Showing posts with label Teaching Millennials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teaching Millennials. Show all posts

Monday, August 1, 2016

30 Ways to Incorporate Teamwork in Higher Education Classrooms - A LEAP Texas Initiative


For the past four years, I've had a great time learning about higher education administration. It has been an incredible experience incorporating the key concepts and theories that I learned in graduate school everyday! From crisis communication to public relations, this has been daily learning experience!

One item that I really appreciate is the ability to teach while serving in higher education administration. I adore teaching undergraduate students and I love teaching graduate students as well. The social media teaching field requires me to teach and learn everyday! 


Last summer, I applied and I was selected as a Faculty Fellow for Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP Texas). Through this experience, I've been able to connect with other faculty fellows from across the state while learning additional concepts about teaching in higher education. I've learned about the core curriculum from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. In addition to the core, one of the most life changing items that I've learned includes key concepts about assessment and the LEAP Value Rubrics.

During my time as a fellow, it has been amazing to merge two of my higher education loves (teaching and social media). In the spring semester, I was very fortunate to present a Periscope (one of my favorite technologies) focused on "30 Ways to Incorporate Teamwork in Higher Education Classrooms". 



I enjoyed presenting this Periscope to the attendees and this scope is archived on the Leap Texas YouTube Account. Enjoy!
Please feel free to ask any questions about the LEAP Texas experience! In fact, applications are available as well! Here's the link! - 

Have a great week! Thanks for visiting the Millennial Professor Blog!

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Follow Me on Twitter/Instagram - @drjtedwards
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Monday, September 21, 2015

When Academic Interests and Administrative Interests Positively Collide


As a mid-level higher education administrator, it is important realize how your academic field positively affects your administrative work. This has been especially evident for me during this past academic year when my academic interests and administrative interests collided in four beneficial ways.


Employing a Communication Intern (Social Media Coach) Who Works in Our Office (Social Media)
Our communication intern is absolutely wonderful and she has amazing ideas about how to reach students (from a student mindset). She is also learning about social media along the way: crafting effective posts, deciphering the analytics for the student success and multicultural initiatives social media channels, and blogging about student success from a student's perspective. Here's her blog for our area: http://tarletonssmi.blogspot.com/


Crafting E-Mail Messages with the Current and Potential Readers in Mind (Target Audience Approach) (Fundamentals of Speech Communication)
When writing any e-mail message for students, faculty, or staff, I always strive to write the message for the audience and to avoid any potentially interesting responses by never utilizing the BCC line and sparsely utilizing the CC line. This is especially important when conversing about interesting issues in higher education. I always reply to the original sender and almost never include the individuals carbon copied on the e-mail, because your sender intended for this message to go to you, you do not have permission to reply to every cc'ed on the e-mail. Also, never send e-mails that you do not intend for others (in addition to the intended party) to read.


Creating Publications (and Videos) that Others Will Want to Read (Mass Media)
This semester, student success and multicultural initiatives created an infographic instead of a bulky (and potentially unread) annual report for the university's faculty, staff, and students. In this infographic, the data is presented in an engaging (and graphical) way and I think the intended parties are more likely to understand what we do in student success and multicultural initiatives instead of sending the data-based message in a report.


Forming Mentoring Groups for Mothers and Faculty of Color (and Other Underrepresented Populations) - Intercultural Communication
Last year, we formed a university mother's group and a group of diverse faculty members. Our membership for both groups ranges between 25 and 60 members. These groups serve as wonderful sounding boards for the mothers and diverse faculty and they also gain ideas and form research collaborations. Both of the aforementioned groups helped me through my journey as a new mother and I wish that I had the faculty of color group when I persisted through the tenure track.


Each of the aforementioned skills (and associated courses) continue to make an imprint on my life as a mid-level administrator on a daily basis. I am thankful for delightful and fulfilling experiences in the classroom as well as working with an amazing group of academic leaders at the university. Administrative experiences make academic experiences richer and academic experiences make administrative experiences richer. We become more because we teach, we reach more because we serve others through administrative duties in higher education.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
- Twitter/Instagram - @drjtedwards
- http://www.facebook.com/millennialprofessor/
- drjtedwards at gmail.com

Friday, January 2, 2015

Making the Switch from Teaching Undergraduate Students to Teaching Graduate Students


During the past few years, this millennial's life has been filled with CHANGE! New baby, new job, and NOW a change in teaching. Starting this month, I will teach my first graduate course. In the past, I've taught independent study graduate courses, but I am looking forward to teaching my first full group of graduate students.

This spring, the course will focus on social media technology and how it can be utilized in the work context. I hope to have several guest speakers (bloggers and other individuals from the industry) and to engage with the students in various interactive experiences (it is an online course). I definitely plan to utilize Google Communities and a few Twitter chats.

I definitely think that I would like to incorporate an "applicable" research project to create a finished product (perhaps an e-book), but I am still thinking about the possibilities.

Ideas are much appreciated!

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Wandering Wednesdays - Why Students Plagiarize (A Neat Webcast from TurnItIn.com)

Reader,

I strive to educate the students in my classes about the importance of avoiding plagiarism and the importance of attribution when writing scholarly papers. In my opinion, this is one of the most important aspects of higher education. 

View this podcast about plagiarism and higher education from TurnItIn.com, "Why Students Plagiarize".




What do you think? Neat software and neat approach!
Sincerely, 

J. Edwards - Millennial Professor
http://www.facebook.com/millennialprofessor/millennialprofessor@gmail.com -  @DrSocialMediaTX 

Thursday, April 26, 2012

A Month of College Teaching Tips - Tip #19: Communicating with Students Via Text Messaging


Readers,

Every semester, I adopt a new teaching method. Usually, this teaching method is technology-related, but sometimes it is more focused on face-to-face student engagement. 

Text Messaging
I started TEXT MESSAGING with my students. It is amazing, because the students respond almost immediately and they are provided with an immediate response from me as well. I appreciate this mobile technology and I admit that I was not completely sold on mobile technologies for teaching, but I absolutely love this one!

Google Voice
I do not use my personal cell phone number to communicate with the students, but I use Google Voice to communicate with them. Google Voice transcribes their voice messages and also provides an automatic notification for users on iPads and iPods. This has been a great technology to adopt!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Friday, February 24, 2012

College Professors - The "Good" , The "Bad", and the "Under Improvement" -


Readers,

Every year, the Carnegie Foundation sponsors its U.S. Professors of the Year program. 

This program honors professors from four categories:

Outstanding Baccalaureate Colleges Professor

Community Colleges Professor

Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities' Professor

Outstanding Master's Universities and Colleges Professor

Nominate one of your colleagues! - http://www.usprofessorsoftheyear.org/Nominations.html

Here are the highlight's from last year's competition:

Sincerely,

J. Edwards
Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Thursday, February 23, 2012

College Professors - The "Good" , The "Bad", and the "Under Improvement" -


Readers,

My dissertation focused on supports for and barriers to on-time graduation. One of the more interesting parts of the manuscript were focused on the students' perceptions of good and bad professors. Here's a neat video focused on one student's perspective of good and bad professors

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

College Professors - The "Good" , The "Bad", and the "Under Improvement" - Top Ten Ways to Impress Your College Professor (Psychology Today)


Readers,

I admit, I am the professor who is "under construction". I am always on the lookout for new teaching techniques and tips to help my online and face-to-face students learn the course content. I am one of the only professors in my department who constantly checks out books in the library and via interlibrary loan to learn about new teaching methods to incorporate in my classroom.

This week is dedicated to a few teaching topics that are focused on GOOD TEACHING from various perspectives. The following video is definitely not an example of "good teaching":


Sincerely,

J. Edwards 


Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Monday, February 20, 2012

College Professors - The "Good" , The "Bad", and the "Under Improvement"




Readers,

This article, "The Top Ten Ways to Impress Your College Professor", focuses on the various ways that students can make a positive impression on their professor. This also means that the professor must be open to working with students as well.

Read this article and please tell me what you think about the advice that the author is giving our students.

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Happy Finals Prep-Week! - The Mini-Mental Vacation (Professors and TV Series)




http://blog.hootmag.org/

Readers,

During finals prep week, I allow myself to do SOMETHING to veg out for a few minutes each day! This rest enables me to focus on other activities that comprise my daily mini-mental vacation! Every semester the mini-mental vacation is always focused on a different activity. Past semesters focused on television series (thank Netflix)! I admit, I love Bones, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, and Mad Men! Yes, I have reached the semi-middle-aged threshold that looks forward to the 5pm and 10pm news! 

This year, I focused my efforts on Pinterest (because I do not have time for anything else). :) Next week, I will focus on how college professors can use Pinterest in their classrooms.

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Tenure Revisited (4/5) - The Barry B. Thompson Service Award & Texas A&M University System's Teaching Excellence Award for Teaching Excellence


Readers,

This past spring, I was very blessed to receive two wonderful awards from my university! These awards were the Barry B. Thompson Service Award (LINK) and the Texas A&M University System's Teaching Excellence Award for Teaching Excellence (LINK). 

            

I hope these awards will help me in the tenure process because I work very hard in the classroom (and on the weekends). A wealth of people supported me in this tenure track process and when I am finally awarded tenure (if I am awarded tenure), I will dedicate this process to my family, colleagues, current/former students, and friends from across the nation.

Sincerely,

J. Edwards


Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Hello Fall 2011 (2/5) - Time Management Strategies for the Semester (Responding to E-mail)



Readers,

This semester, I decided that I need to refine my time management skills and to establish a better balance between work and personal life. I usually respond to messages from my online and face-to-face classes within an hour (or two), but this year, I think that I am going to move to a 12 hour time frame. Responding to e-mail messages can become a very time consuming process and I have to reduce the amount of time that I spend typing and retyping replies to e-mail messages.

Here are some time management strategies that I currently use:

1 - When a few students have the same question, I send the students an initial response and then I send the response to all students in a question and answer format.

2 - I save ALL of my received messages and sent messages every semester. The pdf documents from each semester have helped me to form a wonderful repository of message replies. Then, I copy and paste the answers to questions that I typically encounter every semester. :)

Here are some time management strategies that I plan to use:

1 - Replying to students within a 12 hour time frame (while I am at work and during office hours at home).

2  - Typing responses on my iPad. For some reason, I dislike my pop-up iPad keyboard and I started using the Apple bluetooth keyboard instead of the keyboard on the screen. I love this keyboard MUCH better than the keyboard on the screen!


Do you have any suggestions for me? I value your suggestions! :)

Sincerely,

J. Edwards
Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Thursday, August 25, 2011

New Semester Prep Week (4/5) - The Importance of the Syllabus in Teaching (Stony Brook University)



Readers,

I strive to incorporate a video (or two) at least once a week in my lectures. As I prepare for the fall semester, I wanted to check to see if there were any videos focused on the syllabus and/or the importance of the syllabus in the college classroom. Stony Brook University had some very informational videos about this subject:

Stony Brook University - The Importance of the Syllabus in Teaching (Part 1)



Stony Brook University - The Importance of the Syllabus in Teaching (Part 2)


Enjoy!

J. Edwards



Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

New Semester Prep Week (3/5) - (Wandering Wednesdays) - "Murphy’s Pondering Tree: Mark II" Blog


http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanfordedtech/ (Open Source)

Readers,

This week's Wandering Wednesday post is focused on the "Murphy’s Pondering Tree: Mark II" blog. The author, Steven Francis Murphy, serves as an adjunct instructor of history at a community college. His recent posts are focused on the upcoming semester:




Enjoy!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards



Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

New Semester Prep Week (2/5) - "Why Checklists Work"



Readers,

The Profhacker blog is famous for a wealth of wonderful posts focused on teaching, technology, and productivity tips. Recently, Natalie Houston (one of the ProfHacker writers), wrote a great piece titled "Why Checklists Work". 


Based on the book, The Checklist Manifesto, this post was very informative for professors who strive to become more productive in the fall semester. This was VERY exciting for me, because I use checklists on a daily basis!

In her post, she focuses on the following:

1 - Two Kinds of Checklists

*Read-Do

*Do-Confirm

2 - Creating Your Checklist

*Keep it simple.

*Make it usable.

*Try it out and edit as necessary.



Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.
Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41
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Thursday, May 12, 2011

From College to Career - Helping College Students Prepare for their Post-College Career

Readers,


One of my favorite times of the year is the biannual graduation ceremony. I love to see our students walk across the stage to end one part of their lives and to begin a new journey as a post-college professional. I take pictures like I am a family member and I post these pictures on our department's Facebook page. However, before I start celebrating the students' accomplishments on their graduation day, I start working with the students on the application process and I emphasize the importance of networking.


This semester, we read one of my favorite books, "From College to Career" by Lindsay Pollack. This has been one of the best career-related books that I have ever read. In addition, after the class presentation focused on the book, several students wanted to purchase the book for their personal libraries.


In addition to the presentation on the book, I wish that I could have shown the students this presentation from ABC News:




Enjoy!


Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Make Their Day! A Different Approach to Motivating Undergraduate Students in Communication Studies Classrooms






Readers,


During the past few weeks, I started emphasizing the FISH Philosophy in my Organizational Communication course. This philosophy has four components: play, make their day, be there, and choose your attitude. One of the components that I emphasized in all of my communication studies classes in to "make their day". I am one of those eccentric communication professors who always walks to class with a briefcase in one hand and a candy container in the other hand. I use the candy container to provide incentives for the brave students who choose to provide answers or contribute stories of their personal experiences during class.


This week, I decided to incorporate my love of coupons and deals with my passion of teaching college students (like my blog). I decided to obtain as many "Free Oatmeal @ McDonalds" coupons as I possibly could in a short amount of time. At the end of my coupon collection period, I ended up with 60 coupons in all. This collection process enabled me to give "free food" coupons to my hungry college students as incentives. They LOVED it and they were very thankful for the sweet incentive. As a result of this great experience, I plan to obtain a lot of coupons from local restaurants to give as incentives to my college students to feed their mind and their hunger! :)


THINK ABOUT IT - What do you think? Additional ideas?


Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Monday, March 7, 2011

One Educator's Paperless Approach to Teaching Millennials

Readers,

One of my favorite bloggers, David Andrade (http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/) wrote about his paperless approach to his high school classroom. Higher education faculty and student affairs professionals can adopt some of these methods for their day-to-day activities as well!

Here are some of his wonderful ideas!

1. His students' lab reports, online work, and projects are all created electronically and submitted via e-mail or a web-based program. Then he grades the assignments on his mobile device.

2. He uses online resources(Google Docs, Discovery Education, web sites, and class blogs) in his classes instead of a textbook. In addition, he has access to the textbook pages and instructor resources in PDF format.

3. He stores information in "the cloud" (i.e. - Dropbox, Sugarsync, and Zumodrive), which enables him to access his documents at work, at home, and from any computer. 

4. He takes pictures of his whiteboard, students' posters, etc. and uploads the pictures on Evernote.

Here's the complete article - http://www.google.com/gwt/x?source=reader&u=http%3A%2F%2Fteachpaperless.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F02%2Funfettered-by-stuff-or-why-i-dont-lug.html

Amazing ideas! Share your teaching paperless ideas by typing in the comment box! :)

Sincerely,

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Undergraduates Sending Texts in Class - Yes, I Can See You!

Readers,

Do any of you have a policy focused on texting in class? Is this policy included on your course syllabus? I have a polcy listed on my syllabus and most of the students comply with the policy. My classes are generally engaging, but I've discovered that students who are not engaged by their professor during class tend to send text messages. Engage them and keep them accountable for their actions.

Also, I provide examples from the post-graduation world and I explain that they cannot text under a table during a business meeting or in the front of their future classrooms. I remind them that whatever they practice becomes a habit!

Read about other professors' experiences here -
Guilt Is Not Enough to Stop Students From Texting in Class - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

http://www.college-reporter.com/opinion/567-professors-arent-stupid
Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Potential Implications of Blogging and Tweeting in Higher Education

Readers,

I hope you are having a wonderful day! Recently, I started using my Twitter account again. I have a private Twitter account (drjtedwards) and public Twitter account (drjtedwardsTSU). Keeping both of these accounts updated on a regular basis is very difficult. I usually use the public Twitter account to communicate with my undergraduate students. I have a Twitter widget on my Blackboard homepage and this widget helps me to reach the undergraduate students who do not have a Twitter account.

Through this public account, I am able to establish social presence with online and face-to-face students. They are able to see and respond to my daily activities and ideas and I am able to help them with their questions about the course and questions about school (advising, financial aid, etc.). If I am not able to help them, I always post informative links to point them in the right direction.

When I post a Tweet, I always think about the potential implications of that tweet or blog post on my current career, future career, and interpersonal relationships. When you post information about yourself, this act enables other people to have power over your information. For example, after I finish this blog post, it will be syndicated by bots and posted on various websites.

Think before you post! Your post MIGHT affect your career!

Think Before You Tweet (or Blog or Update a Status) - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Here's the link to the article: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/think-before-you-tweet-or-blog-or-update-a-status/30949?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.