A new addition to our competencies

The importance of technology in higher education continues to grow with each new platform being built, news article being shared, and innovative teaching method being brainstormed. The use of technology in our classrooms and programs is no longer a matter of if or when, but how. 

Technology has, without hyperbole, greatly changed the landscape in which we work, teach, and learn. Fundamental tenants of our profession, including dialogue, conflict resolution, leadership, and governance have been fundamentally altered by new electronic means for connection and conversation. 

Initially impassable barriers have been made permeable, providing access to immediate and rapidly evolving opinions and ideas that were once relegated to only libraries and our imagination. As administrators and educators, we have been charged with keeping pace with these seemingly endless digital advances as our students attempt to do the same.

The work of NASPA and ACPA to revise Professional Competencies for the field has generated important conversations about how technology supports and challenges our work. 

With the continued and rapid advances in educational technologies, however, a simple thread of technology weaved into other competencies is no longer sufficient to capture the skills, knowledge, and dispositions necessary to not only keep pace with technological change, but also to effectively incorporate these tools into innovative and meaningful teaching strategies to support our students’ success.

The proposed Technology Competency signals a fundamentally important shift for our profession, for our students, and for each other. Rather than a small thread, a distinct competency area focused exclusively on technology underscores and definitively announces the importance of a continued awareness of and education in the changing landscape of technology in higher education. 

With the introduction of a competency area focused on technology, there is considerable and exciting potential for our traditional professional development activities to utilize the tools and platforms now available to grow and innovate strategies for professional networking, dialogue, and skill development.

NASPA has been working hard to design and develop a new way for members to not only build their competency in technology, but to also, and perhaps more importantly, meet and engage with colleagues around the world who share an interest in and dedication to the positive advancement of our profession and the individual growth of our colleagues.

Recognizing now more than ever that technology allows each of us to be both a teacher and a learner, we are committed to building places for learning that extend beyond traditional ask and answer, sit and listen models. We see great potential for dialogue within and outside of higher education, inviting those who build the tools we use to join our conversations and to create shared goals for student success.

2015 NASPA Techne will be our first step on an exciting journey that sees technology not just as a tool, and more than just a hinderance or complication. Together, we look forward to building competency, creating community, and leading a conversation that positions technology, first and foremost, as an opportunity.

For updates and information about online and in person Techne events, follow the conversation on Twitter at #2015NASPATechne.