Technologies for Communication/Collaboration
Posted: December 27, 2006

          Over the Net, counselors can communicate and collaborate with students, teachers, administrators, parents, other counselors, and community members with continually greater convenience and efficiency. While you are reading this, thousands of school counselors enjoy the convenience of corresponding and consulting with each other via e-mail, listservs, bulletin boards, chatrooms, instant messaging, and more.

          Most counselors are used to short-term professional development seminars and workshops that provide finite information. Electronic collaboration —because it can be done at any time, from anywhere—allows for a sustained effort where participants can propose, try out, refine, and shape ideas themselves. The potential to communicate with others from all over the world provides a pool of resources and professional companions that counselors might not find within their own school walls. It can also provide them with a sense of belonging, a sense of identity within a larger community. Using high tech tools to collaborate, counselors actively and interactively contribute to exploring innovative ideas. With electronic collaboration, the adage “two heads are better than one” could just as well be “two hundred heads are better than one.” One person’s provocative question can lead to many creative, exciting solutions. By sharing what they know with others, participants advance their own knowledge and the collaborative community’s knowledge.

          I (TS) have worked as a School Counselor at the elementary, middle and high school levels. At every level and at every school, e-mail was a cornerstone of communication. Indeed, one cannot hardly be effective without the use of e-mail in business, industry, or in education. Beyond day-to-day internal communications, e-mail offers counselors the same kind of advantage that it offers those involved with distance learning education – it forms the basis of a network that conveniently connects counselors and others (e.g., supervisors, community members, parents, and students) individually and in groups (Myrick & Sabella, 1995). The advantages of electronic mail have contributed to its pervasiveness and popularity and include:

●         the convenience of corresponding at any time of the day or night;

●         being able to think through a communication before making it;

●         not having to rely on a mutual time to communicate as one would with a phone conversation;

●         saving money in long distance charges when having to make only brief comments;

●         instantaneously communicating the same message to multiple people on a distribution list;

●         diminished inhibitions that face-to-face conversation may present;

●         that, whereas spoken words must remain in memory and are sometimes lost in a quick exchange, written e-mail messages can be reviewed; and

●         large files, especially documents, can be instantly sent to others via e-mail which can save precious time and money as compared to printing and shipping the document via traditional postal carriers.

However, anyone who uses e-mail as a staple form of communication, can readily tell you about the disadvantages of e-mail communication which would include that:

●         for some, typing can be slow and tedious;

●         the absence of nonverbal communication such as gestures, facial expression, or tone of voice can sometimes lead to mistaken interpretations of an e-mail message;

●         although relatively very secure, sending an e-mail over the Net is sometimes like sending a postcard through the mail – others whom desire to do so might intercept and read an e-mail. Therefore, issues of confidentiality and privacy are central to communicating sensitive information;

●         if not careful, counselors can receive too many e-mail messages which may lead to time and organizational management challenges. In this sense, counselors must be smart consumers of information and determine how much one reads, digests, discards, and to which messages one should respond.

          Many school counselors take the opportunity to participate in an electronic network that enables participants to share professional ideas and information. It offers counselors a unique and valuable opportunity for supervision and consultation. For example, Myrick & Sabella (1995) wrote about how they used e-mail as a supplement to practicum and internship supervision which they called cybervision. In this case, the student counselors, during group supervision, first learned how to access the Internet through computers in their schools or with their own personal computers and modems at home. They could also access the system through computer stations at various locations on campus. Each person had his or her own e-mail address, which was known to the supervisor and other group supervision members. Using e-mail, a student-counselor could send written messages to a supervisor asking for information or describing a case. When appropriate, the case was forwarded to other group members for their interest and reactions. The group supervision members discussed the best way to send an e-mail case. It would include (a) a brief description of the counselee; (b) the presenting problem, including the referral source; c) the observed behaviors related to the problem or concern; (d) the counselor interventions to that point; and (e) any concerns or questions that were evolving. The authors concluded that e-mail supervision supplements the traditional modes of face-to-face meetings, telephone conferences, and fax transmissions. An on-going group experience, it can take place in remote and diverse locations. Although the common once-a-week group meeting has its own value, group members felt that they were always within reach of assistance or encouragement. They felt closer to one another, and e-mail created a special bond that also enabled them to be more open about their situations.

I (TS) found e-mail to be especially helpful when I was going through the National Board for Professional Teacher Standards (NBPTS) certification process. I knew I wanted feedback from someone who had already experienced the process and could provide timely advice. But, there was no one in my locale who completed this rigorous certification process at that time. So, I used the NBPTS website to locate and then e-mail National Board School Counselors in my state and in other states throughout the country. E-mail allowed me to communicate with others, some of whom became my mentors, from hundreds and thousands of miles away. E-mail afforded me a priceless support system of professional colleagues. Another example of how e-mail, when used appropriately, can help a counselor be more effective and efficient is when I (TS) read about using Microsoft Outlook™ for voting in the SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter (SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter, 2005). I had never used Outlook in this fashion but I thought it might be useful. In one instance, I had a video tape called Bud and Dud on loan for a month from the company. Bud and Dud was a video series in which a dog gave tips for taking tests to students via 5-minute clips show during the morning announcements. The deadline for making a decision was quickly approaching and our school budget, like many, was very tight. We needed to decide if we should buy the program or send it back. Many of the students and teachers seemed to love it but one person was outspokenly against it. I wasn't sure if we should buy it because it was a “talking-dog-thing and seemed a little corny” – but I didn't want make the decision without more concrete feedback. So, I used the Microsoft Outlook voting feature which allows the user to send a survey-type messages with voting buttons to a group of recipients. By clicking a button, each respondent can express a preference and generate a response message to vote. Outlook logs vote messages to the original message's tracking page (visit http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=197420 for more details). The results were impressive. Over 95% of the respondents were in favor of purchasing and using the film. The principal saw the data and decided to purchase the program. The students and staff loved it and ask for it each and every year. Interestingly, the person that was originally against purchasing the program later told me that her students took a surprising liking to it. The Microsoft Outlook voting process was a simple feature that summarized the data in a matter of seconds. What would have required several hours otherwise only took seconds with this technology, a true positive impact on my productivity.

Yet another benefit to using productivity software (in my case, Microsoft Outlook) is that I (TS) can keep a calendar and quite efficiently manage a busy schedule. It enables me to realistically set meetings and plans. Further, others at the school can view my calendar to see when I may be available. Frequently I use it to schedule appointments and meetings with other staff. With a couple of clicks I can send reminders so that everyone remembers to attend.

List Servers

          List servers are programs that allow an administrator to create lists of e-mail addresses and attach them to a single e-mail address (called the listserv address). All messages that are e-mailed to the listserv are distributed, again via e-mail, to all subscribers, sometimes by a “moderator” who reads them first (in a “moderated list”) or more typically in an automated manner (or “unmoderated list”). Some list servers require an administrator to add people to the list. In others, anyone who wishes can automatically subscribe (or unsubscribe) by either sending an e-mail message to the program which resides on a server or by completing an online form. List server programs can provide some security by allowing only authorized users to post to the list or by using a moderator to approve messages before they are posted to the list. Counselors can also set up their listserv to act more like a mailing list for those who simply want to receive reminders, newsletters, or announcements. This is called a post-only listserv. Creators (or “owners”) of these listservs are usually the only people who can send an e-mail via the listserv. Any one else who tries is humbly and automatically rejected. Try subscribing to two different types of listservs, a post only newsletter listserv and a full fledged discussion listserv, respectively. The Scout Report is the flagship publication of the Internet Scout Project. Published every Friday both on the web and by e-mail, it provides a fast, convenient way to stay informed of valuable resources on the Internet. The report is developed by a team of professional librarians and subject matter experts who select, research, and annotate each resource. Visit http://scout.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/scout-report, and complete the form. Next, you will be sent an e-mail requesting confirmation to prevent others from gratuitously subscribing you (this is called a double opt-in list). Second, the International Counselor Network (ICN) is a network for counselors working in all specialty areas. Topics range widely, including such issues as self-esteem, multicultural issues, program development, career planning, play theory, professional issues and more. Complete the online form at http://listserv.utk.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=icn&A=1 and you will once again receive an e-mail with instructions for how to confirm your identity.

          List servers are an efficient way of sending e-mail to large and/or specific groups and are ideal for disseminating timely information, such as announcements of conferences, pointers to new websites of interest, and descriptions of print resources. Anyone on the list can be a source of information. List servers are well-suited to groups of users who regularly use e-mail and who need to receive information in a timely way. They are less effective for extended or lengthy discussions, because participants may not be able to remember all the previous entries when they respond to a particular item. Another disadvantage is that mailing list servers can be inconvenient for recipients, filling their e-mail in-boxes when they’re busy with other things. Two of the most commonly used mailing list server programs are Majordomo (http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/) and Listserv (http://www.lsoft.com).

          There are primarily two methods for learning about available listservs of interest. First and most popular, a specific listserv of interest may be announced in relevant professional or related publications such as journals, magazines, newsletters, or newspapers. Second, you may seek for listservs of interest by conducting a basic web search using keywords such as “counseling listserv” which should take you to web pages that describe the listserv and provide instructions for subscribing. Remember, however, not all listservs are open to the public, some are private and require administrative approval. Creating your own listserv is not always easy although definitely doable. The best thing to do is work with your school’s technology people to see if they can do it for you. Or, you can use a free online mail list service such as http://www.coollist.com. Otherwise, read up on how to do this yourself by visiting web pages such as http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/4creategroup.html and http://lists.gurus.com/creating.html.

The easiest way to set up your own listserv is to use an online service such as any of the common “group communities” which includes listserv capability and much more.

•         Google Groups. http://groups.google.com/

•         Yahoo! Groups. http://groups.yahoo.com/

Sending Out High Volumes of E-mail

On the average, I send out approximately 46,000 e-mails per month! As a school counselor, you may be interested in developing several e-mail lists customized for different interests among various stake holders (e.g., News for Parents, Scholarship News for students, etc.). There are typically three parts to sending out lots of emails (that is, doing an e-mail campaign): a) a list manager, b) integrity checker, and c) an e-mail delivery system. A list manager allows your potential recipients to “subscribe” or “unsubscribe” to your campaign. An integrity checker keeps record of emails that “bounce” and allows you to remove them from your subscription list. Finally, an e-mail delivery tool provides you with a very fast and efficient way to deliver large numbers of e-mails.

There are various ways to go about doing this, some simple, some not so simple. Personally, I use two pieces of software to deliver my emails. First I use MailerFree™ which is a simple but powerful subscription script with many functions (see http://www.tassietek.com/mailerfree). I have installed this script on the server that hosts my website (http://www.webstrikesolutions.com/). Mailerfree allows me to to put up some code that produces a form which allows people to subscribe and unsubscribe. Mailerfree also allows me to log in and send an e-mail to all my subscribers right within the program. However, this should be done only if you have relatively few subscribers (i.e., 2000 or less) because it may “hang up” or run into other problems because it running on a server and over the Web. Instead, I use a program on my computer that is designed for sending out large numbers of e-mails called eCampaign (http://www.lmhsoft.com/ecamp/). This program includes all three parts of an e-mail delivery system that I previously mentioned (list manager, integrity checker, and delivery system). So, for instance, when its time to send out the SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter, I log in to my MailerFree system online, export my subscriber database, and then use eCampaign to send an e-mail out to everyone on the list.

A few other things you should know about sending out emails in this way:

•         Realize that the program assumes that you have an e-mail account from which to send out the emails.

•         Your e-mail account provider may not allow you to send out too many emails. For instance, one of my accounts limits me to 1000 emails per day. Until recently, I could send out about 7000 emails per hour using another e-mail account although the webhost for the account contacted me and let me know that it was creating undue loads on their servers. As a result, they have limited me to 500 per hour (and so now it actually takes 34 hours to send out each issue of the newsletter instead of 2 hours).

•         When you send out lots of emails, you will receive all kinds of emails back including automatic responders (e.g., “I’m out of town”), spam filter responses, and bounced emails. You can simply delete these or allow a program such as eCampaign to manage and delete them.

•         Some emails may never get delivered because they may get caught in the recipient’s spam filter.

Before you go out and buy a program such as eCampaign, realize that you may already have this capability if you are using Microsoft Outlook as your e-mail software. You can use Microsoft Word™ to compose an e-mail and then use Word’s Merge feature to e-mail it out (assuming you have a subscriber list somewhere, perhaps in Microsoft Excel). You can learn more about e-mail merging at http://technology.msb.edu/training/Productivity/word/Email_Merge.htm. Also, realize that there are services which automates the entire process although they do cost. The most popular right now is Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com/).

The reality is that e-mail campaigns are actually not the best way to get information out. Instead, blogs with news feeds is easier, more efficient, and doesn’t suffer from some of the problems I mentioned with e-mail. In a recent reader survey, however, I learned that school counselors still prefer emails to blogs (as do most people).

Chat Room

          E-mail is a great way to communicate electronically although this method suffers from the lack of real-time interaction between one person and with others whom he/she would like to communicate. Historically, real-time communication has occurred either in face-to-face conversation or over the telephone. The use of chat software, especially over the Internet, makes it possible to electronically converse in real time. Following the metaphor for which this technology is named, imagine yourself entering a room in which you can converse with other users you will find there. You can see on screen what each user is typing into the conversation, and when you type something, the other users in the room can see your message as well.

          Chat environments have progressed from simple text-based interactions to full blown graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Today's chatrooms allow users to personalize their communications by posting their photos or a close facsimile (sometimes a computer generated likeness) next to their text communications. Other programs also allow for sending to members of the chatroom audio files that contain music, sound effects, or the users own recorded voice. One of the most popular chat clients (not be confused with the clients with whom we work, software that resides on our computer and act as the recipients of server programs are also called clients) is a program called mIRC available for download at most shareware sites or directly at http://www.mirc.com/. However, many chats are now conducted over the Web which eliminates the need to download any software. Simply visit the site, choose your chat community, log in, and begin chatting (e.g., see http://chat.msn.com or http://chat.yahoo.com). You should know that, like anything else on the Net, some chatrooms are not intended for the easily offended. Not all, but many of the rooms are “R” to “X” rated because they contain inappropriate and/or pornographic communications including text, sound, and sometimes graphics. Also, users of chatroom can easily maintain anonymity and, even worse, pose as someone they are not. To create a chat room for your very own special gathering, you could use a free online service such as http://www.chatzy.com/, http://www.userplane.com/, or http://chatshack.net/.

Instant Messaging

          Instant messaging (IM) requires the use of a client program that hooks up an instant messaging service and, similar to chat rooms, conversations are then able to happen in realtime. What IM has that chat rooms do not have are extra abilities such as a presence information feature, indicating whether people on one's list of contacts are currently online and available to chat. This may be called a “Buddy List”. Other features include voice and video transfer, file transfer, the ability to play games with other users, and application sharing (such as working together in real time on a spreadsheet or document). Popular instant messaging services on the public Internet include Qnext (http://www.qnext.com/), MSN Messenger (http://messenger.msn.com/), AOL Instant Messenger (http://www.aim.com/), Yahoo! Messenger (http://messenger.yahoo.com/), Google Talk (http://www.google.com/talk/), Jabber (http://www.jabber.org/) and ICQ (http://www.icq.com/). These services owe many ideas to an older (and still popular) online chat medium known as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) (Instant Messaging, 2005).

WebBoards

          One drawback of e-mail, listservs, and even instant messaging is that they organize discussions chronologically. This type of organization is fine for many short discussions or written materials, but most discussions aren’t linear and well-organized. One comment can generate ideas on many different tangents. In this case, you may want to organize the discussion by topic. But that doesn’t always work well; what if one message in a discussion has ideas that relate to several different parts of the discussion? Topic-oriented and threaded discussion systems, oftentimes called Bulletin Board Systems or WebBoards, attempt to respond to this problem by keeping an archive and allowing different ways of organizing the discussion. Because of the creative, inventive, and nonlinear nature of human conversation, it’s difficult to develop an ideal method of organizing records of conversation. The information in a threaded discussion system is organized and displayed hierarchically, so you can see how the messages are related. Each posting (or “article”) in a threaded discussion has a topic or subject. Users can comment on the topic, see what others have to say about it, and reply to questions or other people’s comments. All of the comments, replies, and discussions on a single topic are collectively called a “thread.” The difference between topic oriented and threaded discussions is a matter of format and organization. Usually messages in topic oriented discussions are listed chronologically on a single topic page, messages in threaded discussions are organized in an outline format with replies indented and listed directly under the message to which they are a reply (Koufman-Frederick, et al., 1999). As a member benefit, the American School Counselor Association provides various bulletin boards (e.g., organized by grade level) to facilitate communication and collaboration among its members.

Blogs

          You’ve probably heard the term blog more than once, most likely used on television or print news media. However, you may still not exactly understand what a blog is. According to the Webopedia (Blog, 2005), a blog, short for “web log,” is a web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated on a daily basis, blogs often reflect the personality of the author. Google owned Blogger.com describes a blog as, “A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.” Creating a blog is simple and free. It only takes a few minutes by entering your name, e-mail address and a few other pieces of (usually personal) information. You select "the look" (template) for your blog from a set of standard options, click a few buttons, and another blog has been added to the “blogosphere.” Once the blog is set up, you can post text, links, audio, video, and more to your hearts delight. From your computer or cell phone, you can say or show anything and everything. With a bit of know-how, you can even syndicate to other blogs and websites. Syndication is a process by which the latest content from a blog, or from any other web page, can be made available for re-publication in another website or in some other application. And millions of people (including children) are doing it.

          As compared to dynamic websites, blogs feature several unique characteristics (How Blogs Work, 2005) such as:

•         A blog is normally a single page of entries. There may be archives of older entries, but the "main page" of a blog is all anyone really cares about.

•         A blog is organized in reverse-chronological order, from most recent entry to least recent.

•         A blog is normally public -- the whole world can see it.

•         The entries in a blog usually come from a single author.

•         The entries in a blog are usually stream-of-consciousness. There is no particular order to them. For example, the blogger sees a good link, he or she can throw it in his or her blog. The tools that most bloggers use make it incredibly easy to add entries to a blog any time they feel like it.

•         A typical blog has a main page and nothing else. On the main page, there is a set of entries. Each entry is a little text blurb that may contain embedded links out to other sites, news stories, etc. When the author adds a new entry, it goes at the top, pushing all the older entries down. This blog also has a right sidebar that contains additional permanent links to other sites and stories. The author might update the sidebar weekly or monthly.

The technology that allows individuals to write one’s own blog is so relatively simple and inexpensive that it is no surprise that blogs have proliferated the Web as fast as they have. Any counselor can create a basic blog for free, and most of these toolsets have additional features available for a price. Here are just a few of the services available.

•         Blogger is a free, automated weblog publishing platform in one easy to use website. http://www.blogger.com/

•         bBlog is a powerful, elegant personal publishing system written in PHP and released as free, Open Source software under the GPL. It is a flexible but simple way to blog that works for blogging beginners, and can grow into a more advanced user's needs. http://www.bblog.com/

•         Xanga is a community of online diaries and journals. http://www.xanga.com/

•         TypePad is similar to blogger, another blogging service although this one has a minimal cost. http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/

•         LiveJournal is free although users can choose to upgrade their accounts for extra features. http://www.livejournal.com/

•         Moveable Type is another popular web publishing platform. http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/

•         MySpace.com is actually a hybrid site that allows people to post their personal interests, write blogs, put up video and set up ways to communicate with their friends. http://www.myspace.com/

Consumers of blogs, in this case, our stake holders, have several ways that they can learn about new updates or additions to your blogs. First, they can periodically visit your blog and look for any updates which is easy to do since entries are listed in chronological order. Second, if your blog allows it, they can sign up to receive e-mail notification of any new information. Or third, you can subscribe to the blog if the blog host offers RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed capability. In this case, you simply copy the website address of the feed into a feed reader or aggregator (e.g., see http://blogspace.com/rss/readers). Anytime the blog is updated, you automatically receive a copy of it right in your reader.

Podcasting

          Podcasting, in its basic form, is creating audio files (most commonly in MP3 format) and making them available online in a way that allows users to automatically download the files for listening at their convenience (i.e., subscribing to the podcast). After subscribing to the podcast, future “broadcasts” automatically download to your computer, which can then be transferred easily to a handheld such as a Palm OS Handheld, a Pocket PC, or an iPod - hence, the name Podcast. In essence, anyone with a computer, Internet access, free software, and a microphone can turn their computer into a personal studio and produce their very own radio show/program [see Valesky and Sabella (2005) for a more detailed description of how this technology works].

          Podcasting is still relatively new although shows great potential for disseminating information in a timely and efficient manner. The potential of podcasting stems from several advantages to using this relatively new medium. For one, it's cheap. Podcasting requires no more hardware or software than a typical computer user has. Second, the MP3 files and accompanying text which are served over the World Wide Web are supported among virtually all operating systems (i.e., podcasting works across many platforms). As a result, these types of files have become quite pervasive. Third, given the difficulties and intricacies of using computer technology sometimes, podcasting is surprisingly simple to do. Only three steps are required (create the MP3 file, upload the file, and update your RSS feed) to broadcast any content you would like. Fourth, podcasting further removes barriers of space, pace, and time by allowing the consumer to download and listen to broadcasts at his or her convenience (sort of like the Tivo® of radio). And, the consumer may listen to a broadcast using various devices such as computers, as, MP3 players, CD players (after burning the files to a CD), personal digital assistants (PDA's), Bluetooth or USB enabled call our radios, and eventually cell phones. Finally, I have found that podcasting is just plain fun.

Several disadvantages that accompany podcasting do exist, some of which are related to the use of any technology:

1.       Podcasting is still in its early stages of development and so finding those that are valuable and meaningful to you may be somewhat difficult. Relatedly, although the number of podcasts is growing in leaps and bounds, many are personal and amateurish which will probably not be useful to you other than for entertainment purposes.

2.       Like everything else on the Web, podcasts are not regulated. Pornographers, bigots, bullies, and others have also discovered podcasts as a powerful method for disseminating information. This information is currently limited to audio although video podcasts or v-casts are already in development. Anyone who has the knowledge, including children, can easily access a range of smut or obscene matter.

3.       Technology, computers, and the Internet seem to have become a ubiquitous component of life in the United States, yet there still exists a digital divide among the "haves" and the "have-nots." High speed Internet connections, computers, MP3 players, microphones, etc. do cost money which may prevent the economically disadvantaged from benefitting from this promising emerging technology.

4.       Lastly, the development of podcasting emphasizes once again the importance of media literacy among youth and adults alike. Evaluating, choosing, and using information presents challenges that, if not managed, can leave us unbalanced, unfocused, and in a state of deterioration.

          The potential for how podcasts can become a useful tool for mass communication in the school counseling profession is only beginning. For instance, school counselors can share best practices with each other, essentially having access to “on-demand professional development.” Consider the motivational effects of students developing their own podcasts. Students could create a series of podcasts specifically for their parents that describe their learning experiences and inform them of school activities. Busy parents could listen to the podcasts on their commute to work. Imagine a peer helper model where K-12 students develop a podcast series to which other students listen and learn more about how to advance their competencies in key guidance and counseling areas delineated by the ASCA National Model® (ASCA, 2005). Try your hand by listening to CouselorAudioSource.Net (CAS; http://www.counseloraudiosource.net/), a weekly podcast designed for practicing counselor's personal and professional development. The CAS Podcast typically features a 20-40 minute interview with a practicing counselor or counselor educator on a topic relevant to the support and growth of the practicing counselor.

Internet Conferencing

          With the increased proliferation of high speed Internet access, more powerful computers, and the need to work on a more global scale comes an increasing popularity in the use of Internet conferencing technology. These programs or services provide users with multi-point data conferencing, text chat, audio/video chat, whiteboard, file transfer, as well as application sharing. The Internet conferencing environment is similar to a live conference which allows a presenter to speak, present multimedia slides, conduct polls, allow for questions and answers, share handouts (in the form of files), point to websites, and share other visuals from his or her computer. In most cases, participants can also interact among themselves via a simultaneous phone conference. The cost of these programs range from free to 39¢ per minute per participant. Following are a few of the more popular online conferencing tools: 

•         Microsoft NetMeeting (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/).

•         Microsoft Office Live Meeting (http://www.microsoft.com/office/rtc/livemeeting/)

•         GoToMeeting (http://www.gotomeeting.com)

•         WebEx (http://www.webex.com/)

•         Macromedia Breeze (http://www.adobe.com/products/breeze/)

Social Networking

          In addition to professional development, counselors who attend conferences report that “networking” with others is another reason why they attend these meetings. Face to face networking provides counselors with new ideas, opportunities for partnering and collaborating, support, and usually inspiration. Until now, these networks were primarily designed for use among adults for both professional and personal fulfillment. For business and industry, social networks connects buyers and sellers, employers and prospects, and otherwise facilitates the sharing of business opportunities and contacts. For example, sites such as http://openBC.com, http://spoke.com, http://ryze.com, and http://zerodegrees.com help a user to set up their own Internet space to store contacts, invite others to join his/her own network, and ultimately search across the extended network for individuals and organizations that can help the user achieve his/her business, career and/or personal goals.

          These networks can grow very quickly and be quite effective at making important business contacts. For example, on the Spoke Web site, a user completes a simple personal profile (e.g name, title, company, contact information) and then clicks a button marked "build network." A program is then downloaded from the Spoke website that mines the user's Outlook e-mail and contact database for information about who he/she knows and how frequently he/she maintains contact with them. In a few minutes, the user's new, online "Spoke book'" is populated not only with the hundreds or thousands of contacts he/she had manually entered into his/her Outlook contacts list, but also with everyone she/he had ever exchanged e-mail with from that e-mail account. Spoke also rates the strength of these relationships based on how often and how recently the user e-mailed with each person, as well as whether he/she was the only recipient of a message or was simply part of a larger distribution list.

          Social networking technologies can help counselors network all year around, perhaps as a supplement to live networking. For instance, one of the most popular social networking services is MySpace (http://myspace.com). At MySpace, a counselor can create a private community and share photos, journals, e-mails, classifieds, music, start/join interest groups, blog, discuss issues, and share events with a growing network of mutual colleagues and/or friends. Other similar social networks of interest include Friendster (http://www.friendster.com/), LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/), Xanga (http://www.xanga.com), Yahoo! 360° (http://360.yahoo.com), and Face book (http://www.facebook.com/). Also realize, however, that social network sites may contain inappropriate content for young children.

Social Bookmarking

          Social bookmarking is an online process that allows users to save and categorize a personal (or professional) collection of bookmarks or favorites and share them with others. Users may also take bookmarks saved by others and add them to their own collection, as well as to subscribe to the lists of others. This means that we can use our collective judgement to “pool” what we deem as valuable websites. One social bookmarking site, del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/), has become very popular because of its ease of use, tagging abilities (i.e., one can sort bookmarks using different tags or categories), and sharing features.

References and other Selected Readings

American School Counselor Association. (2005). The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs (2^nd Ed.) Alexandria, VA: Author.

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Bloom, J. W. (1998). The ethical practice of webcounseling.” British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 26(1), p. 53-59.

Cairo, P. C., & Kanner, M. S. (1984). Investigating the effects of computerized approaches to counselor training. Counselor Education and Supervision, 24, 212-221.

Casey, J. A., Bloom, J. W., & Moan, E. R. (1994). Use of technology in counselor supervision. In L. D. Borders (Ed.), Counseling supervision. Greensboro: University of North Carolina, ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 372 357)

Chapman, W., & Katz, M. R. (1983). Career information systems in the secondary schools: A survey and assessment. Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 32, 165-177.

Croft, V. (1991). Technological literacy: Refined for the profession, applications for the classroom. Unpublished paper presented at the 1991 annual conference of the International Technology Education Association.

D’Andrea, M. (1995). Using computer technology to promote multicultural awareness among elementary school-age students. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 30(1), p. 45-55.

Fanning, J. M. (1994). Integrating academics and technology: Uncovering staff development needs. In J. Willis, B. Robin, & D. A. Willis (Eds.). Technology and Teacher Education Annual, 1994 (pp. 331-334). Washington, DC: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.

Friery, K. & Nelson, J. G. (2004). Using technology to develop a high school career awareness workshop: The REACH program. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, Vol. 48(6), p. 40-42.

Froehle, T. C. (1984). Computer-assisted feedback in counseling supervision. Counselor Education and Supervision, 24, 168-175.

Glover, B. L. (1995). DINOS (drinking is not our solution): Using computer programs in middle school drug education. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 30, 55-62.

Haring-Hidore, M. (1984). In pursuit of students who do not use computers for career guidance. Journal of Counseling and Development, 63, 139-140.

Harris, J. (1972). Computer-assisted guidance systems. Washington, DC: National Vocational Guidance Association.

Hayden, M. (1989). What is technological literacy? Bulletin of science, technology and society, 119, 220-233, STS press.

How blogs work. (Retrieved December 21, 2005). Howstuffworks. [Online]. Available: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/blog.htm

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Internet World Stats (July 28, 2006). Internet usage statistics - the big picture: World internet users and population stats. [Online]. Available: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

International Technology Education Association. (2000). Standards for technological literacy: Content for the study of technology. International Technology Education Association. [Online]. Available: http://www.iteaconnect.org/TAA/Publications/STL/STLMainPage.htm

Jackson, M.L., & Davidson, C.T. (1998). The web we weave: Using the Internet for counseling research; Part I. Counseling Today, 39(2).

Katz, M. R., & Shatkin, L. (1983). Characteristics of computer-assisted guidance. The Counseling Psychologist, 11(4), 15-31.

Kivlighan, D. M., Jr., Johnston, J. A., Hogan, R. S., & Mauer, E. (1994). Who benefits from computerized career counseling? Journal of Counseling & Development, 72, 289-292.

Koufman-Frederick, A., Lillie, M., Pattison-Gordon, L., Watt, D.L., & Carter, R. (1999). Electronic Collaboration: A Practical Guide for Educators. Providence, RI: The LAB at Brown University. [Online]. Available: http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/collab/elec-collab.pdf

Lago, C. (1996). Computer therapeutics. Counselling, 7, 287-289.

McClure, P.A. (1996, May/June). Technology plans and measurable outcomes. Educom Review, 31(3).

Myrick, R.D, & Sabella, R.A. (1995). Cyberspace: New place for counselor supervision. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling. 30(1), p. 35-44.

Neukrug, E. S. (1991). Computer-assisted live supervision in counselor skills training. Counselor Education and Supervision, 31, 132-138.

Owen, S., & Heywood, J. (1988). Transition technology in Ireland. International Journal of Research in Design and Technology Education, 1(1).

Pyle, K. R. (1984). Career counseling and computers: Where is the creativity? Journal of Counseling and Development, 63, 141-144.

Rogers, C.R., (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21, 95-103.

Rust, E. B. (1995). Applications of the International Counselor Network for elementary and middle school counseling. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 30, 16-25.

Sabella, R.A. (1996). School counselors and computers: Specific time-saving tips. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 31(2), p. 83-96.

Sabella, R.A. (1998). Practical technology applications for peer helper programs and training. Peer Facilitator Quarterly, 15(2), p. 4-13.

Sabella, R.A. (2003). SchoolCounselor.com: A friendly and practical guide to the World Wide Web. (2^nd ed). Minneapolis, MN: Educational Media Corporation.

Sabella, R. A. (2005). What are school counselors doing with technology? [Online]. Available: http://www.schoolcounselor.com/pdf/counseling-technology-activities.pdf

Sabella, R.A. (Retrieved August 1, 2006). Scaling towards success. Guidance Channel Ezine. Available online http://www.guidancechannel.com/default.aspx?M=a&index=1326&cat=15

Sabella, R.A. (In press). School counseling and technology. In Wittmer, J. & Clark, M.A. (Editors), Managing Your School Counseling Program (3^rd ed). Minneapolis, MN: Educational Media Corporation.

Sabella, R.A., & Booker, B. (2003). Using technology to promote your guidance and counseling program among stake holders. Professional School Counseling, Vol. 6(3), p. 206-213.

Sampson, J. P., Jr. (1990). Computer-assisted testing and the goals of counseling psychology. The Counseling Psychologist, 18, 227-239.

Sampson, J.P., Jr., & Krumboltz, J.D. (1991). Computer-assisted instruction: A missing link in counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 69, 395-397.

Sampson, J.P., Kolodinsky, R.W., & Greeno, B.P. (1997). Counseling on the information highway: Future possibilities and potential problems. Journal of Counseling and Development, 75(3), p. 203-213.

Saskatchewan Education. 2002. Understanding the common essential learnings: A Handbook for Teachers. Regina, SK: Saskatchewan Education.

SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter Issue #33 - March 10, 2005. Retrieved March 10^th, 2005 from www.schoolcounselor.com/newsletter.

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Sharf, R. S., & Lucas, M. (1993). An assessment of a computerized simulation of counseling skills. Counselor Education and Supervision, 32, 254-266.

Shulman, H. A., Sweeney, B., & Gerler, E. R. (1995). A computer-assisted approach to preventing alcohol abuse: Implications for the middle school. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 30, 63-77.

Steffens, H. (1986). Issues in the preparation of teachers for teaching robotics in schools. In J. Heywood & P. Matthews (Eds.). Technology, society and the school curriculum. Manchester, England: Roundthorn Publishing.

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Tyler, J.M. & Sabella, R. A. (2004). Using technology to improve counseling practice: A primer for the 21^st century. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

Valesky, T. & Sabella, R. A. (2005). Podcasting in educational leadership and counseling. Paper presented at the Southern Regional Council on Educational Administration Conference (SRCEA), Atlanta, Georgia, October 27-30. [Online]. Available: http://coe.fgcu.edu/edleadership/podcasting.pdf

Waetjen, W. B. (1993). Technological Literacy Reconsidered. Journal of Technology Education Vol. 4(2). [Online]. Available: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v4n2/waetjen.jte-v4n2.html

Walz, G. R. (1996). Using the I-Way for career development. In R. Feller & G. Walz (Eds.), Optimizing life transitions in turbulent times: Exploring work, learning and careers. Greensboro: University of North Carolina, ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services. p. 415-427.