Student Affairs and Technology

Writing from a residence hall suite in British Columbia presents a challenge or two to a blogger on a deadline. The Pacific timezone is lovely, but it definitely interferes with sleep cycles and resource curation. Once again, I am bringing you the "Tales From The Tabs" as a means of sharing those items that I am reading as I work my way through the web while on one of my many consulting trips:

Turning ideas into action requires time, leadership, and an organizational culture that promotes innovation. Recently, I've been checking out some action-oriented initiatives, including: #satechBOS, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Student Startup Challenge, and the Newport Startup Session. Of these three events/programs, #satechBOS is specifically Student Affairs focused.

In higher education, do we offer consistent customer service across all of our communications channels?

Admittedly, it's been a few years since I last read 1984 by George Orwell. However, the themes of widespread surveillance and "thoughtcrimes" are generally applicable to all sorts of present day issues. One of the curiosities that has emerged in the area of social media communications is the monitoring of student athlete accounts.

Magazines are rarely something that I purchase when I'm at home in Boston. However, my tune changes when I'm in an airport. Maybe it's because I'm tired of working while in-flight or perhaps my brain needs something to chew on at elevation. Lately, there are a select few titles that have made their way into my indestructible backpack.

Education technology startups abound. Established education technology entities are, well, established. The sphere is literally buzzing with activity. Our institutions require tremendous amounts of technology to support students, staff, and faculty. Whenever I chat with fellow Student Affairs practitioners, it seems that we all have a shared experience of working with companies that provide us with various technologies. However, as I ponder this relationship, I started thinking about what it would look like if technology companies provided monies for internships for full-time practitioners. Internships that would benefit both the companies and practitioners, with the end result being greater levels of student satisfaction, usability, retention, and data.

Very few professionals in higher education really know how to use our information systems to their fullest capacity. A bold statement? Perhaps, but have you ever really met a large number of Student Affairs practitioners who are fluent with tools like Banner, Blackboard, or PeopleSoft?

My last post was severe in its critical intensity. I poked around…posited and provoked. Innovation is such a buzzword these days. Getting a blogger to write about innovation is as easy as getting me to drink coffee. For this post, I wanted to be more generative than critical. While I've never defined "radical student affairs" on this blog…nor will I ever define it concretely (peaceful acceptance of ambiguity is fairly radical, right?), I realize that pushing and provoking requires ideas. Innovation requires ideation and something to chew on…to mull over. In that spirit, and in no particular order, here are some thoughts on how Student Affairs can become more innovative as a profession: