As we know, higher education is slow to change. Faculty and administrator resistance is enabled by the extensive matrix of institutional paperwork, procedures, hierarchies, and traditions. Those familiar with both business and higher education know that most colleges and universities lack critical application of technology and social media. Think about how much more effective higher education could be if faculty, administration, departments, curriculum, and outreach used social media and social business to achieve their objectives.
The thing is, our digital culture won’t wait for higher education to discuss, rationalize, and slowly implement technology into their services. Social media has already partnered with our students who use it all day, every day. Yes, this includes during our class time (I know my students are surfing Facebook, LinkedIn, Klout, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumbler, Hootsuite, etc). But now, how can I redesign my instructional methods to harness the power of social media to achieve my teaching objectives? How can faculty and administrators use social media to increase student success and organizational change? Furthermore, how can administration use social media to increase faculty and staff effectiveness, streamline employment practices, and increase job placement for our graduates? In the near future, I will discuss these important questions through a blog series called Presentfull starting on Monday, June 18th, 2012. This new company is helping to revolutionize higher education and more readily streamline a P16 environment. Administrators, faculty, and staff will use this new social media application to find it directly contributes to institutional mission achievement.
Stay tuned, we live in an exciting time and I can’t wait until I can share it with you.
Tara Madden-Dent, Ph.D. 