The Realities of Competing For Student Time in the 21st Century
Now, more than ever, residence life professionals are competing for students’ time. Technological change has brought about a revolution of choice for self directing one’s learning and a multitude options for one’s use of free time. This is not a new phenomenon, but the competition has changed. Residence life and student activities have always had competition. In the past it was televisions, VHS and DVD movies, and video games. Now, however, with multiple online video streaming services, smartphones with apps and games that can be used on the go, a more mature internet… Read More
How To Develop Student Learning Rubrics For Student Affairs Practice
Rubrics are tools that are used by educators to help evaluate the learning and performance of students. They are written documents, often presented in a chart format, that help define progress and achievement levels towards various goals and performance indicators. When developing learning goals and their constituent outcomes in a residential curriculum, rubrics can help. Rubrics ensure that one is appropriately sequencing one’s learning opportunities. Rubrics also serve as an important assessment tool. Being familiar with “where students are” and “where you want to move students to” also allows one to structure learning strategies appropriately.
Feedback Versus Assessment: Questions to Ask
When evaluating programs and other educational interventions with students, it is important to make a distinction between two concepts: feedback and assessment. Although the types of questions you may ask in each of these categories may differ, the overall goal is how to design and execute effective experiences for students that are engaging and achieve educational outcomes. The following includes some distinctions that you may find useful, as well as some guiding questions that you could employ in reviewing your educational efforts. These questions can be used in the design of student surveys and assessments… Read More
The Importance of “Tags” in Using Digital Data for Assessment
One of the most common and important features of modern software is the “tag.” A tag is a short keyword or phrase that a user assigns to a piece of information that describes it in some way. You might also be familiar with hashtags, a form of tag used in social media (#thisisahashtag). Tags are not always proceeded with a “#” symbol. Sometimes software provides you with a tag or keyword box, or a list of predefined tags from which you can choose. Many of the software applications you use probably use tags,… Read More
JUST PUBLISHED: “Remixing Leadership Practices with Emerging Technologies” in “Going Digital in Student Leadership”
I’m excited to share that I have a new chapter out in the most recent volume of New Directions in Student Leadership entitled, Going Digital in Student Leadership. The chapter I co-authored with Dr. Ed Cabellon, titled “Remixing Leadership Practices with Emerging Technologies,” presents an overview of the historical trends in and the current state of technology in leadership education (P–20). Topics covered include the influences of digital and social technology on leadership education and the student leaders experience, the growing importance of technology competency, knowledge, and skills, and trends in leadership related to digital technology platforms and tools…. Read More
