A Learner’s Way

PBS recently aired the Frontline documentary Growing Up Online. What an entertaining and thought-provoking watch.

I’m sure much of the content came as a shock to many parent viewers unaware of how and why young people use social networks, MSN and online communications in general. Old news to us educators. We know how wired students are to the online world.

However, I was quite disturbed to view the segment dealing with a female high school student, so ostracized because she choose a Goth look as her form of self expressi9on, that she created an online alter ego. Her alter ego posed for saucy pictures in the privacy of her own bedroom then posted them online.

Her alter ego received hundreds of e-mail messages of support and encouragement. This boosted her sense of self, the messages telling her she was “better than okay.” No longer a loser, she was suddenly hot and desired.

Inevitably, a parent stumbled upon the site, notified the school principal who notified her parents who forced her to remove the site. Lots of tears. Lots of pain for the young woman. As she talked about it on camera, it was as if she’d lost a limb.

I felt sad for this young woman, sad that she couldn’t be herself in her everyday, high school type life. But, at the same time, I was fascinated by her reactions to her “amputation” from her online persona. I didn’t quite get this.

I’d be interested to know what the fascination is with creating alter egos on line.

Eric Bergman, president of Present with Ease, and a Toronto-based communications/presentation skills trainer, sent me his wonderful article on the perils of giving 30-minute answers.

He illustrates his points through the experience of his university-aged son who’s not willing to put up with even 15-minute answers from his profs.

Eric offers sage advice, especially for college professors! Check it out.

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!

My deadline to submit final grades for three courses looms.  My stack of assignments needing evaluation slowly sinks to a manageable level. 

In the middle of providing feedback on over 40 detailed case studies I realize I’ve written: “when you shift subjects, insert a paragraph,” on about 100 per cent of them.

It begs the question: how come university graduates (some of them English majors) don’t know when to use a paragraph?  For that matter:  why do college professors need to teach university graduates that commas actually serve a useful purpose in a sentence? Or that semi-colons can break up two thoughts very efficiently? Or, that drafting short, declarative sentences improves a writer’s overall clarity?  

We certainly try to remedy our students’ writing flaws.  We offer intensive courses in copy editing and PR writing.  On virtually every assignment, we provide feedback on both their ideas and how they express them. Often, students submit brilliantly creative but technically flawed assignments riddled with run-on sentences, comma faults and words used incorrectly—nouns as verbs, adverbs as adjectives, etc.

In some cases, students unfamiliar with the precise meaning of a word use it anyway.  Just in case it’s the correct one.

Spiritually, students feel quite broken when they receive their first assignments after their instructors (also trained editors) red pens their grammar. Many feel devastated to receive a “C” grade that’s mostly the result of sloppy editing and weak application of the basics of grammar and punctuation.  

For some, it’s a wake-up call to bone up on CP Style or pay more attention to proofreading.   Or, to begin to actually consult an dictionary.  Others have such ingrained habits they’re never able to conquer subject/verb agreement, possessives, or contractions.

As an educator, I feel discouraged knowing that however much feedback and extra help I provide, many PR students graduate with less-than-stellar writing skills.  Their habits run too deep.  Or, acquiring the basics this late in their educational journey is just too hard.  Or, they’ve managed to earn a university degree without mastering the basics of grammar and may ask:  what’s the point now?

The point for me is that many employers ask: “why can’t graduates today write?”  And, that’s why I continue to provide the feedback I do.

My dean forwarded an article from the National Post describing how a Columbia University professor decided to ban the use of laptops in his classes. Why? Several of his students complained they were distracted by classmates surfing the Web, checking their e-mails, shopping online and social networking on Facebook during in-class lectures and presentations.

Apparently, many other institutions of higher learning have outlawed laptop use in classrooms. This has sparked quite a debate. How far should colleges and universities go in restricting technology? And, how can they when some programs demand that students purchase laptops as part of their studies?

There’s no doubt that what’s behind the computer screen is very tempting for students. Combine short attention spans and long lectures and they begin to check e-mails, chat with friends, review sites, etc. The worst of it? When they’re on the computer, they disengage with the speaker and the material at the front of the room. (Kind of like trying to drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time.)

Some students go to great lengths to give the impression they’re listening intently and keying in notes. However, often this isn’t the case. Others will tell you they’ve very good at multi-tasking; so, what’s the big deal?

Rather than banning laptops outright, I’d recommend letting the learning situation dictate the response. For key content, ask students to close their laptops or turn off their monitors. Let them know that the next bit of content requires listening, focusing and attending. Give them a time frame for how long they’ll be “computer-less” as many may get a bit panicked without their familiar lifeline. For students concerned about getting the notes, make sure they receive them. Put another way: develop an instructional strategy or technique, rather than banning the technology.

Ideas from students and educators about dealing with laptops in class most welcome.

In the early days of my teaching career I used to get quite upset when the only feedback I received from some students was “loved the guest speakers.”  I figured somehow they must have felt the rest of the course content was useless.

I now view feedback like this as a major compliment.  Delivering meaningful content in my media relations, event management and Intro to PR courses means I strategically select my guest speakers for maximum benefit.  Maximum benefit means major learning.

Based on the enthusiastic response to my guest speakers this semester, this strategic approach pays dividends in terms of ideas and learning.

I’ve listed my tips for selecting guests speakers that are good as gold below:

1.  Ensure your guest speakers reflect the diversity of your learners.  For example, if your group includes recent university grads and students who have been out working for a number of years, pick speakers to match. If your group is composed of brown, black, yellow, white, male and female faces, pick speakers who match the mix.

2.  Invite in PR practitioners from organizations that students are familiar with–brands they admire or firms they’ve read about. 

3.  Pick speakers from organizations students might not consider as having exciting, engaging communications activities.  (e.g. Kari Cuss, Director of Public Affairs and Communications,  was a recent fabulous guest speaker from Trillium Gift of Life Network, Ontario’s organ and tissue donation.)  She left many students thinking:  “I’ve changed my mind about working in the not-for-profit sector and working in health care.”

4.  Invite recent grads in to speak.  Nothing is more powerful than for students to learn about the business of PR through the eyes of a grad who was in their place just six months ago.

5.  Don’t be too prescriptive when advising your guests about their subject.  Let their experience do their talking for them.  Students are hungry for “real” examples about “real PR” and it doesn’t matter how many examples their professors provide; for students, it’s all about people who actually do it.

6.  Take a chance on inviting in a speaker you haven’t met before.  I like to reach out to my CPRS Toronto and IABC Toronto colleagues who’ve recently won awards or made headlines.  It’s a good way for me to network.  But, more importantly, it lets students see a clear benefit of joining a professional association.  We’re a generous, thoughtful group of professionals who want to contribute to the next generation of PR pros and I like students to see this in action.

7.  So your speaker will resonate with students, tell them beforehand as much as you can about the situation:  how many students; where they are in the semester; what they’ll likely want to know; how they’ll likely react, etc. 

Perhaps you’ve recently spoken to a group of college students.  Or, maybe you’ve been the beneficiary of new knowledge from a guest speaker in your class.  Tell me about your experience.