What are your must read links first thing in the morning?Academic advisors (and others in higher education) need to keep up on their news just as much as any other profession does. Whether you are a new advisor or someone whose been in the field for many years, there are a few resources that everyone should have on their favorites list. If you are not already a member of delicious, you should consider joining up. Tomorrow I will be posting on exactly how to do that, but for now I give you my top 5 most utterly essential resources for those of us in the advising profession.
1. NACADA
The professional organization for academic advisors. NACADA (National Academic Advising Association) offers its members a myriad of professional development opportunities, a wealth of resources, and even a clearinghouse of publications. NACADA holds an annual conference each year as well as numerous regional and special interest conferences. I encourage all readers to join as soon as possible and start gaining some tremendous opportunities.
2. The Mentor
An academic advising journal, The Mentor, provides advisors the opportunity to read some of the most current research that is out within the field. They often have valuable tips on dealing with particular student situations as well as assessing some common advising tools. This resource also provides advisors with the chance to have pieces published and criqued by colleagues. I believe that we all have the responsibility to contribute something to our field and The Mentor allows us to do just that.
The staple higher education journal. Even though advisors deal with specific problems and issues every day its important that we understand the larger higher education picture that we are faced with. Each week the chronicle puts out a full issue (available online) and contains sections on technology, the faculty, money & management and much more. There is also a forum for interaction on their website and a daily news blog to help us stay up to date.
Another journal that functions as an important news resource. Inside Higher Ed is much more concise than The Chronicle of Higher Education but provides valuable insight nonetheless. One of my favorite features is the digest of blogs listed on their homepage. Reading these will give advisors insight into the ideas of community college presidents, faculty members, and even some retired academic advisors.
A collection of the top education stories from around the web. This resource aggregates all of the education news from The Chronicle, Inside Higher Ed, The New York Times, a Student Affairs Blog and many more. When your short on time a quick glance at the headlines will give you the buzz of the day so that you are ready to discuss it at your next staff meeting.
What have I missed? I know there are many more resources floating around that I don't check on a daily basis. What's on your must read list? Do tell!
3 comments:
These are all very good! I would also include (though maybe not reading daily or weekly, but something to check often) Facebook with things such as NACADA's page and NACADA's Technology in Advising Commission. That's how I found this blog!
Good point. Going to add those to a master list of resources to be posted on the blog shortly.
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