Twitter in the Classroom

This week, I started something new... I incorporated twitter in my course!

Here's the assignment:

Twitter Extra Credit Assignment (Due by April 24th) - WORTH 12 POINTS

Step 1 - Create a twitter account. Add (follow) the following people to your twitter list - Dr. Edwards (my username is "drjtedwards") AND at least five people from our class (their usernames will be in the title of their messages).

Step 2 - Update your twitter feed (140 words or less) at least two times per day for four consecutive days.

Step 3 - Reply to this message with your username in the title (please see my example).

Step 4 - In your reply, please respond to the following questions (1/one paragraph per question):

A. What were your opinions of twitter? In what ways would you think twitter would be beneficial?

B. Do you plan to continue using twitter? Why or why not?

C. What impact will twitter have on the communication field?

If you have ANY questions, please let me know.

I will post updates next week. This entire twitter phenomenon is getting pretty interesting!

How have you incorporate twitter into your classroom OR training?

Millennial Professor

Class Ideas - Mini Quizzes for Millennials

Another week, more amazing students. Last week, I tried a new teaching strategy. Mini-Quizzes! This idea was inspired by the BK Burger Shots... the new mini burger. This idea was wonderful! I was able to detect how much the students were learning from the in class lectures and whether or not the students were able to apply the in-class concepts to hypothetical situations.

Step One - Each student receives either a colored or white note card.to every other student in the class.


Step Two - I gave the following instructions via Powerpoint:
Step Three - The students with white note cards were instructed to complete the white side of the "test your knowledge" and students with colored note cards were instructed to complete the colored side of the "test your knowledge" section. Students were given five minutes to complete their note card. Each section of my classes received a different set of "test your knowledge" questions.


My Analysis - I try to keep my classes organized and color coded. This activity enabled me to keep each of the classes in a binder clip and each of the binder clips in ONE PLASTIC BAG. This assignment was heaven! Despite the organizational nature of this assignment, I was able to gauge whether or not the students were learning the material.


Most of the students remembered at least one aspect of the chapter material that pertained to the "test your knowledge" section. This impressed me and I will definitely use this assignment for another chapter.


Student Motivation - Some students made 100% or more (bonus points) on this 5 pt. assignment. I like to reward students who do exceptionally well on assignment by giving them a special message. This time, I attached Knock Knock Stickies (Office Supplies) to the note cards that read:

You're Cool Because: (check one please) ( ) You work hard. ( ) You try hard. ( ) You listen. ( ) You're hilarious. ( ) You help out. ( ) Just because. *Then the sticky provides a space for comments.

What do you think about this assignment? The millennials seem to like it.


Millennial Professor

Residental Learning Communities: A Win Win Situation!

I am very interested in Residential Learning Communities. Every semester at XYZ institution, I've taught a communication course that features students from university's RLC. I think that the RLC concept is one of the most positive life-altering programs a university can offer their students.

Today, I received an article (via RSS feed) from the University of Connecticut. This program pairs incoming freshmen with other like-minded peers who wish to explore their intellectual and social interests. Therefore, a communication major who has an interest in jazz music could choose to live in a residential community of peers who love jazz music! To learn more about concept, please visit the following link - Residental Learning Communities Help Foster Student Interest.

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Writing Rewards: My Journey Towards Writing a Section a Day

It is almost April. I need to get out of my rut. One of my articles was published in February and I was very happy with my first publication in 2009. However, I need to get BACK on the publishing bandwagon to race towards article number two. I admit, I've been procrastinating and I have not put publishing on my priority list for this year.

As a result, I plan to try the "Write a Section a Day" and "Writing Rewards" (as suggested by Jeffrey L. Sallaz) methods. A Vice President for Student Services/Associate Professor of Higher Education for one of the institutions in Texas told me, "Jennifer, there are two types of writers. The first type is a continuous writer and the other type is a binge writer." Personnally, I will exclaim that I am a binge writer! I teach four classes every fall and spring (plus one to two classes in the summertime). I love to spend hours completely engrossed in an interesting subject matter. However, I do not get that luxury during the school year. As a result, I complete most of my writing on the weekends and in the summer. This works for me, but I want to try another strategy.

Here are the goals for my writing journey:
a) Write at least one paragraph a day.
b) Log-on to the library's databases (Ebscohost) at least once a day.
c) Write a blog update on the writing journal at least once per week.
d) Complete an article Thursday, April 30th.
e) Remain in contact with Lora (a fellow Ed.D. in Speech Comm.) about our joint writing endeavors.

My Writing Rewards:
a) After each successful writing day, I will eat a snack (Quaker Quakes Rice Cakes - Apple Cinnamon). <- My fav.
b) After each successful writing week, I will embark on a shopping endeavor.
c) After each successful writing month, I will take a one to two day mini vacation for writing. (I wrote many parts of my dissertation in various hotels/resorts (conferences, etc.) in Texas. They are quiet places to work with minimal distractions.

I think these rewards are reasonable.

Please keep me motivated. I hope this will work.

Millennial Professor

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