A Millennial Professor's Musings: SSCA 2010/Allergens/Stressors/De-stressing...

I admit, the life of a millennial professor never ends. On Sunday, I arrived back from the Southern States Communication Conference (held in Memphis, TN) at 10:00 a.m. The night before leaving Memphis, I typed and submitted minutes from a conference committee and then I created a sample template for the call for proposals (2011) for a committee and I sent this document via e-mail to the appropriate people.

So, this leads me to Sunday - which I spent taking allergy meds for eight hours and then I spent four hours grading speech outlines via blackboard for a COMS 101 course.

Sunday was finished and Monday morning arrives. Now, take into account - I took so much allergy medicine on Sunday that I was VERY tired and groggy on Monday morning. So, I drove 45 minutes to the university and had a cup to tea to dilute the meds. Thank goodness for tea and the 9 am class because both of these provided a GREAT start to a very long day! After spending the night grading speech outlines I noticed the need for students to find additional research for their topic. This additional research is best accomplished in a computer lab, which is conducive for college student research synergy! It is AMAZING what happens when you place 25+ students in a computer lab (all working on the library's databases). I was able to reserve the library for Monday morning (thank God) and the students were able to obtain their research.

The upper level class is working on their scholarly research papers (that will be submitted for publication) and this class met in the computer lab as well. They are using GOOGLE DOCUMENTS to write their papers and to analyze their data. This has been a great process, but I will write about this in ANOTHER blog entry (and a scholarly paper).

So, after my 1pm class and three cups of coffee AND tea, I was exhausted. When I arrived home around 5pm, I had a bite to eat and took a quick nap. The husband arrived home and I had this GREAT idea to mow the front and back lawn AND to put our raised bed kits together. So, we accomplished all of this, and here is the result....

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

MERLOT ELIXR: Take a Drink of the Case Study Repository Goodness!

The MERLOT ELIXR is a digital case study repository for the education environment. One of the digital case studies in this repository is focused on "Teaching Strategies for Engaging Learners". This case study (by
San Francisco State University) focuses on the following topics:

• engage students in abstract concepts
• engage students with simulation
• engage students through play
• engage students through assignments
• engage students through productions

I examined most of the content in this case study and it is VERY RICH (and it includes videos)! The content is very applicable for the higher education faculty (and some K-12 educators). I wonder how many people access this content and how it impacted their interaction with students in the classroom.


Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

I Do Not Give Up on My Online and Face-to-Face Students, Do YOU?

My experience as faculty has been a very rewarding, yet stressful experience. As a student affairs practitioner, we are encouraged to care for each and every student we communicate with on a daily basis. This is an easy process, because we usually communicated with a few select students on a daily basis.

However, as faculty we communicate with many students three times or more per week. We become an integrated part of each students' daily lives, we learn about their celebrations, their heartaches, and we observe their learning experiences.

As faculty, I try to learn each of my students' names, their hometowns, at least five facts about their lives, and their future career plans. This week, I encountered a student that I taught a few years ago at an campus international festival. I addressed her by name and we had a great conversation. I could tell that she was very surprised that I remembered her names and facts about her current life and future career.

As my career progresses, I hope to continue this strong level of interpersonal connectivity between faculty and students. This is a stressful process, but I hope that my students will remember my in-class and out-of-class efforts long after they graduate.

This is my experience as faculty, however some faculty give up on their students. Here is an article titled, "Do Faculty Give Up on Students?" and it focuses on how faculty can make a positive OR negative impact on their students. This impact seems to be directly influenced by a level of care that is exhibited by the faculty member.



Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

The New Media Consortium 2010 - Session Materials

The New Media Consortium (NMC), an international non-profit organization focused on the exploration and use of new media and technologies in learning-focused organizations recently held the NMC Symposium on New Media and Learning.

Nine of the session presenters uploaded their materials and resources on the NMC website. Here are a list of the categories that at least one of the nine topics address:

• augmented reality in the classroom environment
• educational gaming in higher education
• digital storytelling (current and future)
• multi-player online games and learning
• twhistory - tweeting history in the classroom environment

Follow NMC on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/newmediac

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Teaching Online Safety in the K-12 and College Settings

Cyber bullying, sexting, and overall online safety are such a large issues in the K-12 and college environments. Unfortunately, it seems that both environments are failing to educate their students on the simple subject of cyber safety.

When I mention cyber safety, I am merely addressing the following issues: sexting, job searching and social networking websites (positive and negative), cyber bulling, identify theft (in the college student community), and other pertinent issues.

Here are a few websites focused on cyber safety/media literacy and the K-12/higher education environments.

This is the BEST website that I have EVER seen on the topic. This government website features interactive games, quizzes, and videos.



OnGuard Online Websites (geared towards adults)
http://www.onguardonline.gov/default.aspx

Here is are entire curriculum guides and suggestions to online safety:

Cyber Smart Curriculum
http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org/


The Texas Education Agency also compiled a list of websites and resources pertaining to online safety.
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/imet/intersafe/educators/EDcurriculum.html

Last, but not least - here are some articles based on online safety and K-12/higher education:


Cyberbullying Research Center

http://www.cyberbullying.us/


Cyberbullying Goes to College

http://www.bu.edu/bostonia/spring09/bully/


Study: Too Few Schools Teaching Cyber Safety

http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/index.php/2010/02/27/study-too-few-schools-teaching-cyber-safety/

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

APA 6th Edition Video - A Great Resource for Students, Faculty, and Staff

This semester, I incorporated the new edition (6th) of the American Psychological Association (APA) manual in my upper-level courses and it has been an interesting process. I learned a lot and the students have learned a lot about the manual as well.

However, I would like to incorporate the APA manual in my online classes as well. It is easier for me to teach the APA citation style in a face-to-face format, but I am seeking engaging resources to make this process easier for the online students.

Here is a great video for professors who are teaching an online class that might require supplemental materials for a lesson on APA citations - https://www.sworps.utk.edu/training/APA_6_0/player.html.

Enjoy!

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

8-18 Year Olds...The Last Segment of Millennials...

As many of you know, I am a millennial who is interested in issues concerning my generation. Recently, my co-author and I submitted an article based on millennials to a distance learning journal. I understand the different segments that exist in my generation, but I did not know that others were interested in the differences among millennials. The editors of the journals encouraged us to separate the larger definition of millennials into several different categories.

As a result, I sought articles focused on the differences among millennials. This was not an easy process, but I did find a few articles that fit my search. Here is one of the articles - Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds.


This website also features additional items, including a webcast, podcast, etc.

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

The Top Public Libraries on Twitter!

Recently, the NFI Research firm released a list of the top public libraries on twitter. Surprisingly, there are several Texas libraries on the list! In fact, the second library with the most followers i the Houston Public Library with 4,000+ followers.

Here is the link to the list - "Top Public Libraries on Twitter"

Enjoy!

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Technology Ideas for Librarians AND Others...

In my opinion, college and university libraries are the most important departments on campus. Usually librarians are very progressive in terms of technology adoption and are always seeking new ways to reach students. As a result, many librarians collaborate with one another using such technologies as blogs, wikis, facebook, and twitter.

Here is an article focused on technology and libraries, "10 Technology Ideas Your Library Can Implement Next Week" - http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/02092010/10-technology-ideas-your-library-can-implement-next-week

One of the most important tips (for me) is the SMS delivery of patron alerts and notifications. If I could receive patron alerts, etc. via text message, I would never had an overdue book!


I hope you can use this website!

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Digital_Nation: Life on the Digital Frontier" - Millennials and the Digital Environment

Recently, PBS provided one of their documentaries, Digital_Nation: Life on the Digital Frontier, to visitors on their website. This is a very interesting documentary that enables viewers to become exposures to the lives of digital natives (today's high school and college students AND some entry-level employees).

This documentary websites features a quiz titled, "What's Your Digital Parenting Style" and lesson plans for parents and teachers.

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Hippocampus - A Video Resource for K-12 Educators

My husband, a high school science teacher, uses various websites to engage his students in the classroom. One of the websites he really likes is hippocampus.com. 


This wonderful website provides users with videos of each of the following subjects: Algebra (English and Spanish), American Government, Biology, Calculus (English and Spanish), Environmental Science, Physics, Psychology, Religion, Statistics, and US History.


I hope the website works for your educational needs!


Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

The Flat World Knowledge Textbooks - Free E-Textbooks for College Students

I know the economy is not the best and I strongly believe professors should provide students with affordable textbook options. I am strongly considering the e-textbooks from this website (http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/) for some classes that I will teach in the fall semester. Personally, I think this option might be appropriate for a few of the courses I teach (Business and Professional Speaking and Organizational Communication) - http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1.0/organizational-behavior/28781. I am interested to see what the students think about the e-book option, because some of my students do not have a laptop computer and/or do not embrace new technological developments.

I know that I will supplement these e-textbooks with scholarly articles and engaging activities, but overall I think it is a good option. In addition, I think that this website may be a good outlet for some supplemental books that I plan to write in the near future.




Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

YouTube EDU: Videos for Higher Education Professionals (Lectures and Activities)

YouTube EDU provides users with videos that are specific for higher education audiences. This is a refreshing website for me, because I use youtube in my classes on a daily basis. When performing searches for videos, I have to sift through various videos that do not have anything to do with the higher education environment. From this point forward, I will start using this website to find content-specific materials.

In addition, I plan to recommend this website to my husband, a high school science teacher who teachers dual credit classes for a local community college.

Please let me know what you think about the website!

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

"A Dozen Great Free Online Video Lecture Sites" - A Great Link for Educators!

If you teach online or if you enjoy creating engaging lectures for your students, please visit this link, "A Dozen Great Free Online Video Lecture Sites". This link features a collection of several websites that feature online video lectures.

One of these websites, YouTube EDU, is especially helpful for K-12 and higher education professionals who wish to integrate videos in their classroom lectures.

Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Online Adult Students and Predictors of Success

Many adult learners are choosing to take online classes in conjunction with their face-to-face classes (or exclusively online classes). This is an exciting opportunity for both colleges/universities and adult learners. However, some of these adult learners experience both barriers and supports when pursuing their degrees.

Recently, I discovered a great literature review focused on adult online learners, "Predictors of Success for Adult Online Learners: A Review of the Literature". This literature review focuses on adult online learners and the predictors of their success. I am very interested in this topic because I will teach two online courses in the fall semester. I hope to provide these online students with ample opportunities to overcome potential barriers they may encounter in the online educational process.

This article was very helpful!

Millennial Professor

A College President's Experience with Twitter

One college president uses twitter to keep in contact with his followers (i.e. - students, faculty, staff, parents, etc.). Personally, I think this is an ingenious strategy for college administrators who wish to maintain a level of social presence with the people they serve.

Here is his twitter profile - http://twitter.com/GustiePrez

He has 170 followers and is following 105 people.

Read more about this college president's strategy here - http://www.startribune.com/local/83972597.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU/


J

People Like Me: A Unique Marketing Strategy Utilized by For- Profit Universities

I have been meaning to write this post for awhile, but it seems that every time a commercial is released, there is a new one to replace it.

Recently, my area of Texas has experienced an increase in the amount of for-profit universities (i.e. - Kaplan University, University of Phoenix, etc.). These universities have embraced a marketing strategy that tends to appeal to the average working adult, single mother, and disgruntled student. I am very impressed with their marketing strategy and I think many people may take advantage of their services (now and in the future). Their commercials feature students of both genders, many racial backgrounds, and lifestyles. In fact, some of these commercials are so appealing that I wish many traditional universities would replicate their marketing strategy by using social media websites (i.e. youtube).

What If Someone Had a Record of ALL of Your Online Searches? (An Interesting 45 Minute Video)

On New Year's Eve, my husband and I watched a very interesting documentary-style report on google.com. The report was enlightening, but scary at the same time. Today, I found the report on hulu (thank goodness for hulu) and it is around 45 minutes long.

What are your reactions?

Millennial Professor/Jennifer T. Edwards

J

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

The Twitter Toolbox - 111 Web-Based Twitter Tools

 "111 Twitter Tools" is a list of 111 web-based twitter tools that novice or advanced twitter users can use for twitter analysis, information gathering, network building and management, twitter management, sharing tools, organization and productivity, life tools, business and finance, and health, and blogging. Check out this great list! - http://bigisthenewsmall.com/?p=4207

Introducing Scholastic's "Expert Space" - A Tool for the New Digital Classroom

Grade 4-12 educators and educational technologists: Scholastic just released a digital curriculum titled "Expert Space". This curriculum features social studies and science content that teachers can display in class and on the internet. This curriculum is based on a literature review titled, "Expert Space Digital Curriculum & Tools for the 21st Century Effective Web-Based Learning Environments: A Literature Review".

To access this website please click the following link - http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/digital_curriculum/expertspace/index.htm. 

In addition, teachers and other interested parties can sign up for a free webcast titled "The New Digital Classroom, Building Expertise in the Science Curriculum". This website also lists several additional workshops focus on K-12 learning and instruction in the 21^st Century using inquiry, collaboration, technology.

Millennial Professor/Jennifer T. Edwards

How to Engage Each of Your Students (Small Classes to Large Classes)

I teach at a mid-sized, public institution in Texas and my class sizes range from 22 students to 36 students in a course section. Today, I discovered a wonderful article pertaining to class size and how to reach all students in a larger (50+) class. The author contributed wonderful ideas that will help any teacher/professor accomplish the goal of  engaging every student in your classroom! Enjoy!


http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/encouraging-student-participation-in-large-classes/

Millennial Professor/Jennifer T. Edwards

The Top 50 Educators to Follow on Twitter in 2010!

DistanceEducation.org just published a list of the top 50 educators to follow on twitter. This list would be helpful for anyone who is seeking to improve their knowledge of K-12 and higher education in the field of distance learning. Check it out!

The Top 50 Educators on Twitter to Follow in 2010

Millennial Professor/Jennifer T. Edwards

Try This Website! - ASCD Launches Teacher Social Network (K-12 Teachers)

ASCD Launches Teacher Social Network

Calling all K-12 teachers! If you enjoy social networking websites, here is the social network for you! The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development just launched their new social networking website for teachers. I imagine that this website will foster idea sharing and informal support groups that span across the United States!

What do you think about this new website?

Millennial Professor/Jennifer T. Edwards

E-Textbooks in College Courses: Good Idea or Bad Idea?

Article from the Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus: Leading E-Textbook Seller Reports 400 Percent Sales Increase in 2009 - http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Leading-E-Textbook-Seller/20566/

I really like the e-textbook concept in undergraduate courses. This technology was not present when I was an undergraduate, but I think that today's undergraduate student would really benefit from the technology. I promote the e-textbooks because they would save the students money (compared to an actual tangible textbook) and the students would not have to carry all of their textbooks across campus. E-textbooks also provide the students with interactive features that may help their learning process. I teach at a rural, 4-year, public university and my students seem to be resistant to e-textbooks, because many of them do not have a laptop computer to view the e-textbook. In addition, most undergraduate students look forward to selling their books back to the bookstores at the end of the semester and e-textbooks do not give them this option.

What is your opinion of e-textbooks? 

Millennial Professor/Jennifer T. Edwards

Communication Tech. (Use This Tool!): Screencast-O-Matic

Use Screencast-O-Matic.com to create "how to" videos and power point presentations for online classes. This website has the EASIEST online screencast software that I have ever used for my syllabus overview for online classes. It provides an easy upload to youtube.com (10 min. or less) and the site even provides its users with a place to host their 15 minute presentations. The volume is great and I uploaded the video to my youtube account. This provided me with a seamless integration into my blackboard course.

Here's one of the videos from the site (another professor):



This browser-based tool would be great for professors who teach online classes and librarians who need to teach others how to conduct research using the databases. Just an idea!

Have a great week!

Millennial Professor/Jennifer T. Edwards

Eduroam: Access to University A's wireless network, while using University B's username and password

Recently, Louisiana State University (LSU) students, faculty, and staff gained access to technology that enables them to use the wireless network while visiting several other universities. This technology, Eduroam, is a service dedicated worldwide roaming access for international research and education communities.

My perspective: I think this is a great

Publish Post

move for LSU and I wish that my university (and other universities in Texas) would offer the same service. When I travel to other parts of Texas and to several Louisiana cities, I have to do without access to the internet or I have to request guest access to the university wireless network. I think this move would definitely benefit the research community.

For more information, access - http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2010/01/04/Louisiana-State-Joins-Eduroam-Network.aspx.

Surviving Teaching Online Courses

Are you teaching a class online? Are you pulling your hair out? Well, this article offers seven strategies for professors who teach online, "Surviving Teaching Online Courses".

Millennial Professor/Jennifer T. Edwards

This Blog's New Focus: COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Hello readers! 

Great news! From this point forward, this blog will focus on service, teaching, and research on COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION from a millennial professor's perspective. This topic will be addressed by focuses on the following: social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and human interaction, privacy and online communication, instructional communication, distance education, diversity, leadership, service learning, volunteerism, educational technology, and SOTL.


Give me some feedback on the change! There will be frequent posts!


Remember to subscribe to the blog!

Sincerely,


Millennial Professor

Using Tweets in Scholarly Research

In the future, I plan to use twitter in my research endeavors. Since most journals are requiring authors to use the American Psychological Association 6th edition, I had to research the new guidelines for electronic resources.

The Buzz, a School Library Journal, highlights several guidelines for citing Twitter and Facebook in scholarly articles. The Buzz features a quote from Chelsea Lee (bit.ly/jEeAm), a senior manuscript editor of APA Journals. Lee states, "We don't know if these status update pages will still be here in a year, or 5, or 20 years. So if you are writing for publication, it may be prudent to self-archive any social media updates you include in your articles."

Remember that users' accounts can be locked or deleted and all of their tweets will be inaccessible. So, if you plan to use twitter, please save the tweets in PDF format.

Millennial Professor

Twitter: It's What's for Dinner (It's the New Beef!)

Professor Rankin, a History Professor from the University of Texas at Dallas, started using twitter in her classroom last semester. This is a video she created from her experiences:



This year, I plan to write several scholarly articles and blog posts about twitter and its impact in the secondary and post-secondary environments. Today is the first day of the year and I am compiling ideas from several articles on the subject.

If you have any ideas on how to utilize twitter in the classroom environment, please let me know! Send me ideas! I will publish them on the blog! I am motivated for 2010!

Sincerely,

Millennial Professor

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation (Pre-Christmas Vacation Post)

Late last night, I searched through various tweets on my twitter feed and I discovered that the blog was selected as one of the "Top 16 Professor Blogs" by Academe Jobs.com. Here's the link - http://www.academejobs.com/professor_blogs.php. 

This is quite exciting, because I needed an extra "pick me up"! The past few days, I have spent my time searching for grants and fellowships to help others and to add to my tenure packet. I found a couple of grants for which I am very excited about, but the budget planning and research process for each grant is very time consuming. On Wednesday, I had a very productive meeting with two people who seem to be very interested in the grant.



I hope it pays off in the long run! I plan to have a grant for each year of the tenure process (7 years) AND to help the surrounding community! :) Wish me luck!


Millennial Professor

Our College Graduates and Student Loans

This semester is finally winding down. THANK GOODNESS! Yesterday, I wrote an article for the college newsletter that focuses on the "After the Degree, Now What?" conference. This was a very interesting way to reflect on last month's successful event. However, today I received a message on my RSS feed titled, "College Graduates Struggle to Repay Loans".

Many college students do not focus on their student loans until their last month of school. This is when students are required by the federal government to participate in online exit counseling. At this time in most students' lives (including my own), they are not focused on ANYTHING but their final exams and the graduation ceremony.

I think more students should know about the pros and cons of consolidating their student loans. In addition, it seems that many students do not know that they have the option to defer student loans if they choose to go back to school. Last, but certainly not least, if students experience a financial hardship or unemployment, they should know about the option to ask their loan company for a deferment.

My goal is to pay off my student loans in the next four years (before I go up for tenure). My family uses coupons, but I will definitely have to find more ways to save money repay our student loans!

Have a great day!

J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

Seven Suggestions for Online Professors Who Would Like to Improve Their Online Courses

I plan to modify my entire online speech course during the Winter holidays! Unfortunately, it seems that students enrolled in online courses are more likely to drop out of their course than students taking face-to-face courses (Marry, 2009). During the next few years, I would like to discover what keeps the students enrolled in online courses and what causes them to drop out.

Recently, I discovered an article by Bob Kelly (of Faculty Focus) titled "Seven Ways to Personalize Your Online Course". As the title indicates, the article offers other professors some interesting ways to personalize their courses, which may have an impact on student learning.

The author exerpts information gathered from Jane Dwyer's (a senior lecturer at Rivier College) article titled "Tips From The Pros - 7 Things to Personalize Your Online Course".

Here are the tips:

• Sending the students an introductory letter.
• Welcome the students to the course with a video clip.
• Ask the students some "introductory questions" in discussion boards.
• Create and sustain a "pet gallery", in which students can submit pictures of their pets instead of themselves.
• Create a "bully session" which enables students to contribute likes and improvement suggestions about the course.
• Create an environment of shared leadership, in which students will create and facilitate their own discussion questions.
• Respond to student questions by creating and sustaining a "question forum". This enables all students to see the professor's answers to one student's question.

I am very interested to see if these techniques have an impact on student learning AND if other professors utilize the same pedagogical techniques in their online courses.

Have a great week!

J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

Technology in the Classroom: Video Clips and Their Potential Impact on Student Thinking

This is a great example of professors using technology in their classrooms. Dr. Michael Mackert, Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising at The University of Texas at Austin, required his students to submit video links pertaining to health. He made the assignment very broad because he wanted to gauge the students' interpretation of "health on TV".

One of the students submitted the following video which is based on one person's negative experience with a flu shot.



But wait! She IS getting better! One of the professor's teaching assistants found an update video. Here's the interesting aspect, she stated that people have actually hacked into some of her social networking accounts. This prompted her to use another website to post updates on her illness.



The interesting aspect of this classroom assignment is that the students were able to see the "before" and the "current status" of the woman in the two clips. However, if the students were not exposed to the second video, many of them would make an assumption that the woman is not making any progress. Not only do we have to encourage students to dig deeper with news articles, but we need to encourage them to search for updates regarding youtube videos and other new media.

It would be INTERESTING to see if students would be less likely to obtain a get a flu shot after viewing the first video and then seeing if their thoughts change after seeing the second video. However, the changes of IRB board approval would be highly unlikely (at almost any institution). :)

What do you think?

J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

"Social Networking Could Help Community College Students"

My colleague Lora and I are VERY interested in the impact of Twitter and social networking websites on the learning process. As a result, we are collecting ANY article pertaining to the subject. BTW - We have a practitioner-based article (regarding Twitter) that will be published very soon.

USA Today published an article titled, "Social Networking Could Help Community College Students", which focuses on the extended classroom. I wonder what impact will social networking websites have on the university and high school environments?

If you have any scholarly article suggestions pertaining to social networking websites and their impact on student learning, PLEASE let me (us) know!

Have a great day!

J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

Award/Grant Opportunity: "Second Annual McGraw-Hill and Magna Publications Award for Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning"

Hello Readers!

If you are as excited about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) as I am, please submit one or more of your articles for the "Second Annual McGraw-Hill and Magna Publications Award for Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning".

Here is some more information:

"[The Teaching Professor website is] pleased to announce the Second Annual McGraw-Hill and Magna Publications Award for Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning. You’ll find all the details on The Teaching Professor website (www.teachingprofessor.com), including how to submit pieces (your work and that of others), the selection criteria, and the review process. In case you’ve forgotten, a $1,000 award goes to the author or is shared by authors of the winning article, which will be announced at the 2010 Teaching Professor Conference.

Good luck!

J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

"Technology in Action" - Tweeting During a Conference Session

Today, I discovered that "technology was in action" at the National Communication Association Conference in Chicago, IL. There is a VIDEO, an ARTICLE, and a picture from our session on data gathering using new technologies.

Here's our interview after the session:



Here's our Twit Pic during the session:
Here is the article from the session - "How to Collect Data in the 21st Century?"

Quite interesting! People were sending tweets during a conference session and other people came to the session because of the tweets they received! 

J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

National Communication Association Annual Convention - Nov. 11th - 15th (My Sessions)

I am EXHAUSTED! I attended the National Communication Association Annual Convention in Chicago, IL and presented FOUR sessions! Here are the titles of my presentations:

Service Learning Discussion Circles Turns 10: Celebrate Service-Learning in Communication
Classrooms
Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: International Ballroom North
*Selected Person: Jennifer Edwards
Presenter on Individual Submission: Peer-to-Peer Mentoring in an Interpersonal Communication Classroom

G.I.F.T.S. Session I (Great Ideas for Teaching Speech)
Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: International Ballroom North
*Selected Person: Jennifer Edwards
Presenter on Individual Submission: Does YOUR Group Have the Most Persuasive Business Plan?

The Pros and Cons of Using New Media in Communication Research
Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Continental Ballroom A
*Selected Person: Jennifer Edwards
Presenter in session submission: The Pros and Cons of Using New Media in Communication Research

The Role of Training and Development in Improving Organizational Stability while Nurturing Change

Building: Palmer House Hilton, Room: Salon 10
*Selected Person: Jennifer Edwards
Presenter on Individual Submission: The Effectiveness of a Digital Dirt Training Workshop on Millennial Individuals.

Yes, it was a LONG, yet fulfilling conference! PLUS - I had a GREAT hotel room. Complete with a television in the bathroom mirror (take a look at the pictures below)! However, I got a GREAT deal for the hotel and it was within walking distance of the conference hotel.

Lora, one of my colleagues from Southern University New Orleans, accompanied me to the dinner at Merlot on Maple (a really nice Italian restaurant). I LOVED the appetizer, main course, AND dessert! We had a GREAT conversation with a larger group of wonderful communication scholars and we gained some interesting insight into the world of publishing. We discovered that we DO NOT want to write a textbook. It seems that it is very time consuming AND does not count as much as journal articles (in the eyes of academic departments). Therefore, we are going to focus on journal articles and book chapters.

I am glad that NCA is finally over because I finally have a chance to focus on grading and research. Tomorrow (after offering informal critiques to my students), I will search for CFPs focused on my research interests. I need to find a business communication journal for the millennial digital dirt article.

Back to the real world. I have lots of great research that I would like to explore, but tonight I am going to pay some bills and catch up on housework. Wish me luck!


J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

"10 Ways Colleges Can Work With Their Communities"

Today, I finally had a chance to sort through my pile of articles from Chronicle of Higher Education. One article I saved is titled, "10 Ways Colleges Can Work With Their Communities" (Sarkisian & Taylor, 2009, p. A28). This article focuses on how higher education institutions can build a relationship with their surrounding communities through service learning initiatives. Here is the list from the article:

1. Form partnerships with local non-profit organizations that share its institutional mission and vision.
2. Offer campus spaces for community use.
3. Adopt a public-school district.
4. Adopt a local nonprofit or citizen-action organization.
5. Offer scholarships to local students.
6. Establish a faculty-speakers bureau.
7. Encourage professors to make mutual beneficial service-learning assignments.
8. Work with local officials to create a "Day of Service".
9. Become a certifying organization for the President's Volunteer Service Award.
10. Document community-service activities conducted by members of your campus community.

Every faculty and staff member should consider adopting these relationship-building initiatives with their surrounding communities. EVERYONE can do something! Form a partnership with a colleague or start something on your own, but MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

References

Sarkisian, G. V. & Taylor, S. (2009, September 11). 10 ways colleges can work with their communities. The Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A28.

The After the Degree, Now What?" Conference - Our Fall 2009 Service-Learning Event

I am so proud of my students! Recently, my wonderful students sponsored a service learning event titled, The "After the Degree, Now What?" Conference. The idea for this conference was conceived last summer when I read a wealth of articles pertaining to the amount of Texans with four-year degrees that were facing layoffs. In addition, since I teach undergraduate students, I was very concerned with our students gaining employment (that they are passionate about) after graduating from our university in next few months. Then, I contacted another professor in the Communication Department and the Career Services Department and the idea became an actual event. 

We wanted our COMS 101 students to present the sessions, because the students would provide a service for the community and learn more about public speaking at the same time. My Interpersonal Communication class and her Small Group Communication class planned the ENTIRE CONFERENCE!

These wonderful students developed the title, added items to the backwards plan, and worked the entire conference. In addition, our beginning public speaking class (COMS 101) presented most of the sessions. The only session that they did not present was the "Panel Discussion of Professionals", which featured panelists from the graduate school, career services department, small business development center, financial management division, and the Texas Workforce Commission.

Here is a list of our sessions - http://www.tinyurl.com/ATDNWsessions/.
 

We used Google Docs to collaborate amongst ourselves and this proved to be a wonderful resource! As a result of our hard work, over 90 students attended the sessions and over 95 students presented the sessions. These students represented each of the five colleges on campus and over 20 different majors.

This was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I had the pleasure of working with the students who I teach in class every week. The students had the chance to know me outside of the classroom and I had the chance to see their true personalities. The students took ownership over the conference and made it their own. More importantly, I am very excited to offer a class project that will help the students develop their resume with service learning and job-related experiences.

I cannot wait until next year!

Dr. J. Edwards

Welcome Back! Millennial Professor is Back for the FA 09 Semester!

Hello Everyone!

I admit, I have been hiding under a rock for the past couple of months. This past spring, I received a faculty research grant that funded my research during the Summer II semester. Thankfully, I was VERY productive this summer. Not only did I gather research from African American college students, but I also co-authored two publications with a colleague at Southern University at New Orleans. I hope and pray that our publications will be chosen for publication in the next few months.

Aside from publishing, we had some wonderful travel plans this summer. During our adventures, I sent tweets from my twitter account. Twitter has been a wonderful application for my classroom and personal/professional life. Every tweet that I send is automatically published on facebook. Therefore, I don't have to post two posts related to what I am doing at a particular moment. I am THANKFUL for twitter!

Have a wonderful week! I am back from a small summer hiatus. Look forward to some more meaningful posts! Also, find me on twitter - drjtedwards!

Sincerely,

Millennial Professor

PowerPoint + Classroom = Student Boredom?

This morning, a colleague sent me an article titled, "When Computers Leave the Classroom, So Does Boredom". This article made me think about my own approach to teaching the content to students in the classroom. I use PowerPoint, but I also make the lecture interactive by using the following:


a. Discussion Prompts on the PowerPoint
b. Interactive Surveys (students select an answer by raising their hands)
c. Using Youtube videos


I am married to a high school teacher and we commonly have discussions about students' learning styles (kinestic, auditory, visual, reading/writing). The article listed above begs me to question, "What happens when most of the students in the classroom do not have an auditory learning style (which the article primarily advocates)?"


What do you think?

Millennial Professor

The Economy and Our Undergraduate Students

As an undergraduate, my sorority sisters and I spent most of our meager salaries on restaurant meals, shopping, road trips, movies, and weekend "entertainment". I know that this is the budget for most active undergraduates. However, I know that current undergraduates might not be able to live such a "lavish, fun-filled" lifestyle in this economy.

Some of the undergraduates in my classes went on road trips to South Padre Island for Spring Break. However, most of the undergraduates went to their hometown to make money at their old part-time jobs. When I was in college, it was an anomaly to hear that one of our classmates went home during spring break to work.

In addition to working during spring break, my undergraduates' persuasive speech topics have changed as well. I give them a choice of the following topics: (a) to persuade my audience to perform an act of service, (b) to persuade my audience to purchase a particular product, (c) to persuade my audience to adopt a money saving strategy. Consistently, the undergraduates usually choose option "a" or "c". Through topic "c", they advocate using coupons, living off campus, cooking meals at home, etc.

This frugal lifestyle for undergraduates also expands to include new graduates. An article in USA Today, "Recession generation? Young adults brace for simpler lifestyle" focuses on how recent graduates are coping with the new economy.

What are your opinions of our newly frugal undergraduates?

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Academic Travel on a Frugal Budget: Know Your Surroundings BEFORE You Leave Home!

Last December, I discovered that Google Maps provided EVERYONE on the internet with a picture of my house (thank God the leaves were raked)! This was something that I had to adjust to, but I see Google Maps as a definite blessing now. For instance, if I have an upcoming conference, I log on to Google Maps to see the area outside of the hotels and the adjacent eating establishments.

This helps me create a travel budget and to make a list of potential locations I would like to visit on my trip. When I visited Norfolk, VA for the Southern States Communication Conference, I discovered that there was a Schlotzsky's restaurant across the street. This restaurant provided me with a very cost effective option for lunch and dinner.

In addition to the street view feature of Google Maps, this website is also adding a college campus "sidewalk view" feature. This is exciting for my husband and I, because we visit the college campus library of each city we visit in Texas and Louisiana. Google gathers this "sidewalk view" information from cameras on bicycles powered by Google representatives.


Has Google visited the sidewalks of your campus?

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Academic Travel on a Frugal Budget: Finding the Cheapest Airline Ticket

Searching for the cheapest airline ticket for academic conferences can be a daunting task sometimes, but I strive to pay the least amount for my air travel. Here is a personal guide that I follow when purchasing an airline ticket.

a) Find the HUB - Try to find the hub for the major airlines in your area. For example, when I lived in the Houston area, I flew Continental Airlines. Houston International Airport is one of the many hubs for Continental Airlines. Therefore, their airline tickets will usually be less expensive than other airlines that fly from that hub. Since I live in the DFW area, the Southwest Airlines and American Airlines tickets are usually cheaper than the tickets from other airlines. However, this has not been the case for the past few months.

b) Arrive or Depart on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday - Usually, these days are the cheapest arrival or departure dates for airline tickets.

c) Make Monday - Wednesday Your Purchase Dates - It seems the airline rates tend to increase after Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I will usually check a particular route that I am interested in after I receive the weekly special from Continental Airlines and American Airlines on Monday afternoons. Monday is usually their "reset" date for airfares.

d) Compare Your Rates With Other Airlines - I will usually submit my route to http://www.bing.com/travel (formerly http://www.farecast.com). This website compares the rates from This website will usually tell you the rates from AirTran, American Airlines, etc. For example, I used this website to search for a fare from DFW to IAH (Thu, Jul 23 - Thu, Jul 30|1 adult) and here are the results:

AirTran - $547

American - $118
Continental - $116

Delta - $547

Frontier - $487
US Airways - $497
United - $497

In addition, this website enables you to see if the rates are projected to increase or decrease in the future. However, I used this feature last summer to find the cheapest rates to San Diego and the website told me the rates were projected to decrease. The rates were already inexpensive ($250 or less), but I wondered if the rate would decrease. The next day, the rate increased to $325. Since that point, I decided to use the website for comparison purposes only.

e) Continue to Monitor the Airfare Rates - Most websites suggest that people purchase their airline tickets around 90 days before the travel date. However, continue to monitor the websites for sharp decreases before the 90 day period. For example, I purchased a ticket for the National Communication Association Conference in Chicago, IL for slightly less than $200.00 (I monitored this rate since April 2009).

I hope to offer more tips as I purchase additional tickets for the fall/spring semester. If you have any additional tips, please let me know! Contribute a comment!

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Academic Travel on a Frugal Budget: Finding the Cheapest Airline Ticket

Academic Travel on a Budget... (Post One of Many)

Before I consider attending a conference, I will usually ask myself the following questions:

a) Is this conference important to my academic career (i.e. - Is this conference a communication, higher education, or service learning conference)?

b) Will I be able to present a paper, presentation, or interactive session at the conference? This is important for my career, because I improve my CV everytime I present a paper at an academic conference.

c) Where is the conference located? If the conference is in Texas AND is at least five hours away, I will usually send a proposal submission. If the conference requires airline travel, I will check the rates on my preferred airline (Continental Airlines). Then, I compare other airlines' rates with the Continental Airlines rate. Usually, the Continental rate will be cheaper than American Airlines and Southwest. (*However, American Airlines was cheaper for my November conference.)

d) How much is the hotel rate? This is VERY important for me, because I will usually work on several papers in my hotel room and I need some peace and quiet (not a roommate).

What do YOU usually ask yourself when considering an academic conference?

Next post...Finding the Cheapest Airline Ticket

Millennial Professor

Academic Travel on a Budget - Post 1/5

Readers,

I usually travel to at least three academic conferences per year and the inpending state of this year's economy has pushed me to be very frugal when traveling. During the next few posts, I will provide you with tips on traveling frugally. The topic will range from booking the flight to hotel dining. Please check back every few days for a new tip.

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Adopt THIS Technology: The Perils of Twitter (An Opinion)

I love twitter as much as the next professor. However, I am quite skeptical about providing specific real time updates for my readers. I caution my students and friends against posting tweets like, "Going to Mom's this Weekend" and "Going to Spring Break in South Padre".

Two weeks ago, I read an article in the Houston Chronicle (from an undisclosed location by the Houston area :) ) titled, "Do 'I'm on Vacation' Posts Pose Security Concerns?". I was alarmed by the fact that someone's house was bulgarized because of the real time tweets that someone posted from their vacation spot in Kansas City. Here is a small exert from the article:

Like a lot of people who use social media, Isreal Hyman and his wife, Noell, shared real-time details of a recent trip on Twitter. Their posts said they were "preparing to head out of town," that they had "another 10 hours of driving ahead," and that they "made it to Kansas City." While they were on the road, their home in Mesa, Ariz., was burgularized.

Hyman had over 2,000 followers on twitter and "he thinks his updates tipped the burglars off" (Allen, 2009, G9). As a result, I am quite skeptical of posting any twitter updates (tweets) pertaining to my current location. In addition, any tweets that I post to twitter automatically go to my facebook account as updates for my 450+ friends on that website. I have met about 90% of my friends on facebook in person, but not on twitter.

The day before this article was published, I decided to protect my twitter updates and my "follow list". As a result, I have to give permission to my students to have them follow my twitter updates and they have to give me permission to follow their updates.

I continue to use the twitter assignment that I posted last month and it seems that more students are interested in this new type of social media. I cannot wait to see what the next new social media application will be in 2010. To maintain a strong awareness of social media, I follow Jane Hart from The Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (C4LPT) on twitter and I read her daily RSS feed -Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day.

In addition, I add her website suggestions to my del.icio.us account - http://delicious.com/drjtedwards/.

If YOU have any technology suggestions, PLEASE let me know. I love technology and I try to remain at the forefront of social media adoption.


Have a great weekend!

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Teaching Online: Pros and Cons (Chronicle of Higher Education)

As many of you know, I teach "COMS 101 - Fundamentals of Speech Communication" in an online format. There are many pros and cons of teaching a college course in an online format. Recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education published two articles in their commentary section titled "Teaching Online: 2 Perspectives".

The first article, "A Reaffirmation of Why I Became an Educator", focused on the benefits of teaching online and the second article, "I'll Never Do It Again", focused on the negative aspects of teaching online. These articles can be accessed by clicking the links above.

What do YOU think about teaching a college course online?

Sincerely,

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