Google+ Emphasis Week - Google Hangouts...in a few weeks...

Readers,

In a few weeks, I will focus on Google Hangouts! I have been using Google Hangouts while teaching my online classes this semester and conducting meetings. This online software has been especially helpful when meeting with people on campus or at other locations. In fact, we have used Google Hangouts for our Texas Social Media Research Institute workshops all semester (for people who are not on our campus).

I cannot wait to use Google Hangouts my future classes!

Sincerely,

Dr. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Google+ Emphasis Week - Google+ in Higher Education

Readers,

Here's a great resource titled, "31 Ways to Use Google+ in Higher Education".

Sincerely,

Dr. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Google+ Emphasis Week - Google+ and Higher Education

Readers,

Here is a neat web page focused on Google+ and Higher Education. http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/+/university.

This website focuses on the following...

• Profile

• Circles

• Hangouts

• Stream

• Mobile

• Search

Here's how I use social networking in higher education...

I am friends with my students on Google Plus, but I have made a conscious effort not to become friends with my current students on Facebook. I do not use Google+ for assignments, but I do use Twitter for extra credit assignments.

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Google+ Emphasis Week - What Exactly IS Google Plus?

Readers,

Recently, I have been using Google+ as my new social network. I have been an avid user of the Google+ network since last summer. My network and my circles are not large, but I enjoy connecting with others on the network. :)

Find out some additional information about the Google+ network.

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

The Year in Review - Top 10 Wired Campus Blog Posts in 2011 & Freebie Friday!

Readers,

I am an avid blog reader and sometimes it becomes overwhelming to visit my Google Reader and to read all of this wonderful information from various authors from across the world! Here are some great lists from various sources focused on the top higher education blogs in 2011! 

Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus - 10 Most-Popular Wired Campus Articles of 2011

Here are the top three articles from their list:

1 - Pearson and Google Jump Into Learning Management With a New, Free System

2 - NYU Prof Vows Never to Probe Cheating Again—and Faces a Backlash

3 - Students Push Their Facebook Use Further Into Course Work

Readers - Here is our last FREEBIE of the year! Something for YOU and for your students!

Free $10 Kindle Textbook Credit! - Prior to making a purchase, enter the code ETXTBOOK and click the "apply" button. Your $10.00 credit will be automatically applied to your amazon account. This offer is valid from December 30, 2011 to January 9, 2012. PLEASE tell your students about this great offer!

Click Here to Learn about this Offer from Amazon!

Enjoy!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Pinterest in Higher Education Series (#PinterestinHigherEd & Febreze Freebie Friday) - 5/5 Ways to Use Pinterest in the College Classroom Environment (My Pinterest Boards)

Readers,

Today is the DAY that I share my boards with you! Many of my colleagues (from my university and conferences) and a lot of my students are on the Pinterest website as well! Here's my Pinterest Account - Follow Me! :) 

I have 16 Boards and here are a few...

Academic Life and College

Millennial Research

Organizational Tips

Fantastic Food Ideas for Meetings and Home

Eco Ideas - Green Lifestyle

****I plan to work on a social media board and an infographics board very soon! :)

Also, here's a freebie, because it IS freebie Friday! I love to place a Febreze plug-in on the walls of my house and in my office. These plug-ins create a holiday ambiance for the students (as well as myself during the grading process).

Febreze NOTICEables Trade-Up Program ($3.50 Check via Mail)

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Pinterest in Higher Education Series (#PinterestinHigherEd) - 4/5 Ways to Use Pinterest in the College Classroom Environment (Cruising Boards)

Readers,

Yes, I am ENJOYING the Pinterest blog topic! As I write this post, I am pursing boards and pins to place on this post. I plan to post at least 15-20 blog posts that might be relevant for your college courses.

Here's a disclaimer - There are A WEALTH of boards created by primary and secondary teachers. USE these boards to create your higher education boards and gain ideas for your research. For example, here is a board from DoReMiGirl (I assume she is a elementary school teacher).

On her "Around the School Teaching" board, she has a few great ideas and infographics that can be used in various college classes.

Bucket List - Great for goal formation.

Bucket-O-Fun (Featuring ping pong balls) - Great for an extemporaneous speaking activity or reflection activity!

Just What Does Your State Do Best - Great for presentations

Here's another great board from Ryan Paul Smith titled, "Images for Presentations"

http://pinterest.com/ryanpaulsmith/images-for-presentations/

Enjoy! Please let me know if you find another board or if you have great ideas for the Pinterest website in higher education.

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Pinterest in Higher Education Series (#PinterestinHigherEd & Wandering Wednesdays) - 3/5 Ways to Use Pinterest in the College Classroom Environment (Gaining Teaching Ideas via Pinterest))

Readers,

This week's Wandering Wednesday post is focused on a local university, Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. Their Center Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) always has a WEALTH of great and inspiring blog posts - LINK. In November, Amy Collier posted an awesome post titled, "Some Thoughts on Teaching with Pinterest"

In her post, she focuses on the following:

1 - Emphasis on visuals and visual appeal.

2 - Easy collecting and sharing of topics, ideas, and interests.

3 - Easy management and organization of resources.

Here is her teaching and learning board on Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/amcollier/teaching-in-higher-ed/

Thanks for some amazing ideas!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Pinterest in Higher Education Series (#PinterestinHigherEd) - 2/5 Ways to Use Pinterest in the College Classroom Environment (Finding and Organizing Infographics)

Readers,

One way to use Pinterest in Higher Education is to search for and organize infographics! Lately, I have started to use infographics in my upper-level communication classes and also in the Texas Social Media Research Institute's (TSMRI) events/activities.

Now for definitions! A infographic is a pictorial representation of data in a potentially engaging format. <- Hey, I just made that up! ;) 

Personally, I think that infographics will replace conference poster presentations in the next few years! The images seems to be more engaging than a traditional poster format. Which is GREAT for conference presentations, because you want the participants to visit YOUR poster! :) 

Also, students can use their self-created, infographics on blogs and in their in-class presentations. The only downside is the preponderance of ink that might be used to create the "infographic poster".

Pinterest can be used to ORGANIZE your infographics! Here's an example of one user's infographic boards on higher education (among other issues) - http://pinterest.com/hexiaobo/infographics/

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Pinterest in Higher Education Series (#PinterestinHigherEd) - 1/5 Ways to Use Pinterest in the College Classroom Environment

Readers,

This semester, when I needed some downtime outside of the university, I started visiting the Pinterest website on my computer and iPad (thanks Melissa)! One of my students introduced me to this wonderful resource and I have been HOOKED on this pictorial social media networking website.


I always ask my students, "How can you use XYZ website as a scholarly or organizational tool as well as the social tool?" Now, I will have to ask myself the same question, "How can I use Pinterest as a research, classroom-based, or organizational tool?"


This week, I developed a few strategies and activities for using Pinterest as a social networking tool in higher education. Let me know what you think!


Sincerely,


J. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Teaching Organizational Communication Online - Summer Reflection

Readers,

I enjoy teaching Organizational Communication online every summer. This opportunity enables me to interact with students from our three campuses (Fort Worth, Stephenville, and Waco) and TAMU Central Texas through the internet. I value this experience because each of the students in the course brings a wealth of diversity to the virtual classroom.


This year, we created an online training and development handbook for non-profit organizations and small businesses who are interested in using social media for communication within their organization. Very interesting project.


We used Google Documents to create the 10 sections of the handbook. The students focused on Google Documents, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instant Messenger, and other social media technologies. 

The handbook will debut at the Social Media Conference at Tarleton State University on Friday, December 2, 2011. I think it will be a great, free resource for organizations who are interested in using social media. :)

Also, service learning projects are usually not incorporated in online courses and I think it will be a great opportunity for other professors who are interested in service learning in the online classroom.

Enjoy!


Sincerely,


J. Edwards

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

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Eight Ways to Protect Your Facebook Privacy - A Great Article from USA Today!

Readers,


Recently, I received an e-mail from a colleague from another university in Texas and she was wondering how I handle Facebook friendships with students. I stated that I did not become friends with my current students on Facebook, but I did become friends with students who recently graduated from our communication program. The only exceptions to this rule are students from student organizations whom I advise through service roles at my university.


USA Today's Tech and Trends featured an article titled, "Eight Ways to Protect Your Facebook Privacy". Through this article, readers can discover how to protect themselves from internet hackers and unwanted communication from friends (and those who are not friends) on social networking websites. 


Here are the main privacy suggestions in the article...
1 - Who Can See What
2 - Place Your Friends on Lists
3 - Who Can Find You
4 - Browse Facebook Securely
5 - Who is Logging In as You?
6 - Which Apps Know You?
7 - Even Your Friends' Apps Know You, Too
8 - Who Can Post On Your Wall


Overall, the article is extremely informative and I think the most important part of the article was under the "who is logging in as you" subheading. I was able to look under my privacy settings to discover that my iPad was currently logged on to Facebook (however it states that I am logged in to Facebook in another location). Hmmm... However, great read!


Sincerely,


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

» Blog Archive » Texas A&M Launches Social Media Scavenger Hunt Texas A&M News & Information Services

Readers,

This should be VERY interesting! Texas A&M University is launching a campus-wide scavenger hunt! According to the A&M News and Information Services website (LINK):

Texas A&M University is teaming up with The Collegiate Licensing Company to launch a first-of-its-kind campus-wide social media scavenger hunt using smart phones. The scavenger hunt, scheduled for Jan. 25-26, is designed to encourage the university’s nearly 50,000 students to explore their 5,200-acre campus as never before—and reward those checking into campus destinations using their smart phones.

What a great idea! Recently, I started using Four Square and I plan to visit each of the locations on the TAMU campus very soon!

Does your university have a similar program?

Sincerely,

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

Social Media in the Educational Environment (A Great Video!)

Readers,

I hope you are having a great summer! I am preparing for the fall semester and I plan to incorporate a wealth of social media in my upcoming courses. For the past few semesters, I incorporated Twitter and a small amount of Facebook. However, this semester, I plan to use del.icio.us, linked in, and Flickr in my new courses!

Here's a great video focused on social media in education!

Enjoy the video! Have a great week!


Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Ways to Move Your Facebook Fans to Action

Do you have a facebook fan page for your classroom or for your consultancy practice? Promote yourself AND interact with your fans!

Mari Smith at the Social Media Examiner offers 13 Ways to Move Your Facebook Fans to Action. This helpful post takes a look at strategies organizations with Facebook Pages can use to increase their Fans’ engagement levels. Here are the top 5 recommendations:

1. Ask questions
2. Use the words “you” or “your”
3. Keep it short
4. Post in high-traffic windows
5. Respond promptly

Visit the page and tell me what you think! :)

Millennial Professor

Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Facebook Has 109.7 Million Members (Double the Membership of Myspace)!

Millennials and Their Digital Dirt

Today, I am exhausted. I think that it has something to do with the time change (this is my first week back after spring break). Besides my exhaustion, we had three wonderful "Digital Dirt" presentations in class today. Career services always sponsors these presentations and I think they are very informative for our students.

The following topics always emerge in the discussion portion of the presentation:
a) employers do not have to right to look at our facebook profiles
b) what we do in our private lives is our business

These topics emerged today, but one student commented, "If we put it [the content] up there [on facebook], we should take responsibility for it [the content]." The career services representative was floored by the student's comment and I was excited that this freshman student had such a strong professional stance at this point of her academic career.

I administer a pre-test and post-test to gauge the students attitudes/perceptions of their facebook/myspace profiles. At this point, I think we have over 500 surveys. I cannot wait to run the stats!

Millennial Professor

Social Networking for Graduate Students

Why wasn't this website around when I was in graduate school?

One of my favorite research databases (Proquest) released a great website for graduate students. This website, Gradshare, enables graduate students to interact with one another by asking questions and sharing research interests. I imagine this website will play an important role in the graduate student job navigation process. Judging from the conversations I read on various message boards, I believe most colleges and universities will slow their hiring process during the next few months. As a result, such websites will prove themselves vital for graduate school students.

Link to the Gradshare website.

Millennial Professor

Millennials and Privacy

It seems that undergraduate millennial students who use facebook and myspace tend to have a false expectation of privacy on facebook and myspace. For the last few weeks, I have conducted experimental research on millennial undergraduate students and their perceptions of privacy on websites like facebook and myspace. All of the students took a pretest and post test, both of which measured the students' perceptions of privacy regarding social networking websites.

I invited a guest speaker to deliver a presentation to half of my classes. This speaker's presentation was focused social networking websites and their potential impact on the job search. During the presentations, students posed questions and offered comments regarding companies who check the facebook and myspace profiles of their job candidates. Many students did not agree with the "virtual background checks" that companies are conducting and they thought that these companies were invading their privacy. I collected qualitative and quantitative data from the groups who heard the guest speaker and the group who did not experience the presentation. I plan to use this information in a future research article.

This week I pose this question to all of you - Do millennials have a false sense of privacy on the web? Do they care? Do these students think about the impact of their virtual disclosures (pictures, comments, etc.)?

Professors Strike Back! - Professors on Facebook

If I were a freshman student, would I want to have my professor as a friend on facebook? Facebook is supposed to be a website that college students keep in contact with college students and alumni keep in contact with alumni (or any combination of the prior groups). Now the prevailing question is, "What happens with the professor happens to be a newly minted alumna/alum of an institution and is an active member of facebook?

Today, the New York Times released an article titled, "The Professor as Open Book". I received the article this morning via Google Reader (RSS feed). This article touches on the following topics:

• Ratemyprofessors.com -> Professors Strike Back (A television show that allows professors to verbally refute their students' negative comments on ratemyprofessors.com)
• Professors' Personal Decisions to Divulge Their Personal Information on Social Networking Websites.

My Analysis - I have a facebook profile that is private (my students cannot search for me). This profile affords me several benefits: (a) I can communicate with friends from my college years, (b) I can conduct research on facebook with students from other institutions, and (c) I am able to post pictures of family/friends without having undergraduates viewing them.

However, I think that professors should have a public profile that their students can access. Research has proven that professors who have public facebook profiles are more likely to have a positive relationship with their students. In addition, I strongly urge professors to practice professional demeanor on facebook.com.

Sometimes it is hard to do because there are so many features that jeopardize academic professionalism. For example, facebook users can take quizzes on their profiles that may not be very professional (Test Your Sex in the City IQ) or they also have to option to add applications (Send a Drink - alcoholic, non-alcoholic, water). I recently read an article about student affairs professionals and facebook.com - Best Practices Among Student Affairs Professionals Using Social Networking Websites.

Question of the Week - Should professors have profiles on facebook?

Millennial Professor