Wednesday, September 8, 2010

USA Today - Collegiate Case Studies (A Great Resource for College Faculty)



Higher Education Faculty,

If you are EVER looking for good case studies to help you emphasize key concepts in class, you might find a good one at USA Today!

The case studies are divided into three categories: business case studies, Hubble case studies, topical case studies, and student life/FYE case studies.

Each of these case studies are available in html and PDF format (for an easy download).

Here are some of the case studies:

Social Media's Effect on Marketing - Link

Curbing Campus Violence - Link

Media Literacy - Link

USA TODAY Collegiate Case Studies | USA TODAY College - A student focused web portal


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

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Blackboard Users: EMBEDDING is your BEST FRIEND!

Readers,


Since blackboard is my BEST friend, this summer I started embedding EVERYTHING. Surveys, rubrics, etc. I teach two courses online and two upper-level courses and it is not an easy process to change (or update a power point/document). Uploading is a cumbersome process and it requires users to:


1. Plug in the external drive.
2. Find the file.
3. Correct the file.
4. Log on to blackboard.
5. Find the course.
6. Find the document I need to replace.
7. Delete the document I need to replace.
8. Find my new document on the external drive (the corrected file).
9. Upload the corrected file.
10. Change the username.
*I have to go through these steps EVERY semester!


Now, with my favorite program of all time (Google Documents). I can create a document, embed the document, and add a link (for users who have a firewall).


Here are the steps that I follow:
1. Create the presentation.
2. Share the presentation (upper-right hand corner).
3. Embed the presentation on blackboard.


If I EVER need to update the document, I simply log on to my Google Docs account and correct the document without EVER logging on blackboard! Voila!


Here is a sample Google Presentation for my Intercultural Communication course:







Here is a sample Google Presentation for my Online Communication course:





There are numerous opportunities for Google Presentations! Any additional ideas?


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

Friday, September 3, 2010

My Co-Sponsored Fall Project - “Diversity and Communication” Research Symposium



Readers,

Good afternoon! This semester, my colleague and I received a "Real-World Experiences Applied to Learning Real" (Keeping it R.E.A.L.) grant for undergraduate research and to plan our conference. Yay!

This conference is open to students (undergraduate and graduate), faculty, and staff. We are PLEASED that the grant committee picked our project! Here is the call for proposals I sent this afternoon:

If you are interested in presenting, please let me know! :)

Sincerely,

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



The Tarleton State University – Communication Studies Department will sponsor a “Diversity and Communication” Research Symposium on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 in TSU Dining Hall.

The conference planning committee is seeking panel and paper submissions from STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF focused on, but not limited to the following topics:

- Cross-Generational Communication (i.e. – baby boomers communicating with millennials)
- Small Group Communication and Diversity
- Organizational Communication and Diversity
- Instructional Communication and Diversity
- Social Media and Diversity
- Political Communication
- Interpersonal Relationships and Diversity
- Great Ideas For Teaching Education and Diversity (G.I.F.T.E.D.)
- Communication in Student Organizations and Diversity
- Diversity Programming Ideas


Panels (including roundtables and discussions) or papers/abstracts are possible forms of submission. Panels: Include a title, 100 word abstract, name of the contact person, and names, emails, affiliations, and addresses of all participants.

Papers/Paper Abstracts: Maximum length is 25 pages (excluding tables & references)
for a full paper submission or a one page abstract (with the expectation of a full paper at least two weeks before the conference). Include a separate title page to
conceal the author(s)’ identity. Title page should contain a 100-word abstract. Remove all author references. Designate “Student Authored” papers. *Full papers will be given priority over abstract submissions.
***Awards will be given for the Top Faculty/Staff Papers and Top Student Papers***

Deadline: Complete the conference submission form (http://www.tinyurl.com/diversityandcommunicationform/) AND e-mail papers/panels to Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards (
jtedwards@tarleton.edu) no later than Friday, October 15, 2010 (midnight CST).

Attachments: E-mail submissions as e-mail attachments in MS Word (2003 or 2007) or Rich Text format.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards (jtedwards@tarleton.edu) and Prof. Cristi Horton (horton@tarleton.edu) via e-mail or telephone (254-968-9638).

***We are also seeking conference sponsors (on-campus and community sponsors). If your department is interested in co-sponsoring this conference, please contact us.***

Thursday, September 2, 2010

My REAL Experience: Training 90 Undergraduate Students How to Use Google Docs!

Readers,


Good morning! Yesterday was the SECOND day of classes (MWF) and I trained over 90 students to use Google Documents. A colleague and I received a "Real-Word Experiences Applied to Learning" institution grant for our upper-level communication courses and our learning outcomes include collaborative research for undergraduate students. The students will conduct research on diversity and communication to write a paper and to present the results at the Tarleton State University - Communication Studies Department's "Diversity and Communication - Research Symposium" (which will also include papers and panels from faculty and staff)! 


Not surprisingly (if you know me), we decided to use Google Documents for each of the student research groups. At the beginning of the workshop, the training was chaotic. Some students have a Google Documents account and other students do not have an account. This means that I had to help the students create an account for Google Documents. Many of the students actually used their university e-mail to create their Google account.


Before class, I created fifteen research documents (one document per group) and I added each of the students to the research groups at the end of the class period.


Then, I exposed the students to several "neat" aspects of the new Google Documents software. Here are items the students really liked:


a. Each of you can type on the document simultaneously! In fact, you can see each other's comments by their colored cursor.


b. You can CHAT with your group members while you type your sections of the document.


c. You can double-check the document to verify that your group members edited the document at a certain time.


d. If you EVER need to view a prior version of the document, you can! In fact, you can revert to a prior version.


e. You can send e-mail to your group members through the document!


f. The new version has MARGINS and COMMENTS you can create in the side bar (instead of comments directly on the document).


g. The document saves your data AUTOMATICALLY!


Overall, the students were REALLY impressed with this cloud computing software and I cannot wait to see them edit their document! :)


One unrelated comment - My training sessions were in the morning and my colleague's class (and training sessions) was held in the afternoon. So, I stood up for almost four hours! :) If you conduct a similar training, please make sure you wear comfortable shoes!


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