We’ve submitted our proposal for SXSW 2011 Interactive! Make sure to vote for our presentation now through August 27th and help us get to SXSW!  If selected, our presentation will cover:

1. How the academic social web is influencing student study habits and behavioral learning patterns
2. How academics can leverage emerging technology to enhance student performance on course evaluations
3. What the value is for institutions and students alike
4. What the future implications that openness and vast access to collaborative information have on the overall educational community
5. What can be done now to leverage web 2.0 in the student segment

Click here to vote now

New tech trends show that colleges are becoming increasingly web 2.0 savvy and more students are online now than ever before. Smart phones, netbooks, laptops and other devices that can access the Internet have become mainstream on many campuses and open access to educational resources online is becoming a popular trend. Now students can find their textbooks, professors and even classes online and sites like GradeGuru are being used by students across the country to help students collaborate with their peers and acquire better study habits. Here’s a look at how universities are wising up to new digital trends:

Virtual Orientation – A room full of strangers and tons of information your not sure you’ll ever remember make you nervous? not to worry, you can orient yourself online…

• The University of Denver: To put students at ease,  the University of Denver offers each freshman  an interactive CD at orientation. The CD covers topics normally found in the university handbook, offers interactive scenarios performed by Denver students, information on the city’s transportation system, and a guide to restaurants and cultural activities. Also included in the CD are faculty profiles, course descriptions and information about the health and social issues of life in college.
• Indiana State University: To accommodate distance learners, Indiana State offers Virtual Knowing Sycamores – Distance, an online video orientation that acquaints students with the university email, gives information about the Career Center and connects students with faculty members that teach distance education classes. Indiana State offers a similar virtual orientation for transfer students.

Handpick Your Roommate Online- Gone are the days of hoping that a vague housing survey will set up a match with the perfect roommate.

• The University of Utah: Students at the University of Utah fill out a personal housing profile online. Then, they complete an automatic roommate search, which generates a list of top potential matches. Students can then contact possible roommates through the school’s site.
• San Francisco State University: Incoming students are given the option to add their name and e-mail address to a list of freshman who want to choose roommates. From there, students consult social networking sites to refine their roommate search, and can then contact potential roommates via e-mail and text messaging.

It’s clear that digital trends are more prevalent on college campuses across the country. The use of the social web is becoming increasingly popular in the classroom as well as in different areas of student life. These back to school trends appear to be just the beginning of the transition into a tech savvy college environment.

GradeGuru will be presenting this week at the annual Campus Technology conference, the nation’s premier higher education technology conference where leaders in higher education discover and share the latest in applications, social software, and immersive platforms.  Held at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston from July 19-22, GradeGuru will join organizations and universities including Oracle, Elluminate, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, among others in focusing on technologies of strategic interest to the mission of higher education.

The speakers, presenters, and panel members at the Campus Technology conference are “technology visionaries and thought leaders in higher education,” according to the organization’s About Us.

Kevin Cafaro will represent the GradeGuru team at the conference and host a presentation titled “Digitizing Student Learning Through Collaborative Networking.” The session, held Wednesday, July 21 at 2pm, will delve into how social media and web 2.0 collaboration technologies have the potential to influence student behavioral patterns and transform the way instructors educate by empowering students to help themselves and each other.  If you are in the Boston area, feel free to stop by and check out GradeGuru’s Poster Session!

For a list of other Campus Technology 2010 presenters, visit CT 2010 Poster Sessions.