Robby's+Page+of+Wonderment

Robby's Journal

__Monday, April 25, 2011__ Hey all.

The blog for my upcoming work event (the purpose of my class project) is finally up, and I would love to get your feedback about it. The event is called The Ultimate Road Trip, and it takes place from May 4-11. In essence, I will be traveling from Newberg to San Francisco for the purpose of connecting with alumni, parents, and friends of George Fox who live along the route. These connections are the primary point of the trip/event. However, a secondary goal (partially inspired by this class) is to attempt to use social media and Web 2.0 to bring the George Fox community together using this event. As a result, I developed a blog that I will use throughout the trip. The blog included some new social media tools that I hadn't used before including Twitter hash tags (#hashtag) and a customized Google map. I also tied in the Alumni Association Facebook page to round out the experience.

Check it out here.

I am still making some tweaks to the blog, but it is a pretty good start for what I am hoping to achieve.

__Sunday, April 24, 2011__ I had to post this video. It was shared by my pastor and it is such an incredible Gospel presentation. It is a remarkable use of social media!

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What do you think of this video?

__Saturday, April 23, 2011__ I had the privilege of giving my presentation this morning, and I appreciate the good questions, suggestions, and comments from my colleagues. For those of you that weren't able to be there, I am posting my Powerpoint slides here for you to check out. I am not sure how much they will make sense, as I tend to use bullet points without much explanation. (I blame my experience watchning endless presentations where people simply read their slides.) Feel free to post any questions that you may have about the presentation.



__Monday, April 11, 2011__ Good evening, colleagues.

It has been a while since I have posted here or in the course FoxTale page. Initially I fell behind as I was studying for my comprehensive exams in late February and early March. As I successfully completed that significant hurdle in the program, I was anxious to get back into the course. The day after my oral exam, I received some unexpected news that left me reeling. For the past month, I have been trying to triage everything on my plate and this course got the short draw. I'm caught up on my reading, and have continued to work on my project. However, I have been absent from posting.

Now, I am back on my horse.

I plan to be an active participant over the final three weeks and look forward to hearing about your projects.

God's peace, Robby

__Wednesday, February 23, 2011__ I thought I would post another recent use of social media for others enjoyment, and to get your reaction. I've considered using this as part of my course project, in some manner. I'd love others (classmates as well as Scot) feedback and thoughts about how I might develop this further or otherwise analyze it for the project.

Last week, my office (Alumni) along with our students alumni group (Bruin Heritage Society) hosted the first-ever George Fox University Tuition Freedom Day for undergraduate students. Whether realized or not, every George Fox student is helped by countless alumni, parents, friends, foundations, and others who faithfully give to help subsidize the cost of his or her Fox education. Tuition Freedom Day symbolically represents the last day that students “pay” for their education this year. This event was designed to increase awareness of the significant role donors play in the life of George Fox and the personal impact they have on students. Many schools have created these events in recent years, and our own event was greatly aided by colleagues at other schools that shared their experience and insight with my team.

As part of Tuition Freedom Day, students were invited to visit one of two Celebration Stations to learn more and reflect on the personal impact of generous donor support on their George Fox experience. One of the activities to facilitate this student reflection was the use of social media. We created a Twitter account ([|twitter.com/georgefoxTFD]) and asked students to finish this sentence: "Thanks to the generosity of George Fox donors..." The live Twitter feed was then linked to the GFU Alumni Association Facebook page ([|facebook.com/georgefoxalumni]) so that alumni and donors could see the impact that their gifts are having.

Check out the Twitter feed to read the reflections of our students and let me know your thoughts: [|twitter.com/georgefoxTFD]

Robby

__Tuesday, January 4, 2011__ Although I am not sure what I will use this page for, I wanted to create it and make it live.

Here is one item that I came across today that I thought would be appropriate to share. While parts could be seen as crude, it takes some appropriate shots at the emerging Twitterverse. I'm including the link as well as embedding the video itself.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Axzxe1a78E

Find me on Web 2.0 [|facebook.com/robbylarson] [|twitter.com/robbylarson] [|robbylarson.com]