This morning I attended the May meeting of the Minnesota International Educators (MIE), hosted this time by Carleton College?in Northfield, Minnesota.
Minnesota is fortunate to have had such a strong professional group over the years. MIE was founded in 1982 by Florence Funk, then International Student Advisor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and Tom Carey, then Director of International Education at North Hennepin Technical College. The area District Immigration Office in Bloomington joined them early on to help facilitate communication between international students advisors and federal immigration officials.?
The helpful and respectful working relationship that has developed has been essential to area student advisors as they work with their international students and scholars. Immigration officials ?give updates (from their perspective) at each MIE meeting. Added to that mix is the involvement of attorney Scott Borene, a specialist in immigration law, who also gives updates (from his perspective). Being able to see all these viewpoints is incredibly helpful to eveyone's work.
Every time I attend an MIE meeting, I am almost overwhelmed as I begin to understand the knowledge and experience that my colleagues must have to work with international students and scholars on visa and immigration issues.?
At this meeting, I was particularly interested to hear of the continued development of technology tools within the field of immigration law, such as E-Verify, biometrics, etc. As I heard about new possibilities for incoming visa applications/forms being accepted over the Internet, I began to ponder the possibility of these documents and forms eventually being filled out and submitted by mobile phone. After all, there are parts of the world that have more Internet access through their mobile phones and devices than through standard wired computers.
I also wondered about how document imaging and storage systems (such as ScerIS and others) will develop at educational institutions, especially with the need to document so much with international students and scholars.
There was also a discussion about how MIE could begin to include more outstate colleagues in their meetings through technology. While some brought up telephone and video conferencing possibilities, I pointed out that there can be less expensive options, such as Ustream.tv. So a few of us will be trying out some technologies soon with the hope to be able to further help colleagues all over our state by including them in the MIE meetings from remote locations.
Once business was concluded, we stayed "international" and about 20 of us headed out to have a great buffet luncheon at Chapati, a local Indian restaurant in Northfield, where lively discussion continued.
If you're an international student/scholar advisor, what technology do you find helpful? not helpful? What are your favorite tools that help you do your job better?
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