Poll Results: Tech Leadership in Student Affairs

I put out a Twitter Poll on November 30, 2010 about technology leadership in student affairs. It ran for one week, and here are the final numbers. (Thanks to Eric Stoller for featuring this on his blog, and to Student Affairs Collaborative for making it the Tuesday Talley!)

Why This Poll?

I am co-authoring a chapter in a book scheduled to be published this spring by Stylus. The tentative book title is “New Realities: Emerging Specialist Roles and Structures in Student Affairs Organizations” and our chapter is on the “Technology Officer” position. (Other chapters include Chief of Staff, Development, Assessment and several other leadership roles.) My co-author is Kyle Johnson, Associate Provost for Information and Learning Technology at SUNY Institute of Technology.

The chapter briefly features some research conducted in 2005 with two colleagues at NC State University on this very topic. (I regret to this day that we never published it, but our NASPA presentation and the survey instrument are online.)

I found myself wishing for more up to date numbers, hence the Twitter poll on the one question about technology leadership.

What Do the Numbers Mean?

Well, first the usual caveat that Twitter polls are informal, and not scholarly research! We have no way to know who answered, if they answered accurately, if more than one person from an institution answered, and so on. Also, the Twitter poll did not allow for enough text to provide a more specific definition of “technology leadership” or “student affairs” organization. So, comparing the fairly rigorous 2005 study to this 2010 Twitter poll is not quite like comparing “apples and oranges” but more like “red delicious and granny smith.”

That being said, the results from the Twitter poll are fairly similar to our 2005 research. Beyond that, I hesitate to interpret the numbers any further. But it is certainly interesting data.

What’s Next?

Good question! I’m not sure. I’d like to replicate the 2005 study at some point. There were several tweets in response to this poll suggesting that the student affairs profession should more clearly define this role. Maybe that’s a good task for the NASPA Technology Knowledge Community. Also tweeted was that the technology leadership role is “not tech support/IT purchasing.” I would amend that to be that it is “not JUST tech support/IT purchasing.” I do think that in many cases student affairs organizations are better off controlling their own destiny with internal tech support instead of relying on outsourcing to central campus IT. That being said, clearly there is a need for someone in the student affairs organization to truly understand technology, its impact on students and their behavior, and how technology can be used to provide student services and developmental programs.

Your feedback most welcome!