Experts and Gurus and Evangelists, Oh My!

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick to death of hearing people refer to themselves as “Social Media Guru” and “Social Media Expert”. Enough already. The fact is, that I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to actually claim those titles and have them be accurate. Our culture, this technology, and the amazing things people all over the world are doing with it – moves too fast.  One cannot be an expert if your field of expertise changes on a minute-by-minute basis. No can do, lovelies.

I really don’t care for the ‘evangelist’ title either, but at least I get that one and I feel it’s more accurate than others, even if it does conjure up images for me of religious fanatics that travel around in circus tents promising to cure people. Wait, maybe that’s exactly the point. Hm. Look at it this way though – if we’re reading and commenting on blogs, updating our status on Facebook, posting photos to Flickr, uploading videos to YouTube, and twittering like our lives depend on it – aren’t we ALL social media evangelists? I think so, even if it’s in a small way. If we’re doing these things, we obviously believe in these things and feel they’re worth our time to do. We may not be preaching the benefits of these things to conference rooms full of people, but we’re walking the walk and that’s the important part.

We’re not ‘experts’ – not any of us. We do the best we can and try to keep up as much as we’re able, but stuff changes fast these days and even if you know pretty much everything there is to know – someone else is doing something new that you’ve never heard about.

Do we call ourselves experts and gurus and evangelists to look cool? To try to stand out among the ever-growing crowd of people using social media? How much do you stand out when everyone and their uncle starts referring to themselves as an expert? Yeah, not much.

Maybe we should focus a little bit more on just doing our best at the things we really love doing. Not because it gets us a crowd of people following us, or worshipping us, but just because it makes *us* happy. Let’s not try to keep up with the Joneses, or the Brogan’s or the Scoble’s – let’s just do our thing and be all about it. It’s not a competition, peeps. Let’s just all do our best at being good people who love what we do.

This post inspired by the quote I’m about to get tattooed on my arm next month -
“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” – Rumi

Sloan-C Conference

I’m in San Francisco right now attending the Sloan-C Conference on Emerging Technologies.  Today was the pre-conference session day and I was lucky enough to present during a workshop as part of a team discussing the use of Web 2.0 technologies and Cloud Computing for Student Services. I was asked to be part of the group by a man from the University of Illinois who presented at the Sloan conference last fall in Orlando.

I really like workshop sessions because it seems to be much more about the discussions than about providing content and today’s session was no exception. I was fortunate enough to meet several new people who all had fantastic questions, input, and experiences that they shared.  The other members of the presentation team discussed how they’re using wikis and google apps in their library, and how they’re using jing for screen captures and videos. I presented about how World Campus is using Facebook, twitter, Second Life, etc to build community and strengthen relationships between the university and all of our online students.  Lots of great questions were asked and fantastic discussion occured.  Sometimes it just takes someone giving you an example or talking about things from a different perspective for those doors to open up and then you begin to see opportunities you might not have considered before.

Huge thanks to everyone for participating and attending the session. I look forward to the sessions to come and I’m really glad to be here in such a wonderful city!

zen

Ever since I made the decision to only post work-related things on this blog, I find myself rarely using this blog at all. It’s certainly not that I’ve stopped working, but I think that when I’m feeling creative and in the mood to blog, I want to blog about things that are informal or personal and so they don’t end up here. Not sure that’s a great thing, but that’s where it stands for now.

This past Friday we had a work retreat.  Most work retreats I’ve been on through the years have basically consisted of going to an outside location – typically a conference room or meeting location, and we’ve spent the day working on a specific project or focused on a specific goal.  This past Friday, however, I was lucky enough to attend a retreat that truly felt like a retreat  – at the O’an Zendo Center here in Julian, Pennsylvania.  The O’an Zendo center is “devoted to the practice and teaching of Zen Buddhism” and it was a day to renew ourselves and our spirits and really take time to relax, refocus, and slow down.  I think our entire team needed this retreat more than we’ve needed a lot of things lately, and I am so thankful that I had an entire day to spend there.

We spent the day relaxing, learning about each other in ways that some might think are odd (touching each others hands, walking around each other in a large room with hardwood floors and huge windows with a view of the trees outside), and really looking at ourselves.  It was such a rare experience to have one day where you were told to do what you needed to do (including taking a nap if you felt you needed to)  because that’s what your body needed.  We had no technology, no pressures, no multi-tasking of things demanding our attention – just deep breaths, relaxation, and an awareness that we are all part of a bigger picture.  It was a really moving experience for several team members, including myself, and I find myself attempting to meditate now, even if it’s just for a few minutes to bring myself back to center and regain perspectives and focus.

I am so grateful to have spent the day learning about buddhism and meditation and even more thankful to have been able to learn those things as part of my work.

speaking with danah boyd

Yesterday was the TLT Symposium at Penn State and I was lucky enough to attend and be on the program committee this year. The symposium is always wonderful and this year the speakers were David Wiley and danah boyd – both fantastic.  It’s so energizing to hear people speak about things that you’re passionate about and watching people becoming excited, getting ideas, and learning from each other is so inspiring. I had two ‘favorite moments’ from the day. My favorite thing yesterday was listening to danah boyd talk about social networks and then getting to meet her afterward.  My second favorite moment was hearing an older professor stand up in a session about ‘friending’ on Facebook between instructors and students and talk about how important it is to him to have those personal connections with his students.

photo by colecamplese

TLT Symposium was a wonderful event, as always. Huge thanks to everyone that worked so hard to pull it all together.

TLT Symposium – reimagine

The TLT Symposium is coming up at Penn State and this year’s theme is ‘reimagine’. As we think about education and how things have changed in teaching and learning with technology, we start to reimagine the concepts of teacher/student and what exactly a ‘typical’ classroom is these days.

Leading up to the symposium, we recorded a podcast talking about our theme, the event, and the excitement that’s building.

Listen here!

Penn State Dance Marathon

Exciting Things Coming Up

This Wednesday, January 28 we will be hosting the official opening of our Second Life presence at PSU World Campus island in Second Life.  The island will be staffed all day from 8am-5pm Eastern Time so if you’re in Second Life, please stop by and say hello! We’ll have a snazzy World Campus polo shirt for you and you’ll get to spend time exploring our space.

This Friday evening, January 23 we’ll also be hosting a benefit concert at PSU World Campus island in Second Life to raise money for the Penn State Dance Marathon (THON).  Second Life musician, Rich DeSoto will be performing live starting at 8PM Eastern time. Come listen to some fantastic music, dance with us, and help raise money for an amazing cause.

Next Thursday, January 29, our last THON benefit concert in January will be held in Second Life.  Jax Streeter will be performing to help us, once again, raise money for the Penn State Dance Marathon.

Of Work, By Work and For Work

I’ve decided to make some blog-related changes so listen up!

This blog will from here on out be *only* about things related to my position and what’s happening at work. Things that are coming up, things I’m working on, etc.  None of my personal opinions or rants/viewpoints/perspectives will be found on this blog.  If you’d like to keep up with my personal blog, please visit http://www.mediacupcake.com and add that to your RSS Reader.  I’ve been double-posting here and there for a while now, but I think it’s time for a separation. I find myself wanting more and more to post at mediacupcake, but I know that a lot of folks are still following me here as well.

So, for all work-related news.. this is still the spot.  For anything else (personal feelings, opinions, reviews, videos, input, etc) please visit mediacupcake.com.

Please keep in mind that things non-work related will obviously show up on my personal blog. These could potentially include things that you might not care to see or follow and if that’s the case, then I’d just continue to stick with this blog.  My personal blog will contain things that I personally love (hence the reason it’s a PERSONAL blog) and I think that knowing someone’s opinions and interests tends to increase your connection with them as a person.

Thank you, and as always, I appreciate your patience as we move through this difficult time. (tee-hee)

The “community” of Conferences

As many of you know, the TLT Symposium held last year at Penn State seemed to be one of those moments that really changed everything.  From the unbelievable lead-up to the symposium that occured on twitter, to the interaction during the conference, and the follow-up blogging and discussions that occured after… I have to say that it was one of the most unbelievable ‘community-based’ conferences I’ve ever been to. It was like spending a day hanging out with friends and meeting new ones.

I read a post this morning on Michele Martin’s “The Bamboo Project” blog that talks about exactly this sort of thing and I 100% completely agree with it. It’s a great post and you can find it here.

Basically the post talks about how the ideal conference is one that revolves around, and helps to build community. I feel as though our TLT Symposium could be a shining example of this.  Not only do we use tools like wikis and twitter for collaboration prior to the conference, but during and after the conference as well.

This year’s TLT Symposium will be held on April 18, 2009 at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel with the theme of “Student Engagement and the Culture of Teaching and Learning”. You should really plan to attend if you’re able. It’s a phenomenal event. (and I’m not just saying that because I’m on the committee ).

Do we really need our .edu email addresses? I think not.

I read a post a few weeks ago on academhack about the fact that Boston College is no longer giving email addresses to incoming students, but rather allowing them to just continue to use their own personal email accounts that they’re bringing with them. There was some discussion related to that post which caused another post that I read today.

Today’s post details out the benefits/reasoning for not providing students with a .edu email address and frankly, I think it makes perfect sense.  Here’s an excerpt:

Campuses got in the business of offering email prior to hotmail and gmail, when many students arrived at campus without having an email account. In fact my first email account in 1993 was a uchicago account. Given that moment in the development of the internet it only made sense for campuses, regardless of infrastructure cost to offer accounts to all of their students. The only way that they could be assured that students had email accounts was to provide them. This in turn produced a low cost way for campuses to communicate with their student body. And for the most part students used these accounts as their primary accounts. Indeed I recall when students used to scramble to figure out how to keep their email accounts after leaving college, because it was their primary or only account.

Fast forward to now, most, in not all of our students come to campus with an existing email account, one which they have used for several years already, one attached to their “online identity” (okay I really don’t believe in the idea of online vs. offline identity, hence the scare quotes, but you get my point). So having a campus email address is now a burden, one more piece of information for them to monitor, which they generally only begrudgingly do, because the only communication they get via this account if official campus stuff. (In fact the younger generations don’t use email nearly as much, instead relying on text messaging, but I digress.)

I know that personally, I am making every effort to combine and incorporate as many of my accounts as possible and I wouldn’t hesitate to use a personal email address for my university business.  I also know that I speak with students every day, most of whom are adult students and almost always they prefer to use their personal email address and not the provided .edu address. In fact, there have been many times where I’ve had students say “Oh, I never check that email account”.

It really is worth your time to read the entire post. I think it’s important that we really start thinking about things in a different way. Maybe soon we’ll just use text messaging or expect that students will subscribe to our blogs and we won’t use email at all anymore. I think we’re on our way.