission/Knowledge Community transition. #NASPACPA
  • ericstoller: Communities of practice list…could we get one for technology/communications? #naspacpa
  • DEBTAUB: We will need to say good-bye to things that will not be included in new association. #NASPACPA
  • ericstoller:About Campus and Leadership Exchange should be merged into a new blog-based publishing platform. RSS, comments, media = awesome. #naspacpa

Response to Webinar/Consolidation Discussion

Lots of very serious issues to resolve, but I don’t see anything that should stand in the way of consolidation. Both groups absolutely must continue to evolve to survive, and consolidation is the perfect opportunity to make some very big changes and take some risks. We could be on the verge of greatness! OK, that sounds a little over the top when I read it back to myself, but I have really high hopes for the uber-organization.

I’m also very interested to see where technology and communications fit into the new organization.

Kevin, I’m with you. Egads! Those slides are awful! Not only the color contrast, but the sheer volume of information per slide.

Response to Backchannel

I’ve followed the back channel for several events in the past, but this was my first real effort to do so after the fact. It was fascinating! The backchannel itself is almost like the whispered chatter that goes on during presentations. The transparency is great and I hope that a) the ACPA/NASPA leaders read this; and b) that we can encourage others to participate in future events. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account you can follow through the wthashtag.com … and I’m going to encourage my less-geeky colleagues to do so.