Change, Challenge and Communication

The planets aligned around three themes in my twitter feed and my classroom this week: change, challenge, and communication.

Inside Higher Ed reported on what Provosts' think about the future of higher education. The times they are a' changing. But Provosts' still believe in liberal arts and learning. They believe that their institutions are healthy despite financial challenges. Perhaps classrooms will continue to exist -- at least for the remainder of my career.

My first full week in the classroom this semester brought both change and challenge. I struggled with new-to-me instructional technology. But I managed to muddle through by pushing buttons until things worked. I even digitally brought a former doctoral student (@kfreberg) into @461SocialMedia with a new-to-her online teaching tool that allowed me to record her presentation and post it online for students who were absent because of snow and travel. Despite all the technological delivery, I think the classroom added value to learning for those who were there. I hope so.

Perhaps the biggest test of the classroom as a value-added proposition will be for students in my Advertising Media Strategy class. Less than half of them were in the classroom yesterday. Many were iced into their apartment complexes. Almost a dozen were in New York on a @utadpr excursion: #utkadclubnyc16. All the readings and lecture notes are online. But will those students who missed class learn the tough stuff of audience and cost metrics as well as those students who were in the classroom to talk about gross impressions and GRP and reach and frequency and CPM and CPP?

Communication is where the classroom and twitter feed really aligned. Bob Blaisdell compared writing and dancing. Learning both can be a challenge. Students in my public relations writing class want more structure. I am grateful they were able to express their frustration in a constructive way. I'm revising future assignments to add more specific instructions and examples. I'm a free-form kind of dancer. Never took a dance class. Never wanted to waltz. But my dance style doesn't translate well for my writing students.

@markwschaefer wrote about the future of blogging. It is changing and challenging. Timely article for #461social students who are just starting their blogs.

@joshmkim suggested that an increase in social media outlets might help professionals listen more and talk less. Good advice for educators whether they are in the Provost's office or the classroom.

@nytegan reminded me what the 8-second attention span means for me as a writer and a teacher. As a writer, I'm lucky if you've gotten this far in my blog post. As a teacher, I need to listen more and talk less to make the classroom a valued place of learning.

Time and Control for Faculty and Administrators

As I prepare for my first semester of full-time teaching after 10 years of academic administration, I find myself reflecting on differences in both #time and #control for faculty and administrators.

At one level, faculty have limited control of their time. They have to meet students at the same times each week. They have to schedule vacations around breaks and holidays. They have no sick days. But in another way, faculty have significant control over their time. They can schedule personal appointments in mid-day. They can work on research projects at any hour of the night or day. They often have teaching schedules that make long weekends easy to create.

Administrators have little control over their time. Someone else manages their calendars They are usually expected to be on campus from at least eight to at least five for at least five days a week. They often move from meeting to meeting with little time for the most personal of needs (e.g., bathroom breaks). But they do have sick days and vacation days. And vacations don't have to coincide with the academic calendar. Their offices often set the times of meetings, so they have some control over the rhythm of their work lives.

I am readjusting to "faculty time." I got my hair cut in the middle of the day. I finished drafting my syllabi in the early morning hours when I have the most energy. And I look with joy on my calendar for the next few weeks. It is blissfully almost blank on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  As I remember a task force I recently chaired on managing classroom capacity, I feel vaguely guilty. But you won't find me complaining about my Tuesday/Thursday classes that are scheduled either in the same building as my office or in a building about a block away.

Faculty and administrators both have challenges in controlling their time. But, at least for now, I'm happy to be back on faculty time.

Bags, messaging, culture, policy, structure, and change

During the academic year, I live in Knoxville, TN where bags are free and plastic is plentiful. During the summer, I live in Seattle, WA where retail outlets are required to charge a minimum of $.05 for every bag supplied to customers and plastic bags are forbidden.

Knoxville uses messaging to support a "green" culture. I work at a university that prides itself on improvements it has made on reducing, recycling, and reusing. We rally around the slogan "Make Orange Green." Posters at grocery stores remind shoppers to bring bags in from their cars. I care about the environment. I have canvas bags in Knoxville. But those bags rarely make it into my car when I drive for my weekly grocery shopping trip and return home with numerous plastic bags.

Seattle uses public policy and urban design to support a green environment. In the summer, I carry a collapsable ChicoBag on my key chain. I never leave home without "carrying capacity" for purchases I might make. I walk to stores that are close to where I live. I buy fewer items at a time. They usually fit in my ChicoBag. And if I somehow find myself in need of a shopping bag, I cringe at paying for it.  Does $.05 break my bank?  No. But that charge, along with other structural factors that support a "bagless" society, makes me change my behavior.

Sometimes messaging and culture building is not enough. Slogans and posters can raise awareness. But they are less likely to change behaviors. Communicators need to know their limitations. If behavioral change is the desired outcome, they need to do the hard work of shaping policies and structures.

Turning and Timing

It turns out that turning a new leaf on January 1 is a fairly new phenomenon. The Georgian calendar, introduced in 1582, placed the start of the year at the start of of the month named for the Roman god of transitions, Janus, who looks both backward and forward. But neither the Brits nor the colonists in North America really accepted that date until the mid 1700s.

The Georgian calendar is based on the sun. But many cultures still honor a lunar calendar and celebrate the new year with the arrival of the second new moon after the winter solstice.

What drives us to track time? And why do we track those cycles based on orbs of light that mark the day and night? Why are we compelled to "wrap up" the old year with lists of highlights and plan for the new year with lists of resolutions?

To everything, turn, turn, turn....
There is a season, turn, turn, turn....

Pies, preparation, bread, and beliefs

My mother taught me to bake pumpkin pies on Christmas eve. They have more time to "chill" in the fridge. And the oven is free for other things on Christmas day. She tried to teach me to make pie crusts. I did not learn. Instead, we developed a tradition. She made the crust. I made the filling. She fell asleep for the final time shortly before Christmas four years ago. Christmas is not the same without her and her pie crusts.

Mother also taught me to bake bread. But challah, which is now my go-to bread for holiday meals, is a recipe I learned in home economics class at Takoma Academy. We learned not only how to activate the yeast and kneed the dough, but also how the braided bread was made on Friday in preparation for the Sabbath. I made my challah today in preparation for Christmas.

I am prepared for Christmas. As I write, church bells begin to ring for an afternoon service. I plan to sing Christmas songs this evening. Perhaps at one of the several churches in walking distance from my home. But more likely at a secular gathering at a nearby non-religious venue.

I believe in seasonal traditions. I believe in family and food. I believe in music and ritual. We do not all share the same families or food. We do not all share the same music or ritual. But I am sending out a wish that we can all share in the preparation for a season of peace on earth and goodwill toward all.

Media, Politics, and Fagmentation

I have taken a vow. I will NOT express my personal political views on social media. I have views. I am willing to discuss them FtF. But the social media echo chamber turns nasty too quickly. I will not engage.

But I am interested in discussing communication phenomena that are occurring in the current political climate. Two stories struck me today. The first, in the Washington Post, profiled Obama and introduced several interesting communication topics.

The article chronicles an extended e-mail "conversation" between a Chicago doctor and Obama. The doctor asked Obama to use "fair-minded words" when discussing abortion -- one of the more divisive topics in the political landscape. It seems Obama tried to heed that advice, but struggled for balance in a world where "right to choose" and "right to life" are both heavily laden with moral outrage and the "right to be right."

@GregJaffe, who wrote the WP story, suggests that the country has become more divided in the past eight years and that: "The reasons for the country's divisions are long and complicated and include a fragmented media, economic uncertainty, and rapid social change."

I find the media part of that equation interesting. While they are hard to stomach, I waded into the user comments on this article. By reading the comments, one can almost guess the commenter's media habits. Some insist that Obama is a Muslim, some take a lecturing public television approach to describing the article as a "puff" piece. Most troubling are the attempts at "dialogue" in which commenters are clearly operating from a completely different set of "facts."

When we use value-laden terms to describe decisions that are both intimate and immense and we draw our "facts" from different sources, how can we be "one nation?"

Which takes me to the second article. It is in the New York Times and provides insight on my academic discipline both broadly (media) and specifically (advertising). I learned things I didn't know about ad rates and Super Pacs. But I also learned that, as I suspected, a lot of campaign money is no longer going to television advertising. There are many reasons. But fundamentally campaigns are getting more targeted.

Like him or not, Obama started us down this pathway. Social media IS an echo chamber. But it is also targeted and it is cheap. Why spend millions on television advertising to reach an audience that has already largely decided how to vote? Social media offer enticing new ways for politicians to find and grow their base of support.

But does all of this micro targeting create more macro fragmenting? Can a house so fragmented stand?

Time, Media, Retail, and Clutter

Two pieces I read online in the New York Times this morning turned my thoughts to #time.

The first is an analysis of streaming video. I grew up without television. I never developed a video habit. I haven't streamed any video. Still, the thoughtful analysis of #media grabbed my attention.

Early movies and television used techniques from stage. But when they broke free of the place-based constraints of the stage and realized the time-based benefits of their format they really began to shine.

A few quotes from @poniewozik I found particularly compelling:

"In TV, narrative has always been an outgrowth of the delivery mechanism."

"Watching a streaming series is ... like reading a book — you receive it as a seamless whole, you set your own schedule — but it’s also like video gaming. Binge-watching is immersive."

"... “linear TV” — assumes that your time is scarce and it has you for a few precious hours before bed. The streaming services assume they own your free time, whenever it comes — travel, holidays, weekends — to fill with five- and 10-hour entertainments."

"...the medium (broadcast) didn’t come into its own until it learned to use what made it distinctive — the ability to tell open-ended ongoing stories. Likewise, streaming needs to learn to use its supersized format better, not fight against it."

"More so than any recent innovation in TV, streaming has the potential, even the likelihood, to create an entirely new genre of narrative: one with elements of television, film and the novel, yet different from all of those. But it’s going to take time for all of us to master it."

#Time. That's what ties the two NYT pieces together.

The second is about #retail shopping and #clutter. People say they want to spend less #time shopping. They want less #clutter. People say they want straightforward pricing. But when stores remove clutter, take away the deal hidden in the haystack, and make it easier to get through the store quickly, revenues drop.

@PacoUnderhill1 found that "consumers generally reported that time spent in-store was roughly twice that on our stopwatch." And despite wanting to spend less time dealing with clutter, "stuff" got into consumer's carts because it was a “great deal.”

His final advice: "Get rid of everything you don’t use, love or need. Donate it, shred it, trash it. Life is too short to keep clutter around. Leave that to the stores."

Lack of #clutter is one of the reasons I love digital #media. I did all my NYT reading without a single piece of paper entering my home. But #time is the thing I value most this holiday season.

My husband sits across from me reading the local paper on paper. It has created a cluttered mess around his chair. But the quiet #time we spend together on a Sunday morning transcends our #media choices, is far better than a #retail frenzy, and is worth a bit of #clutter.