eBook Readers in Higher Ed…Counter Evolution?

The StarTribune offered up some future perspective on the growth of e-Book readers – purpose build machines for novels and textbook materials. Despite the rosy growth outlook by the quoted analyst, I am hesitant to think this is going to work in higher education.

Students today are sporting cell phones, netBooks and laptops that are redefining themselves every 6 months. When I visit a campus, it’s not unusual to see someone with an iPhone, switching to a laptop, then back to their phone. This generation of students likes to multi-task between music, Facebook and assignments. The challenge with introducing (or forcing) these students to buy purpose-built machines is they already have considerable computing power that gets cheaper and looks better each time a semester changes. A brand new HP Laptop now costs $650!

Will students want to switch to a purpose specific device they will need to care for, charge and maintain? Their teachers are posting LINKS, Powerpoints and PDFs to Blackboard or WebCT. Students today, are accustom to using industry standard browsers and school supplied desktop software in their labs. Unless Sony (Kindle) is a PC in waiting, then I for one think the likelihood of eBook readers going mainstream in higher ed is very low.

If I were making such decisions at a publishing company, I would consider user/buyer psychographics, the ubiquity of existing consumer devices, support issues and the total cost of equipping a student.

The Apple iPhone was a device that converged several products into one. Imagine if they had produced a purpose built text reader, so consumers or students could have books read to them?

Creativity Unleashed in the Whyhire.me Program

One of our students, who is privately developing her online personal brand within WhyHire.me, elected to poke something onto Youtube. I have to admit, I was impressed with the message, visuals and authenticity. It was fun to watch!

We were so thrilled to find this piece and see proof that our teachers are igniting passion within their classrooms. Keep up the great work – we truly do look forward to seeing more profiles turned public and shared across the web!

Teaching the Facebook Generation – How to Apply 21st Century Tools

Dr. Elaine Young posted a contributed article to BusinessWeek entitled Teaching the Facebook Generation. She made two points that map directly to our viewpoint at WhyHire.me.

1. Students do need to be immersed in how social media can effective business. They are going to be asked to implement online communications strategies – not learn them on the job.
2. Professors need to lead students by example by knowing the mechanics of social media and showing our students how to use them strategically for the good of their employers.

Our experience teaching WhyHire.me has revealed a considerable amount about today’s assumed social media mavens. Many of them are comfortable with taking a passive role in looking at social media, but getting them to create content, or more specifically, immerse themselves in industries issue while they are at school is one of our key challenges.

Another point I would make is, the underlying new tools are not just for communications students. Social bookmarking and micro-blogging are tremendous research tools that any student should be familiar with when they enter the workforce. Today’s 21st century student must be able to leverage content, experiences and other perspectives when drawing up alternative strategies or courses of action one could take. Turning to the Internet with a knowledge of social media, how to drive conversations and how to store and share content are basic tablestakes of this generation.

Professors and deans do need to step up and lead by example.  They need to embrace social media and demonstrate the business value their students can bring to the workforce. Social media will be as mainstream in business as is the photocopier and phone switch. Bring on the learning!

Introduce Digital Circles to your Class

We are all familiar with different use of the word circle in the context of human interaction. “He runs in that circle” suggests someone is plugging into a specific group. Likewise, “she has tight circle of friends”, would suggest the person is selective about friendships.

I have been introducing the concept of Digital Circles with students, professors and deans. It is a nice metaphor one can use to introduce people to the world of connecting with groups of like-minded online people inside WhyHire.me, Linkedin or Facebook groups, Ning, Twitter Lists, Meetup, you name the digital circle – they pop up every day!

Once you visualize the fact that many of these circles overlap because of our wide interests, students start to connect the dots as to why it’s so important to have a brand presence and make an effort to join relevant digital circles. It simply expands ones reach into the professional world and provides a tremendous source to learn from and share. Students using WhyHire.me get to bring select elements of their digital circles back to their WhyHire.me profile. Check out my Twitter Tab for my latest Tweets, My RSS for what I am reading or sharing and My Blog for my views on personal branding through post-secondary school. Click on my PURL to see how my online brand is presented.

I continue to connect with very switched on people thanks to these digital circles. It’s all the more satisfying to meet these people in person. Thank you all for extending our story into your circles. I will endeavor to do the same:)

Top Twitter Recuiter Talks to WhyHire.me

Just before Halloween, I connected with Dawn Mular, the world’s top recruiter on Twitter and CEO of the Helping Friends Career Network. Dawn was very easy to connect and interact with, given the nature of what she does. She takes a genuine interest in people, collaborative technologies and helping put people to work.

Many times over, school administrators and HR professionals ask why students should be coming out of school with an online brand. I was keen to get Dawn’s perspective on how social media has changed recruiting and how her clients react to seeing more than a traditional 2-page resume about a candidate.  For those that are interested in downloading the entire 10-minute podcast, simply click here.

For those interested in key sections, you can download and listen to key extracts:

Part 1

• How the Helping Friends Career Network got started
• The secret to her success becoming the top Twitter recruiter

Part 2

• Client reaction to social media in the recruiting world
• Stepping outside the traditional recruiting box – how and why
• Important employment trend – green businesses will mean more job / project opportunities

Part 3

• Advice to Educators and Leaders – become part of the movement
• Bring transparency and authenticity to the classroom

Tempt yourself with green ads and donate!

My friend Faisil recently got http://dogoodhq.com/ off the ground. DoGooder turns everyday web browsing into donations for green initiatives and charity by allowing end users to opt-in to see green, charitable, and health and wellness advertising on web sites they enjoy going to rather than the generic advertising prevalent on the Internet today.

Why do this?

1) DoGood donates FIFTY PERCENT OF ITS PROFITS  to green initiatives and charity.

2) Tempt yourself with more meaningful messages and calls to action. Since I started using it, I am clicking into great messages and calls to action.

3) Now you can browse and navigate ULTRA conservative web sites and get a dose of environment friendly messages. Now that’s balance web surfing!

Its free, easy and simply. Download the DoGooder Browser plug in here!

Recruiting practices in transition. How it’s done at Starbucks.

Kirsti Stubbs, Recruiter at Starbucks Canada, offered her perspective on how social media is changing the recruiting landscape. This five minute Q and A video offers details as to why she uses tools such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Linkedin and now WhyHire.me to source and learn more about potential candidates for retail management positions and regional positions across Canada.

An online profile and active engagement in industry topics helps her get a better impression of what a candidate is all about. Our goal is to teach students the finer points of how to build an effective online profile and presence that will help tomorrow’s graduates connect with people like Kirsti.

She represents the traditional early adopter that is working out the best way to leverage all these great tools. Over time, her methods and tools will change, but the take-away points are as follows:

• Students and working professional have to embrace online personal branding – the traditional job search model is fundamentally changing;
• Employers will be using job boards increasingly less;
• Job seekers must have a personal branding strategy and associated platform they can use to develop and maintain their online brand;
• Over time, students and working professionals can attract employers to their profile, provided they stay committed to Deploying Their Brand on a sustained basis.

Will employers respond to online personal branding?

A seasoned HR professional I met today was keen to understand how employers were responding to online profiles being development by students and working professionals. I offered him personal evidence of the impact that online personal branding had on my consulting business and I pointed him towards new age recruiters like Kirsti Stubbs at Starbucks Canada. Ashley Ferguson also offered this feedback about her initial entry into the job market last spring.

Since I started web marketing at Oracle in 1997 (in Redwood Shores, CA),  I was lucky enough to be on the forefront of experimenting with email campaigns (before Constant Contacts), web seminars (before Webex), landing pages and content management systems (before Vignette, HubSpot). It was all pretty bleeding edge and exciting. At the time, the sales organizations at Oracle were skeptical as to how all these new tools could help generate leads. The prevailing marketing wisdom was all about direct marketing – calling, emailing and generally, interrupting people.

Marketing went off and started experimenting with communities, blogs, and engaging customers online. The ClueTrain Manifesto was a great book that really fired us all up and challenged us to rethink what “engagement” was all about. By engaging with customers and prospects with authentic content, offers, and two-way dialogues, marketing was able to establish a conversation with a prospect, before a sales rep called. All of a sudden, sales were emailing and calling into prospects that were interested in sales conversations.

Online marketing and social media have changed the sales and marketing game. All you need to do is look at the change in marketing spend that is predicted over the next several years. This rather long winded parallel suggests that online marketing will be embraced by hiring professionals and their internal clients. How the web evolved in the B2B and B2C sectors is a strong indicator as to how this will unfold in our daily lives as job seekers and hiring managers.

Students and working professionals can add web marketing/social media engagement to their job search methods. What is the payback for a hiring manager?

1. They are better equipped to learn more about a candidate before and after an interview;
2. Seeing how a candidate presents themselves online is key – it is getting increasingly difficult to shield anyone on the Internet these days;
3. It offers a candidate’s perspective on industry issues and how they relate to project experiences gained at post-secondary school;
4. It presents entirely new ways to gauge a candidates passion, initiative and leadership potential.

The web changed everything, including personal job search and ongoing career management.

Career Options Magazine – Creating Your Online Brand

Patti submitted a contributed article to Career Options Magazine early in the summer of 2009. Here it is, hot off the presses. Here is a link to the original story as written by Patti.

The Debate: The Myth of Digital Literacy

Sarah Ormon pointed me towards this TVO segment on Thursday evening.

It raises some very important points about education, literacy and new ways of learning. The panelists discuss the growing gap between how students can learn versus the age old methods that have been in schools for decades.

Is the gap unbridgeable?  Find out by watching the video.  Some key highlights are as follows:

1. Literacy rates are on the INCREASE amongst youth and adults! Thanks to Harry Potter, Twilight and new media (graphic novels), more people are keen on reading and writing.
2. Reading is more social today since people can connect and share views on what they are reading.
3. Students are writing more than ever, but are they writing better? There is plenty of unseen writing going on. When the writing is more visible, it has the potential to be better.
4. Ideas, knowledge and experience can be expressed beyond the written word through videos, photos and simulations.
5. Connectivity and life experiences need to be incorporated into learning.
6. If you can’t say something in less than 140 characters, its likely not worth saying. If your presentation or point can’t be summarized into 140 characters, perhaps the message is not worth promoting.  This generated considerable viewpoints across the panel.
7. Texting will not kill literacy – it is an accepted practice to shorten one’s message to leverage the medium. Don’t sweat the abbreviations.
8. Spelling and grammar – know when and where it is really important. Language is also changing….the word alot did show up in the New York Times as if it were correct!

The next divide is all about who has the power to create media and get it consumed! This segment truly underlines the importance of embracing new media and incorporate it into learning. Our program was built on this premise of taking action, creating content and being found through search and sustained participation in social media.