Final+Examination

1. Describe how you would use Creative Commons in your current position, including any pros and cons.
===In my current position, I could use creative commons materials to insert music and photos in PowerPoint presentations that I do for training purposes. A benefit to that would be a wider variety of photos and music than I currently have access to. It would dress up the presentation and would make it more interesting. It may be seen negatively by those in the class as just wasting time. For most of the trainings that I do, people just want to get in and get it over with. The quicker the better, so they can get back to work. ===

===In my current position, we have a managers group that meets biweekly. It is not uncommon for the Dean to send out books or articles for the managers to read. Then when we come together, we are asked what we thought about the reading material. Most of the time, it is the same people who respond to the questions, the ones that like to be heard. By the time they are done with their comments, there is not time for others to comment. I can see where having each manager create a blog about what they read and what they thought could help with this situation. The advantage would be that if every manager was required to post a blog about whatever the reading material was, then everyone’s opinion and thoughts could be heard. The negative side would be for the managers to actually do it. Some of the managers are technology challenged so they would not want to do this. ===

===In my current position, I just completed a year long program for leadership. It involved attending a one week class with a group of 35 other higher education professionals. Then throughout the past year, we were required to read books and complete goals within our positions. Then the group came back together for one more week of class. We are basically done with our classroom work and have graduated the program. However, our group learned so much from each other and gained so much energy from one another that I can see how we could use video blogs to stay in touch and help each other through some of the difficulties we are experiencing. Sometimes we learn from each other by the stories that we tell. This would be a great way for us to tell those stories and we could actually see the facial expressions and body language of those telling the story. The downside to this would be confidentiality of the person telling the story. Sometimes the situation that the person is dealing with is very sensitive so that would be one concern. Another issue would be the time constraints on the video itself and the bandwidth needed for the video. ===

===In my current position, I can see where we could use Twitter to communicate and answer questions for prospective students. Often prospective students have very simple questions that they could post on Twitter and get answers to. We could also use this to send out notifications of special events that are taking place on campus. For instance, we are doing a 12 hour registration blitz this week. From Noon until Midnight we will be helping students through a hybrid enrollment process. This includes everything from admitting to registering and all that is in between. We could post this on Twitter. One of the issues with Twitter is that people could get on the site and post things that are irrelevant to what college is all about. Another thing is making sure that we have someone who is checking the tweets to make sure that all tweets are being read and answered with the correct answers. We also can’t guarantee that the student will ever come back to the tweet to see the answers. ===

===Another use for Twitter that I could see using is from the leadership group. Part of our assignments from the classroom is to keep a daily journal where you reflect of your day. I could see where this group could post little reflections on a tweet. I would not put everything on a tweet that I would write in my journal, but I would post things like what a stressful day; everything that could go wrong did or what a great day, I got everything done on my to-do list and more. I felt so productive today. ===

===In my current position, there are a couple managers and myself that have been charged with coming up with core competencies for all staff in the Student Services division. To demonstrate some of these core competencies, I can see where screencasting would be beneficial. Part of this assignment is that the staff have to be able to do the lesson at a time that is convenient for them. Using screencasting software would accomplish this. I will use screencasting to show staff how to see when a student registration priority is. Our Registrar assigns the times to the students based on the number of credits they have completed. That time is stored in our student database. I will use screencasting to show staff how to login to the database and find that information. This will eliminate students being transferred around to get that information. One problem that I can see with this is that sometimes staff learn better by having something that is simulation and interaction. Screencasting does not have that ability, but I think it will still work. ===

===In my current position, I can see where digital storytelling will be a huge benefit to me. Just like the assignment I did for this class, I plan on using digital storytelling to show staff how to do some of our core competencies. The one that I used for this class was explaining how to create an electronic account. There are many more things like this that staff are going to need to be able to do. This technology will be great in showing and telling them how to do it. Some examples of this would be showing staff how and where a student would apply for graduation or test out of a class. Once staff have an understanding of it, they can then explain it to students. Another benefit I can see with this is that other managers can actually do their own instructions. A lot of the stuff that I do, I do for others. This technology is easy enough that others could create their own lessons. The downside is that some people are more creative than others so their creation may be very well done, which then might intimidate others from trying it. ===


 * 7. Describe how you would use Flickr in your current position, including any pros and cons. **

===In my current position, I am responsible for hiring, firing, training and managing up to 8 student workers. Part of the responsibility of the student workers is to provide a tour to new students and groups of students who visit campus. What I would like to do is to have our current student workers take a digital camera or their cell phones around campus and have them take pictures of the areas that they show to students. I will create a private site for them to upload those photos to. Then I will have the student write a comment of what they tell students about that area. I will have every student do their own so that I can see what each student is showing and telling other students. Once all the students have them uploaded, I will have the actual department manager of the area add or modify to those comments. This will allow me to have exactly what that manager wants showcased about their area. This might even include a different photo of what they want showcased. The benefit of this will be that any new hires that I have can go in and view this so that they know exactly what should be showcased for each department. The downside would be that some departments are very wordy in what they want said about their areas and get very defensive when you try to shorten it. === ===

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===In my current position, I can use YouTube to put up my digital storytelling videos. This will make it easy for staff to access them anytime and anywhere. As I mentioned above, I plan to do more with digital storytelling and I plan to push those out on YouTube. The benefit is that staff can get to the videos easily. The downside is that I have to be very careful because of FERPA and confidentiality. Sometimes the only way to show someone how to do something is to actually use a student record. In that case, we would not be able to showcase the video on YouTube. ===

===In my current position, we have a software product that we call Virtual Lobby. This is used in several of our offices, but the most utilized office is our Counseling/Advising & Career Services office. The way virtual lobby works is that when a student comes into the office they check in at the front desk. By checking in, they are signed into virtual lobby with their name, their program of study, their academic standing, and what service they are looking to receive on that day. Throughout the day, the staff have to monitor the lobby to see if there are any students waiting in the lobby for them. I would like to incorporate instant messaging with this software. It would be beneficial in a couple of ways. First, instead of the counselor and advisors having to monitor the lobby all the time, the front counter person could im them that they have a student waiting. They could also include little notes like, parent with student or wants to be seen with friend going into the same program. Second, there are times that an advisor takes a student and then when they get them into their office find out that the person really needs to see a counselor. We currently have the ability to move that student back to the lobby and assign them to someone else. Then the advisor has to try to track down the counselor to give them information about why they student was transferred to them. Instead of tracking down the counselor, they could im them. The downside to this is that the staff already feel that they are totally dependent on technology and are hesitant to learn more. ===


 * 10. Describe how you would use Podcasting in your current position, including any pros and cons. **

===In my current position, I work with our Disabilities office to help students with learning disabilities. Currently, instructors allow students to bring recorders into the classroom to record lectures. We are looking at working with faculty to develop podcasts of their lectures for these students and for any student who can’t make it to class. A drawback to this is the amount of bandwidth that this will require. Another drawback is that it will not help students with hearing disabilities. ===

===In my current position, I could use RSS feeds with our managers group. I know that our managers have different sites that they routinely visit and they share information with other managers. Instead of all the emails that are sent and the conversations about what pages we should be visiting, we could share RSS feeds so that staff could review the sites as time permits. We could then blog with one another to discuss whatever we read through the RSS feed. The benefit of the RSS feed is that we could read the feeds at our own pace and on our own time. We could also skip over feeds that really do not pertain to us. The drawback would be finding the time to read all the feeds and blog about them. ===

===In my current position, I will be using Skype to keep in touch with some of my classmates in my leadership academy. One of our facilitators has agreed to use Skype to keep mentoring students, like myself, through issues in leadership. Sometimes you just need someone to talk to that offers encouragement or can relate to the issues you are dealing with. Yes, this discussion can take place over the phone or email, but Skype offers even a better way to communicate. The drawback to this is the amount of bandwidth it uses, the security of it, and the fact that we are not allowed to use this on campus. So, it has to be done from my home computer and my internet connection is slow. I think being able to see my classmates, communicate with them and take in the advice that they will give far outweighs the drawbacks. ===


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">13. Describe how you would use Wiki in your current position, including any pros and cons. **

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, I am part of a group working on core competencies for the Student Services department. I would like to create a wiki to post all the core competencies on so that every manager can see them. Each department was responsible for coming up with a list of core competencies that they feel everyone should know. The competency did not have to be from their department, it could be from another department. Then we broke up the list that was submitted and asked each department to write up their own instructions for the competency. I want to put those instructions on the wiki and have every manager, either by themselves or with their staff, look at them to make sure they are complete and accurate. The example that I used with the managers is that I might write the steps to success and I might think it is great. However, when I had someone else look at it they picked up that I missed a few important pieces. Having more than one or two people looking at it is a benefit to all of us. One person may be able to write good instructions, but two or three people will write great instructions. The drawback is that wikis are editable and that can cause problems. ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, I don’t see a lot of opportunities to use Wikipedia. In my classes, I may look at Wikipedia if I don’t know what something is or if I don’t have a clear understanding of something. It is not a site that I would use to write a paper or site as a reference, but I would use it to get an idea on a subject and I would use other links from that page to find out more about a topic. The drawback is the same as what I said about wikis and that is that they are editable by anyone and that can cause problems with accuracy of the material. ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, I have a group Facebook page for the Leadership Academy. We use this site for personal communications, but we also share other things on the site. Like, one of them may have read a good book on leadership and they want to share it with the group. We also share ideas for issues that we all deal with in higher education, like low enrollments, budget cuts, under prepared students, etc. We talk about what we are doing at our institutions to work our way through these issues. The benefit is keeping in touch and gaining knowledge from one another. The drawback is some of the personal stuff that is posted can sometimes be … too personal. ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, I can see where using Ning can be used similar to Facebook for keeping in touch with the cohorts of my leadership group. The downside of it is that it is just one more thing to check. ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, I can see where I would use social bookmarking to save sites that I am looking at for projects that I am working on. Often while working on projects, I will save bookmarks on my work computer. Then on weekends or nights when I am not at work and want to work on those projects I don’t know what the sites are that I bookmarked at work. By using social bookmarking sites, I could save those bookmarks there so that I could access them from home. Another benefit is that by tagging them, I may find others that are working on similar projects and we could share ideas. The drawback is the tags. Thinking of all the different tags that should be placed with the site can be challenging. If the tags are not good or incomplete it makes it hard to find others to share ideas with. So, organizing and tagging bookmarks are a drawback. ===

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===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, I can use collaborative editing for many documents that several of us are working on. Instead of one person working on the document and then sending it to another person via email for editing and then another and another, the document could be posted as a collaborative editing document. That way, all editors can see the document and can even edit it simultaneously. I also like the feature of having im available so that as the editing is taking place, conversations can take place. The drawback to it is that some of us are working on PCs and others are working on Apples and they don’t work the same on both systems. Another issue could be losing site of the original document and someone saving the document of their computer instead on the collaborative site, which could break the editing cycle. ===


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">19. Describe how you would use Google Apps in your current position, including any pros and cons. **

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, I currently use Google Apps to build quizzes for the core competencies that I have already built. I plan to continue to use Google Apps to keep building more quizzes to check whether the staff are understanding material that is being presented. One of the features that I really like with Google Apps is that I can download the results of the quiz to Excel where I can build in codes to grade the quizzes. This is a time saving tool and is very cool. Another use for Google Apps is that we are going to be updating our Online Orientation. We would like to build some assessments in the orientation. I can visualize how we could utilize Google Apps to do this. The drawback is that it is not stored locally so you are at the mercy of Google and there is always the possibility of someone being able to hack your account. ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, I could work with faculty who currently put together course packets to sell in our bookstore to get them to use Lulu. A lot of what they put together in their course packets could be put on Lulu so that students could download it electronically instead of printing it all off. It could save the college the printing cost, even though they get it back plus more with what they charge for it and it could save the student the cost of purchasing the course packet. The drawback to this would be that the manager of the bookstore and printing may not be in favor of losing that profit. Another issue is getting the faculty to actually put the time in to publish their materials. I think the time would be worth it in the long run. ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, I am not sure how I would utilize augmented reality. I really like the concept and can see how this type of software could be very engaging for students. I would like to be able to use something like this for our online orientation. I think it would be great for students, but what I have read thus far on this, it doesn’t quite work with what we need. I did see a YouTube video on using augmented reality that showed a school who sent their new students a picture of a logo. The students were given a url to visit. When they got to the url, they were to use their webcam and hold the picture up to it. They picture that they had in their hand had to be aligned with the one on the screen. When that happened, the picture turned into a picture of the campus with students walking up the side walk and a scrolling banner welcoming them. It was really neat and I would like to look into this further. The drawbacks would be the equipment that is needed to see the results of the augmented reality. ===

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===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, we would like to develop a virtual tour. We would like to use virtual worlds to do this. We would like students and guests to be able to create an avatar that would walk them through the college and learn about the different areas. It would be really nice to have someone in the college that would be walking through the halls too. The problem with doing something like this is that we have already gone to college officials and asked to experiment with virtual worlds and the idea was rejected. Another issue is that not all students come to the college with the same technology abilities. ===

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===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In my current position, our online orientation committee brought forward the idea of utilizing Second Life to design an online orientation. We wanted the orientation to be engaging to students and wanted them to be able to create their own avatars to move through the orientation. Just as I mentioned above, college officials denied our request. This request was a couple of years ago and I have not done much research with Second Life since. I would like to further research Second Life to see if I can come up with an argument of why this software would meet our needs. One of the drawbacks to this would be tracking where students are in relation to completing the orientation. We would have to build some type of assessment to ensure that the student moved through all areas. ===

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Resources:

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> Educause Learning Initiative. September 2005. //7 Things You Should Know About Blogs.// Retrieved from: [] **

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. August 2005. //7 Things You Should Know About Video Blogs.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. July 2007. //7 Things You Should Know About Twitter.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. March 2006. //7 Things You Should Know About Screencasting.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. January 2007. //7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. January 2008. //7 Things You Should Know About Flickr.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. September 2006. //7 Things You Should Know About YouTube.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. November 2005. //7 Things You Should Know About Instant Messaging.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. June 2005. //7 Things You Should Know About Podcasting.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. April 2007. //7 Things You Should Know About RSS.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. December 2007. //7 Things You Should Know About Skype.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. July 2005. //7 Things You Should Know About Wikis.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. July 2007. //7 Things You Should Know About Wikipedia.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. May 2007. //7 Things You Should Know About Facebook II.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. April 2008. //7 Things You Should Know About Ning.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. May 2005. //7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. December 2005. //7 Things You Should Know About Collaborative Editing.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. March 2008. //7 Things You Should Know About Google Apps.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. June 2008. //7 Things You Should Know About Lulu.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. September 2005. //7 Things You Should Know About Augmented Reality.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. June 2006. //7 Things You Should Know About Virtual Worlds.// Retrieved from: [] ===

===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Educause Learning Initiative. June 2008. //7 Things You Should Know About Second Life.// Retrieved from: [] ===