Traveling with Undergraduate Students - Preparing a Schedule (Subject Line - PRINT THIS E-MAIL)

Readers,

While gathering contact and emergency information for the SSCA conference, I also have to create a schedule when I travel with undergraduate students. 

Here is the schedule that I sent to the students and my department head with the subject line - PRINT THIS E-MAIL: SSCA Conference - Little Rock, AR (IMPORTANT INFORMATION)

Outstanding Student Leaders,

Here is a schedule for the conference!

Thursday - March 24th
Check-In to Hotel :)
12:30 p.m. - Meet for Lunch in the Lobby
2:00 p.m. - Pick a Session
6:30 p.m. - Welcome Reception @ Salon D
7:00 p.m. - Meet for Dinner in the Lobby
*Attend at least 3 conference sessions a day! :)

Friday - March 25th
8:00 a.m./9:00 a.m. - SSCA Breakfast Meeting
10:15 a.m. - Pick a Session
12:00 p.m. - Meet for Lunch in the Lobby
1:15 p.m. - Practicing for our Session (Meet in Lobby)
2:45 p.m. - OUR SESSION!!! :)
5:45 p.m. - Pick a Session (I am going to "Take this Job and Shove It" - Robinson 102)
7:00 p.m. - Meet for Dinner in the Lobby
*Attend at least 3 conference sessions a day! :)

Saturday - March 26th
8:00 a.m./9:00 a.m. - Undergraduate Honors Conference Breakfast - (Salon D)
9:30 a.m. - Pick a Session
11:00 a.m. - Pick a Session
12:30 p.m. - Meet for Lunch in the Lobby
2:30 p.m. - Pick a Session
4:30 p.m. - Depart for the Airport
7:05 p.m. - Depart from Little Rock Regional (LIT)
8:20 p.m. - Arrive back to DFW Terminal  B

I hope you enjoy your trip! Represent Tarleton well!

Sincerely,

Dr. Edwards

I just thought that this schedule might help faculty/staff visiting the website!

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

Traveling With Undergraduate Students - Preparing for the Southern States Communication Association Conference

Readers,


This week I am very excited about the Southern States Communication Association Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas! This year's conference is going to be amazing because I am presenting two papers, serving on a panels, and chairing a paper session. Aside from my busy schedule, I am also bringing seven undergraduate students who have been invited to present their research as part of the Undergraduate Honors Conference. 


As a result of the conference later this week, I have to prepare my online and face-to-face classes for their virtual assignments on Wednesday and Friday. My interpersonal and organizational communication courses are working on their research papers by distributing their survey and fine tuning their data analysis section via Google Docs. My two online speech courses are working on their informative speeches and updating their outlines on Google Docs. Google Docs enables me to view their progress on their assignment and to help the students along the way via my netbook or iPad.


Communication...it is not just the subject that I teach, but it is the daily life that I live!


Have a great week!

Sincerely,


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

Freebie Friday - Groupon in the Higher Education Classroom

Readers,

During the past few months, I have become a Groupon fanatic! The website is amazing and I purchased many groupons in the DFW area (as well as the online coupons). I am always looking for ways to merge my personal interests with my professional interests and I think that I will start purchasing groupons for my classes and our conferences (i.e. - Environmental Communication Week and the Diversity and Communication Research Symposium). I will post more about our new initiative, Environmental Communication Week, in a few days.


Since my university is located in the rural part of Texas, I try to find groupons that the students can use in the area. Some of our local businesses and organizations were featured during the past couple of weeks including, the Dublin Dr. Pepper Bottling Company, the local Drive-In Theater, and the Dinosaur Valley State Park.


I will also use this website as a teaching tool in the classroom. Companies are usually a virtual guerrilla marketing technique to communicate with their customers and the customers recruit other customers... Communication in ACTION (while taking advantage of low-cost activities/products)! :)

Have you used the Groupon website before? What do you think?


Join Groupon Now! - LINK

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

Learning About New Technologies - Seven Items at a Time!

Readers,


As a tenure-track professor, I have a short amount of time each day to read my e-mail and to glance over long journal articles. I attempt to stay informed about new technologies and how these technologies affect education. I usually read short technology briefs by Educause on their "Seven Things You Should Know About..." series.


Some recent topics in this series are:


- 7 Things You Should Know About Open-Ended Response Systems


- 7 Things You Should Know About Online Media Editing


- 7 Things You Should Know about Android


This series is ideal for the "professor on the go" who needs to do more with less time. Click here for the "Seven Things" series - http://www.educause.edu/ELI7Things


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

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.

Spring Break is Here! - Incorporating Spring Break Pictures in Class Lectures

Readers,

We are preparing for spring break and I am very excited about traveling for non-conference purposes! Here's the interesting part of non-conference travel...I am always THINKING of examples for my courses: interpersonal communication, organizational communication, and intercultural communication. As I travel, I take pictures of artifacts (both cultural and organizational) to incorporate on my presentation slides.

Here are some pictures from my past travel adventures:

Sincerely,

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

iPad2 - The Sequel (Communication Technology at Its Best!)

Readers,

I have to tell all of you about my wonderful husband! On iPad Friday, my husband was determined to purchase an iPad2 for my birthday! After working all day teaching at a local high school, he stood outside of the Apple Store for two hours! Amazing man!



However, his efforts were in vain because these new devices sold out within a 30 minute time frame! So, on Saturday, we spent SIX hours driving around the DFW area to find a 3G iPad2. Best Buy decided to capitalize on the high demand and low supply of the iPad2 and they implemented the reservation program! For $100.00, customers could reserve an iPad2 and the company would call you when a product arrived. Yes, this sounded like a great idea at the time so we went for it!

On the way back to the car, I had a bright idea to call the AT&T Stores in the area and each of the stores in Dallas and Fort Worth were completely sold out! On a whim, I decided to call the AT&T Store in the town in which my university is housed (which is an hour an a half outside of the DFW area) and they had FOUR iPads left! I wish that I would have known this very important fact before I left work on Friday! :) I was very excited to drive to that AT&T Store to purchase my iPad2! It is amazing!



Five Features that I LOVE about the iPad2:

1 - It is available in white! I think this looks a little more professional than the black.
2 - It has a camera and a video camera!
3 - It has FACETIME! - This will be great for videoconferencing or virtual office hours on the go!
4 - It is slender and lighter than the original.
5 - I LOVE the new cover!

I really think that the iPad is the ultimate communication technology tool!

Sincerely,

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