A really gratifying aspect in the teaching and learning biz occurs when students pass along useful information after their interest is piqued in class.
Recent items passed along by current students and grads that I used in subsequent classes or forwarded to my entire group:
CBC’s Marketplace where journalist Wendy Mesley takes on the Heart and Stroke Foundation about its labelling practices. Raises lots of questions. Good item for critiquing spokesperson’s style, broadcast journalism, media relations, etc.
An example of the worst media relations at RaganTV. Definitely gets lots of laughs.
And, this definition of Public Relations that resonated with a first semester student trying to figure out what PR’s all about:
“Public relations practice is the art and social science of analysing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling an organization’s leadership, and implementing planned programs of action which will serve both the organization’s and the public interest” Mexican Statement, adopted at a world assembly of public relations associations in Mexico City in 1978.
A recent article in the New York Times Generation Me vs You Revisited counters the argument that today’s young people are more narcissistic and selfish than those of previous generations.
In the article, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a developmental psychologist, and author of “Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road From the Late Teens through the Twenties” (2004, Oxford University Press), maintains that Generation Me is “a temporary condition of being self-focused, not a permanent generational characteristic.”
Whew! That’s a relief. Here I thought behaviours like these would last a lifetime….
A student marches into the middle of a three-person meeting, reaches across the table to grab a stapler to staple her assignment. She wonders why she’s met with some astonishment. “What’s the problem?” she figures. “I need the stapler. You have it. I don’t need to ask permission, do I?” Or the student who consistently treats our administrative staff with impatience and disdain, just because she thinks she’s so important.
I’ve worked with hundreds of young people and, while I’m perplexed by their need to capture their every hiccup on Facebook or their cell phone cameras, for the most part, I think they’re just young. And self-absorbed. And mostly unsophisticated about some things.
As a college student, I too thought I was pretty special. I figured because I was so terribly smart and oh so sophisticated professors and staff should treat me with some deference.
Little did I know just how ignorant I really was. When I began my first full-time job as a newspaper reporter living thousands of miles from home I soon learned what being unsophisticated and unschooled in the ways of work looked and felt like.
My “temporary condition of being self-absorbed” suddenly over, I realized I wasn’t quite yet a fully formed adult. Then, I hit my 30s……….
Today’s learners quickly label a class a “snoozefest” when they aren’t involved in the content in some way. They aren’t willing to settle for a constant diet of chalk ‘n talk as they passively take notes and nod agreement. (Or, nod off in some cases.)
Can’t say I blame them. Learning becomes meaningful when the brain has a chance to talk, when the content relates to the learner’s experience or when learners can see an immediate use for the new material. How is this relevant to me? they demand to know.
I don’t believe my role as an adult educator is to entertain my learners. My role is to set up the conditions under which learning has the best chance of taking place for the majority of the learners. Sometimes the conditions are just right. Sometimes they’re not. Last week, I think they worked to everyone’s benefit.
To prepare for the topic of the day, I instructed students to view and listen to (in groups of four) a DVD of Toxic Sludge is Good for You byJohn Stauber and Sheldon Rampton. Each group was responsible for summarizing one chapter or segment of the documentary. Then, they picked a spokesperson who conveyed three or four key points from their segment to the rest of the class.
The result of this approach to the material? Students debated. They expressed passionate viewpoints about the content. They challenged one another. They challenged some of the points the authors made. They sought answers and came up with solutions. They provided supporting examples from their work life and experiences.
And, the best? They kept talking about Toxic Sludge even as they left the classroom. Some, hungry for more information, did some additional research and passed it along to fellow learners.
It sure looked and felt like an ideal way to avoid a snoozefest. As a PR educator, how do you avoid having students nod off in your classes? And, students, what do you do to avoid nodding off: how do you stay engaged?
Even after 20 years of teaching, I look for new ideas at the start of each semester to make those critical first few weeks of classes meaningful. This semester is no different, as I prepare to welcome 30 new students into our program next week.
I look for inspiration online and often resort to an old-fashioned scan of a handout saved from a seminar, a clipped article from an educational journal or an inspiring chapter from a book. My desk drawers bulge with these kinds of resources.
One really useful article I found online gives me lots and lots of terrific ideas. Thank you Joyce T. Povlacs, Teaching and Learning Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for 101 Things You Can Do The First Three Weeks of Class
Her catalog of suggestions, aimed at “college teachers looking for a fresh way of creating the best possible environment for learning….not just on the first day but during the first three weeks” provides a useful and inspiring educator’s reference.
Here’s a few suggestions gathered from UNL professors and other college teachers:
- hit the ground running on the first day of class with substantial content
- give an assignment the first day to be collected at the next meeting
- explain the difference between legitimate collaboration and academic dishonesty
- seek out a different student each day and get to know something about him or her
- share your philosophy of teaching with your students
- stage a figurative “coffee break” about 20 minutes into the hour: tell an anecdote, invite students to put down pens and pencils, refer to a current event, shift media.
Guest speaker David Rowney, a past president of CPRS Toronto and current Vice President, Marketing & Communications at AMEC Environmental, spoke to my students in December. I asked him to advise students about how to succeed as a communicator within a corporation.
Dave didn’t disappoint. Students responded so positively to his “Corporation Communications Top 10 Ways to Succeed” that I share them so others may benefit from Dave’s wisdom.
1. Understand your company’s culture.
2. React to business planning changes.
3. Learn to reinvent yourself.
4. Make your boss, and your boss’s boss, look good.
5. Recognize what you do well and exploit it.
6. Network within and outside your company.
7. Be adapatable to the pace of projects.
8. Dress for respect—not success.
9. Know when to leave.
10. Bring your energy and passion to work every day.
Along with New Year’s resolutions, I think Dave’s inspirational tips are a great way to start 2008!
