This past week, I had the wonderful opportunity to guest lecture in two PR principles classes (thank you Angela and Dr. Hilyard), and one PR Cases class here at Tennessee (thank you Dr. Fall). The topic that I was covering for both classes was in Social Media and Public Relations. All three classes were great – the students were very attentive and had some great questions about social media and how it is transforming how we communicate and conduct our campaigns for our clients. Thank you Angela, Dr. Hilyard, and Dr. Fall for allowing me to come to your classes! 🙂 It was a great learning and teaching opportunity for me.
It is great to see how other professors are using and incorporating social media into their public relations classes. Two examples that I found to be very insightful came from the University of Georgia, and one from Auburn University. Karen Miller Russell and Kaye Sweetser both provide great examples of how to incorporate social media into the classroom by assigning specific social media tools for their PR assignments. Robert French has done a lot of very creative and strategic work in his classes by having his students go on Twitter and interact and share information with others.
From creating viral videos to writing social media releases, and following professionals on Twitter – these three PR professionals are leading the way in implementing social media into the classroom. All three professors providing their students with creative, innovative, and strategic ways to use social media to best prepare them for the workplace and start their professional career ahead of the curve. Keep up the great work! 🙂
As academics, we tell our students to think outside of the box and look towards the future for upcoming trends. I would definitely say that applies to teaching as well – we need to look at what is happening in the PR field in terms of issues and trends, but we must keep up with the latest technologies that are used in communicating to our publics. Social media is a great tool to do this – and what is exciting is that it is continuing to evolve and change – and we (PR professionals and academics) are a part of it. 🙂
Hope you all are havng a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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