Keynote: 01/14/2010: Stevenson University

I have been invited to do a keynote presentation at Stevenson University focusing on harnessing the power of disruptive technologies in teaching and learning. I'll be speaking primarily to faculty from Stevenson, but I am told staff from across various offices will also be present. My talk will be titled, "Enabling the New Campus Conversation" and will cover some of the points I have been working to extend in the last year or so. I plan to integrate some new data from our freshly released 2009 FACAC student survey to help highlight how our students are adopting the services we are implementing on our campus. It should be a fun and engaging event that I have been looking forward to for quite some time.

Invited Speaker: 01/09/2010: Penn State Abington

I've been invited to speak to a group of faculty and staff at Penn State Abington to kick off the new spring semester. The talk will focus on how social computing can impact teaching and learning. The idea is to help faculty rethink the role of the open social web as to begin to see value in the approaches emerging across the Internet. I'll be sharing some thoughts that I hope will resonate with the group and perhaps push some of them to take advantage of many of the technologies we have available here at Penn State.

Invited Presentation and Workshop: 10/22/2009: Lancaster-Lebanon IU 13

I'll be spending time with the faculty and staff of the Lancaster-Lebanon IU 13 discussing disruptive technologies in teaching and learning.  This half day will focus primarily on discussing strategies related to the appropriate integration of disruptive technologies for teaching.  I will draw upon my experiences from the course I co-teach with Scott McDonald and from examples of work I do around Penn State.  I always enjoy speaking with people in K-12 and find it an interesting challenge to make what I have to say work in their contexts.

Invited Speaker: 10/21/2009: Penn State University Libraries

I will be once again giving a talk at the Penn State Libraries focusing on the rise of social media and its impact in higher education.  I will be giving a updated and revised version of my "Enabling the New Classroom Conversation" talk to a University-wide audience.  I will be presenting in Foster Auditorium, but it will also be made openly available on Media Site Live.  As the date approaches I will share the URL.

Invited Speaker: 10/08/2009: Penn State Learning Centers

I've been invited to give a talk to the Penn State Learning Centers related to the explosion of social media and its potential impact in education.  This will be an opportunity to speak to not only University faculty and staff, but also to students.  I always find it interesting getting to share thoughts with such mixed groups — and I love getting to see how students react to my perspective on "their" space.

Invited Speaker: 08/19/2009: Penn State Brandywine

I've been invited to speak to a group of faculty, staff, and students at Penn State's Brandywine campus about the role of social computing in teaching and learning.  I'll be sharing some thoughts that I hope will resonate with the group and perhaps push some of them to take advantage of many of the technologies we have available here at Penn State.

Online Session: 07/01/2009: Community of Educational Technology Support at UW-Madison

I've been invited to speak to the Community of Educational Technology Support at UW-Madison about my use of Twitter and other disruptive technologies in the classroom via an Adobe Connect session. This is something I am really looking forward to as I am sure it will spawn lots of good conversation. I'm very grateful to the folks at UW for putting this together and inviting me.
I plan to spend some time reflecting on the CI597C course Scott McDonald and I co-taught and how we implemented our deisgn to include both rigor and emerging technologies. The session will be hosted in an open Adobe Connect room provided by UW. If you are interested in learning more, take a look at the event page.
My slides for this event in PDF form.

Connecting Alumni Communities

This morning I talked to a large group of Alumni Association staff about ideas related to connecting communities. The talk was titled, Emerging Trends for Connecting Communities, and focused on the emergent opportunities within social environments, content creation spaces, and the rise of mobility. It is always quite a bit of fun getting to talk to people outside my specific area of focus and I always discover that we have far more in common than I expect going in.

Another nice thing was that I got to give the talk in my old stomping ground at the IST Building … in the IST Cybertorium no less. That space has a lot of memories for me — I spent several years working on planning the building with colleagues and then several more spending nearly all of my work time walking the halls. Each summer I got to teach my PA Governor School scholars in the Cybertorium and loved every minute of it.

Nothing too earth shattering with today’s talk other than it served as an amazing reminder of how interesting all of what we do is to people in general. The ideas related to connecting communities move effortlessly from teaching and learning to alumni relations. I think one of the things it means to me is that the work we are doing in promoting digital expression and engaging via mediated platforms is in the sweet spot. I really don’t think it has anything to do with the technology per se, but instead in what the technology provides. I received a good question about how to get alumni service groups to break out and embrace the new environments (he was asking specifically about Facebook, Twitter, etc). I responded in a way that I think surprised him a bit — I asked him to ignore the technology and instead start to press on what it enables. Alumni Associations are all about staying connected with their communities … so if his administration is balking at Twitter, why not ask if being able to stay ultra connected to a very active network of people is important? Coming at it from that perspective it gives you a wedge to then introduce a solution that fits that scenario.

It was a fun and very thoughtful group of people. It is honestly a real honor to get to talk to people outside my domain and have it be received in such a positive way. I especially liked getting to tell someone what ROFLMAO meant when it came up in a Twitter search. This is powerful stuff and it is relevant in so many ways … if one stops and investigates the affordances and not just the tools.