How are you using technology in your job?

I use the internet on a daily basis to contact
potential students, student recruitment agencies, and
colleagues in the field. One moment I am writing
an exchange student in Azerbaijan, Australia, Brazil
or China and a few minutes later I am speaking with a
degree-seeking Japanese, transfer student from a local
SUNY community college, or an MBA applicant from India.

We now have printers which can scan or print in color,
which is important to our office in trying to verify
coloration on official scanned documents, whether they be
financial letters or university transcripts. Scanned
documents are of more value than faxes, as they offer color,
and in greater clarity, than a black and white fax.

An early look at potentially official international transcripts,
for example, can expedite an application evaluation, pending
couriered arrival of the actual forms.


In what way has technology transformed your job?

In some ways it has eased the pressure in certain aspects of
academic evaluations and placed it more squarely on the
students, as far as time frames are concerned. We can receive
course outlines from transfer students overseas within minutes.
We can verify whether or not an overseas school is bone fide, and
accredited, usually on the same day, with the correct web site.
Failing that we can contact agencies that know where to find the data
quickly.

In other ways technology has added stresses. This job could easily
become a 24/7 operation with requests coming from many parts of the
world at any time, over a 24 hour period, and with each of those
folks sending the questions expecting answers while they are awake
in their time zones. We sometimes get "scolded" by some inquiries
as to why we have not responded sooner. The word "Urgent" becomes
overly used and abused as a "Subject" line headliner.


What does technology add that would not be possible without it?

Immediacy....when it's working as planned. When the technology
involved in communication is functioning, it allows us to reassure
a potential student applicant that a few items are missing from
his/her application, or it's complete and the decision on admission
is pending.

It also allows the applicant to ask questions each step of the way
and when there's time, we try to reply to each of those queries.


How do you see technology improving learning?

I think the technology used in my work allows me to show
the people with whom I interact that Oswego is more than
bricks and mortar. There are people on a campus far away,
brought closer through communications technology, who can help
with most concerns that recruiters or students may have.
During the back-and-forth between us the new applicants or
the agency recruiters learn more about the nature - and
perhaps the nurture - that can be part of SUNY Oswego.


In what ways do you find technology frustrating?

When the system fails, the communication stops. Depending on
how long the break, the ebb and flow of the communication is
broken. It frustrates all sides in any discussion, especially
when progress was being made. There's an increasing fragility
that accompanies each new innovation.


How are you using technology in interesting or unique ways?

We keep in touch with several recruitment agencies around the world
on a complimentary basis. In the past we had formed a mailing list
to forward pertinent articles available only to subscribers, of US
publications which might help them stay abreast of issues within
the US post-secondary marketplace.


How are you using technology to develop and deliver staff development?

There are web training sessions offered by the Department of Homeland
Security which we use to keep abreast of the changing issues in the
field. In addition one of our major support agencies, NAFSA, offers on-line
manuals which we can use for reference from home or the office for help
on the more serious issues in this field.


How are you applying technology in your personal life?

Slowly and within a tight budget, controlled by the chief domestic
comptroller, I have become interested in ham communications,
photography, marine navigation and aspects of aviation, all of which
have highly developed and rapidly changing technologies.

Is there a single technological item you can't imagine living without?

The absence of communication and transportation technologies would greatly
complicate my life at this point in time.

Is there a particular technological item that you plan on learning
and/or purchasing in the near future?

First the budget...then the "vitally important technological item".