Well, it’s been a few months and many snows since our conference in FLA. I wanted to give you all an update on what we are doing at Arts and Sciences, University of Kentucky.

After getting back to Lexington, I began a search of “Communication Plans”. I could not find anyone who would admit to having a plan – my computer tech division head chuckled when I asked him…saying under his breath—what a novel idea… a plan! So I went ahead and proposed a timeline for the Advising Center to develop a communication plan beginning with a Professional Development sessions over the summer using an online Web 2.0 learning modules (developed by UK Library). We begin the Professional Development classes in May.

After the course on Web 2.0, I am going to form a committee to discuss the types of Web 2.0 and beyond technologies that Advisors want to develop within the college. This workgroup will formulate a plan that will become a Communication Plan for the Advising Center.

In addition to setting this in motion—I developed a Wiki using PBWiki for my presentation a Kentucky Academic Advising Association conference (http://kcadastar.pbwiki.com/ ) instead of using handouts (GO-Green). We handed small cards with the email address on it and also submitted it to the group’s website for the conference. I plan on developing a new website for the presentation that my partner (Jess Baer) and I will be presenting in May at NACADA Region 3 conference in West VA. This time I am going to use WetPaint—which will give me more options.
I am also trying to find out where the college is hiding all the neat technology it has to offer— which is a big job by itself. The head of technology for the College of A&S is interested in working with me—so I think there will be success…..I have also received permission to use the SHAREPOINT Wiki site to develop an Advising Handbook and training modules. Since we are already storing documents on SharePoint, and since it is already an internal –established software, I think it will be accepted as a technology where secure items can be placed. At least that is my thinking at this point.
As I build my wiki’s I am looking into where the RRS feeds are located on our Website and have found out the University is not using them or they do not make it noticeable. I am going to talk to my tech people about what how to gain access to areas of our University Website so that we can use them by attaching RRS feeds….
In between all this technology activity, I do advise my 270 students and perform my Advising duties.. so things go slower at times than I wish. I think there is support in my division for working on Web 2.0 technologies—and will hopefully generate some excitement this summer during the workshops.
Thank you for all the wonder information you shared. I look forward to updating you more on the activities at UK. If you are in our area, please contact me.

Best
Steve

In case anyone out there on the internets stumbles on this and wants an update, here is what we at the University of Iowa Academic Advising Center have been concentrating on over the past several weeks.

We are continuing to refine and expand our new adviser training wiki, and thinking about innovative ways to use the wiki for general adviser development purposes.

We are also creating a podcast series for entering students, which will be announced to them when they attend summer orientation. A good part of these will involve utilizing screencasts to educate first year students on how to navigate the UI online course management and registration system.

I am serving as technical lead in the development of an online tool to help our undecided majors explore possible paths of study.

I wish everyone the best in your collective tech endeavors, and hope that you are successful in finding ways to ‘do more with less’ until the economy improves.

Paul

Thank for all of your efforts. I didn’t get a chance for the Technology Seminar. But from this website, I got lots of stuff to learn. Thank you for sharing pics and information with us.

Happy Valentine’s Day !!!

Richard