Meet Canadian PR educator/blogger Christine Smith of Centennial College's PR program and find out how social media can help recruit top students:
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog? Are you using any other social media?
I think I attempted a personal blog about three years ago and didn't quite "get it." For the past 14 months or so I've written A Learner's Way. The purpose: to explore, and comment on, how learning takes place in my PR classes. I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. And, last year, we produced a podcast, and I was involved.
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there.
I'm part of Centennial College's Corporate Communication and Public Relations program. It's a postgraduate, two-semester, graduate certificate program, situated at the Centre for Creative Communications in Toronto, Ontario. Students get lots of hands-on learning via PR writing labs,
executing special events, hosting mock news conferences and producing print/graphic pieces for clients. And, of course, students get the basics in strategic communications, media relations, project management and Canadian business.
Q. In what ways do you incorporate social media into the classroom? What would you most like to do that you aren't already doing?
Last year, we launched a new course--Online Public Relations, developed, and taught, by the recently retired Gary Schlee. Students must write a blog as part of this course, comment with relevant bloggers and produce a podcast. We also recently hosted Talk is Cheap, an "unconference" about PR and social media. Lots of students got involved as volunteers in this super event. Our college / program has also been the site of three live Inside PR podcasts. We'll continue to evolve our curriculum as social media and its PR applications evolve.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
Get in the game! Our involvement in social media has positioned Centennial's PR program as very, very desirable among applicants. I believe applicants view us as a program that is in step with the times. This is a competitive advantage.
Q. I enjoy the fact that your blog is more often about students and learning generally than about public relations specifically. How have your own students responded to the blog? Do you conceptualize them as your primary audience?
I often consider how my students will react to what I write on A Learner's Way. Most of those who read it are students and grads (I don't have a huge following because I don't blog enough). I think I do
conceptualize them as my primary audience. I'm fascinated by what goes on in the classroom when a group of individuals struggle to learn and get along (and earn good grades.) I'm fascinated by how learning takes place. I'm challenged by how to take an idea and make it stick. I continually want to push myself to do better. That's why I'm an educator and why I continue to find this job stimulating.
