Student Affairs Professionals Should Add Technology Tools to Their Toolboxes

While reading Tom Johnson's blog post, "Tactics for Survival: A technical writer's field guide to overcoming the forces of petty project managers and broken IT environments," I thought about how student affairs professionals and technical communicators approach the idea of tools differently. When I was in graduate school working on my College Student Personnel degree, we talked of tools in the toolbox. These tools were mostly developmental and behavioral theories that we studied, and then we practiced these theories using our daily interactions with students in our assistantships, internships, and practicums. For technical communicators, the tools may be intellectual ideas as well, such as audience analysis research and rhetoric writings, but often what I see or read about are the actual tools that the technical communicator uses to communicate messages.

Student affairs folks could benefit from the discussion about tools in the practical sense that technical communicators talk about it. Programs, software, hardware, deceives...these are all tools that tech comm professionals use in their everyday work to produce, deliver, and track information. Because our students are digitally savvy, student affairs professionals should work to educate themselves and to keep up with these practical tools. Knowing and using practical communication tools makes communication with students more meaningful.

Authors Klages and Clark point out, in their article 2009 article "New Worlds of Errors and
Expectations: Basic Writers and Digital Assumptions," that students in college today don't know a day without technological conveniences that are a part of life from the minute that their cell phone wakes them up in the morning. While students know this technology and integrate it seamlessly into their lives, they may still not know the basics of writing, arguing, and critical thinking. Young student affairs professionals that attend graduate school right out of their undergraduate studies will certainly have similar technology experiences as the undergraduate students; however, the theoretical tools in their tool boxes come from learning and not from any experience other than the experience gained from the two years of school.

With a few years of experience beyond graduate school, student affairs professionals begin to develop the body of knowledge that informs their actions. Without a curiosity for the technology tools that are constantly emerging, the student affairs professional can lose ground with technology quickly. The student affairs professional needs to keep informed about the tools that are available to them so that they can easily communicate with students. The tools for communication cannot be a barrier to the interactions that we must have for students.

The good news for professionals with some experience behind them is that it is easy to join and keep up with the conversation in and around technology. Students and new professionals are willing and excited to share when they know about technologies. Mid-level and senior professionals should be treating this learning as an extension of their professional development. Communicating using technology is an important tool for the studnet affairs professional's toolbox.