5 Ways for Universities to Use Tokkster

http://www.fastcompany.com/1793777/building-a-better-chat-room?partner=homepage_newsletter

With this new plug-in, you will be able to chat with customers live on your company webpages. This had my mind swimming with possibilities for both business and personal applications.

As a university fundraiser and past admissions officer, I immediately thought of 5 ways we could use this technology in higher education.

1. Admissions officers could chat with prospective students as they explore the college/university website.

2. Advisers could help students explore majors and class requirements while perusing deparmental webpages.

3. Fundraisers and alumni relations officers could hold chats around new faculty research, student accomplishment, community engagement articles. 

4. Professors could hold chats around websites being explored by a class. 

5. Administrators could hold live chats around major announcements while concurrently unveiling the webpage article.

No longer would you have to past the article into Twitter or Facebook or Google+ and hope your constituents saw it. You could have them "meet" you on the site where you could share the article and discuss it in real-time. You are able to share what's important and get immediate feedback. 

What other ideas do you have? What industry are you in and what could you do with this technology? How might you apply it personally? 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Parents Face Sticker Shock at Enrollment–in Public Schools

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/08/08/01mct_ilfees.h31.html?tkn=UMWF9Ft6%2F%2F8vF%2BdEuxON2wcHsAF2SQ4N3QD%2F&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

There is no such thing as a FREE public education anymore. Even in higher education, so-called state "supported" universities are now state "assisted" universities/colleges with no more than 12% of their budgets being made up of public tax dollars. When nearly 90% of the funding comes from sources outside of the public tax base, how can it be called public? It's quasi-public at best.

I can tell you that my parents could not have afforded $800 in school "fees" without severe economic hardship. We have already priced out many from a higher education. We are now pricing them out of elementary school.

Even private schools are tacking on fees on top of already exorbitant tuition payments.

As a fundraiser, I don't see how this can be sustainable. Fundraising was used to enhance education. Today it's being used to maintain basic education. We need private dollars to help pay the bills. Forget about strategic planning and a vision for "what could be." We can't support what we have, much less what we want to have.

This is the beginning. Where does it end? The system is broken and it needs transformation of the kind that will require pain and sacrifice. Are we willing to go through the short-term pain for the long-term gain? I'm afraid we are not and I worry greatly about the consequences for our lack of both discipline and courage.