USING TECHNOLOGY TO HELP STUDENTS MASTER COMMUNICATION SKILLS

When it comes to skills that students should have when they graduate from college, it seems that being able to communicate should be at the top of the list. After all, isn't that what we do in the workplace 99% of the time? We owe it to our students to begin teaching them these skills long before they even go to college and I would even make the argument that these skills should require some form of assessment. As a college counselor, I am amazed at how many really smart and capable students lack the ability to perform simple acts of communication like being able to introduce themselves or shake a person's hand while looking them in the eyes. With the advent of easy to use and access technology, as educators we should be using these tools for good not evil. Rather than complaining about the ways that technology is creeping into the classroom and creating a generation of lazy learners, we can be looking for ways to integrate the technology into their lives in productive ways. As employers begin looking for ways to streamline their own operations, our students will be faced with complying and we need to teach them the basics of speaking. They need to learn how to communicate their ideas and articulate their opinions in clear and effective ways. The online interview is going to become a staple in any sort of assessment of candidacy, whether it is the college application or the job interview. We can either give our students these tools by starting to teach them how to use them effectively or send them out into the world unprepared for the inevitable.

SEE THIS NPR ARICLE: COLLEGE GRADS LACK ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127230009&ps=cprs

MYCOLLEGEi - THE NEXT NATURAL STEP!

Just as colleges have been actively using social media sites to connect with students, MYCOLLEGEi is offering another portal that allows students a larger voice in the application process. The online interview is simply the next natural step in the use of technology and it definitely speaks to the new generation of tech savvy applicants. Read the study below on social media and college admissions conducted by Nora Ganim Barnes, PhD and Eric Mattson at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Their most interesting quote: "With more and more schools moving into multiple channels of social media, schools that don't allow for conversation will quickly be passed by."

www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch/mediaandadmissions.cfm

WACAC Conference USF June 9 - 11

Caryl Kristensen from MYCOLLEGEi and Danny Irving from Pitzer College will be presenting a session on the use of new technology in college admissions.

Please join us from 3 to 4pm for interviewing in the digital age.