Introduction to mass communication research

A live video guest lecture to KathoNewMedia students by Dr Mugur Geana.

Photo: Peter Budai

I have started teaching my New Media course at Katho last week. This is the third edition, or better-said, the third semester when I am teaching it. Like with previous semesters, I am trying to continuously update the course and bring projects and speakers that can inspire the students.

Today was the time for me to be the host of a guest lecture. Dr Mugur Geana, whose classes I joined several times before as a guest lecturer, was our guest. While students today had to experiment with online research tools, Dr Geana spoke about traditional research methods and gave students a crash course into qualitative and quantitative research methods of mass communication.

Judging from the students’ reactions, attention and engagement with the content and Dr Geana, the lecture was a succes. After the lecture some even indicated that the presentation managed to clarify questions that their courses at home  weren’t able to do. For this, many thanks to Dr Geana.

Unfortunately, we have encountered many technical difficulties all due to the weak internet connection available in the classroom. Soon after we started we had to abandon TokBox since both the video and audio connection were interrupted. After switching to Skype we encountered similar problems. We started with live synchronous video, then had only our class stream video and finished by relying solely on the audio connection provided by Skype running the powerpoint presentation from the computer’s hard-drive. Even when using a cabled rather than wi-fi the sound quality was fluctuating from poor to fair and only sometimes to good.

The experience from today confirms once more that introducing live video guest lectures into the daily teaching process is a simple and affordable way to enable students to have international contacts and examples. It also emphasizes once more the necessity of investments in internet infrastructure of schools, which could later lead to a change in the teaching process: more fluid, more open, less space confined.

Social Research Tools

I had the honor to be invited to deliver another lecture at to the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication of The University of Kansas. Many thanks to Dr Mugur Geana for inviting me.

This time however was to address a group of master’s students enrolled in a research methods class. My task was to show some applications and tools freely available online that could be potentially used in an academic research setting. I concentrated on Google, Twitter and Facebook. After giving a short review of each tool or application, I gave an example from my own experience of using them for academic research purposes and highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of using them.

I think it is highly important that current students, especially those in communication schools, are at least made aware of these platforms. I also believe that they should be encouraged to experiment with social media. While academic journals might maintain their reluctancy to publish papers using experimental and exploratory tools and methods, students should nonetheless aim to familiarize themselves with them as a way to preparing themselves for their future careers. Furthermore, with pressures on both academia and professional environments to become more profitable or reduce spending, being aware of the tools and applications that can enhance work, increase efficiency or provide data in a quick and easy manner people aware of these free options could be in a position of advantage. Finally, research and academia alike are, in my opinion, about exploration and experimentation so if they are not going to use these tool, who will?

The lecture took place online and was delivered via Skype. Unfortunately TokBox didn’t perform as expected so students were given handouts of my presentation to consult and make notes on while my powerpoint and I were being projected on a bigger screen.

The presentation is below:

 

#smcedu – Social Media Education Chat

Today the Social Media Education Club organized their first twitter chat on social media education. Attendants were few and all of them except me (maybe I’m wrong) were from the US. Some interesting questions were asked but I for one found the twitter chat quite confusing when it came to follow the conversation as people’s re-tweets (RTs) kept coming up and questions seemed also to come from more than one source.

However, it was good to see that there are other educators out there trying to integrate social media in academia and moreover, that there is interest in collaboration and sharing ideas. If you are interested in joining or following the conversation check the Social Media Club Education Connection and to get access to some resources check the Social Media Club Education Initiative. Also to see the complete conversation that  featured #smcedu or #smceduchat check the links. A conversation excerpt and my suggestions are copied below.

Conversation:

1. yongclee: Great question posed by @billhandy earlier: How can we measure the success of #smcedu? Quality of curr? # of schools using? #smceduchat - about 2 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet
2. ana_adi: @billhandy – number of schools should follow successful pilot implementation of courses + good student evaluations – the measure #smcedu - about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet ·  Hide Conversation
3. ana_adi: @socialmediaclub @billhandy also, there’s no use to ask about measurement when schools lack infrastructure or interest to support #smcedu - about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet ·  Hide Conversation
4. billhandy: @ana_adi Perhaps thats the first step, creating a strategic plan professors interested in teaching can use to develop course #smceduchat - 5 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
5. billhandy: @ana_adi Okstate lacked infrastructure and support until they were approached with a legit reason to engage. #smceduchat - less than a minute later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
6. ana_adi: @billhandy bill, professors as early adopters of #smcedu are essential as they can come up with exploratory models- 12 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
7. billhandy: @ana_adi agreed re profs but not sure creating a student group proves value to the movement. - 4 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
8. ana_adi: @billhandy @chrisheuer educators should have a common forum 4 discussion and debate as well as a publication to share findings #smcedu - 1 minute later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
9. ana_adi: @billhandy i use my own experience but make sure i point adv & disadv of SM + invite students to explore & discover SM on their own #smcedu - 16 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
10. billhandy: @ana_adi agreed and good approach. Clinical approach has huge value. #smcedu - half a minute later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
11. ana_adi: @billhandy i use a lot of new media as background info – blogs, non-traditional research, new tools: http://bit.ly/1JvUCs (expand) #smcedu - 13 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
12. billhandy: @ana_adi class is also reverse engineering text for future class. Using wiki to collect #smcedu - 2 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
13. billhandy: @ana_adi Curious, what research methodologies are new? How are they used? #smcedu - less than a minute later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
14. ana_adi: @billhandy such as twitter apps for research or google insights for search – freely available, easy to use #smcedu - 5 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
15. billhandy: @ana_adi gotcha, tools to collect information are different, not research methods. #smcedu - 5 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
16. ana_adi: @billhandy well, you’re right – but still new sampling or data collection methods meet resistance from traditional reviewers #smcedu - 3 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
17. billhandy: @ana_adi agreed and look forward to the day blogging can be part of scholarship criteria. - 11 minutes later from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

My suggestions:

ana_adi: my suggestions for #smcedu: 1. move chat to platform with video, audio & chat integration; 2. take notes from chats; 3. create blog/forum - 28 minutes ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

ana_adi: my suggestions for #smcedu continued: 4. create online journal; 5. create a monthly blog talk show w/guests; 6. start collaborating - 24 minutes ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

Certificate

I have received in the post today a certificate recognizing me as a Fellow if the Higher Education Academy as evidence of my “expertise and commitment to enhancing and supporting the student learning experience”.

This certificate is linked to a post-graduate course I have taken last year focusing on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The course gave me a more methodological approach to the teaching process which I have applied when upgrading the design of the new media course I teach in Belgium at Katho.

Live Video Guest Lecture – Florida Southern College

I had a video guest lecture to Florida Southern College, to the class of Dr Chris Fenner. I talked about the Olympic Movement and new media from a historical perspective. Questions about the impact of emerging technologies on society in general and the Olympic experience in particular were asked.

Unlike my previous guest lectures, given to the University of Missouri-Columbia or the University of Kansas, that were done via Skype, we used a browser-based solution: TokBox. Some technical difficulties made things more challenging but the sound and video quality when the internet connection functioned at full speed were very good. The platform also enabled embedding a Slideshare presentation reducing thus the hassle of figuring out how to present additional material while keeping the video on screen.

The presentation is below:

I believe the class was a novelty for the students as well as for the college as a whole. Students engaged with me both by answering and asking questions and they seemed to genuinely enjoy the lecture. This shows that there is some great potential in integrating live video into traditional in-class, on-campus lectures.

Many thanks to Chris Fenner and James Lynch for making this possible.