I'm pleased to be presenting at the AIMHO 2016 conference alongside my esteemed colleague, Rachel Aho from the University of Utah. In this session we'll be discussing aspects of research and practice that relate to the developmental challenges and opportunities college students face online. The theoretical underpinnings of this session are drawn from my qualitative study... 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 →
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 →
I have the privilege of sharing my time and space today with the staff and students at the University of Delaware. There are two workshops I'll be giving which are both revamped presentations with a lot of new content arising out of my research. Hopefully you will find the information helpful as well. In particular, one... 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 →
Researchers at the National Student Affairs Archives at Bowling Green State University recently uncovered notes revealing a missing "eighth vector" from Chickering's well known student development theory. The missing vector was developed by a mysterious third researcher. Many scholars of student development theory are aware of Arthur Chickering's work with Linda Reisser in 1993. An update to Chickering's... Continue Reading →
I didn't come up with this idea, but I sure wish I had... because it's BRILLIANT. Use a famous student development theorist to say "I love you" to that special student affairs professional in your life. Damien Snook posted these last year, and I decided to re-share his and add a few of my own. Damien's designs... 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 →
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 →
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 →
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'm excited to be the opening keynote at this year's #SATechBOS Unconference. The event utilizes as a unique format that encourages peer-to-peer learning and interaction. It's a pretty interesting concept and a new take on the sometimes stale traditional conference format. Wikipedia describes it as follows: An “unconference“ is a participant-driven meeting. The term “unconference” has... Continue Reading →
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