For episode 38, Jeff Stevens and Nicole Lentine join us for an off-the-cuff and unedited conversation about the Higher Education Web Professionals conference taking place next week (October 4-7). We talk about everything from presentation titles to karaoke planes.
Lougan will also cover the conference from the @HESPodcast twitter account. He might even take our new Periscope account out for a spin during the fun times. So follow us on both and don’t forget to follow the #heweb15 conference hashtag!
P.S. If you’re at the conference, find Lougan so you can get your own HESPodcast commemorative pin.
Episode 37 starts with a nice glass of wine and Aaron Rester, Assistant Vice President of Web Development at Roosevelt University. We “kick off” the episode discussing sports (get it?), and Jackie reflects on another loss for the Buffalo Bills. We also chat about work-life balance, specifically checking our work emails and discussing the most efficient way to submit work requests; through Snapchat or Vine. Apple has released its most recent iOS update, and we give a quick review on the highlights while talking about some photo features that we still don’t completely understand. We reflect on the movement of technology, failed demonstrations, and the internet, which leads to a discussion about the most effective website structure and navigation for an educational institution. And, we attempt to answer the question: which is better, audience-based, or task-based navigation?
Episode 36 is with Anna Mahalak, Coordinator of Planning and Outreach at George Washington University. Anna is a part time graduate student in GWU’s Higher Education Masters Program, and through her new position, gets an interesting glimpse at marketing, fundraising, and student affairs simultaneously. We talk about having senior leaders on campus having a strong presence on social media, such as GWU’s vice provost and dean of student affairs, whose Twitter presence is known throughout the college community. As we know, social media has the potential to greatly impact a large fundraising campaign, and Lougan and Anna swap ideas from recent initiatives they’ve tried out. We spiral down the rabbit hole of social media on campus, discussing commencement, Snapchat, and finally, Periscope.
Links to cool stuff:
#ColonialChats with Peter Konwerski, Vice Provost & Dean of Student Affairs at GWU
Episode 35 welcomes Aaron Tomassini, a Graduate Student at Canisius College, back to the continental US from his summer long internship at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. We kick off with another ice breaker and learn about Lougan’s new cat Stewart, who used to be named Phoebe. Naturally, the conversation steers in the direction of moose, Denali, and the Northern Lights, as Aaron explains his unique opportunity in a state which is often confused for having only eskimos and ice fishing. Aaron’s summer internship with Conference Operations meant that he was faced with nearly 20 hours of daylight each day, and we chat about how each of us would be able to handle extended hours of light and darkness. Of course, we end the episode with an interesting history lesson from Lougan, about Icelandic history.
Episode 34 finally features Robin Brown, Assistant to the Office of Judicial Affairs at University of California Santa Barbara, after weeks of trying to connect! We chat about Robin’s title and using the word “judicial” in a department name, and what that can mean regarding students’ perception of the
Judicial system at their institution. Of course, now that we have the internet and, more specifically, social media, we talk about how that all comes in to play for current students. We disclose some deep secrets that may still exist about us on the internet today, and chat about twentysomething problems as compared to the older than twentysomething problems we face online. Although we are not a science podcast, we have another science lesson as it relates to the current drought in California, and we wrap the episode with Jackie singing, yet again.
