Presented by: Curtis Jefferson, Nachel Glynn, Pamela Shea, Valerie Johnson

1. Spam, Pods, and Nets…Oh My!:What Every Administrator Should Know About Technology Presented by: Curtis Jefferson, Nachel Glynn, Pamela Shea, Valerie Johnson

2. Thought to Ponder • The National Survey of Information Technology in U.S. Higher Education (2006) reported that in 2006, 60.5% of colleges and universities increased their wireless technology budgets.

3. Why is Technology Important? • Promotes understanding of ethical, cultural and societal issues • Teaches responsibility • Encourages development of positive attitudes to life long learning • Enables collaboration • Increases productivity and creativity • Strengthens communication • Assists researching and processing data • Develops problem solving and decision making skills (National educational technology standards, 2000)

4. Changing Technology • Landline phones = cell phones • Desktop computer = laptop • Floppy disks = flash drives • Journals = E-journals • Digital Media (Books, Music, Pictures, etc…) • Internet language (abbreviations, emoticons, and online lingo) (Warlick, 2004)

5. Current Hot Topics • Blogs • Institutional Spam • Online Networking Services • Podcasting • Access to Online Resources

6. Blogs • Definition: “A frequently updated webpage with dated entries, new ones placed on top” (Blood, 2002b, p. ix ). • Comparable to an online diary/journal • “Blogs are being used as class portals, online filing cabinets for student work, e-portfolios, collaborative space, knowledge management, and even school websites” (Richardson, 2006, p. 21).

7. What Blogs Can Do • Promote critical and analytical thinking • Be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive and associational thinking • Promote analogical thinking • Be a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information • Combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction (Richardson, 2006, p. 20)

8. Problems with Blogs • Keeping site updated with relevant and current information • Determining information that should be posted (personal information) • Ability to delete or change information that may be sited by others • Can lead to personal attacks (Blood, 2002a)

9. Institutional Spam • Definition of Spam: • 1) the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equal for all those that receive it • 2) the recipient has not received permission for it to be sent • 3) the transmission seems to give more benefit to the sender than those that receive it (Goodman, 2004 p. 16)

10. Problems with Institutional Spam • Clog your e-mail inbox • Lure you to buy products that you may not want, need or ever receive • Infect your computer with Viruses • Exploit your personal information • Embarrass you with inappropriate images or products (Goodman, 2004, p. 1)

11. What we can do • Enforce the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 by imposing limitations and penalties on those that distribute spam • Define specific guidelines for University mail including: • Requiring emails senders an option to decline future emails • Use a school email account when sending mail • Define clearly that it is advertisement • Prohibit misleading or false information (CAN-SPAM ACT OF 2003)

12. Networking Services Definition: • Websites that provide social interaction • Facebook (over 12 million users) • MySpace (over 55 million users) • Communication programs comparable to passing notes in class • AOL Instant Messenger • Yahoo Instant Messenger

13. Networking Benefits • Increase personal connection to group • Increase communication skills • Increase social justice and political activism

14. Networking Issues • Increased cyberbullying • Increased disclosure of personal information • Increase believe of negative social norms as true • Ethical questions about when and who can use freely shared information

15. Perceptions Survey of “2,000 college students in the Dayton area and more than 300 employers. • 40% of employers say it's OK to use Facebook when making a hiring decision • 19% of the students agreed. A slightly differently worded question underscored the difference in perception of Facebook. • 32% of students said employers' use of Facebook is illegal; 42% said it's a violation of privacy. • 25% of employers considered it unethical; 21% said it was a violation of privacy” (Lupsa, 2006, 13)

16. Podcasting • Definition: “a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player” (Skiva, 2006, p. 54 ). • Has been expanded to include video programs • Most prevalent use in higher education is to provide online recordings of lectures (“News Briefs”, 2006).

17. Additional Uses of Podcasting • Recruitment: Mansfield U. in Pennsylvania has developed a podcast series that covers issues ranging from choosing the right college to interviews of current students. Within the first two weeks, the site received over 950 unique visits and over 300 downloads (“Admissions”, 2005). • Acceptance: Another campus, Fitchburg State College, has started sending a video podcast recorded by the institution’s President to let new students know they were accepted into the college (McCafferty, 2006)

18. Additional Uses of Podcasting • Service to Community: The University of California developed and has made available free of charge, a series of podcasts for health care professionals on disaster-preparedness (“University of California”, 2006).

19. Benefits of Podcasting • Can enhance student learning due to availability of streaming and downloadable content. • Provides a technology-savvy way to present recruitment information and other marketing for the institution. • Can be used to serve the greater community as in the University of California example

20. Issues with Podcasting • If lectures are available for downloads some students may attend class less frequently. • Time and knowledgeable personnel are required to get the podcasts recorded. • Podcasts need to be hosted somewhere for download and depending on popularity can cause issues with bandwidth usage for the institutions website.

21. Online Resources • Search Engines • MSN, Google, Yahoo! • Full-text journals, newspapers, and magazines • JSTOR, Project Muse, Chronicle of Higher Education • Digital libraries • ODIN catalog, CARLI, LOC.gov • Electronic indexes • EBSCOHost, ERIC, WorldCat

22. Access to Online Resources In traditional underclassmen lecture bases classes • “53.1% of classes provide online presentation handouts. • 18.9% provide simulations/exercises. • 28.3% are using purchased instructional resources online. • 40.1% use course management tools to provide online resources. • 40.3% provide web pages with class materials and resources” (Harvel, 2006, p.163)

23. Access to Online Resources • “Students expect to find most of their information online, and information providers are catering to that expectation by bringing more scholarly journals online in full text” (Van Scoyoc & Cason, 2006, 47) • “The 2003 National Study of Student Engagement found that 83 percent of students use the Web to find resources” (Van Scoyoc & Cason, 2006, 48-49) • Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

24. Problems with Online Resources • Use of poor academic quality information • Information can be deleted or edited • Increases possibility of plagiarism

25. Summary • Technology is changing at a rapid pace • It is important that we take the time and opportunities to learn about the current trends. • When used effectively technology can help us become more competitive and provide better services

26. Any Questions?

27. References Admissions podcasts tackle what students really want to know. (2005, December).  Recruitment & Retention in Higher Education, 19(12), 1-4. Blood, R. (2002a). The weblog handbook: Practical advice on creating and maintaining your blog. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Publishing. Blood, R. (2002b). Introduction. In Perseus Publishing (Ed.), We’ve got blog: How weblogs are changing out culture (pp. ix-xiii). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Publishing. Can-Spam act of 2003: report of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on S. 877, 108th Cong., 1(2003). Goodman, D. (2004) Spam wars: Our last best chance to defeat spammers, scammers, and hackers. New York: Select Books. Harvel, L.D. (2006). Convenience is not enough. Innovations of Higher Education, 31, 161-174. Lupsa, C. (2006, December 13). Facebook: A campus fad becomes a campus fact ; The social-networking website isn't growing like it once did, but only because almost every US student is already on it. The Christian Science Monitor, p. 13. McCafferty, P. (2006, May). Podcasts replace acceptance letters.  Recruitment & Retention in Higher Education, 20(5), 1-4. News briefs. (2006, March).  Edutech Report, 22(3), 2. Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press. Skiba, D. J. (2006).  Emerging technologies center.  Nursing Education Perspectives, 27(1), 54-55. University of California offers video podcasts on disaster preparedness. (2006, February 9). Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 22(26), 34. Van Scoyoc, A.M., & Cason, C. (2006). The electronic academic library: Undergraduate research behavior in a library without books. Libraries and the Academy, 6(1), 47–58. Warlick, D. (2004). Redefining literacy for the 21st century. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publishing, Inc.