Posted on March 20, 2009 by Michele Baran
Post written and contributed by: Amanda Anderson, Cheri Skipworth, and Steven Canals
An Introduction to Technologies Commonly Used by College Students (Junco & Cole-Avent, 2008) provides us with an overview of the media students use to communicate and how student affairs practitioners are integrating or should be integrating those methods.Student Affairs and technology are not always two terms you hear in the same sentence. Many functional areas include high degrees of confidentiality that make integrating newer technologies into everyday practice very challenging. How, for example, does Disability Support Services set up a group on Facebook without compromising the identities of the students who use those services? Additionally, student affairs is all about the personal touch; it’s our face-to-face interactions with students that distinguish us from other professions.On the other hand, technology is becoming increasingly important on our campuses. Moneta (as cited in Junco & Cole-Avent, 2008) describes the clear delineation between the technology proficiency of students and student affairs professionals. One must wonder if this difference in proficiency is related to a generational difference, unfamiliarity with what is available, inability to use based on office policies, or all of the above.Technology can be a fantastic way to connect with students in other functional areas. Facebook has provided Residence Life and Student Activities a great conduit for advertising and creating groups specific to real life events. The chapter also discusses student affairs trend towards reacting to an inappropriate use of new technology in students rather than proactively addressing it. In general there are great uses for a professional Facebook account; however, there are also some cautions. I for one generally do not initiate the contact with students on Facebook. I have a professional page but I do not seek out students to be “friends” with. We must also avoid the “creepy tree house” effect that was raised as a concern during our recent article discussion. This is the idea that we are encroaching on “student” space. Some students may wonder why the staff and faculty of the institution are lurking around on Facebook.I believe in the end there is some way to use new technology in a positive way for our students. Those offices which have confidentiality to contend with could reach out in more passive ways. Perhaps Disability Support Services could create a blog about a day in the life of a counselor; a Residence Hall Director could do the same. It’s possible that in the end our passive efforts will assist those students who are not so comfortable with the face-to-face interactions we thrive upon.
Posted on March 17, 2009 by Michele Baran
“One thing I know that positively influenced me was the interaction with faculty and the family environment that the communication department had. It was just a generally positive atmosphere where all the students and teachers know one another. Everybody shared a bond and respect for each other.”
-Class of 2007 Graduate
“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!
Posted on March 10, 2009 by Michele Baran
I had a great student teaching experience and made some great connections with people that I will continue to keep in touch with. The fact that many of my classmates were in the same classes througout my block classes was great. It made a great opportunity to make connections and some lifelong friends.
-Class of 2007 Graduate
“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!
Posted on March 3, 2009 by Michele Baran
“After returning from a study abroad program to the World Health Organization in Switzerland, I sought out faculty/staff to oversee a health-related project I wanted to implement. These people were extremely supportive and the experience helped to develop my leadership skills and to ease my transition transferring to Cortland. Getting to know the faculty in my department made me feel better about my decision to transfer to Cortland- my department became more of a community and not just a place I went to take classes.”
-Class of 2007 Graduate
“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!
Posted on March 2, 2009 by Michele Baran
Post written by guest author:
Jennifer Drake, Academic Support and Achievement Program
Here at the Academic Support and Achievement Program, we have the opportunity to connect with students on a one-on-one basis every day. Tutors working face-to-face with students ask them questions which help to clarify their writing or their thinking about particular courses or assignments; such meetings are also opportunities for tutors to really listen and get a sense of how their students are thinking and feeling in a more general sense.
When we began considering adding online support to our in-person peer and professional tutoring services, we wanted to do so in a way that would allow tutors to maintain this sort of connection with students, and we didn’t feel that, from what we’d seen of programs at other schools, an email based system would support that. Fortunately, after some searching, we chose a technology which allows tutors and students to work together online in real time, using a combined whiteboard and chat interface from WorldWideWhiteboard. This way, tutors can still use the Socratic questioning techniques that are at the heart of our face-to-face tutoring services, and can still maintain those vital connections with students, even when the tutors and/or students are away from the campus environment.
We encourage students to try this new way of connecting to academic support services by trying NightOWL, our late evening online tutoring service currently offering writing help for CPN 100/102 and 101/103 students. This service is open Monday through Thursday, from 9 to 11.30 pm on a drop-in, first-come, first-served basis. Additionally, students might check to see if their professors are offering online office hours, as some have indicated interest in using WWWb technology for that. We hope that these new electronic options will make it easier and more accessible for students to connect with the support professionals and faculty that they need to be successful and feel at home here at Cortland.
Posted on February 26, 2009 by mattnuesell
Post written by: Matt Nuesell
This semester, 90 teams and almost 1000 students participated in one of the longest standing traditions at Cortland: intramural broomball. While our campus may not have some of the same age-old traditions that larger schools have, it does have a healthy history of this not-so-well-known sport. The late-night games, the bitter cold ice arena, the bumps, bruises, acrobatic wipeouts and the lingering question that inevitably follows the morning after your game: why did I sign up for this?!
Why? Because being a part of an intramural broomball team at Cortland is in essence being a part of our campus’s history. Because it’s fun, and it’s one of the few traditions that we have that a large majority of our population participates in willingly and with enthusiasm. And because playing broomball brings with it a feeling of connectedness to SUNY Cortland students who have gone before us. Ask any alumni you meet, or any faculty/staff member who is an alumnus of the college what they remember about playing sports during their time here, and they’re almost guaranteed to share their memories of nights spent playing broomball at 2:00am.
So if you weren’t one of the masses to have played this season, make sure you put it on your calendar for 2010. If you don’t play at least once in your time here, you’re sure to regret it, and you’ll be missing out on being a part of one of the coolest traditions on campus.
Posted on February 24, 2009 by Michele Baran
“Spending time talking with professors during office hours really helped boost my confidence and motivated me to set higher standards in my classes.”
-Class of 2007 Graduate
“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!
Posted on February 17, 2009 by Michele Baran
“Cortland has a very unique personality- You will always find someone holding a door open for you, smiling and saying hello even you don’t know them.”
-Class of 2007 Graduate
“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!
Posted on February 16, 2009 by mattnuesell
Post written by: Sean Sherwood, Residential Services
After SUNY Cortland, most students will lose touch with their instructors, professors, and various staff that they worked with in their undergraduate studies. Why is this? These relationships inside AND outside of the classroom are so important to both parties’ futures. More often than not these relationships are lost at this institution.
The importance of keeping in touch after college is immense. For students, keeping in touch with faculty or staff is not only a good manner or of caring-nature. You never know when you will need a reference, and someone that can know you on a more personal level will be able to give your hopefully-new employer a new perspective on your personality and work-ethic.
For faculty, keeping track of students that you’ve worked with is so important. It is a constant reminder for your students of your professionalism and the respect from your post-students will never be forgotten. You never know when these students you had become your child’s teacher, your mortgage consultant, or even a colleague in the future.
The truth is, no one knows when a past student or faculty will enter your life once again. The world is a strange place and the importance of “keeping in touch” with these people can yield positive results. With today’s technology, a simple e-mail can send a big message, and a couple minutes of your time a week may someday pay off. So keep in touch, or send a message to someone you haven’t spoken to in awhile…because, who knows?
Posted on February 10, 2009 by Michele Baran
“The two examples that I have are both positive experiences. The first is my involvement with athletics. I was a member of the football team for three years. During those years I felt a very close connection to the college because I was representing my college. I also made numerous friends through athletics that I still keep in contact with today. The second experience came after college. Now that I am out in the professional world of teaching I have met numerous graduates of Cortland. Some are old and some are young, but there seems to be the same bond between all of us because of where we came from. Knowing that there are alumni out there that are good people makes me proud to say that I graduated from Cortland.”
-Class of 2007 Graduate
“Positive Connections” is a series of short features highlighting examples of ways students have felt connected to SUNY Cortland. Many of the posts will come directly from recent graduates, though any source is welcome!
