HighEdWeb Blog

Today we hit an exciting deadline:  in exactly one month, we’ll be traveling to Springfield, M.O., and the campus of Missouri State University to kick off HighEdWeb 2008:  Infinite Solutions!

If you’re not already registered for HighEdWeb 2008, please be sure to register today to join us in October.  There are a limited number of spaces and they’re filling fast, so don’t delay.  Speaking as a Web professional who manages college Web communications, I can tell you that this conference has just enormous value for me — it’s my “not-to-be-missed” professional development experience of the year.  I am always so impressed with the high, high caliber of presentations, and with how generous my colleagues are with sharing their solutions and ideas for the future of the profession.  Each year (and this will be my fifth HighEdWeb) I leave with my head spinning with great inspirations and my bag full of business cards from amazing colleagues across the country who are just so generous in sharing their time, talents and expertise.  I’ve been lucky enough to not only attend the conference each year but to also volunteer some time to help the conference committee a bit, and I can tell you honestly that this conference just gets better and better every year.

If you ARE already registered for the conference, here are a few things you can do to start getting ready for Springfield:

• MAKE TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS:  *Today*, September 5, 2008,  is the last day to reserve your hotel room and still receive conference rates. The conference hotels are University Plaza Hotel as the host hotel and Holiday Inn Express as the overflow hotel. Learn more at our website, and reserve your room today.
• FOLLOW @HIGHEDWEB on TWITTER: Go to http://twitter.com/HighEdWeb and start following the official conference Twitter stream.   We’ll be using Twitter in the days leading up to and during the conference to get you all the latest info and updates (Note: any conference info will be tagged #heweb08, so follow along).
• REGISTER FOR the HIGHEDWEB 2008 COMMUNTY on NING: The HighEdWeb 2008 Conference Community on Ning is a central location where you can get updates, join in discussions and chat with fellow attendees. Again, we’ll be using this as one of the channels for conference info, so get signed up today.
• VOLUNTEER to HELP @ HIGHEDWEB 2008:  Volunteer an hour or two of your time at the conference, where you might lend a hand at the registration desk, facilitate a lunchtime topic table discussion, or help out with one of the many events that take place throughout the week. Join the HighEdWeb Volunteer Corps by contacting Jeremy Trumble (jtrumble@hws.edu).

We’re excited that HighEdWeb is coming to Springfield, MO this year. The conference will be hosted in the Student Union on the campus of Missouri State, and attendees will be staying blocks away in the University Plaza Hotel (or the overflow hotel of Holiday Inn Express).

If you haven’t booked your hotel yet, you should get it booked soon. Discounted hotel rates are only good through September 5, 2008. You can book your hotel room online or reserve via phone.

The University and hotels are also blocks away from downtown Springfield, which is a thriving area of restaurants, pubs and shops. It’ll be easy to find a good meal on Monday night at one of the great downtown restaurants.

Several conference events will also be hosted downtown. HighEdWeb After Dark, a Monday evening networking opportunity, will be at Springfield Brewing Company, a local pub with pool tables, good beverages and plenty of space for mingling. The Tuesday night excursion will be at the Discovery Center, an interactive, hands-on museum.

We look forward to seeing you in Springfield!

- sara
conference committee

Greetings everyone from University Park, PA. My name is Karen Hackett, and I co-chair - along with Kirk Anne - the poster sessions for the conference. We had an enormous amount of submissions this year - between those submitted as poster proposals and those submitted as session proposals, we have what is turning out to be really nice - and very diverse - poster sessions. What’s that mean? It means that you should go to the poster sessions on Tuesday, October 7, from 3:00-4:00 p.m.! Check out the HEW2008 site for details. We have a few more loose ends to tie up, but it’s looking like we’ll have about 25 poster presenters.

Poster sessions are an excellent way to get a topic out there in a more casual setting. More often than not, the poster sessions generate lots of networking and conversation - it’s a great way to exchange ideas with current colleagues, and a great way to meet new colleagues and peers. Kirk and I are looking forward to seeing you there!

Hi, I’m Kyle from Ning and I’ve been asked to write a guest post here on the ol’ HighEdWeb Blog (or “HEWB” for those in the know).

A few months ago I read a Wired piece by Clive Thompson on how Twitter creates a “social sixth sense.” After months of hearing the standard “there’s no point to that kind of service” argument, and not really being able to respond with a convincing defense of my Twitter habit, Thompson’s analysis really rang true to me.

In a nutshell, the argument is that while small nuggets of information about one person (”I just had a Slurpee!”) aren’t mindblowingly important, when you’re following a large enough group the aggregated stream creates a “cloud” of general awareness that really lets you feel plugged in. Sorta like watching the streams of code in The Matrix.

As someone that works remotely, there are all sorts of amazing technologies to help me do my job. From IM to IRC to VNC, it’s never been easier to do get things done from anywhere. The missing ingredient, however, is camaraderie. Water cooler chat. Awkward encounters in the bathroom. Co-workers are responsive and friendly in chat rooms, but it’s just not the same as being there and overhearing information about someone’s weekend plans, opinions on the new building, etc.

Enter social software. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Ning-powered networks (wink) or whatever, these services help put a human face on your online interactions. If you’ve never met someone, you feel like you have. If you see someone once in a while, you feel like you hear from them all the time. It’s something that on the surface seems totally frivolous, but is actually extremely powerful.

Same goes for third-party relationships. I find that establishing social networking relationships with business contacts is the Internet equivalent of having a drink when you’re up in their neck of the woods. It’s a simple way to keep communication lines friendly and open.

Let’s look at it in a classroom context (this being a Higher Ed conference and all). Thinking back on my college days, the professors I felt closest to were inevitably the ones that opened up their lives a bit to the students. Rather than run for the door the second their lecture was complete, these teachers had explicit open-door policies, invited students over for BBQs at their houses and generally made it apparent that they were interesting, vibrant human beings with lives extending beyond the classroom walls. If you had a question or comment about the class material you didn’t think twice about expressing it, as a fantastic comfort level had been established.

Now this is all fine and good at smaller schools, but what about large universities with expansive lecture halls filled with hundreds of students, or remote learning programs spread across the world? While nothing will ever replace the comfort level of a close face-to-face relationship with a beloved professor in a friendly classroom environment, I’d argue that social media tools are a pretty decent digital alternative. 

The obvious benefits of this technology (class event listings, media sharing, forums, address books, etc.) are quickly becoming apparent to educators, but I think these ancillary “sixth sense” benefits are just as fascinating. I’d love to see professors require that each student create (and regularly update) a social network profile a few weeks before the start of a new semester. Same goes for the professor himself/herself. Aside from being a great icebreaker on the first day, it’d open up an amazing new level of ongoing social awareness for all parties involved.

That or there’ll just be a lot of cat pictures. Fingers crossed.

Last chance to grab that worm. Today is the deadline for registering at the Early Bird discount rate for HighEdWeb 2008. Additional savings are available when you register three or more attendees from your campus.

Register online at http://www.highedweb.org/2008/.

–lori
conference committee

Brian Niles, a nationally recognized interactive marketing leader and a leading authority on electronic student recruitment, will kick off the Marketing & Management track during HighEdWeb 2008. Brian’s session, the first of the conference on Monday morning, October 6, will lead a jam-packed morning Marketing & Management track focused on the impact of the web for recruitment of future students.

View the entire Marketing & Management track along with the rest of the conference schedule at http://highedweb.com/2008/schedule.aspx.

A few short months ago, I attended the WebVisions conference in Portland Oregon. After two intensive days of workshops and lectures, Jeffrey Veen was scheduled to give the closing keynote concerning “data visualization”. By this point, I must admit that I was feeling exhausted and at the point of saturation. As Veen entered the room, I snuck a quick look at my watch. It was going to take a lot to get my attention.

His keynote would become the highlight of an already spectacular conference.

Now… I don’t want to give away too much in case he decides to visit some of the same topics at HighEdWeb. Instead, I would like to highlight some of the qualities that make Veen a great presenter:

Read the rest of this entry »

The program for the 2008 conference is shaping up nicely, with most of the five tracks complete. We had well over 100 proposals for the 50 track sessions, and the presentation quality is awesome. Hard to believe the conference can get better every year, but check out the current schedule: http://www.highedweb.org/2008/schedule.aspx .

Poster session acceptances are still going out and you can still submit a poster presentation proposal until the end of July.

We think the variety in the program will make this useful for all web and communications professionals in higher ed. And don’t forget that, in addition to the conference presentation tracks and the poster sessions, you can also register to attend the pre- and post-conference extended workshops. Come and learn from your colleagues.

- doug & dan
program co-chairs

The HighEdWeb Professionals Association is happy to announce two new ways you can become more involved in HighEdWeb.

1. Call for a Treasurer. The Association is looking to split the roles of Secretary and Treasurer, and is looking for someone with some financial expertise.  Good with Excel and willing to learn?  Check out the Association president’s blog post.
2. Call for a 2009 Conference Host. We are looking forward to a great 2008 conference in Missouri, and we’re already thinking ahead to 2009.  Would you consider hosting HighEdWeb in your university or town?  Learn more.

Please contact Association secretary/treasurer Steve Lewis( slewis @ brockport.edu ) with any questions.

. . . . the HighEdWeb 2008 conference featured speakers: Jeffrey Veen, one of the founding partners of Adaptive Path and project lead for Measure Map; and Kyle Ford, director of product marketing at Ning, Inc., and previously the associate product manager at Yahoo! Inc. We are thrilled that they will each be presenting to the assembled conference, and look forward to learning with them this fall. Be sure to reserve your spot to hear Veen and Ford by registering today for HighEdWeb 2008: Infinite Solutions.