Teaching PR

The Week's Best, 28 December 2009

• International Conference on Public Relations in Iran, Medhi Bagherian/Simin Babazadegan
• HP Responds to Viral Video Showing Product Malfunction, Joe Ciarallo (with HP Computers Are Racist video)
• Facebook and Google Donate to Charities in Lieu of Parties and Gifts, Beth Kanter
• It's Excellence, Jim-- But Not As We Know It! Grunig Revisited, Phillip Young
• Seven Reasons You Should Care about Disclosure on Twitter, Dave Fleet
• PR Students Wiki, Michael White
• PRSA Retires Multicultural Section; Will Be Folded Into Diversity Committee, Joe Ciarallo
• A Manager Who Can't Communicate Can't Lead, Sean Williams (via @commaim)
• Recommendation Etiquette for Young Professionals, Nick Lucido

The Week's Best, 21 December 2009

• How to Start a Flash Mob, Diana Adams (via @amberhutchins)
• Three Important Skills for Future PR Professionals, David Hauge (via @EvaKeiser)
• Will Your Grades Land the Job?, Mikinzie Stuart (via @rachelesterline)
• 4 Reasons to Hit the Books While Job Hunting, Karen Burns; My PR Books of the Year 2009, Richard Bailey; Top 50 Social Media Books of All Time, Craig Deakin (via @TrevorYoung); and Marketing in 2010 (free e-book), Valeria Maltoni
• Social Media Top 5: The Dearth of Privacy, Doug Haslam
• Dumbest Moments in Business 2009, Fortune and Air Force One, Rigid Delaware School and Goldman Sachs Top 2009 PR Blunders, Fineman PR (both via Jason Chupik)
• Best Blog Posts from "PRCA3339 Fall 2009, Barbara Nixon

The Week's Best for PR Students, 14 December 2009

College Students: Facebook Only Game In Town, Marketing Charts (h/t @abrill) and Facebook: Privacy Settings Change Again, David Kamerer

What’s Next: Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra on “The State of the Blogosphere” in 2009
Dallas Lawrence

Google Forces the Issue: Social Media is No Longer Optional, Shel Holtz

PR Videos of the Week, Greg Hazley

Hello? Is It Me You're Looking For, Nathan (registration req'd)

Using PROpenMic in PR classes

Cross-posted from PROpenMic (I directed this post to other faculty on PROpenMic but thought Teaching PR readers who are not yet on PROpenMic might also be interested):

I've assigned participation on PROpenMic to several different classes over several semesters, with very little success in getting the students involved (to the point of taking points off final grades because they failed to participate adequately).

I made some changes to the assignment this semester that seemed to help and that have given me some other ideas for next semester -- thought I'd share in case any of you are having the same problems.

1. I gave students very specific guidelines about what "participation" means -- join at least 2 groups, write at least 2 blog posts, create a complete profile, post comments on at least five other blog posts (and not just students in our class), etc. This gave them a minimum to shoot for. Unlike past semesters, almost everyone got all the points for participation.

2. I contacted Prof. Jeanne Persuit at UNC-Wilmington when I realized that a lot of her students were posting, too. She came up with the idea of creating a group, Bulldogs + Seahawks, where our students could mix and mingle. She also had the idea of doing a "6 Random PR Things About Me" meme. She created the group, I wrote the questions and we each tagged a couple of students to get it going. The students seemed to comment mostly on the posts of students from their own school, but I think if we work on this again next semester we'll be able to get students to interact a bit more. I told students that participating in the 6 Random Things meme could take the place of one blog post; next semester I'll build "participate in at least one discussion" as a requirement in addition to the 2 blog posts. I think pairing up with another class at another school is a simple and non-intimidating way to get students interacting.

3. I know the students were primarily participating just to get their points, but it seemed to me that at the end of the semester, as the deadline loomed and a bunch of them were doing their blog posts and commenting on each others' posts, they did seem to get into it. Some of them made many more than 5 comments, some of them experienced the thrill of getting lots of comments on a post, and Magan Jenkins' ABC post was featured on the homepage. All of this can only encourage them to get more involved. So, next semester I'm going to try "A Week with PROpenMic" early in the semester in which everyone has to create their profile and write their first post. Maybe then they'll be more active throughout the semester instead of waiting until the end.

4. I'm following @PROpenMic on Twitter and will make a more concerted effort to check in and write comments on posts and participate in discussions. Richard Bailey was kind enough to comment on several of my students' posts, and I do think it's exciting for the students to get feedback from outside the class.

The Week's Best, 7 December 2001

• 20 Ways PR Students Can Beat the Winter Break Blues, Mikinzie Stuart
• Top Student Blog Posts, Fall 2009, Tiffany Derville; Are Blogs by PR Students Credible Sources?, Rachel Esterline; and I'm a PR Student...So What?, Maggie Bronny
• 50 Ways to Make Limoncello When You've Been Laid Off, Valeria Maltoni
• PR vs. Journalism, as Portrayed by College Kids, video via Jason Chupik
• A Baker's Dozen Career Boosters, Tim Conway (via @kdarr)
• Lessons from a Porch Light, Rebel Brown (via @jgombita) 
• Pro PR Tips, Rafe Needleman (via @kmatthews)
• This Day In History: December 7, History.com