NACADA Conference 09

I’m looking forward to connecting with advisors next week at the NACADA Annual Conference in San Antonio.  I was fortunate get the time off work to travel south, since the conference is being held in my (new) home state of TX. Conferences provide a great opportunity to connect with other  professionals/faculty, share new ideas and learn what is going on in the wonderful world of advising.

Since some of my favourite academic advising friends are not able to make it to the Lone Star state (due to department cut backs and whatnot), my advisor/tech guru friend, Eric Stoller, suggested we continue to use the Twitter hashtag to enable non-attendees the opportunity to virtually follow the conference action. This ideas was quite a success at the NACADA Technology Seminar amongst the seminar attendees. Eric used the hashtag: #nacadatech09 to aggregate all tagged tweets into the NACADA Tech website via a widget from monitter.com. Amazing.

The hashtag for the NACADA Annual Conference  will be: #nacada09
Now tweet your little hearts out, my friends. [Thanks, EDS. You rock!]

How YOU can participate as either a NACADA Annual Conference Tweeter or as a virtual follower  (c/o @ericstoller):

NACADA Tweeters:

• Step 1: Sign up for a Twitter account.
• Step 2: Take your laptop or web-ready cellphone to San Antonio and hope that WiFi is available.
• Step 3: Post updates on Twitter about the conference: session pointers, take-aways, best practices, key issues, etc.
• Step 4: In every 140 character post, include “#nacada09″ (without quotes and a space in front of and after the tag)

Virtual followers:

• Step 1: Follow the virtual conference action via a Twitter search for #nacada09
• Step 2: Repeat step 1.

NACADA Tech Check-In

Hello #nacadatech09 Participants,

How are you? I just thought I would check in to find out what has been happening at your home institutions. Be sure to post a comment with your updates & news since you left the seminar on the NACADA Tech website.

Looking forward to hearing your updates & news.
Tech on,

Laura

Bon Voyage!

Just a quick note to say thanks & wish you all a safe journey home. It was great meeting you all, and learning more about your ideas around technology in advising. I am sure that you will keep pondering this topic beyond nacadatech.

I will be sure to send out updates to let you know more about resources, presentations & how to best stay in touch with everyone. Thanks for your participation in the seminar.

Be well,

Laura

Welcome to the NACADA Tech Seminar!

Hello NACADA Tech Participants,

Welcome to the NACADA Technology Seminar!

Along with the other seminar faculty – Eric, George & Karen – I am looking forward to meeting & working with all of you this week in Clearwater, FL. We have been adding information to the NACADA Tech website, and will continue to use this as our central “hub” for all resources, handouts & presentations.

As the faculty for our Learning Community (LC), I would like to introduce everyone to the TechKNOW Tools Wiki. This wiki will house seminar information, resources, projects & provide us with a work space specifically for our LC.

Please take a moment to introduce yourself to the group, so we can get to know one another. Just leave a comment after this blog post that includes:

• Your Name & Professional Role
• Institution Name & Location
• Goals for the Tech Seminar
• Other interesting information or any personal web pages

Safe travels,

Laura

My Slant About What’s On the Horizon (Report 2009)

I have posted about on the NACADA Tech website, however check out the recent publication of the 2009 Horizon Report as posted on the other blog today.

I think that there are some super rad things educators should consider with respect to these new technologies in higher education:

• increased use of games as learning & instructional tools
• collective intelligence being on the forefront of university life
• improved means of communication & teaching through M-learning
• impacts to educating students about the global community
• skill development for information & technical literacy
• changes to dated learning means & materials
• reviewing assessment & evaluation practices
• delivery of student support services & resources

And many, many more transitions to what we currently know. Are you ready for what lies ahead?

It’s Coming… The NACADA Tech Seminar!!!

Speaking of hot, new & exciting (see previous post)… Did you know that 1 month from now the NACADA Tech team will be hosting an interactive & engaging seminar on working with technology & advising?

Check out it out & get linked to the NACADA Technology Seminar TODAY!

February 12-13th will not just be about sun n’ fun in Clearwater, Florida. This innovative seminar is breaking the institute frontier with its new style & format. The NACADA Technology Seminar is designed to immerse participants in web 2.0 technologies, explore practical uses for advising, and encourage collaboration amongst colleagues.

For more details about the NACADA Tech Seminar, registration & more be sure to go visit the Winter seminars on the NACADA website. Hope to see you there!