The Twitter Experiment (UT Dallas)
July 2, 2009
“I don’t know what to do with my life”
June 29, 2009
Because of my job, I get to hear this response all the time from students and from friends. Usually, this statement is made with the underlying assumption that the person means that they don’t like whatever Job X they have and they would like to move on to Job Y. However, they don’t know exactly what Job Y should be, so thus they do not know “what to do with their life”.
Since I’ve had the exact same discussion in one form or another with many different people of different ages, I figured I would recount on my blog how these discussions usually go. Hopefully, this will help a lost soul to figure out what they want to do “with their life” or help someone who has heard this statement before to help another lost soul.
1) Stop complaining! No one likes to hear other people gripe about their job or their lack of life direction. Unless you’re 17 years old and have no income and no resources, complaining is extremely childish and indicates that you don’t actually want to do anything about your job search.
2) Instead of complaining, ask questions. Good questions include: “what can i do with my major and/or experience?” “What do I like to do?” “What skill sets do I have?” Having some idea of what you are good at and what you like to do is a great start. Do not be vague and do not stop asking questions until you start getting real answers and not just vague BS.
3) Take a step. Most of the people I know have some idea of what they’re good at, and some idea of some things they like, but they haven’t made that connection to a career path. For instance, the good communicator is stuck working at a computer screen all day in a dead-end job and doesn’t know how to get out. If you are stuck here, I advocate taking a step in one direction. Do you like photography? Buy a camera and start taking pictures. Do you want to be a nurse? Sign up for a CNA class. It doesn’t have to be a big step, but just take A step – this will do two things, it will take your mind off of this stuck feeling you have at the job you hate and help you to figure out if this is something you want to pursue. Let me make one thing clear – I do NOT advocate large scale life change unless you are SURE this is the right direction for you. Don’t quit your job to start your own business unless you’ve laid all of the groundwork before hand. “Trust in God, but row away from the rocks”.
It’s a start. Trust me though, there are bigger things in life than your career – don’t let it drag you down too far.
NC State Wolfpack Welcome Week
June 21, 2009
This is the short version of the 2008 Wolfpack Welcome Week video. Should give you a general idea of what we got into last year.
Appalachian State Plemmons Student Union Tour
June 21, 2009
Student Union Tour – UNCG
June 21, 2009
What is this Twitter thing and How Do I Use It?
June 10, 2009
I get this question a lot when I say that I use Twitter, so I figured I would post a blog post and give my explanation on what I think it is and how it can be useful.
Twitter is essentially a microblogging tool; it is based around the concept of RSS which is what enables weblogging. For an explanation of RSS, please visit my previous post on the topic. The difference between Twitter and a blog is that you are limited to 140 characters for any Twitter post whereas a blog is essentially unlimited.
There are essentially two other things that make Twitter different from blogging.
1) @ replies – you can send messages in response or directed to a particular person and these responses can be viewed by the entire community
2) DMs – direct messages – you can send messages to another user that only they can see.
Because of these two features about Twitter, I’ve found that your Twitter experience will be greatly enriched by having more followers and following more people because the conversation aspect of replies and DMs is enriched by having more people to reply and DM with!
But what is Twitter for????
It’s just a tool! Much like a hammer, you can use Twitter for a productive purpose (pulling nails or hammering in nails) or for an unproductive purpose (eating your cereal), but the quality of the experience will be based on using the tool in the most productive fashion.
You can certainly post every mundane detail of your day, but if no one that is following you really cares, then you will think Twitter is useless. If you post information that is interesting and compelling to you and others and comment on other’s posts, then Twitter can be used to create community and help you become better informed and more connected with those you follow and who follow you.
Personally, I use it to post things that I find interesting and engage in conversation with those I’m interested in. For me, these are people in my local community and people who work in my field. I found these people through some of the tools out there, if you’d like to ask questions about those, please comment on this post. You can also google “twitter people finder” or something like that and should be able to find tools that will help you find people you want to connect with.
Twitter is another tool of web 2.0, like blogging, wikipedia, communities (facebook), and youtube where people can create a name and a community for themselves and create an individual online presence. These communities enable us to be personalized and connected in different ways. Please check out the TED talk from Clay Shirky if you want to see some social implications of these platforms:
Please let me know of other ways that you’re using Twitter or if you have any questions on how to make this or any other networking site personal to YOUR needs.
Student Center Tour Video – UNCW
June 10, 2009
This is the first part of the videos I’m working on for with the NCSU Student Center project http://rally4talley.com. I am touring the UNCW Student Center and speaking to some staff and students.
History of Fisher Student Union
Stay tuned for more and better videos like this; I will be visiting UNCG, UNCC and Appalachian State University.
An Update
May 29, 2009
So I haven’t been blogging for a few days now due to being out of town….
Here are some projects that I hope to be able to share with you soon that I’m currently working on!
1) Redesign of the website for my old department at NCSU – Campus Activities
2) Video for 2008 Wolfpack Welcome Week to share with student orientation
3) Videos of other North Carolina Student Centers (unions) for the NC State Student Center Campaign – Rally4Talley
4) Article for the ACUI Bulletin on social media and community building
I’ll give you an update as soon as I can!
Higher Ed in Economic Turmoil: The Next Bubble?
May 18, 2009
Apparently the Chronicle believes that Higher Education is heading for rough times as well. They even went as far to say that it’s the next bubble in the economy. I think there’s more trends going on than this (obviously) but I think this is a good start.
I’ve attached some quotes since I believe most of you will not be able to get to the article. I decided not to attach the “solutions” since I believe much of what was proposed is short-sighted. Would love to hear any thoughts.
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i37/37a05601.htm
“With tuitions, fees, and room and board at dozens of colleges now reaching $50,000 a year, the ability to sustain private higher education for all but the very well-heeled is questionable. According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, over the past 25 years, average college tuition and fees have risen by 440 percent — more than four times the rate of inflation and almost twice the rate of medical care. Patrick M. Callan, the center’s president, has warned that low-income students will find college unaffordable.
Meanwhile, the middle class, which has paid for higher education in the past mainly by taking out loans, may now be precluded from doing so as the private student-loan market has all but dried up. In addition, endowment cushions that allowed colleges to engage in steep tuition discounting are gone. Declines in housing valuations are making it difficult for families to rely on home-equity loans for college financing. Even when the equity is there, parents are reluctant to further leverage themselves into a future where job security is uncertain.”
“With a drift toward higher enrollments in public institutions, all but the most competitive highly endowed private colleges are beginning to wonder if their enrollments may start to evaporate. In an effort to secure students, some institutions, like Merrimack College near Boston, are freezing their tuition for the first time in decades.
Could it get worse for colleges in the coming years? The numbers of college-aged students in the “baby-boom echo,” which crested with this year’s high-school senior class, will decline over the next decade. Certain Great Plains and Northeastern states may lose 10 percent of the 12th-graders eligible for college. Vermont is expected to lose 20 percent by 2020.”
InsideHigherEd.com reported briefly on something that I’ve been suspecting was going to become a trend in the coming years; the slow death of the professoriate. I don’t think that this profession will ever see complete death, but there are trends that show that the long term changes in the market will cause a decline in this profession in the future.
1. Trimming of PhD programs
2. The increase in adjunct professors and the decrease in tenure track professors
3. The rise of online education and creation of educational offerings that are standardized online (FGCU is a leader in this field)
4. The self study MBA and classes being offered free of charge online
The economics of the change make sense. Cutting salaries, especially of tenure track professors, can produce huge savings for the university.
Don’t shoot me; I’m just the messenger.
