Student Affairs and Technology

What do Mary-Kate Olsen (Ashley too), Albert Einstein, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln and I have in common? We're all introverts as classified by the Myers Briggs personality type indicator (MBTI). According to the MBTI, introversion is a psychological preference that focuses on how an individual both expends and recharges their energy. Often mislabeled as being related to "shyness or reclusiveness," introversion doesn't necessarily dictate social behavior. There are shy extroverts and uber-social introverts. The major difference between extroverts and introverts is that extroverts tend to recharge during social situations while introverts do not. Introverts generally recharge by themselves and tend to be seen as being "reflective or reserved."

My mom majored in English…. I did not. Articulating jumbled packages of thoughts into a coherent story ... sometimes I struggle with that. When I stroll through myriad posts within the student affairs blogosphere, I am consistently impressed with the level of thoughtfulness, vulnerability, forward-thinking, and love. Love for the profession, care for colleagues both near and far… it’s energizing to read so many wonderful posts. There are so many great writers within the student affairs profession.

Math, writing, science, history and a variety of additional topics are generally included in the core curricula for higher education institutions. They are the building blocks of education. Standards that have evolved over time. We tend to acknowledge their importance. Ideally, students will achieve a baseline of knowledge and skills that form the foundations of their educational experience.

People are always asking me about which schools/department do social media "the best" in higher education. My usual response is that the professionals who are actively engaging via social media are spending less time talking about what they are doing and more time focusing on the needs of their campus. However, when it comes to social media and campus dining, there's one operation that is consistently using social media at a level that I can easily say is "the best."

Prior to last year, I had never heard of KCTCS. Thankfully, I didn't have to resort to using my higher education acronym decoder ring. In September, a representative from the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) contacted me about an intriguing academic advising project. Having been referred by NACADA,

Content management systems (CMS) allow administrators to update webpages without having to be extremely fluent with HTML, CSS, or JS. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors, while not always perfect, offer up a familiar interface that looks very much like a standard word processor. All sorts of information can be created, uploaded, edited, and modified via a CMS.

The conversations and presentations at this year's Boise Confab were cerebrally exhilarating. One particular session really piqued my interest. Jeremiah Shinn, Director for the Student Involvement & Leadership Center at Boise State University, gave an extremely honest presentation about how we conduct hirings in student affairs. Whether you agree with Shinn, disagree, and/or take umbrage, I bet you have an opinion. Here's a quick Q and A where he discusses his thoughts about "bad hires" and "good people":

They are everywhere. On Twitter profiles, blog bios, and Facebook pages across the social media sphere, inflated social media titles are rampant. People claiming to be experts with social media as they bask in the warm glow of 7 Twitter followers. Seriously, they are found in countless numbers on the web. Some people are even promoting themselves as Pinterest experts. That's almost as funny as the consultants who are sure that Google Plus is going to be "the next big thing." It's an epidemic of throwing stars, mountain climbing gear, and lightsabers.