Five “Hot Topics” in
Technology
for StudentAffairs.com
Virtual Case Study
Margarita Dubocq (Team Leader)
Stephanie Acheson
Jessica Berwick
Jennifer Novotny
Presentation Guide
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Our Department ~ Department of Technology (dot.)
Mission of dot.
Generational Gap in Technology
Technology’s Application to Student Affairs’ Theories
Five “Hot Topics” in Technology
Closing Remarks
References
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Department of Technology (dot.)
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Our committee, as members of the University’s Department of
Technology (dot.), has identified that our campus needs to evaluate
its use of technology.
We acknowledge that there is a generational gap in understanding
technology that needs to be bridged.
Additionally, we recognize that there are advantages and
disadvantages of incorporating new technologies on campus.
Therefore, in keeping with our Department’s mission statement, we
have selected which five “hot topics” our campus should consider
embracing.
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Mission of dot.
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The Department of Technology (dot.) exists to provide innovative,
cutting edge, and secure network services to support the campus
community.
dot. is committed to working collaboratively to build and maintain
community on campus through technological advancements.
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Generational Gap in Technology
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A generational gap is the difference in lifestyles between older and
younger generations (Vallone, 2007).
The pace at which technology advances is faster than generations’
exposure to new developments and trends.
Therefore, universities have to respond to the demands of students
with regards to technology, while remaining aware of the needs of
faculty, staff and administrators to be proficient in the new
technologies (Chronicle, 2007).
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Technology’s Application to
Student Affairs’ Theories
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Chickering and Reisser’s Environmental Influences (1993),
specifically:
 Institutional objectives
 Student-faculty relationships
 Teaching
 Friendships and student communities
 Student development programs and services
 Acknowledgement of the cyclical nature of learning and
development (Evans et al., 1998).
Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development (1950), specifically:
Intimacy versus Isolation (Comstock, 2005 & Corey, 2005).
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Chickering and Reisser’s
Environmental Influences
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The selected environmental influences relate to one or more of
dot.’s “hot topics” in technology.
Since technology is becoming a part of everyday campus life for
students and administrators, it is important to consider how
technology will impact their surrounding environment, as well as
academic and social interactions.
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Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial
Development
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During collegiate years, students are in stage six of Erikson’s Theory
of Psychosocial Development.
Stage six: Young Adulthood, ages 18-35 years. The major
psychosocial crisis that this age group faces is Intimacy versus
Isolation (Corey, 2005).
The challenge for Student Affairs professionals will be to find a
healthy balance between technology that fosters intimacy, rather
than encouraging a stronger environment of isolation.
As Student Affairs practitioners, it is imperative to find ways to
encourage a feeling of intimacy while utilizing technology.
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Five “Hot Topics” in Technology
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Blogs
Institutional Spam
Online-Learning
YouTube
Smart Cellular Phones
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Importance of Blogs
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Blogs are a means of communication that allow individuals to
express themselves in new and creative ways.
In Higher Education, Blogs can be used for educational purposes
(courses’ assignments), as well as a means of allowing students,
faculty, staff and administrators to convey their thoughts, feelings,
opinions, and even activities in an online journal style.
Considering the increasing use of technology in university
campuses, the inclusion of Blogs into the services provided by the
university meets its constituents’ needs for communication with their
technological-oriented lifestyles.
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What are Blogs?
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The term originated from “web log,” which is a journal-style website
that maintains information in chronological order (Wikipedia, 2007).
Blogs can be used for different purposes: personal journaling,
scholarship publication, class reflections, admissions’ recruitment
tools, and as a way of disseminating information to the campus
community (Krause, 2005 & Carnevale, 2005).
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Example of the Appearance of a
Blog
Description
Here's a short description about my blog. It's all about my crazy life and family.
Katie’s Blog
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elit. Donec sed sem. Nunc eleifend consectetuer lectus. Suspendisse tempus, diam non fermentum vulputate, metus arcu suscipit lorem, et
sodales pede ipsum a dui. In porta posuere metus. Quisque mollis nonummy metus. Vivamus bibendum. Ut ac quam sodales enim euismod
posuere. In ante. Proin porta libero. Aenean a nibh ac turpis sodales rutrum. Phasellus eleifend tempus turpis. Sed a mauris vitae odio rutrum
sollicitudin. Aenean mauris orci, imperdiet nec, egestas eget, euismod ac, eros. Integer at sem.
Posted: 03:03, 2006-Aug-9
Comments (1) | Add Comment | Link
Source: http://www.blogsplosion.com/demo3
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Advantages of Blogs
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Blogs provide an outlet for students, faculty, staff and administrators
to exercise their first amendment right (freedom of speech).
Blogs are a way for faculty, staff and administrators to be involved in
the world of technology, while keeping a pulse on students’ thinking.
Blogs can be used to incorporate technology into the classroom,
particularly in the form of online reflections (Krause, 2005).
Admissions offices can also use Blogs to communicate with parents
and potential students, by having current students post information
about their experiences on campus (Carnevale, 2005). An example
of a school that is currently doing this is Baldwin-Wallace College
(Baldwin-Wallace, 2007).
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Disadvantages of Blogs
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Blogs may no longer be a “hot topic” among students. The origin of
Blogs dates to 1994 (Wikipedia, 2007). Therefore, students may not
feel as though this technology is innovative enough if it starts being
incorporated into their classes and services provided by the
university. Students who like to Blog may already be doing so on a
different site.
The university needs to ensure that its policy regarding technology
use regulates comments posted on university Blogs that may pose
legal liabilities and bad publicity for the university.
Unprofessional comments written in Blogs can have lasting negative
effects for the Blogger and the reader of the Blog.
Blogs are thought to hinder the quality of academic writing (Krause,
2005 & Dawson, 2007).
Not everybody likes to write journals, and not everyone has the time
to read what it is written in them (Dawson, 2007).
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Importance of Institutional Spam
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Institutional Spam is a way to communicate in an open, immediate
and direct way with a community.
In light of the increased use of technology in today’s world,
Institutional Spam allows universities to share important information
with its constituents through a medium that is widely used by most
people (e-mail).
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What is Institutional Spam?
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Institutional Spam is the policy under which mass communication
from the institution to students or groups of students is permitted or
not permitted.
An example of Institutional Spam is the use of list serves that the
university automatically creates for a selected group of people, in
order to disseminate information to such group.
Another example of Institutional Spam is when individuals are
copied in the carbon copy (cc) or blind carbon copy (bcc) line of an
e-mail. This feature indicates that the message is for them to read,
but that they do not need to take any action as a consequence of
receiving such message.
The approval process for submitting requests to send a message
from the university should entail determining if such message
contains information that affects/informs students about issues that
impact their well-being.
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Advantages of Institutional Spam
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Institutional Spam is a cheap form of communication.
With Institutional Spam, the university has the ability to select the
population to which the messages are disseminated.
Institutional Spam allows the university to send information to
protect/inform students about issues that impact their well-being.
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Disadvantages of Institutional
Spam
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If too many messages are being sent in the form of Institutional
Spam, students may choose to disregard the messages that come
from the university. Therefore, the idea of using Institutional Spam
as a means of mass communication would loose its effectiveness.
The university needs to consider if the messages are relevant to
each recipient before sending them, in order to avoid loosing the
effectiveness of Institutional Spam.
Policies should be developed to restrict the amount of Institutional
Spam that is sent by the university, whether it would be through list
serves, or by copying constituents in messages that are intended
only for them to be informed (Ottawa Business Journal, 2006).
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Why Online-Learning?
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Online-Learning was selected as a “hot topic” because it allows
universities to have the ability to not only reach more students, but
also a more diverse population.
The Internet is a popular tool that much of the academic population
is already using.
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What is Online-Learning?
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Traditionally seen as taking a class or possibly even achieving an
academic degree through online coursework.
May also include using online tools, such as Blackboard, and
incorporating it into “traditional” class work, such as class
discussions, submitting academic work, or completing quizzes
online to review course material.
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Advantages of Online-Learning
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Online-Learning will allow the university to reach students who may
not be able to attend a “traditional” campus. Popular reasons that
students cite for enrolling in online coursework are work schedules
and family obligations (Schwartman, 2007).
Online-Learning is accessible 24 hours a day, which is conducive to
schedules that do not coincide with in-class lecture style classes.
Utilizing online education allows the instructor to constantly
contribute to the material that is made available to the class, based
upon student feedback, work, and class discussions (Bailor, 2007).
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Disadvantages of OnlineLearning
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The Office of Postsecondary Education has changing regulations on
federal funding pertaining to universities that utilize Online-Learning.
Until recently, universities with over half of its student population
enrolled in distance-learning courses were not able to participate in
federal funding programs (Pekow, 2006).
Funding limitations may be most imperative for public universities to
consider, because they are more dependant upon federal funds and
grants.
Anywhere between 50-70% of online learners are identified as adult
learners and, the older the student, the more likely they are to be
unfamiliar with technology or face challenges (Ezarik, 2006 &
Schwartzman, 2007).
Universities must find ways to make Online-Learning courses ADA
accessible, such as incorporating audio conferencing (Schwartzman,
2007).
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Why
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The popular YouTube, free video sharing website, was selected as a
“hot topic” because it poses potential threats and opportunities to
university campuses, specifically related to marketing and
communication.
YouTube has recently been in the news turning average individuals
into overnight celebrities.
YouTube is a form of entertainment, and was voted “Invention of the
year” in 2006 by TIME magazine. Alexa, a subsidiary of
Amazon.com, ranked YouTube as the 5th most popular website,
ahead of MySpace (Alexa, 2007).
One of the key features of YouTube is the ability to embed videos on
other sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, which are popular
networking sites among university students.
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What is
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YouTube is a free popular video sharing website that allows users to
upload, view, and share video clips.
YouTube has attracted massive young audiences, by allowing them
to post homemade videos to their site and share them online.
100 million clips are viewed daily on YouTube, and approximately
65,000 new videos are uploaded every 24 hours. According to the
Nielsen/NetRatings, YouTube has about 20 million different visitors
each month (USA Today, 2007).
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Advantages of
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Universities can use YouTube as a means of viral marketing to
potential students, parents, alumni and financial donors. A hip video
that highlights the university, its students, activities or other unique
features is a popular way to get people talking about the university. A
few videos already exist on YouTube that could be considered viral
marketing for a university. For example, Boston College’s “We Didn’t
Start the Fire” video (YouTube, 2007).
Opportunity to “Broadcast Yourself” as a student or broadcast a
university.
Enhance feeling of intimacy for students with common interests,
through visual and audio information sharing among other
universities and the world.
Advertise programming and campus events.
Ability to post lectures or guest speaker presentations for future
review and easy access.
No special user account is required to view videos.
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Disadvantages of
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Liability for content posted using university resources including, but
not limited to: university computers, network, and video editing
software.
Copyrighted infringement and law suits from copyrighted material
owners.
Incriminating student videos which show illegal activities happening
on campus, such as underage drinking, vandalism to campus
property and policy violations.
Limited video length, 10 minutes. Video segments longer than 10
minutes have to be broken up into sections for viewing.
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Why Smart Cellular Phones?
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Cellular phones and mobile device technology continue to improve.
Most individuals who attend college possess a cellular phone and/or
mobile device(s) (i.e. iPod, PDA, etc.). For this reason, our
Department believes that Smart Cellular Phones are an untapped
market on college campuses.
Nearly every college student carries a mobile phone and, therefore,
this has become students’ preferred form of communication.
Leveraging mobile phones is a way to engage students more fully in
the academic experience, because it literally puts the campus right
at students' fingertips (Rave Wireless, 2007).
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What are Smart Cellular Phones?
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Smart Phones are sophisticated
mobile devices that offer students
more than storage for their friends’
telephone numbers.
Through a USB cable or Bluetooth
wireless technology, Smart Phones
can:
 Synchronize data with a student’s
PC and Outlook Calendar.
 Serve as a GPS device to increase
safety on campus.
 Be utilized for classroom polls and
activities (Matthews, 2005).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
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Rave Wireless
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Rave Wireless is an example of a set of mobile applications that
provide possibilities that will allow the university to build community,
increase campus safety and improve communication.
 Rave Essentials: Will allow broadcast text messaging (i.e.
emergency/safety alerts), enable group messaging and polling,
offer the ability to download phone numbers from the student
and staff directory, and even the capability to send e-mails to
mobile phones.
 Rave Academic: It will be possible for faculty to utilize mobile
phones as a learning tool, by incorporating an in-class response
system (i.e. classroom surveys) and the ability to send course
announcements (i.e. change in classroom locations,
cancellations, homework reminders) (Rave Wireless, 2007).
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Rave Wireless (Continued)
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Rave Guardian: This GPS application puts a virtual campus
safety officer at an individuals’ side when they would like, which
can increase the campus communities’ feelings of safety.
 Students have the option to activate a Rave Guardian timer
on their mobile phone whenever they feel unsafe (i.e. about
to cross campus late at night) and deactivate the timer after
they safely reach their destination. Only when the timer
expires and a person has not deactivated Rave Guardian,
campus safety is notified with the student's personal profile,
date/time and nearest GPS location.
 This feature can also assist persons with special needs who
may have medical problems or other disabilities (Rave
Wireless, 2007).
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Rave Wireless (Continued)
Rave Transit: A GPS system that tracks shuttle buses’ locations
and sends messages of the estimated time of their arrival to
mobile phones.
 Rave Extender: This feature will allow the university to create
mobile applications that are valuable for the students, faculty,
staff and administrators (Rave Wireless, 2007).
Montclaire State University is one institution that has welcomed
Rave Wireless into their campus. The following link provides a short
video clip from students and staff discussing their experience with
Rave Wireless: http://www.ravewireless.com/spotlight_overview.htm
(Rave Wireless, 2007).
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Advantages of Smart Cellular
Phones
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Land lines are becoming obsolete. The number of students who own
cellular phones has dramatically increased because they allow
students to keep in touch with friends and family anytime and
anywhere (Walling, 2007).
Smart Phones help students have a smoother transition into college
life, and will hopefully increase the university’s retention rate.
Therefore, Smart Phones can allow campus administrators, faculty
and staff to stay connected with students.
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Disadvantages of Smart Cellular
Phones
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Smart Phones can be costly for the university and for the students
and/or their caregivers.
Not all members of the university will be on board.
The number of colleges and universities who have incorporated
Smart Phones on their campuses are minimal; thus there is limited
research and assessment on this topic.
Some students who are new to college life may depend too much on
cellular phones, which can inhibit a student’s independence when
used too often to talk with parents and friends from home without
engaging in the campus community (Walling, 2007).
New campus policies will need to be developed about the
appropriate use of Smart Phones (i.e. no cheating in class via text
messaging). Additionally, it is a concern that students may become
distracted in the classroom.
Smart Phones are still a fairly new technology, thus there may be a
few kinks with the technology.
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Closing Remarks
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Technology is becoming a part of everyday campus life for students,
faculty, staff and administrators. For this reason, it is imperative to
consider how technology will impact the campus environment, as
well as academic and social interactions.
Therefore, the committee from dot. believes that the incorporation of
Blogs, Institutional Spam, Online Learning, YouTube, and Smart
Cellular Phones will enhance the culture and learning environment
of our Institution.
It is our hope that the Dean’s Council considers incorporating the
aforementioned “hot topics” into our campus environment.
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References
Alexa – YouTube.com. Retrieved February 11, 2007 from
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=max&size=large&compare_sites=myspace.com&y=r&url=youtube.
com#top.
Bailor, C. (2007). Making the Grade. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Magazine, January 2007, 38-41.
Baldwin-Wallace Blog. Retrieved February 11, 2007 from http://www.baldwinwallaceblog.com/.
Carnevale, D. (2005). To Size Up Colleges, Students Now Shop Online. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 51, 40, A25.
Comstock, D. (2005). Diversity and Development: Critical Contexts That Shape Our Lives and Relationships. Belmont: Thomson
Brooks/Cole.
Corey, G. (2005). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Belmont: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Dawson, K. (2007). Blog Overload. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53, 22, C2.
Evans, N., Forney, D., & Guido-DiBrito, F. (1998). Student Development in College. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Ezarik, M. (2006). Going the Distance on Engagement. University Business, December 2006, 17.
Katie’s Blog. Retrieved February 16, 2007 from http://www.blogsplosion.com/demo3.
Krause, S. (2005). Blogs as a Tool for Teaching. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 51, 42, B33.
Matthews, D. (2005). Beginner’s Guide to Smart Phones. Retrieved February 10, 2007 from
http://www.youngmoney.com/technology/cell_phones/050420.
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References (Continued)
Ottawa Business Journal: News Story. (2006). IT: Plugged in, wired up, stressed out. Retrieved February 9, 2007 from
http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/286598582971646.php.
Pekow, C. (2006). Federal Officials Turn Aside Major Changes in Distance Learning, Direct Assessment Rules. Community
College Week, 5.
Rave Wireless. Retrieved February 11, 2007 from http://ravewireless.com/.
Schwartzan, R. (2007) Refining the Question: How Can Online Instruction Maximize Opportunities for All Students?
Communication Education, 56 (1), 113-117.
The Chronicle Review: Information Technology. (2007, January 5). The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53, 18, B16.
USA Today: Tech. (2006). YouTube serves up 100 million videos a day online. Retrieved February 11, 2007 from
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-07-16-youtube-views_x.htm.
Vallone, D. (2007). The Generation Gap is Not the Problem. Conversations On Jesuit Higher Education, 31, 33.
Walling, E. (2007). Cell Phones on Campus: Merging College Life and Modern Technology. Retrieved February 10, 2007 from
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/44912/cell_phones_on_campus.html.
Wikipedia – Blog. Retrieved February 9, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog.
Wikipedia – Smart Phone. Retrieved February 11, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone.
YouTube – St. Ignatius Started the Fire. Retrieved February 11, 2007 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWaVR7M55Mo.
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