When you travel, take your tools...

Recent communication concerning the NACADA Annual Conference in San Antonio..."There is not internet access in our meeting rooms in San Antonio -- therefore, if you are a "laptop" person, you will need to download the agendas, reports and materials to your laptop to use or you can purchase a daily pass to the wireless internet for $12.95 if you feel access the link live is important to you. Perhaps one day, convention centers and convention hotels will see wireless access as a service to conferences and less a revenue generation opportunity."

Yes perhaps one day...in the meantime, advisor, take your tools!

You could download, print, or otherwise un-virtual the stuff you need, but how do you keep in touch, share your thoughts, and tweeeet? Too many of our colleagues will be working in their offices instead of working with those of us lucky enough to go to the conference (thanks for the bump last February, AirTran). We must, must, must provide for their learning! I will be bringing my little USB friend instead of paying for an internet day pass...I will even go to "ubiquitous coffee shop" before I pay for the internet day pass.

What about your very SMART phone? Not only will there be various opportunities to use it to find out where the lunch and dinner crowd will gather, but this can be a tool for sharing the conference with your colleagues at home. Use mobile applications to share insights on the go.

If you decide not to bring your tools, I am sure there will be internet cafe options at NACADA09. Bring your waiting shoes just in case others chose not to bring their tools too.

But K, you say. That laptop is heavy. I bet it is...I bet you have to borrow one from your IT "guy" and it is vintage 2006. Are we still stuck on the idea that you don't need a personal, portable device when you leave the office for a while? You need tools that help you do your work despite your location.

Take your tools, advisor. See you at NACADA09.

See Laura Pasquini's excellent post about how to participate in the discussion/conference from your office at:
http://techknowtools.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/nacada-conference-09/

or follow the conference at

http://nacadatech.net/

hashtag for NACADA Annual Conference in San Antonio, TX is #nacada09

HashTag

Eric Stoller created a Twitter hashtag for NACADA Annual Conference #nacada09 This tag may be used to mark tweets pertinent to the conference. Twitter users will find different ways to use the tag. Non Twitter users may follow the tweets on nacadatech, a website originally created for the NACADA Technology and Advising Seminar 2009. The resources at nacadatech have been repurposed to set the stage for a virtual annual conference.

It seems to me that the conference started the minute that the hashtag was created. Maybe this is the sociologist in me, but when the tweets are tagged, the interactions have begun. Conferences are about many things, but for me the conversations I have with collegues are the most valuable aspect of the event.

Tweet on you twits...the conference is now. Eric's blog has instructions...don't ask me.

Getting back into it...

While I haven't abandoned technology in academic advising, I have been challenged this summer to maintain all of my interests. I began implementation of AdvisorTrac and DegreeWorks in earnest in May. It's a challenge to come out from under the rock.

I came back to the office each Wednesday (Walk In Wednesday) for an immensely popular option for new and continuing transfer student advising. We are seeing the fruit of this labor only now...our lobby has but a sprinkling of late and last minute transfer students doing what needed to have been done in June and July. Good news for retention at the UofM.

Today's conversations are getting me back into it. #nacada09 has been created as a tag for posts concerning the 2009 Annual Conference of the National Academic Advising Association. When we meet in San Antonion TX beginning Sept 30, tweets will fly from winged twits! I will be armed with my new Verizon USB wireless gizmo and my Dell mini 9.

Back to school, back to learning, and back into it...

quadrant exercise with IAAN

quadrant exercise with IAAN,
originally uploaded by Karen T2008.

Thanks so much to the advisors who gather for the Indiana Academic Advising Network on April 25. We talked about the future of academic advising. In small groups the folks considered plausible futures for academic advising. As a result four scenarios were proposed given that legislation would be passed that would guarantee all citizens the equivalent of two years of higher education. Several elements of the scenario were a part of the report out...each group was to choose an insitution type, describe advising, students, the use of financial resources, and the teaching and learning models. An outline of each group's scenario is pictured above.

Higher education changes...big surprise. But what makes it change? What are the "drivers of change?" You can probably find various sources on this, but here's one. The study “The Future of Higher Education: A View From CHEMA” discusses key drivers of change ahead and institutional readiness for change. Respondents from inside higher education were asked to identifry the top three drivers of future changes. More than half of respondents (60.5 percent) see financial constraints as the most significant driver of change. The next two most frequently selected factors were technological change (32.6 percent) and changing student demographics (23.7 percent).



What changes higher education will ultimately change academic advising. I would love your comments on this latest line of thinking...I will do this presentation at the Indiana Academic Advising Network (IAAN) April 25.

spotlet computing...

Where are we going for Web 3.0? I heard the term a few weeks ago for the first time. There are a few articles, blog posts, and magazine articles so people are starting to think about it. I found a video on YouTube (through a google search on google video beta) with an intriguing demo. Here's the video...

IT stands for more than one thing

IT...we have been talking about IT a lot. We meant information technology. IT stands for more than one thing. This week I attended the 14th annual conference on Instructional Technology at Middle Tennessee State University. Much buzz about Web 2.0, but just as much about devices for classroom participation (including the cellphone...see texxtthemob.com) and other classroom engagement options. This is a corralary to the work we have been doing with technology in advising...increasing learning with the help of technology. And the mantra still seems to be the same...the technology is a tool, among tools, that you may want to use to engage or otherwise increase learning. The technology is not the point, its the learning. Once again it is clear that rubrics for making the decision about technology are necessary and appropriate.