The other blog in my life

I am at the point in my doctoral studies when I can begin my seven comprehensive exams and start writing the literature review for my dissertation. It has been a long but extremely rewarding experience so far. Now, the intensity magnifies.

As a required part of the process, I must blog weekly about the development of my dissertation literature review. I will do this in my education blog, http://lespottereducationblog.wordpress.com/ 

I will document and discuss my literature review progress in this blog. I will discuss the scope of my review, my research strategies, and the progress I am making.

I intend for this to be a dialogue with my colleagues in Towson’s Instructional Technology doctoral program in which we can share our experiences in writing our dissertation literature reviews.

Even though the content of this blog is more narrowly focused, I invite all my More With Les friends to join me there when you can. You are welcomed to comment at any time.

What do I tell my PR students about media relations?

Spring semester begins January 25, and once again I ask myself what to teach my PR students about media relations as the upheaval in media continues at a rapid pace.

Ironically, a lot of the news these days is about news organizations themselves. And the news is bad, especially about newspapers – bankruptcies, layoffs, and ever-diminishing revenues. It appears that the list of publications that have become extinct grows weekly. Many have gone online exclusively.

According to American Journalism Review, there were 1,408 daily newspapers in the U.S. last year. Most are small, with only 395 dailies having circulation of over 50,000. Gannett remains the largest newspaper company in the U.S., operating 84 dailies, but it only accounts for a modest 12.5 percent of the nation’s daily newspaper circulation.

Historically, many cities had two dominate newspapers, but no more.  Most recently, Seattle, Denver, and Tucson ceased to be two-newspaper cities.

Efforts to save newspapers run from calling for a federal fund for newspapers to underwrite local news reporting to consolidation, thereby further diminishing the number of newspapers.

Highlighting the troubles is the recent revelation that the executive editor of The National Enquirer plans to enter for a Pulitzer Prize the paper’s coverage of onetime Democrat presidential hopeful John Edwards’ scandal. Long dismissed as a mere supermarket tabloid, it was the Enquirer that broke the story of Edwards’ relationship with staffer Rielle Hunter and her baby, which Edwards just admitted was his after months of denials.

As if what passes for journalism these days hasn’t fallen far enough, that this “disreputable tabloid” scooped the big dogs adds insult to injury. Where were they? They either missed the story or chose to ignore it perhaps because of Edwards’ political party affiliation.

True, print journalism is only one part of an effective media mix, but that part appears preoccupied with its own survival. Newspapers’ historical place as gatekeepers is increasingly called into question with the ascension of citizen journalists and bloggers. Social media must now be an essential part of strategic communication/public relations planning and management.

Therefore, I must instill in my students an understanding of and appreciation for all forms of media and how to effectively use them. My instructional philosophy and practice at Towson is built on integrated marketing communication (IMC).  Under an IMC construct, a media mix is essential. The practitioner uses a mix of what works best to achieve his/her goals. It is neither all social media nor all print and broadcast nor all advertising.

Several of my former students have jobs with well-known PR firms at which they are responsible for Word of Mouth, or WOM, departments.  WOM is essentially consumers providing information to other consumers. The agency account reps drive the buzz about a client’s products or services. They facilitate the conversation via social media.

But yet, the traditional print media hangs on. Therefore, it must still be part of an effective media relations strategy.

But how? The cornerstone is the online newsroom, as long as it is set up and maintained correctly. An online newsroom provides journalists with 24/7 access to important information. But to be relevant, it must conform to fundamental, time-tested rules of what makes information newsworthy, such as:

• It must be timely, for news means new.
• The information must be important to key publics.
• It must be interesting.
• It should have a local angle, hitting close to home for publics.

My students, like working professionals, must learn that effective media relations means understanding the characteristics of all media, how best to use each, and how to select a proper mix. There is a rich mix of media from which to choose these days, but in the end, the basics of sound media relations still apply, even to those newspapers that remain viable.

What I hate about Facebook

Mean-spirited, hate-filled political comments, that’s what.

I am a huge fan of Facebook, but I do not use it as a political forum. I use it to see what my friends are up to. I do not go to Facebook to hear political diatribes from any viewpoint. There are other venues for that.

I respect my friends’ political views, for I have strongly held beliefs, too. But I get tired of the political comments, which are often mean and hurtful.

If you don’t agree with someone else’s politics, fine, but wanting them silenced, marginalized, ridiculed, hurt, or at the worse, dead, puts you right up there with Joseph Stalin, Hugo Chavez, and other despots.

Silence is golden, they say, but what about blogging?

My inner voice, the responsible, disciplined, professional voice, keeps saying, “You must blog. It’s been too long between posts.”

“Blog about what?” another voice in there says. I feel the pressure to blog regularly ever since I started this thing. But I also do not blog unless I have something to say.

So what am I doing between blog posts? Right now, I am reading and thinking. Like you, dear MWL reader, when I am working, there are so many demands on me that I often don’t have time to think, much less to read anything other than scholarly journals, textbooks, etc.

Now that I am on winter break between fall and spring semesters at Towson University, I love the freedom I have to read books for fun. And I love having the time to think.

Yes, just sit and think. When we are working, it seems like we do not have time to just think. We run from one task to the next with barely enough time to eat, much less to simply think.

To me, winter is a time for hibernation with the major activities being pleasure reading and thinking. It is life-affirming and rejuvenating.

Try it. I think you will like it.

In praise of books

As a college professor, I am certainly no stranger to books. Like a flintlock rifle to a pioneer, my books are my major tools of survival.

But these are textbooks. While I love them all, reading books of my choosing for fun is a wonderful holiday treat. During fall and spring semesters, I do not have time to read for fun. In addition to four classes/80-plus students, serving as faculty advisor for two organizations, counseling 50 advisees, hundreds of online correspondence weekly, and my two blogs, I take at least one doctoral class a semester. I can’t manage more than that with my existing workload. My doctoral classes usually add from two to five books that must be read, plus a weekly barrage of scholarly journal articles.

All that leaves little time for escapism reading. But now that I am out on winter break, I am catching up. I love good old-fashioned hardbound books whose pages I can turn, write in the margins, and mark memorable passages for easy retrieval later.

Yes, I read my fun books just like I read my textbooks — with pencil and marker handy.

My first read of the winter break was the incredible People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. Much of this wonderful book takes place in a special city to me, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. I went there a few years back to speak at a conference, and it was a life-changing event. I studied Bosnia’s proud and at times troubled history before I left, but being there made it all come alive for me. I made some very dear and lasting friends on that trip, and after reading the book, I contacted each one. I also asked their help in contacting others with whom I have lost touch.

Many scenes from People of the Book take place in familiar areas to me — Sarajevo’s old town, the hotel in which I stayed, and streets whose architecture and war damage are all ingrained in my memory. The book also has a scene in Australia’s Noosa Beach, another interesting place I have visited.

But it is Sarajevo that still captures my heart. I got to see much of the city of Sarajevo. Years before, I had watched the winter olympics held there before the war. One of my most compelling memories from my visit was sitting mid-rink in the actual ice rink where Katarina Witt and others had performed in those olympics. Damaged heavily in the war, it was still a moving experience to be there, sitting alone in the dark, quiet of the olympic ice rink, once a scene of so much wonder.

I left Sarajevo and drove north through Bosnia-Herzegovina to Zagreb, Croatia. That trip was deeply moving because I saw much of the war-damaged countryside that was still trying to recover.

My second read was Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. I liked it because the story and its intricacy is remarkable. I am familiar with much of the “mysteries” that permeate the book. You see, after my accident in 1977, in which I broke my back and became paralyzed and a wheelchair user, I went looking for answers. I read everything I could get my hands on about the world’s great religions, spirituality, the mind, conscientiousness, healing, miracles, metaphysics, Noetic science, philosophy, physics, the Knights Templar, Masonic history, and on and on. One book led me to another, then another. None of the secrets or symbols in The Lost Symbol were really new to me, but Dan Brown can put together an action-packed adventure like no one else. He is a gifted storyteller.

I am currently reading Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants. I’ll write about it later. It’s too early to tell about it, but so far, so good.

Like me, I know there are many other, excuse this, people of the book out there. It is a wonderful thing to be able to lose yourself in a compelling read. If you are one (and I know you are) please share your favorites with me via the comment block below. I’d love to hear from you.

Happy New Year. I wish you many wonderful books in the coming year.

Lessons on problem-solving from my Granddaughter Ava

My 5-year-old granddaughter Ava never ceases to amaze me. For example, during our Thanksgiving visit, I watched her put together a puzzle, and what I learned about problem-solving rivals any MBA curriculum.

She sat in front of me on the floor to begin work on a Disney three princesses puzzle. First, she separated all the border pieces, the pieces with a tell-tale straight side.

Next, she gathered pieces with similar colors or patterns. Similar-colored pieces were placed in a group and set aside. Similar-patterned pieces were gathered and stored in another spot on the floor.

She then carefully began to assemble the border, roughing in the entire puzzle. Once completed, she studied the inside of the puzzle and began to match pieces either by color or pattern.

At times, she would simply sit quietly and study the puzzle, then turn her attention to the available pieces she had segregated by color or pattern. Often, she would pick up one piece and put it into its correct place for a perfect fit.

In no time at all, the puzzle was complete, and Ava beamed a grin of satisfaction that equaled the radiant smiles of the three Disney princesses.

Amazing. Her approach to solving the puzzle was highly instructive.

• First, study the problem. Plan an approach that will govern the problem-solving. Do the border first, or, determine the entire scope of the problem to be solved. Once you have it framed, then you can deal with the details in a logical order.
• Second, look for commonalities, for groupings, that can be treated together rather than separately. That helps to make the problem-solving more efficient. By grouping the pieces according to color or pattern, Ava could easily find how and where those pieces of the puzzle fit.
• Third, stop and think. Look at the problem. Think about it. It’s like the rule in carpentry — measure twice, cut once. Rather than charge full speed ahead, think. Plan. Then, methodically attack the problem in logical order.

Jiffy Lube education

Jiffy Lube has to be one of the greatest ideas in convenient car care ever devised. But disturbingly, many students seem to want a jiffy lube college education experience; pull in without an appointment, and get the full service education poured into you, then pay the bill and drive away.

But what works so well for my certified pre-owned, fully optioned Buick Park Avenue will not serve my students well. For career success, college must be a time of learning and growth, not quick fixes.

Let’s begin Stephen Covey-like with the end in mind. Employers want to hire problem-solvers, people who can study situations, processes, and systems, make recommendations for improving them, then implement those improvements. Employers want employees who are curious, who want to tackle problems and solve them.

When done correctly, a college education prepares the student to do just that. That is my goal for the communication/public relations classes I teach. It is as it has always been — a quest for knowledge.

Marcy P. Driscoll (2000) says knowledge is a matter of competence with respect to valued enterprises, such as singing a tune, discovering scientific facts, fixing machines, writing poetry, etc. Knowing is a matter of participating in the pursuit of such enterprises, that is, of active engagement in the world.

I can’t simply pour the knowledge needed for carer success into my Millennial students’ brains. There is a difference in knowing something and understanding it. David Perkins and Chris Unger wrote in 1999 that understanding a topic is a matter of knowing it well. But, it is clear that knowledge in itself does not guarantee understanding. So, even if I could give my students the knowledge contained in a course, that does not mean that they would understand it and be able to use it effectively.

True, they might pass the course, but it is better to be able to do something with the knowledge later. Duffy and Jonassen, in 1992, asked if knowledge is an identifiable entity with some fixed truth value. Is the goal of instruction to acquire a knowledge base that is prespecified? They stated one of their major goals is to encourage students to develop socially acceptable systems for exploring their ideas and their differences in opinion.

That is the essential issue in education. As Duffey and Jonassen say, knowledge develops through, and is embedded in, the tasks or experiences of the learner. Students say they want knowledge, but to have knowledge, I believe that students’ knowledge must be co-constructed by them with me as mentor, coach, and helper, and by their team mates in class. This requires higher order thinking, and that is precisely what I wish for them.

We call it “constructivist learning”. According to Richard E. Mayer, writing in 1999, it occurs when learners actively create their own knowledge by trying to make sense out of material that is presented to them. David Jonassen said in an interview in 2001 that education has always assumed that knowledge can be transferred and that we can carefully control the process through education. He calls this a grand illusion. He says that knowledge cannot be managed.

Donald J. Cunningham, writing in 1975, says constructivism holds that learning is a process of building up structures of experience. Learners create interpretations of the world based on their past experiences and their interactions in the world.

Cunningham says the role of the educator in constructivist learning is to show students how to construct knowledge, to promote collaboration with others to bring multiple perspectives to the solving of problems, and to help students arrive at a self-chosen position.

That is the highest and best I can do for my students, for their future employers, and for society itself.

You know you are working too hard when…

…you get a Signals gift catalog in the mail, and when you read a stupid T-shirt slogan, you crack up. I’ve been particularly busy for a while now, but laughing at T-shirt slogans is a troublesome sign.

What did it say?

Non sequiturs are like bicycles. They don’t bath.

See what I mean?

Personal assistants for college students? Bad idea

I heard a snippet on the news this morning about a Georgetown University student who is advertising for a personal assistant. Seems his college life is too demanding, and he needs help, so much so that he is willing to pay for it.

ROTL LMAO.

College life is supposed to be demanding. It is a special time in life in which you learn and grow and become an adult. College helps prepare a person to live an independent, productive, and responsible life.

At least that is the way it is supposed to be. Perhaps the guy who needs a personal assistant in college just needs to go home to his mommy.

During the college years, a person should learn to handle the responsibilities of daily living. This includes the mundane chores, like feeding yourself, cleaning up, washing clothes, paying bills, and in general, taking care of day-to-day business. Doing these things yourself builds your skills and abilities to take care of yourself for the rest of your life.

The primary reason for the college experience  is learning career skills that will prepare you to work productively. Chances are you will not stay in the same job or the same career for all of your work life, but you attend college to study and prepare to do something that will at least get you started.

None of these things can be a proper learning experience if delegated to paid help. College is a time to grow up. You can’t pay someone to do that for you.

Bon mots from Web 3.0

The Skype chat feature is to email messages as Twitter is to blogging. I am losing my ability to write long passages.