Periscope as a New Technology to Integrate in Higher Education Classrooms?

Since I joined the faculty ranks back in 2006, my preferred (and the students' preferred communication methods) have continued to evolve. For example...

2006-2010 - The preferred communication method in my classroom was Yahoo Instant Messenger.
*I linked Yahoo IM to my Blackboard courses as an embedded widget.

2010-2012 - The preferred communication methods in my classroom were Twitter and Google Voice for text messages.

2012 - 2015 - The preferred communication methods in my classroom were Twitter, Google Plus Groups, Google Voice for text messages, and Facebook groups (graduate students and undergraduate students).

Fall 2015 (and beyond) -  The preferred communication methods in my classroom will be..Google Plus, Google Voice, and potentially Periscope (a interactive live stream technology for conferencing and establishing social presence).
*I always strive to remain ahead of the social media learning curve (I have to do so for my role with the Texas Social Media Research Institute @TSMRI) and for my retention duties at my university.

It seems that technologies such as Periscope will continue to evolve and gain popularity. I enjoy recieving Periscope notifications and I value interacting with key bloggers (and conferences) through this communication technology. Here's some more information on Periscope.

Huffington Post - "How Periscope is Changing the Game"

Entrepreneur.com - "5 Brands Can Use Periscope and Meerkat"
*I know this link is a branding specific link, but higher education can utilize live streaming technologies for conferences and marketing their programs.

Which higher education (#HigherEd) communication technologies do you integrate in your courses? How do you link these with your university's content management system or your syllabus? How do you introduce and provide training for students utilizing these communication technologies?

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

Free Webinar Opportunity from Inside Higher Ed - "Diversity in the Student Body"

If you are looking for a webinar focused on student diversity in higher education, look no further than one of the most important news resources in higher education, Inside Higher Ed. I've been reading this resource since receiving my word magnet from Inside Higher Ed at my first ACPA conference back in 2008!

Scott Jaschik and Doug Lederman will lead this webinar (sponsored by Pearson). 

Register for the webinar here - https://events-na3.adobeconnect.com/content/connect/c1/1002564123/en/events/event/shared/default_template/event_landing.html?sco-id=1592580467&campaign-id=Insider&_charset_=utf-8.

If you attend this webinar, please let me know what you think about the content.

*This blog post is just a resource, it is not a sponsored post. :)

Call for Speakers - University of North Texas Law Conference (March 21-22, 2016 in Denton, TX)

Neat Opportunity from the University of North Texas 

Save the Date!

The 20th annual UNT Texas Higher Education Law Conference will be held March 21-22 in Denton, Texas, on the campus of the University of North Texas. Easter is the Sunday after conference week, and most Spring Breaks are concluded.

We are reading and in many cases acting upon your feedback from the recent 2015 conference. Some announcements about that are forthcoming.

We will begin this summer and fall to focus intensively on the 2016 program, but don't let that stop you from suggesting topics and speakers NOW.  Send to me at Marc.Cutright@unt.edu<mailto:Marc.Cutright@unt.edu> .

Thanks for your continuing interest and support.

PS  About $20,000 in scholarship aid from the conference will be committed this week to roughly 35-40 students.  You make that possible. Thank you.

Marc Cutright, EdD

Associate Professor of Higher Education

Director of the Higher Education Development Initiative

Fulbright Scholar to Uganda 2013-14

University of North Texas

1155 Union Circle #310829

Denton, TX 76203-5017

904-369-7875 (office)

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

55 Higher Education and Social Media Ideas! #55HigherEd from the SxSWEdu Conference!

In March, I was very fortunate to attend the SxSWEdu conference in Austin, TX. I attended sessions hosted by the TAMU system, the Gates Foundation, and several university colleagues from other institutions. This year marks my second year of attendance and I have to tout that this is the best year so far!

This year, we presented a session titled, "#55HigherEd Ideas and Resources" and we had participants from high schools, community colleges, universities, foundations, and associations. The ideas presented in the session were recorded via Twitter and via a Google Document!

Here's our tagboard from the session (the tweets): http://tgb.io/55HigherEd/219916

Here are my notes from the audience members attending the session!

1 - Reaching Current Undergraduate Students via Social Media

- Create a hashtag for recruiting students and engaging other departments to communicate with them.

- Place your twitter handle on your email signature line.

- Create professional groups for like-minded students on Facebook.

2 - Recruiting and Retaining Faculty and Staff on Social Media

- Create secondary social media posts of positions to recruit faculty and staff (without publishing on higher education.)

- Focus on faculty and staff members's secondary interests (what they like to do outside of the typical workday).

- Post a video about the staff environment and the benefits/ How they match 401Ks. Two weeks off during Christmas break.

- Utilize Flickr accounts, seeing the attire of the workplace.

- Focus on Faculty Student Success Stories - Faculty will have a different focus.

3 - Student Engagement and Social Media

- Post Lists Focused on Your Community (i.e. - Things to do in Alpine - Going out to the Sul Ross Campaign (students and their parents)).

- Form a Twitter Debate - Two teams. Limited numbers of tweets.Number of favorites within a certain time frame.

4 - University Recruitment and Social Media

- Create Buzzfeed-like videos focused on your university. For example, the top 10 reasons why you should join the teacher education program.

- Connect with Community Colleges via the University Account

5 - The University Classroom and Social Media

- Insert a Twitter Widget on Blackboard

- Creating Instagram account for your department.

- Remember to be more proactive with social media listening.

- Have a social media policy on your syllabus.

- Create expectations of social media posts. Twitter and instagram. Tagboard. Giving students a visual for students and other.

- Post student group projects to LinkedIn. Becoming references to one another.

- Have Pop-Up Sessions from One Class Session to the Next - Group work and generating ideas. Great for problem based learning. Ideas would come through and everyone would have everyone's idea. Other classes could add to that.

6 - University Marketing on Social Media

- Push for a social page on the website to list all of the university's social media accounts.

- Engage the internal departments.

- Ask students how they discovered your university.

- Practice social media listening. Create a search focused on your college or university's name.

- Find student social media ambassadors for your university. They will be the ambassadors to start the #besomebody

Next Year!

When the call for sessions is available, I will definitely submit another session (Vote for the @TSMRI Session)! This was one of the best conferences this year and I hope that I will continue to connect with my colleagues from other institutions and foundations throughout the year.

In June, we will start our #55HigherEd chat on Wednesdays in June at 8pm on Twitter! Join us! 

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

A List of Faculty Issues in Higher Education: A Great Resource for University Administrators and Faculty

As a tenured-faculty member, I am always excited about mentoring new faculty (especially women and new faculty of color). This mentoring relationship is always great for me because I had such wonderful mentors (both faculty and staff) when persisting through the tenure-track process.

This mentoring relationship is very important for tenure-track and tenured faculty who are seeking to become a full-professor. (This is another journey through which I am persisting right now.) Tenure-track and tenured-faculty (especially women and faculty of color) encounter along the journey towards their goals:

Here are some of the current issues and resources for individuals tied to faculty affairs roles at universities and colleges in the United States:

Current Issues focused on Faculty Affairs:

- The growing number of women and people of color in faculty positions.

- Faculty and work-life balance.

- Stopping the tenure clock for faculty who are pregnant or who are new or adoptive mothers (or fathers).

- Faculty retirement and retirement plans.

- Faculty workplace flexibility.

- Faculty involvement on universities committees and work groups.

- Faculty compensation and merit pay.

- Faculty workload (balancing researching, teaching and service).

- Part-time and adjunct faculty workload.

- Faculty Orientation

- Faculty Training 

- Faculty and External Fundraising and Grantsmanship Activities

- Faculty Recognition

- Faculty Recruitment and Retention

- Faculty Workplace Satisfaction

Faculty Affairs Resources:

- Faculty Issues: A Resource by the American Council on Education

- Giving "Voice to Faculty"

- Policy Matters" Faculty Trends and Issues (A Resource from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities - AASCU)

- Analyses of Faculty Issues

- Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (A Resource from Harvard's Graduate School of Education)

- Common New Faculty Issues and Solutions (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Please feel free to tweet, share, and comment below! Let me know if I missed something from the list!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

@drjtedwards

Student Success Seminars for Student Success and Retention

I am always on the lookout for new student success programs and services that would benefit universities in Texas. Each week, I receive a notification when a new program or service is featured in the press and this one really caught my eye!

The article "Student Success Seminars Aim to Motivate Students" is focused on student success seminars (not just workshops) focusing on different interventions to help students succeed in their coursework and in their life at the university. This is a neat approach focused on the "total student" both in their academic life and in their extra curricular life.

These are some of the topics featured in their series: App Academy, Chill Out, and my favorite "Finish in Four: 640 Days". This is absolutely a neat, informational approach for universities that I look forward to replicating!

Sincerely,

@drjtedwards

Call for Attendees and Proposals - Cisco College Core Curriculum Conference (C5)

Here's a neat opportunity from Texas-based Cisco College!

Cisco College Core Curriculum Conference (C5)

  

Cisco College will again host a conference in the Spring of 2015 dedicated to faculty members and their classrooms, providing educators with a chance to come together and share successful teaching strategies.

 

The Cisco College Core Curriculum Conference is pleased to invite proposals that illustrate best classroom practices and innovative teaching techniques related to the following areas:

 Critical Thinking

 Communication Skills

 Empirical & Quantitative Skills

 Teamwork

 Social Responsibility

 Personal Responsibility

 Assessing the (New) Core

The conference will be held May 21 & 22, 2015, at Cisco College’s Abilene Educational Center in Abilene, Texas. 

The goal of the conference is to provide faculty members with as many learning opportunities as possible to expand their knowledge of teaching techniques. Although faculty members from all public two-year and four-year institutions are welcome to attend, the conference will focus on the special budgetary restrictions and practical needs of faculty at community colleges in Texas.

Conference flyer and registration form are attached.

--

Debra Slaton

Chair, Dev. Studies & Education

Cisco College

101 College Heights

Cisco, TX  76437

254-442-5187 Cisco       325-794-4505 Abilene

Fax:  254-442-5100/Attention: Debra Slaton

Dream  big......work hard!!

The Smart Choice for Your Future!                   

What Does Your #HigherEd Handwriting Say About You?

I am a HEAVY writer and my print is bold and wide. Look at the infographic listed below. How do you think the faculty, staff, students, administrators, and staff perceive your writing? Perceptions exist, but it is always great to know about potential perceptions ahead of time.

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

Repackaging Your Web Content for Reaching Target Student Groups - 6 Steps for Effectively Packing Content You Already Have (Ruffalo Noel-Levitz)

One aspect of higher education for which I have recently developed an interest is recruitment of target student groups (and their parents) and social media/new media content marketing. 

The Ruffalo Noel-Levitz blog posted an article titled, "Content Marketing for Higher Education: Six Steps for Effectively Packaging Content You Already Have". These six steps are generally listed on the graphic listed above, but each of them make sense for the higher education environment.

The process seems rigid, but again I am not responsible for content marketing. Each step made sense and I cannot wait to modify this process for our retention model (internal content marketing) for our current students!

Enjoy! - @drjtedwards

A List of Commonly Utilized Communication Theories - Plus My Favorites!

I am always on the lookout for great communication theories to incorporate in my classes (graduate and undergraduate communication classes). Here are some of my favorites:

Attribution Theory

Cognitive Dissonance

Communication Privacy Management Theory

Constructivism

Expectancy Violations Theory

Face Negotiation Theory

Phenomenology

Social Judgment Theory

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Here's a list of all of the Communication Theories from the "A First Look at Communication Theory" book - http://www.afirstlook.com/edition_7/theory_list.

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

#NASPA15 Revisited - Capturing the Real Time Moments from the Conference!

I always like to revisit the tweets that I posted to the @drjtedwardsTSU account during a conference. This is my first time to create a Storify from my tweets and I am excited to have this archive of my posts. 

I also made these great Quote Cards to capture neat ideas from the conference. Please feel free to use them! Enjoy the posts listed in the Storify at the end of this post. 

Please contribute any comments and ideas below!

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU