When encountering the curricular approach for the first time, many staff may wonder why the approach has gained such currency within student affairs and residence life and what research and data backs up and supports its use. When asking these questions, it is important to understand that the curricular approach is a model of how... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
I'm pleased to be presenting my research at Boston University today. This session provides a more detailed look at some of my research related to college student development in digital/social spaces. Videos from the presentation: More about my research VIDEO: Can We Auto-Correct Humanity by Prince EA VIDEO: Social Media and Ambient Intimacy on Shots of Awe VIDEO: What’s... Continue Reading →
The Residential Curriculum Institute defines a curriculum as having 10 "Essential Elements." These are the features and principles that a residence life department's educational program should adhere to if it is to be considered a "true" residential curriculum. In 2013, while in my PhD program, I conducted some research on schools implementing this curricular approach. I wanted to find out... Continue Reading →
Student affairs professionals are educators. College student educators. Although we may not always believe we are, or maybe we are not always perceived to be, we are educators. Education and development is at the core of what we do and what we are trained in. To this end, curriculums should be based in the latest... Continue Reading →
In doing my research I often come across great tutorials on social and digital technology as well as excellent examples of their use in higher education. Rather than keep them to myself, I decided to post them publicly to help others "get up to speed" on these tools and their uses. I've been doing this for... Continue Reading →
I'm in New Orleans this week to present at the 2016 edition of the Innovations in Blended and Online Learning joint conference presented by OLC and MERLOT. Known as OLC Innovate for short, this conference brings together some of the best minds in online and blended learning. Both sponsoring organizations are leading the field and I'm proud... 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'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 →
I am excited to be joining my professional colleagues in Colorado for the annual Colorado College Personnel Association Campus. The theme of this one-day drive-in is "Professional Development in the Digital Age," so it's very appropriate that I attend and engage. I will be giving the Keynote in the morning and will alter be serving... 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 →
I wanted to share this blog post from Adam Gismondi highlighting a previous effort from his alma mater (William & Mary) to use the Kickstarter crowdsourcing model to help fund undergraduate research. It’s an excellent example a way of using social media and digital technology to help engage students, alumni, and the broader public. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the project is the ability for donors to see the direct results of their efforts.
Read on!
What do “social” web technologies look like in practice within higher education? This is a question that I often see posed within both online conversations and at conference educational sessions, but rare is the tangible answer that follows.
Earlier this month, I was down at my alma mater, William & Mary, for the annual Charter Day Weekend festivities. Each year, the College brings alums and current students together to celebrate the institution’s founding and honor distinguished alumni, and I was lucky enough to be down there representing the W&M Boston Alumni Chapter at the annual meetings. It was at these meetings that I was introduced to an innovative practice currently being used that combines several elements of the college experience in a unique way. Professor Joel Schwartz, Director of the Charles Center on campus, spoke about the Center’s Honors Fellows, students that apply for and receive special grants for research…
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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 →
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 →
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 →
Once a month, I’ve made it a point to highlight the posts from other bloggers that I believe deserve wider recognition. This month I wanted to share a resource that that Dr. Laura Pasquini put together for her dissertation work. It includes a database of higher education policy/guideline documents on social media use. For professionals and administrators looking to shape institutional policies and guidelines regarding social media implementation across campus, this can be an invaluable resource for benchmarking and guidance.
During the course of my dissertation research, a few events connected to the scope of my study, and directly to the social media documents I was gathering. I ended up building a database of 250 post-secondary education (PSE) institutional guidelines and policies to completely understand HOW the PSE sector is ACTUALLY “guiding” social media. More importantly my research uncovers the organizational identity and cultural values of social media among 10 different countries. {More to be shared post dissertation defense June 12, 2014.}
If you are interested in either research around policies and/or social media impact to organizations, specifically post-secondary education, then you most likely heard about the Kansas Board of Regents approval to amend their policy manual back in December 2013 to outline “improper use of social media by University of Kansas faculty.” If not, I have an article and infographic of the timeline of events for you:
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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 →
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