Saturday, June 11, 2011

You want us to do WHAT?

Oh, boy, they don't look excited about this. Well, I guess excited might have been a little much to expect, but interested would have been nice. This could be a long term ... then again, maybe it's because I'm talking about technical communication at 2 p.m. in a small room on a summer day.

I'm not sure that's exactly what I was thinking, but that's probably pretty close to what was running through my mind as I introduced the course assignments to my undergraduate summer technical communication students. I put a lot of work into my class prep, since I added a new unit to the course - new media - so I was hoping for something more than 11 "you want us to do WHAT?" looks.

Since that first day, the students have come around a little. We've talked more about the media I expect them to create by Aug. 4, and a couple of them even have asked why we're doing more than writing papers and fact sheets. That explanation was simple - new media is here, guys, and it's not going anywhere. You need to know the basics of how to use Facebook for something other than posting your 21st birthday pictures and stalking the cute guy in the front row. You need to be prepared to embrace Twitter and blogging as a professional, even if you swear now that you'll never use them. And, you need to be comfortable with the technologies and media available now so that you're prepared for what is coming, the things we haven't even thought of yet, that you'll have to learn on the fly as a big kid.

Most of them pretended they understood what I was saying.

Even if they didn't understand, maybe they will by the end of the summer, after they choose a topic to research and write about, and an organization to represent. Based on their topics and organizations, they will create a strategic communication plan that has to include tweets, blogs and a Facebook page (among other, more archaic publications, like memos, fact sheets, press releases and reports). And - because I'm one of those instructors that expects way too much sometimes - all 11 of my students will have to observe and participate in streaming conversations over Twitter ... if they can keep up.

I'm trying to keep the assignments fairly simple. Tweets and blogs have to be about the topics they choose. That shouldn't be rocket science ... but we'll see. Their Facebook pages are supposed to represent their organizations/topics, and be connected to their tweets and blogs. I want those Facebook pages to be hidden - here's to hoping they follow directions - which isn't ideal, but the idea is to give them the experience of creating something professional on Facebook without starting a Facebook fan page battle that they may not be prepared to deal with.

Keeping the assignments simple also will allow me to include a few basic things about content development and management. We'll see how that goes.

So, one last question that I had to answer for myself, when we decided to share this info: Why does it matter to us - the faculty members, the graduate students, the professional communicators? That was simple. SAAS ... ACT Professional Development ... Western ... AAAE ... ACE ... NACTA ... AMS/NACT ... seven conferences, seven ongoing conversations about using and teaching new media.

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