I'm pleased to share that the new volume of New Directions for Student Services that I've been collaborating on for the past year is finally available online! Engaging the Digital Generation, edited by Josie Ahlquist and Ed Cabellon, focuses on issues confronting college students and higher education professionals related to technology. The chapters in this volume... Continue Reading →
I am happy to finally make my entire final dissertation available for all to download and read. This document represents some of the first qualitative research into how traditionally aged college students use social media and its impact on their development and how they construct identities online. If you want a more detailed description, I've included the... Continue Reading →
I recently came across this graphic posted on TeachThought which comes from the minds of Sylvia Duckworth and Jennifer Casa-Todd (blog). The graphic highlights the distinction between two concepts: Digital Citizenship: Being a good neighbor and responsible ethical partner on the internet and Digital Leadership: Using the internet and social media tools to influence change and improve society Both concepts... Continue Reading →
I'm pleased to be presenting the results of my dissertation research at ACPA this year. This presentation provides a broad overview of my study, its findings, and implications. This is one of the first times I am presenting this material in public and I am super excited about it. If you want to learn more,... Continue Reading →
We all have one whether we want to or not. One's digital stamp, a term coined by Erik Qualman, is the sum total of everything about you in the digital domain. One's digital stamp, sometimes referred to as one's digital identity, is a key concept that we all must be aware of when we interact online.... Continue Reading →
This American Life recently posted a podcast called "Status Update" that delved into the online behavior of three teenage girls who were entering high school. The girls spoke at length about Instagram and the complex rules that govern how they use it, how they maintain their social connections, and the "rules" of the "game" when... Continue Reading →
I came across this excellent Ted Talk by Juan Enriquez the other day. Titled, You Online Life, As Permanent As A Tattoo, this talk explores the idea that all of the digital data collected on you, and to which you contribute yourself through social media, is imprinting you with a permanent "digital tattoo." Traditional tattoos tell... Continue Reading →
Don't want to spend the time reading through 300 pages of my dissertation work on college students, social media, identity, and selfhood? No problem. I pulled out 96 "quotable quotes" from the text. Consider it the "Reader's Digest of Dissertations." Wondering why 96 and not... 100...? I just went through the whole thing until I... Continue Reading →
Qualitative research requires that one code text (or images, or video, etc.) for themes. Coding is a process whereby you find snippets of text, highlight and/or excerpt it, and tag it with a word or phrase. There are a number of different code types, such as close-text, in vivo, etc. Some can be categories and... Continue Reading →
Given that I speak on social media and college students, it's inevitable that the topic of YikYak on campus comes up. YikYak is an anonymous geosocial app that allows individuals to post and view posts within defined geographic areas. This geo-functionality is one of the reasons it has become so popular on college campuses and at... Continue Reading →
I came across these compelling images the other day and they immediately struck a chord with me. Thai photographer Chompoo Baritone posted them to his Facebook page. They demonstrate how Instagram photos often portray a selective view of reality--often a "perfected image" of life. In my research, I have found that one of the effects of... Continue Reading →
Although not the specific focus of my research, it nevertheless occurred to me that some of the behaviors I noticed students exhibiting in my research followed well known and well established developmental patterns. As a thought experiment, I tried to map some of these behaviors to the classic developmental theories of Marcia Baxter Magolda and... Continue Reading →
On his way to class, Greg accomplishes many things. Buried in his smartphone, he dodges fellow students, almost trips up a set of stairs, and ducks a low tree lying tree branch (remember that next time). During his ten minute walk, Greg is listening to a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson discussing how contemporary schools... Continue Reading →
A good friend and colleague, David Kasch, presented a paper at the ASHE conference back in 2011 where he attempted to analyze/categorize developmental theories by their narrative patterns. Some theories represent linear patterns, whereas others are continua, and still others follow intersectional or vector patterns. The above graphic is a modification of David's original concept, but should... Continue Reading →
What do our college student development theories look like when we give them a digital update? How might social media be changing the ways students develop and understand themselves? What are the implications for college student educator practice? The following was originally presented at the 2015 NASPA Convention as a part of the SAspeaks series.... Continue Reading →
Today is the day! The "What Happens On Campus Stays on YouTube," the book to which I am a contributing author, is available for shipping! A great work geared towards college students that helps them understand their digital identity and the potentials and pitfalls of interacting online. You can order yours on Amazon now! Want a peek inside... Continue Reading →
Once a month I reblog a post from a colleague that I think deserves to be shared more widely. This month’s comes from Dr. Paul Eaton, who is researching similar topics as myself: the impact of social media and digital technology on the college student developmental process (or as Paul would describe it, “becoming”). Take... Continue Reading →
I am proud to be selected as one of this year's SAspeaks presenters. SAspeaks talks are similar in style to TEDtalks. They are meant to be short (no more than 15 minutes) and focus on one main idea. This year I am doing an SAspeaks based off of my continuing research on the impact of... Continue Reading →
At the 2015 ACPA and NASPA National Conventions, we've brought together a group of four researchers (1 newly minted doctor and three soon-to-be) who study social media and technology and their effects on college students. In this panel, each researcher will present a brief overview of their work followed by a question and answer session.... Continue Reading →
It's been a loooooong time coming... and keeping quiet about it was incredibly difficult... but the time is here to FINALLY announce a new book collaboration between Erik Qualman, myself, Dr. Laura Pasquini, Courtney O'Connell and Jason Meriwether: What Happens on Campus Stays on YouTube So what is this book about? Many of you might already be familiar with Erik... Continue Reading →
I had a lot of fun putting this together! You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get the poster visually right while trying to make sure it makes sense conceptually and theoretically. Too reductionist? Maybe. Areas for improvement? I'm sure. Let me know how you'd try arranging it in the comments below. BUY... Continue Reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJANw2WzfEE As many of you know, a couple of months ago I had my dissertation proposal hearing. For social science dissertations, after one completes their first three chapters, they present it to their committee for approval. The first three chapters typically include an introduction, a review of literature, and your methodology (how you intend to... Continue Reading →
I have the pleasure of presenting at the NASPA Region I Annual conference today. The topic? How might we re-envision Student Development theory for the digital age. Below you will find an abbreviated version of my presentation. Some additional resources that might be of interest include: My past posts related to digital identity and identity... Continue Reading →
This Thursday, I will (finally) have my dissertation proposal hearing. This means I will present my proposed dissertation research to my committee and seek approval to move forward into the data collection and analysis phases. Proposals generally include the "first three chapters" of a dissertation. These chapters are typically an introduction, a review of literature, and a research... Continue Reading →
There are a handful books that I refer to as my "life changers," or works that had a profound impact on me and my thinking long after I finished reading them. One of these works is Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott. Flatland is not only wonderfully geeky and nerdy, but it also forces one... Continue Reading →
As you probably know at this point, my research involves college students and how they construct a sense of self in digital and social media spaces. In conducting this research, I've encountered the term "digital identity" frequently. I've used it, and some of my doctoral student colleague friends have written about it (including Paul Eaton, Josie Ahlquist, and Ed... Continue Reading →
Tweet http://youtu.be/fBLuzUk5NII (One of my colleagues and friends, Paul Eaton, wrote a great blog post about Bronfenbrenner's applicability to online/social media spaces. I also wanted to have a go at the topic, so I purposely didn't re-read his post until after publishing this one... and there's agreement... but with a twist... read on...) Urie Bronfenbrenner's theory of... Continue Reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdemFfbS5H0 In the three months since it’s release, the video "#Selfie (Let Me Take a Selfie)" has been viewed nearly 100 million times on YouTube and has gone into heavy rotation. Although tongue-in-cheek, the video reveals some surprising nuggets of wisdom regarding social media engagement, particularly around Instagram. It also provides interesting insights into the underlying... Continue Reading →
"Digital Identity Isn't About (A Separate) Identity At All" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEaPb2NQqbE The video of my PechaKucha presentation on the big stage at the 2014 ACPA-College Student Educators-International Convention, is posted on YouTube! Woot! Check out the annotated slide version here. View it below. And see more from other presenters here.
My research passion is about college students and how social media and technology impacts the developmental process. Unfortunately, I’ve found a lot of the discourse in student affairs around this subject to be lacking. When you attend a conference session or read a thought piece centered around this topic, they often focus on marketing, technological tools, and... Continue Reading →
One of the most popular readings I assign in my spring semester Higher Education practicum courses is from The Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenge of Life in Your Twenties. Although the cultural references within are somewhat dated, the concepts still resonate with their audience just as strongly. It seems to uniquely capture some of the... Continue Reading →
I teach three spring semester Advanced Practicum courses to students in Boston College and Merrimack College's Higher Education Masters programs. One of the readings I like to assign for the first class is a selection from Robbin and Wilner's Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. Although the work has a few... Continue Reading →
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