I am currently making final preparations on my upcoming AEJMC panel presentation in about a month in Chicago. Our panel is all about talking about how scholars can be social connectors through a variety of ways. I will be focusing on emerging technologies and how professors can use this strategically not only in the classroom, but for themselves as well. Professors along with practitioners today are constantly looking for the best new thing when it comes to technologies – whether it is mobile apps or new social media platforms – to help them distinguish themselves from others in the same business. We are seeing more research in PR in the area of social media, but professors do need to think about how they are different from other researchers. I think it is interesting to see the connection to this message – professors lecture to students about separating themselves as a potential job candidate, but do we always follow our own advice at times?
This is going to be the heart of what I want to focus on during my presentation in about a month. How does a professor go about in separating and distinguishing themselves in their research and teaching capabilities with new media? Is it all about learning the new terms and software programs, or it about really looking more at the strategies and tools we can use for not only ourselves professionally, but personally as well.
I will be giving a few suggestions during my presentation, but one I found useful to share with my students in class have been info graphics. Infographics seem to be pretty much established here in 2012 – there are many sites for you to look at info graphics (ex. Visual.ly), create your own info graphic of your resume (ex. Vizualize.me), blogs on info graphics, and even best practices on how to create one from Mashable. Another good reference to look at is Video Infographics – they are info graphics, but they are presented in a video format. This is great for sharing with students in class about various topics, including the introduction possibly to Twitter. Harry Mitchell created this one for Twitter that may be useful to share with students in social media and here is another one looking at the impact of the Local Web
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irxiOxX3q1c[/youtube]
If you are interested in more video info graphics, you may want to check this list out. In summary, as you can see, there are many resources at our disposal as professors to not only share with our students, but also learn for ourselves and how we can look at these emerging technologies in our own research. We have to continue to explore these new platforms and technologies in order to always stay ahead of the curve.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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