TECH Reflection

An additional competency area created by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) is the technology competency (ACPA & NASPA, 2015). This competency, “focuses on the use of digital tools, resources, and technologies for the advancement of student learning, development, and success as well as the improved performance of student affairs professionals” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 15). This is an increasingly relevant skill set to possess, with the continued and increasing use of technology in higher education. Making it increasingly important that student affairs practitioners be ready to effectively use technology in their work with students. I find this competency area interesting since technology has had such a large impact on how tasks are done on college campuses. These institutions rely heavily on technology to enable the presence of essential campus and student services.

A goal of this competency area is to possess the “knowledge, skills, and dispositions that lead to the generation of digital literacy and digital citizenship within communities of students, student affairs professionals, faculty members, and colleges and universities as a whole” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 15). This demonstrates a focus on promoting the effective and responsible use of technology by students and by colleges (ACPA & NASPA, 2015). This competency also encourages sharing this skill with students since they will use technology throughout their lives and experience new technologies as well. The competency adds that development in this, “area is marked by shifts from understanding to application as well as from application to facilitation and leadership” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 15). This shows that through learning more about the effective use of technology, this knowledge can be shared and used to empower students and colleagues (ACPA & NASPA, 2015).

For this competency, I am assessing my proficiency at the foundation level, but I am also on my way toward reaching some of the intermediate outcomes outlined within the competency. One of the foundational outcomes is to, “demonstrate adaptability in the face of fast-paced technological change” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 33). I think that anyone attending college during the COVID-19 pandemic can check off this outcome. Due to the pandemic, we had to adapt to the increased use of technology in all forms of learning. Before Spring 2020 I had never used Zoom and now it is a regular or familiar part of most peoples' lives. I think that over this time period Zoom become more and more useful and common. One example of this was in my graduate assistant position, where I would have normally presented in-person workshops throughout the semester, but due to the pandemic, I created short engaging pre-recorded videos. Although I have made some videos for classes in the past, I have never had to create videos meant to educate students on various career development topics. One program I utilized to help with making this content more engaging is Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark). This has been a great program for creating posters and video content, which I have used often throughout the semesters. In addition to using this program, in the past few semesters, I have become increasingly familiar with Canva, which I have used to create desktop backgrounds for my personal and work computer, used to create posters, and used for a group project presentation.

Another outcome included in the foundational proficiency level is to “demonstrate awareness of one’s digital identity and engage students in learning activities related to responsible digital communications and virtual community engagement as related to their digital reputation and identity” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 33). Starting in the Spring 2020 semester, I took a closer look at my digital identity including my personal and professional social media presence. In Spring 2020 as the capstone of my undergraduate degree, I took the course strategic management, where one of our assignments was to either create or improve our LinkedIn profiles. I did already have a LinkedIn profile, so I used this opportunity to examine and improve my presence on this platform. I have also taken steps to examine what is public information on my other personal social media profiles. Also as part of the HESAA program I took the course career development, which also involved a project of examining and improving our Linked-In profiles.

An additional foundational outcome of the technology competency is to, “Ensure that one’s educational work with and service to students is inclusive of students participating in online and hybrid format courses and programs” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 33). This is an important area and something that one of my supervisors at my graduate assistant position focused on. As I mentioned earlier, I have created multiple pre-recorded video workshops, that are accessible to all students through our office's Blackboard Organization. Focusing on creating these videos helped to ensure that these resources could be accessed by students at any time. Another foundational outcome is to, “model and promote equitable and inclusive practices by ensuring all participants in educational endeavors can access and utilize the necessary tools for success” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 33). By utilizing YouTube’s automatic closed captioning, these pre-recorded videos also provide this additional accessibility resource and allow students to pause and skip around in the videos.

An outcome included in the next highest proficiency level, the intermediate level is to “facilitate educational interventions that are based upon research, trend data, and needs assessments of participants and that increase the technological competencies and digital literacy of those participants” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 34). This is an area that I have not had the experience of working with. I think that with additional professional experience and responsibility there will be opportunities to practice this skill. One intermediate outcome that I have reached is to, “model and promote adaptability among students, colleagues, and educational stakeholders in the face of fast-paced technological change" and to "demonstrate openness to the introduction of new digital tools by others” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 34). Due to the pandemic, everyone in higher education was forced to adapt quickly to technology that we were not overly familiar with or had never used before. Even though these technologies have been embraced differently, I think that this experience will impact the future of higher education. Also, related to this outcome of quickly adapting to new technology (ACPA & NASPA, 2015), one experience I have had as part of my graduate assistant position was to work extensively on the process of implementing and switching to the Handshake career platform, from our office previous platform called Purple Briefcase. I was involved in most steps of this process but was bolstered into an implementation leadership role due to supervisory changes during this process. As a result of these many efforts, my office was able to launch this platform for students to use in the fall of 2021 and its rollout has been well received.

Lastly, another important outcome within the intermediate proficiency level is to, “demonstrate a willingness and capacity to generate, critically examine, and change technology-related policies and practices that privilege one group of students or educational stakeholders over another” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 34). Due to the wide use of technology in higher education, it is important that policies and practices ensure this resource can be fairly used and accessed by all groups of students (ACPA & NASPA, 2015). Again, with additional professional experience in this area, I can ensure that resources are utilized in a fair manner to support students.

Clearly, technology has an important place within higher education and will continue to shape its future. This will require student affairs practitioners to adapt to these new technologies and incorporate them into their everyday tasks. My assessment of my proficiency level at the foundational level leaves additional opportunities for me to develop further in this area. As I pointed out I have also met some of the intermediate outcomes, which could make it possible to reach this next level more quickly. Additional professional experience will also play an important part since this should provide opportunities to fulfill some of the higher proficiency level outcomes.