The Social Network

It's Not Your Classroom Charlie Brown

By Allison Dauksz

As many college professors stand before their class and look out into the sea of electronic devices, many of them may feel much like the teacher in a Charlie Brown episode, sounding like a muffled trombone to an absent audience.  The attention span of the generation known as “digital natives” is one that is definitely hard to grab.

It is not necessarily their fault. In an interview done with Dr. Star Muir, communication professor at Mason, he spoke about how this new generation of students is changing the classroom and what teachers can do to adapt to these changes.

Muir, who received his Ph.D. in rhetoric and communication studies from the University of Pittsburgh, knows firsthand the changes that have occurred in the classroom when it comes to technology and the students who are products of it.

“The professor is no longer the only source of knowledge in the classroom.” In and outside of school students have laptops, tablets, and smart phones at their fingertips ready to receive information at a moment’s notice. Any information can be checked and possibly disputed because of the internet. Because of this students are more likely to do so.

The students are no longer, “just there to receive,” Muir said.   This availability of the internet causes students to second guess the teacher and many will speak up because of this. This can be helpful in opening up discussion in class but can also be disruptive to the learning process.

Growing up in the Internet age has also caused a loss of focus in today’s students, Muir said. It has caused students to have “continuous partial attention”. They now have a hard time focusing on just one subject at a time. Muir spoke of his teenage daughter and her study habits as she is approaching college years.

“She is listening to iTunes, she has Facebook open, she has her mobile phone with text, and there is a TV on in the background. There are multiple things she has going on simultaneously and she is scanning and paying attention to things as they happen,” said Muir. This repeated kind of activity causes students to have difficulty focusing on just one activity such as the teacher giving a lecture at the front of the room.

Muir explained the effect this increase of Internet use has on the brain by giving an example of how research is done today. Students do not look through a card catalog and read multiple books anymore. Most people will Google the information they are looking for and are presented with a series of links.

“The mind starts to say, wow! Another link, cool, that is what feels good. That is where I get my reinforcement,” Muir said. The brain then gets a release of dopamine and it trains the brain to prefer this type of information receiving. This makes it very hard for teachers to compete for attention in the classroom. There are, nevertheless, ways to use technology and teaching methods that work with this new way of thinking and learning.

 Muir is a faculty cohort member with the center for consciousness and transformation at Mason. They focus on meditation and a practice of wellbeing to achieve a more successful focused lifestyle. Muir is interested in helping students to train themselves to be more focused.

“Students these days don’t have environments where it is conducive to focus or meditate,” said Muir. Teachers can try one of the techniques he uses in his rhetorical communication class to help students learn to focus better. He likes to have writing exercises that follow the contemplative thought process.

Muir does this by changing the atmosphere of the classroom by either playing soothing music on Pandora or even playing classical guitar himself. According to Muir, this puts the students in a more contemplative frame of mind before writing their assignment and allows them to better plan their work. When teachers are assigning work they should keep this in mind and try to develop techniques that allow students to practice better focusing methods.

There are many other ways for teachers to communicate and hold the attention of this digital generation. Muir states that with the, “changing of the guard”, to a younger generation of teachers, we will see more of an attempt to use these techniques and practices that they themselves have grown up with. The technology boom in the classroom began with an overload of PowerPoint presentations and teachers asking for blog postings to integrate new ideas.

Muir suggests that students do not necessarily like these methods and they can also be difficult for teachers to manage. What is more popular now is the use of video from YouTube and other sources to show visual examples that can be integrated into the lesson plan. One suggestion Muir gives in regards to the use of videos and new technology is professors should screen for content before showing a class. Everything can be accessed on the Internet and some media can be very offensive to people in both language and content. Despite the risk of possibly offending people, if a disclaimer is given and the situation is treated correctly, videos and digital media can be a very successful teaching aid.   

Some advice Muir has for teachers today is to not be afraid to adopt new technology into the classroom. He says, “One of the hardest things to do, but one of the more important things, is don’t be afraid to bring technology into the classroom. Also, don’t be afraid for the class to know you are not the smartest person in the class when it comes to something.”

Muir says if there is something an instructor does not understand, he or she should feel free to ask a student as opposed to fumbling around wasting valuable class time. Technology should be used to benefit the class and the students learning process. If used creatively and correctly it can change the whole learning process of a class and can aid teachers in presenting information in a way that is more conducive to the digital natives’ way of thinking.

Juggling the Social Media Jungle

By Peter Milligan

Social media use has increased 356% in the United States since 2006, according to thesocialskinny.com. That should come as no surprise to a nation that, according to the same site, spends three times longer on social media than email and internet blogs combined. And though a vast amount of that time is spent uploading pictures, tweeting about politics and sharing Carly Rae Jepsen's  latest hit song, social media plays a large role in the professional world as well.

In this uber-competitive world that we live in, it has become very difficult for new college graduates to find work simply by sending out resumes. Young people must find alternative ways to reach out to potential employers and grab their attention. There are hundreds of social media sites like Pinterest, Google+, Tubmlr and MySpace. It is extremely difficult to maintain a meaningful presence on all of the different social media sites that the Internet has to offer. But there are three that stand out as not only the most popular, but the most effective in finding and landing the perfect job. And if you can master Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, you are one step closer to finding your dream job. Here are four ways to start:

1. Network

Ah yes, that magic word that many college students don't typically think about, but what any professional will say is the key to finding a job. In today's collegiate and professional environments, with so many of us completing internships, graduating college and taking part in extracurricular activities, having an 'in' with a company is just about the only thing that shakes up the otherwise level playing field that is the modern job market. The way to find that 'in' is through networking, and the way to network nowadays is through social media.

The king of social media networking tools is undoubtedly LinkedIn, which,  as of June 2012,  reports more than 175 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories, according to the site's 'about' page.  According to mediabistro.com, 97 percent of executives used LinkedIn in 2011.

This is how LinkedIn works in a nutshell:

I am connected to Bill, who works at a public relations firm in Washington, D.C. Bill, therefore, is considered one of my 1st-degree connections. Bill is connected to over 500 people on LinkedIn. So, I have over 500 2nd-degree connections through Bill. Now, over the course of Bill's career, he has met hundreds – if not thousands – of PR professionals in the D.C. area, and has made connections with a large number of them on LinkedIn. I am looking for a job in a particular financial public relations firm in D.C. I look to see if I have any contacts on LinkedIn who could perhaps introduce me to a recruiter or point me in the right direction of someone who I could talk to about working with that company. I notice that I have a 2nd-degree connection through Bill to Sally, a human resources representive with the company. Using LinkedIn, I am able to ask Bill if he is willing to introduce me to Sally, and hopefully start a relationship that will lead to me being hired at that firm.

And if you want a little more motivation to use LinkedIn, mediabistro.com says that the average income of a LinkedIn user is $89,000.

2. Search for jobs

Although you can certainly find jobs through the network that we just discussed, there are many ways to use social media to search for jobs based on your field of interest, where you'd like to work and even how much money you're looking to make.

In addition to being the leader in professional networking, LinkedIn has a fantastic jobs board feature on their website. Simply click on the 'Jobs' tab on the top of the site.

There are hundreds of groups on Facebook that are dedicated to being a source of new job listings. Mason students have developed two fantastic Facebook groups. One is the Jobs & Internships group, which has more than 1700 members, and posts about available jobs and internships in the area. Another is the Communcation Group, which has more than 160 members.

You can even find jobs using Twitter. In a conversation with Professor Steve Klein's news writing and reporting class, Dylan French, an expert in social media marketing and former director of marketing for Nike's custom shoes division, said that all you have to do is tweet the right thing.

“A friend of mind simply tweeted: 'Any company looking for a social media whiz?' New Media Strategies, really the pioneer in social media public relations, contacted him the next day for an interview,” he said.

3. Polish your image

“I don't mind seeing a picture of you enjoying a beer. But let's try to stay away from pictures of your latest upside-down naked keg stand.”

This is pretty sound advice from someone who knows a thing or two about recruiting young public relations talent. Chad Tragakis is a senior vice president at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, one of the three or four largest and most prominent public relations firms in the world. H+K has more than 200 offices worldwide and employs more than 2,000 people.

So please, take Chad's advice. Go through your Facebook profile. Take out anything that would cause an employer to look at you and decide that you have the potential to be a liability at their company. Go through your recent tweets and cut out any profanity or any lewd comments. Make sure that your LinkedIn profile has your up-to-date employment history, and a nice, clean-cut photo.

But at the same time, do not feel the need to scrub down your entire social media presence.

“Again, I don't mind seeing that you enjoy a beer or two every once in a while,” Tragakis said. “I don't particularly want to work with a robot.”

4. Research

OK. So you've found that perfect job. You've contacted the recruiter, saying that you're extremely interested. The recruiter replies, and says that you meet the qualifications that they're looking for, and you'd like an interview. So what do you do now, and how can social media help?

Any good company with a strong communications and public relations practice has a strong social media presence. So before you go into an interview, be sure to check out the company's Facebook page, Twitter account or LinkedIn profile for anything that you can use to impress your interviewer.

For example, says Ilina Dimitrova, account director at Sage Communications, let them know that you know what is going on in their world.

“Check out what they've posted on their social media sites, and say to the employer, 'You know, I was really impressed by this marketing campaign that you posted about on your Facebook,' or, 'This statistic that you tweeted last week really astounded me.' That will really grab their attention,” she said.

 

Licensed to Sass

By Deja Meko

Dictionary.com defines sassy as: pert; boldly smart; saucy.  Who doesn’t love a little sass in their life? This girl’s got it all: sass, class, style, and wit. She is the person that everyone hopes to have as a friend like. So, who is this colorful, vivacious person? Vikkie Miller.

Vikkie is a junior at George Mason University. She is a communications major with a concentration in public relations and a minor in sports communication. Her dream job would be an athletic communication advisor for a division one college.

Another one of Vikkie’s passions is writing. She sees writing as a therapeutic outlet, and as a way to spin negative issues into humor. One of Vikkie’s aspirations is to be published in the next ten years. Her book would be short essays regarding experiences she has encountered with a sassy and humorous spin. She would title the book “The Redhead Effect: A Recollection of My Conquests, or So I Like to Think.” Vikkie actually got her motivation for the book by blogging funny stories that she has encountered.

Vikkie has recently started a blog, Licensed to Sass. She started it for one of her classes and has come to love it. Her blog focuses on dating. She offers dating advice, discusses dating issues, and encourages readers to share their personal testimonies.

Her recent post was called “Chicks and Chicken Wings,” she talks about how someone can read a girl depending on the way she eats her wings. She offers insightful thoughts and advice with a humorous twist. If someone is interested in dating mishaps or dating advice, then Licensed to Sass is the blog for them.

Vikkie describes herself as very outspoken. “I always have something to say! Whether it is a good thing to say is up for interpretation, but like I've been saying I love the sound of my own voice.” 

Whenever talking to Vikkie, her sass is somehow brought up during conversation. She says that she has not always been sassy, but that is a more recent development in her life. She goes on to say, “… It wasn't until the past year or so that I realized it was more fun to be flirty and carefree then clingy and annoying. I put my old ways behind me and the sass was born. It keeps me sane adding a little wit to a conversation versus just being boring!”

Vikkie Miller is a witty and sassy individual who wants to make people laugh and wants people to look for the positive side in everything. As she finishes her college career at Mason, the world will be anxiously waiting for the debut of her publication, “The Redhead Effect: A Recollection of My Conquests, or So I Like to Think.”

 

Facebook the New Professional Networking Medium

By Taren Henry

According to Facebook’s online newsroom there are on average “one billion monthly active users” of Facebook since this October. Although Facebook was made to be a personal social blogging site, it has surpassed its initial expectations and has now provided room and opportunities for businesses to invest more time, money and energy into Facebook. With specified features geared towards businesses such as Facebook’s business page and their promoted posts feature, the question of whether or not Facebook has become not only the new socializing medium but professional networking medium has been raised. This new investment of businesses into Facebook is due to the system like qualities of Facebook including its ability to not only provide internal and external opportunities to build relationships, but also its permeability which opens up communication. One of Mason’s very own communication majors, N’Dia Porter, has seen first-hand the professional networking benefits that come with the open communication that Facebook can stimulate during her job search last spring through the use of a simple Facebook status.

N’Dia’s internship search began with her mother putting her into contact with an old high school friend that was having a lot of success in the public relations and marketing field in New York. Although her friend wasn’t able to get N’Dia an internship with his company, he took it upon himself to help N’Dia with her job search. One of the ways that he helped N’Dia was by posting a status on his Facebook saying that he had a young, intelligent girl studying public relations at Mason who is looking for an internship.  Surprisingly, this casual gesture resulted with a high response from his professional and personal Facebook network. 

 According to N’Dia, she received both personal messages and responses on the status from perspective employers. As a result of this Facebook status, N’Dia not only made invaluable business connections that she may not have come across otherwise, but she expanded her professional network. Perhaps we as a society are preventing Facebook from being used to its full potential by categorizing Facebook as solely a social networking medium. Being that Facebook provides room for expected and unexpected opportunities for professional networking, it may be more appropriate that we categorize Facebook as professional networking medium.