Techno Tuesday

We interrupt our normally scheduled blog to bring you a special edition of Techno Tuesday. I learned some things over the last few days that I think deserve some attention. And I liked the sound of Techno Tuesday. This may be its only edition. 

First- I used my skype account for probably the 10th time ever this past weekend. I wonder why I do not use this option more often? I had a free almost two hour conversation with my BFFFF (best friend forever from France) and I got to see her great ombre hair and she got to see my hipster glasses. She really liked them by the way! I suppose that being a PC user that does not have a built in camera on my laptop I am using archaic hardware with my camera and microphone combination and that makes my experience already less cool. 

I had to skype in my grad classes with other people in my class, actually I think I downloaded skype for the first time for that program. I have learned that some #highered people are using skype to interview people rather than phone interviews. I have decided I like this video chat option much more than I originally did. I liked to see Coco's laughter at my hilarious jokes and all of those familiar things like her great jewelry and outfit. Those things made the chat even better. So now that I am twitter bandwagoner and blogger I am officially going to conduct a lot more of my business over skype. Those of you in the inner circle- be prepared. Download skype now. 

Two- Today I discovered this guy: http://www.youtube.com/MrArturoTrejo. He is HILARIOUS. His kid is funny, his wife is funny. I like this guy. I am a bit behind the times, apparently his vlog has been around a while. (Oh- for those of you who are not so "seasoned" at the technology as I am, a vlog is a video blog, I looked it up). I laughed so hard that I was distracted from my real task tonight. I had actual work to finish but I don't care because I loved it. 

Thirdly- I received an e-vite to a wedding today. It was via Google docs- and I did not have to login or anything to see it. I am also a relatively new user to the Google Doc universe. I really wonder what I have been doing for the last few years when everyone else was techo-ing it up. But it looked just like a real wedding invite, but it had drop down menus and text boxes that required my response and such. It was really cool. It was like filling out an incident report form to get invited and RSVP to a wedding. Maybe that is the key to becoming more technologically competent- using Residence Life lingo to get me there. Let's experiment:

1. Skype could be compared to a 1:1. Similar to conversations you have with students in that one on one setting but with your more constant companion as well, your laptop. 
2. A vlog is like a weekly report you have to write for your RHD but just using a phone or computer to document it so you do not have to laboriously type or write. RAs on campus here do not have to do weekly reports (lucky) but I had to when I was a student. Just to report the residents I had seen that week and what I learned about them. I also had to include things that were upcoming in my life and things I heard around the building. If smart phones existed back then- it would have been easy to record a quick video that included that information and isn't that what blogging and vlogging is kind of about? Telling people who may or may not be interested in what you have to say all of your thoughts about something. 
3. We have a space on the network on campus called "Shari." She is a folder that contains all of these documents and such that we have accumulated over the years. I believe sharing a word document here is the same concept as Google docs but you can edit these and share these with some sort of interaction in real time with other people. I was recently invited to share a Google doc with a coworker and we are cutting our teeth on learning things about it. But in order for me to understand what I was doing- I decided to refer to this process as Shirley, Shari's sister. 

Ok, I feel a little bit better now about understanding these concepts now that I have explained them to you. Residence Life makes everything better, they always have the answer or a simply way of explaining things so I can understand. It is my mission for all students to understand the wonder that is ResLife even if that means I am also #TechnoforLife. #reslifeforlife