A levy on your Tuition – $500 for an iPAD? Please sound off…

Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania is adding a US $5oo levy to its tuition fees, so students can all get an Apple iPad for class work, school work, you name it. I am sure the Apple enthusiasts will applaud the notion, while Windows people that already have a laptop will be upset.

This is tricky. Here is why.

The cost of running computer labs and standard configurations is not cheap – these costs are effectively passed on to students that attend college or university. Technicians need to maintain machines spread all over campus, and they need to maintain the software stack on those machines. All of this comes at a cost. By standardizing on a platform (Apple) and making students own them, they are putting the onus on students to care, feed and maintain the machines. Since a large percent of students would likely covet such a device…perhaps its win win.

On the other hand, many homes are filled with laptops and devices that can be shipped off to school with students. The challenge is, all of these machines have different operating systems, patches, security updates, applications, browsers, browser versions. It is a complete nightmare for your school administrators. They want to support you, but all those configurations have a cost…that is passed onto you.

I for one, think economics should drive the decision. If the likes of Seton have a business case that would demonstrate a cheaper impact in tuition, I would be all over this. How about you?
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An active online brand works around the clock and remotely…

One of our Carleton University students, Desirae Odjick, is a 3rd year Commerce student that was keen on landing a summer job that would compliment her career direction.  She took an active roll in the WhyHire.me program last fall (2009) and built out a tremendous looking profile as part of her New Tools and Approaches class at Sprott . Desirae also keeps her profile current through the use of Twitter and Social Bookmarks. By doing this, she clearly demonstrates she stays connected to issues tied to her future career goals and professional interests. This is one of the keys to taking an active roll in conveying your brand!

WhyHire.me puts an emphasis on coaching, online marketing and social media tools through the applications of the 4 D’s of Online Personal Branding in a classroom or online learning setting. Thanks to professor Leighann Neilson, the material was conveyed through active and applied discussions, assignments and tasks pulled from the WhyHire.me learning materials. Now that Desirae is an online pro, guess what? Her profile was discovered by an Ottawa based services firm who hired her over email while she was in Sidney Australia for a school term.

How cool is that?

Student Initiative at Algonquin – ICAFRICA

ICafrica Fundraiser Kick Off

This month the Algonquin Public Relations class of 2011 launched their annual fundraiser.  This class has chosen to support International Charity for Africa, ICafrica.  This organization focuses on decreasing poverty in Africa by providing micro loans and support to entrepreneurs in Nigeria and Ghana.

I ran into this enthusiastic bunch of students during their flash mob event on March 10th.  I believe that student experiences like this help all that are involved.  The organization, ICafrica, receives the enthusiasm and support of young knowledgeable students, the students receive experience working with a non-profit which connects them to industry but also opens their eyes to new experiences and job prospects, and those of us that are pulled in including students, staff and the community, become a part of a worthwhile cause which is fun and worthwhile for all.

It’s events like this that solidify the college experience and provide the ‘applied’ that our students and future employers are looking for.  It also reveals initiative on the part of the students and the program.  These students are more apt to become the linchpins Seth Godin refers to in his most recent book Linchpins.  It’s these actions, involvement and depth of experience that will set them apart.  Good luck with the fundraiser!

Experience Counts…but its location?

This week, I had the opportunity to help internationally educated professionals land their first jobs in Canada. These well seasoned engineers, software developers and project leaders have extensive credentials and experiences gained at companies all over the world.

I asked them their biggest challenges they face finding jobs in Canada – many times over, it was accessing the right people and having local experience to reference in Canada. Happily, their first challenge is being addresses through outreach programs such as iWES from The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC). During our session, we focused on personal branding and select techniques people can use to raise their profile on the Internet. It was a pleasure working with them. They were very attentive and they had great questions.

The second point baffles me. IT issues, project management fundamentals and project risk management are pretty much global in nature. A major telecom integration project in Africa, or network administration job in Brazil or a large scale ERP deployment in Indonesia all have the same properties as those in Canada or the United States. From my perspective, information technology talent can be from around the corner, or from around the world. The web can let me check global references, I can Google their bosses, Skype their references, anywhere in the world. It really makes no matter where someone is from and where they acquired their experiences. A qualified, hard working candidate from Asia or anywhere in the world deserves equal consideration.

The business of IT is by definition global in nature…as is change management and project management. Looking to source the right candidate for a position? Consider a hard-working and experienced internationally trained profesionsal. They are out there!

Social Video – a new platform for education?

Engaging users with video is clearly paying off for those that invest in producing, licensing and staging it on their web sites. According to Comscore, U.S. Internet users watched 32 billion videos in January 2010. My suspicion is, our multi-tasking world has conditioned many of us to click on videos, before we start reading scores of text. This has game changing implications for anyone that teaches, informs or sells.

In the education world, I am noting many teachers are building and sharing digital assets that can get incorporated into curriculum. Teachertube, Ning Sites for Educators and Sitesforteachers.com to name a few.  Educators are plugging into the fact that today’s students are very comfortable with digital media and have come to expect it – check out how Kaplan has wrapped the web into its brand.

So, what are the implications for today’s authors, subject matter experts and publishers looking to bring their material into virtual and real classrooms? How does one leverage rich, digital media and create compelling content that keeps students engaged and contributing?  One possible method? Social Video.

When one looks at how engaging video is, consider it a lesson platform. Video no longer needs to be linear and TIVO centric (start, stop, pause, forward, reverse). It has the potential to become an evolving, expanding platform that could include click-able links to other resources and facts, live data collected from the web, polls, discussion treads, …pretty much any new subject matter an educator would like to incorporate into the medium. Students could also contribute content, their own video commentary and links right into the video lesson.

Is this new and revolutionary? Not particularly. Consider overlay advertising on YouTube. One can very quickly overlay simple text and click-able links to other online resources. This first generation overlay technology will evolve and need to integrate with other e-learning components.

I have noted one company offering an overlay technology for e-commerce. Overlay.TV provides a platform and tool set for e-commerce sites to use video as a selling tool – users can click on click-able areas of the video and get more information such as current pricing, availability, testimonials.  The net impact? Users are engaged longer, hence they have a higher likelihood of buying – one of their clients noted a 30% increase in sales from visitors (conversion).

Authors and publishers take note. Today’s students prefer to be online, video consumption is insatiable and video is proving to keep the user engaged on web pages. In my opinion,  long term success as a publisher of material will be tied to sorting out how to leverage video as a platform.

What are your thoughts about social video and video as a platform for learning? How do you see video evolving in the classroom? How should publishers leverage it?

Students Showing Amazing Initiative

TEDx Youth Ottawa - February 2010 (Ashbury College)

Two weeks ago I attended TEDx Ottawa Youth along with my 14 year old daughter and two of her friends.  The event was run by youth for youth and I was one of the few over the age of 25 in the crowd. All of the presenters were under 25, many of which are in college and university. The conference was ”A summit for young opinion leaders, artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs to foster learning and inspiration, while provoking conversations that matter and creating a forum for “Ideas Worth Spreading”.

This was one of the first ever TEDx Youth conferences in the world.  The original TED conferences are now hosted by the organizers in locations around the world and TEDx is an extension whereby local visionaries can host conferences following the TED guidelines in their own communities.  I’m proud to say that Ottawa has hosted both a Youth conference and a TEDx in December of 2009.

The organizers of the TEDx Youth,Yusuf Malik, Adam Moscoe and David Millen (ok he’s a little over 25), did an amazing job.  The speakers where strong, poignant, professional and entertaining.  They touched on a huge variety of topics and a selection of entertainers dotted the agenda to keep the event engaging for the audience. Presentations ran from 8:30 to 1:00pm.

What impressed me most was the INITIATIVE that was exuding from this experience.  These students all volunteered their time to conceive of, organize and participate in this event.  This type of initiative not only is impressive as a whole but also serves as an amazing experience for the individuals that were involved.  These youth are different. They are putting together big ideas, inspiring others and making things happen that they care about.  By attending the event the over 200 students are also revealing their interest in learning and being involved in something beyond ordinary. The audience was respectful, attentive and very ’switched on’.

I’m sharing this here on our blog because I believe an event like this is an amazing experience For these these students. They are in fact developing their personal brands. Their participation in this event on all levels makes them stand out and shows to others that they have interests and initiative that others don’t.  I applaud their initiative and know that many of them were affected by the experience. Thanks to Yusuf, Adam, and David and the dozens of volunteer participates that helped pull this event together!  Looking forward to the next!