The Stoller Coaster
My last day at Oregon State University is going to be September 30th. I’ve been an academic advisor and web coordinator for the College of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) since 2007. It’s been a transformative experience. The advising team, college and university leadership, peer advisors, and my advisees have taught me so much. It has been a terrific adventure!
Speaking of adventures, you may be wondering what I’m going to be doing or where I am going…
When the “Blogger hits the big time” profile came out, I had already been thinking about my career, my future, and what I wanted to do:
During the day, Eric Stoller is busy advising students in the College of Health and Human Sciences and working on web projects for the college. In the evenings and on weekends, he’s juggling everything from consulting projects to blogging to chatting with his 1,900+ Twitter followers.
“Downtime? What’s that?” he laughs.
And these days, he’s added another job to that list of tasks, as a paid blogger for the highly popular academic website, Inside Higher Ed. As one of 13 regular bloggers for the site, Stoller has begun writing at least two blog posts per week, focused on student affairs and technology.
Working as an academic advisor / web coordinator during the day and engaging in numerous consulting / speaking engagements in the evenings and/or during my vacations has made my life feel like a roller coaster — twists, turns, dips, spins, etc…hence, the “Stoller Coaster.”
I have decided that I am going to focus my energies on my consulting/writing/speaking projects.
- I plan on attending Educause in October to promote my new Inside Higher Ed blog: Student Affairs and Technology.
- I will be participating via Skype in a technology and advising session at the NACADA Annual Conference.
- In November, I will be presenting a social media super session sponsored by Sodexo at the NACAS Annual Conference. In addition to my session, I am also going to be hosting small group consultations.
My consulting efforts are going to be focused on student affairs/higher education and technology:
- Social Media and Marketing
- Web Site Statistics
- Communication Plans
- Branding
- Search Engine Optimization
- Web Site Usability/Accessibility
- Higher Education Association Technology Development and Strategy
I am thrilled to start this new adventure. It’s going to be epic!
Credit for the “Stoller Coaster” – Conzen, 2010.
Student Affairs + Technology: IHE Recap
Career Services and Social Media: Todd really says it best 
@EricStoller If there is a single Student Affairs dept that could *pwn* social media it is career services.
Todd Sanders
tsand
Let’s shift some paradigms: Introducing my new blog at Inside Higher Ed.
Challenge and Tech Support: Student Affairs practitioners and Tech Support departments…please let us be admins.
Do you YouTube? Don’t forget to add captions: Would you build a new building without an elevator? Nope… Then why would you ever create videos without captions?
George Orwell, Web Stats, and Your Site Visitors: Student Affairs + Web Stats….Nerdvana 
Sometimes there are just too many blog posts that need to be written
@Ericstoller: Given up on your blog? Shared it with my #UBC_CSI peers as a great resource…Waiting 2 see some new, great think pieces!
Erin B. Linde
erinlinde
When your friends start emailing, texting, tweeting, faxing, carrier pigeoning, etc. about your lack of blog posts, it becomes necessary to post something…here you go Erin!
In other news, I recently discovered “Blackbird Pie.” It’s a service that TwitterMedia uses to “bake fresh tweets.” Blackbird Pie is pretty nifty in that you can capture a tweet and re-post it. I’m a fan of Blackbird Pie…very yummy!
PS: I’ve been a busy blogger over at my new Inside Higher Ed blog: Student Affairs and Technology.
PPS: Ed, I have not forgotten that I owe you a guest post on search engines and personal branding.
PPPS: I’m very flattered that Sean included me in his “Who-Do of the Month” nomination.
Blogging Student Affairs and Technology
I am thrilled to announce that I’m going to be blogging about Student Affairs and Technology for Inside Higher Ed (IHE). As an avid reader of IHE, I am very excited to join the IHE blogging team. I think that my posts on student affairs + technology will complement Joshua Kim’s blog on Technology and Learning.
Recently, I held a contest via Twitter to name my new blog. The incentive — a $100 Amazon gift card — courtesy of Inside Higher Ed. Several folks came up with interesting/creative blog names. I think the #SAChat Community provided the majority of ideas. Student Affairs folks are uber creative.
Here are my 3 favorite submissions:
- Jeff Jackson: The Stoller Strikes Back, Return of the Blogosphere, Student Affairs….I am Your Blogger
- Zack Ford: Challenge and Tech Support
- ACUHO-I (sent via DM): Binary Code of Conduct
Choosing a winner from these 3 has been extremely challenging. Star Wars references, Sanford, and an entire Association…how cool is that?!! After more than a week of deliberate (intentional ) deliberating I have decided that the winner of the gift card is:
Zack Ford’s submission made me laugh. It’s subtle….and I love subtlety. The obvious nod / homage to Nevitt Sanford warms the heart. Challenge and Support is one of my all-time favorite, and oft-used, student development theories.
It should be noted that Julie Larsen was correct…the official name of my new blog is going to be: Student Affairs and Technology. The name needed to be something that would be simple enough that any IHE reader would know exactly what it was about. The blog also needed to be search engine friendly…”Students Affairs + Technology” is simple and searchable.
Stay tuned for my first official post on Inside Higher Ed!
Honorable mention:
Julie P-Kirchmeier: Stoller: Resistance is Futile
Niki Rudolph: Epic Stoller
Justine Carpenter: Tech Tips for SAPs
Christopher Conzen: The Stoller Coaster
Student Affairs + Jobs + RSS + Email
Conducting a successful student affairs job search requires patience, networking, and technology. That’s right, technology. One particular tech tool that is extremely useful for conducting a search is RSS. Job postings delivered to your feed reader via RSS means that new job announcements are efficiently delivered to your virtual doorstep.
If you aren’t familiar with using RSS, please watch this video for more information:
If you need an RSS feed reader, I would highly recommend using Google Reader:
There are a few student affairs websites that offer job postings via RSS feeds, including:
Remember to look for the RSS symbol – 
– or for a link to RSS data. Ideally, all student affairs job sites will offer RSS feeds in the near future as this makes conducting a search ultra-convenient.
An alternative to RSS feeds for job postings is the “Email Alert.” Several sites offer email alerts based on a variety of search queries. ACPA, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Placement Exchange, and the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium all offer student affairs job search updates via email alerts.
In addition to the RSS and Email solutions mentioned above, most student affairs associations / higher education news sites offer job listings on their websites. Here are direct links to the student affairs job listings for the following associations / resource sites.
Student Affairs jobs via professional associations:
- American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)
- American College Personnel Association (ACPA)
- Association of College Unions International (ACUI)
- Association for Student Conduct Administration (ASCA)
- Consortium of Higher Education Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Professionals
- National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC)
- National Academic Advising Association (NACADA)
- National Association of College Auxiliary Services (NACAS)
- National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)
- NAFSA: Association of International Educators
- National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA)
- The Placement Exchange (NASPA, ACUHO-I, NACA, NODA, ASCA and AFA)
Student Affairs jobs via higher education publications / job sites:
Clay Shirky + Status Quo + Patriarchy
A rant about Clay Shirky…well, not really a rant since I am not much of a ranter…a rebuttal perhaps?
When a member of a dominant group, in this case, a highly educated white guy, writes a “rant” on the reasons why a traditionally marginalized group (women) is not matching the status quo set forth by the dominant group, I take umbrage. Seemingly bereft of a critical awareness of systems of oppression, and the power structures that maintain privilege and patriarchy, Clay Shirky used his virtual pulpit to perpetuate status quo addled thinking.
Shirky argues that women should stop caring, be more arrogant, and act more like men do when it comes to securing career “opportunities.” Women are framed as being less skilled in the art of being jerks than men. Being a jerk, according to Shirky’s bizarro world view, is a good thing. In other words, women should be arrogant jerks in order to succeed. How twisted is that? What about changing systems so that no one has to be a jerk in order to succeed? Why settle for the current state of affairs? Mr. Shirky’s argument only thrives if we believe that things cannot be changed. The system, and the “rules” that currently govern it, need to be rewritten.
Shirky attempts to draw parallels to the movement amongst men to be more like women. According to Shirky, we “encourage men to be better listeners and more sensitive partners, to take more account of others’ feelings and to let out our own feelings more.” So according to Shirky, being an arrogant jerk holds the same value as listening, sensitivity and empathy. I disagree. This isn’t an apples to apples comparison. Adopting traditional patriarchal values (being aggressive / a “jerk”), from which sexism flows out of, is no where near the same as values (listening, sensitivity, empathy) that are about creating goodwill / creating community.
What if being a better listener, being more sensitive, and being empathetic were grounds for career success / opportunities?
Photo by Duncan
What I’m reading
What are you reading?
Leading from the middle
One of my mentors has a leadership philosophy framed around leading from the middle. The concept, while very simple, is ultra complex. If you take a position that is on one end of a spectrum, you alienate those who are on the other end. How do you reach those who you disagree with if you are already miles apart? Leading from the middle means that you don’t get to take sides. It means that you are not going to be seen in a positive light by a lot of folks.
The recent legislative happenings in Arizona are a great example of the strains of what it takes to lead from the middle. Am I upset about everything that is going on in Arizona right now? You bet I am. I am saddened and angry. A lot of people seem to be forgetting what it means to be human. Humanity and dignity are being swiftly stripped away from marginalized populations in Arizona. Is it about racism? I think so. It’s about xenophobia, discrimination and power. Overall, those who are in charge of making laws in Arizona are doing horrible things right now.
How does this relate to leading from the middle? The protests that have been taking place in and outside of Arizona make a lot of people feel good. It makes me feel good to know that movements of people are joining together to fight for justice. However, I doubt that the lawmakers in Arizona are listening. I doubt that those who agree with the new laws are listening. Listening, in the sense that you are really processing, takes an awareness and openness that is lacking right now. Activism is important. Movements need to happen, but I wonder how we move forward when we seem to move backwards so much. How do we lead and live in the middle when things are so polarized right now….
Academic Advising & Social Media
NACADA Tech in Advising Recommendations for Use of Online Social Communication in Academic Advising
The purpose of these recommendations is to provide guidance to Academic Advisors contemplating the inclusion of on-line social communication tools in their personal or programmatic advising design.
For the purposes of this discussion, Online Social Communications will be understood as externally hosted Web environments, sometimes referred to as Social Media Environments, in which information is aggregated, presented and shared. Further, where functionality exist, the environments allow you to document and filter connections between individuals, maintain profiles, support multimedia, and facilitate communication with a time shift supporting response at user-defined times. On-Line Social Communication environments include Facebook and other Online Social Networks, Twitter, YouTube, personal blogs and wiki pages. Since Facebook’s introduction in 2004, an ever-increasing number of advisors, student services specialists, academic units and universities have been leveraging the benefits of an on-line presence.
The expanding use of on-line social communication by advisors and advising offices, evidenced by numerous publications and presentations over the past five years, encouraged the NACADA Commission for Technology in Advising to proffer the following recommendations when considering inclusion of Social Communication tools in the delivery of advising information:
Resources from our ACPA Social Media session
About a week ago, I had the opportunity to co-present at the ACPA National Convention with Kenn Elmore, John Battaglino and Teri Bump. Fortunately for the four of us, we were able to secure a larger room as our session had about 60 people in attendance.
We didn’t give out handouts at our session. Our keynote slides had images on them and only a word or two. I’ve received emails from folks who attended, as well as from people who were following via the #ACPA10 Twitter backchannel, requesting a copy of our slides. While we were sans paper at our session, we were certainly not without a lot of bits of information.
Our session was titled “Wise and Connected – Demystifying Social Media for SSAOs and Directors.” We had 2 screens/lcd projectors running simultaneously during the session. On one screen was our keynote slideshow…we combined our slides like Voltron just moments before our session. On the other screen was a live stream (via wifi) of everything that was being said via Twitter using the #ACPA10 and #ACPASSAO hashtags. (Note that the ACPASSAO hashtag provided ample fodder for attendees). We even used clickers from Turning Technologies (these were the same clickers that were used at the opening of the convention). Overall, it was a very high tech, high touch session.
We live streamed all of the Twitter commentary using Twitterfall. Twitterfall has an amazing “presentation mode” that is perfect for the live streaming of tweets. The streaming screen provided probably the funniest moment (for me at least) of our session when @ACPAConvention tried to distract me! It should be noted that I did not look down, not even once. However, one of us did use a 4 letter word at one point during our session.
A lot of people wanted the link for the “Leadership Video.” I’ve dubbed said video as “Who wants to watch EDS dance on a hill?”. I wasn’t really the “lone nut” in this video, but I like to think that I could have been:
A terrific leader in Student Affairs who is utilizing social media is Kenn Elmore, Dean of Students at Boston University. If you have not yet visited the Dean of Students website at BU, please check it out. The site is a wonderful example of how social media can be integrated into a higher ed student affairs site. The folks at BU use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Blogs.
Did you know that you can get a lot out of Twitter without ever posting? Twitter can be a great resource for news, events and general information.
Here’s a terrific primer on “Twitter 101″ from the makers of Twitter.
Once you become an avid Twitter user, you may find that the functionality at Twitter.com doesn’t give you enough options. For “power twittering,” I would recommend that you use TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a free application that will become a staple in your Twitter diet. They even make a version of TweetDeck for the iPhone. What’s that you say? Don’t have an iPhone? Never fear, if you are a Blackberry user, I would recommend trying UberTwitter. You can even use Twitter using standard text messages via any mobile phone.
When I started talking about RSS, I noticed that folks went into an acronym sleep. For more information on RSS, Social Media, Twitter and a host of other online things, please check out Common Craft. The Common Craft videos break down complicated concepts into easily digestible informational videos.
One of my favorite uses of social media that we did not have a chance to talk about is #SAChat:
We talked a little bit about Facebook too…we packed a lot of info, entertainment, and education in our hour and fifteen. I can’t wait to do it again.
