Wired Pursuits

A PhD story.

Posted by: leeerickson on: December 15, 2009

It’s the end of the semester. I’ve got one term paper left then I’m done. As I write, edit, rewrite, reedit and rewrite again a scene from A Christmas Story keeps popping into my head.

I’m sure you remember when Ralphie was writing his essay for class? As he writes, he imagines his teacher reading the essay and being overcome with joy.  The cartoon bubble over his head shows her smiling ear to ear, holding her red marking pen and saying over and over, “Yes, yes, yes. A +, +, +, +, +, +, +, +.”

The next day Ralphie goes to class anticipating the accolades his teacher will shower upon him only to find a C+ at the top of the page.

It’s actually my nightmare. I worry that while I think I’m writing amazing prose, those in academia may not agree. Even though I have years of writing experience, writing for academia is different than writing for business. Do I have what it takes? Is my background research thorough enough? Will I get a C+?  Arggghhhh.

As someone who’s been around the block, it’s hard to be back in an environment where others are grading you. It’s humbling. And I think it’s a good thing. Ultimately it will make me a better writer and scholar.

I’m done for the semester, off to visit with friends and families, and yes, checking the online grading site likely every day. Let’s hope  I do better than Ralphie did.

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“Twitter vomit” and other observations.

Posted by: leeerickson on: November 7, 2009

Not a nice title I know. But I’ve been thinking about Twitter a lot lately. Mostly just thinking, cause since I started my PhD I’ve been bad at keeping up with it.

Personally I use Twitter to tap into the eyes and ears of others who share my interests. They point me to articles, ideas, and conversations I likely never would have come across on my own. The key is to find the experts who tweet about relevant useful things you’re  interested in.

Since I’ve been so bad at keeping up, I often go back and read the stream of tweets from 2, even 3 days ago. I’m noticing some interesting patterns. I’ve tried to come up with some “twitterisms” naming the different phenomenon I’m observing:

Twitter Re-re’s: People who only RT others. They typically don’t have any original content of their own. “She’s just a Twitter Re-re trying to up her Twitter rank.”

Twitter vomit: What happens when people sign on to Twitter and spew forth 5 or more tweets in a row.  These guys typically leave their mark (so to speak) then they’re not heard from for the rest of the day. “Whoa, did you see all the twitter vomit from @lerickson today? Jeeze.”

Tweefer-heads: People whose tweets either make no sense or are totally random. “That guy is lost in his own world. What a tweefer-head.”

Twiticism: When someone corrects you or has issues with your tweet. “I don’t mind a little twiticism, but do we really need the four letter words too?”

Tweeches: People who attach themselves to everyone on twitter trying to up their numbers. “This guy has over 10,000 people he’s following and only one tweet. What a tweech.”

A “twituation”: Any highly tweeted breaking situation or event. “Check out the twituation Kanye’s got himself into now.”

I’m mulling around with the idea of putting together a twictionary of such terms. Please submit any you know of, or any you make up.

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Do ducks tweet and Facebook? Apparently they do.

Posted by: leeerickson on: October 13, 2009

duck“Aflac!” We’ve all heard it and we all know it’s the Aflac duck. As a brand symbol, the Aflac duck has been one of the most successful in terms of recognition. Not so good in terms of people knowing what the company does, but certainly an excellent tool for building initial awareness. Well now the duck has turned to social media and is doing a pretty good job.

Duck, duck, Facebook.

The Aflac duck is now on Facebook. But what the duck is doing right that other aren’t is this…

  1. He, I’m assuming it’s a he, doesn’t just talk about himself and his company. He brings humor and personality to his posts with a lot of duck references and photos of his workplace.
  2. He shows a softer, more personal side of the company by uses his page to raise money for the Aflac Cancer Center charity. (They raised over $1M). He posts videos of the children who receive these donations.
  3. He uses contest to draw people into participation.
  4. He’s current – linking to popular videos on YouTube and icanhascheezburger.com.

As of this post he has over 160,000 fans. But we all know that just having fans doesn’t mean engagement. According to Alfac, their fan page receives more interaction per fan than any of the other top 10 fan pages (iMedia). Just check out his photo page and you can see all the people uploading photos of ducks and commenting on them.

A duck that quacks and tweets.

Aflac is also using Twitter to reach out to customers and extend their brand awareness. As with Facebook, they are talking about more than just themselves. From a Twitter perspective they are also doing some things right:

  • The writing is light and witty.
  • They cross-promote their charities (and fun videos) here as well as on Facebook.
  • They have a combination of just simple tweets, RTs, and links to other sites. Mimics what real “tweeple” do.
  • And again humor, personality, and references to current events abound. “Just cracked some Skittles, then Kanye came out of nowhere and grabbed them. I guess Beyonce deserved them more.” How do you not smile?

The duck is also active on Twibe for popular shows like LOST and The Office, and uses twitpic.

Extending the Aflac brand.

Alfac is a great example of how to extend your brand using social media. The company also seems to be just trying things out and feeling their way through – another great lesson.  They understand that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. They can walk before they run. (OK, I’m down with the cheesy clichés.)

Will it create more business? We’ll have to wait and see But awareness and connection to the brand is the first step to getting new customers. The duck connects you to the company and that trickles down for many into a feeling that the company is more than just a corporate entity, that it’s personal.  Exactly what you’d want in an insurance company.

Kudos to Alfac.

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Tag you’re it. Facebook adds tagging to status updates.

Posted by: leeerickson on: September 16, 2009

Facebook has added tagging to its interface. Here’s how it works…

Just enter your status and type “@.” You’ll see a message asking you to type anything. Type the first letter of a person, an event, a fan page, or group page and a list will appear. Then just select the item you want to associate with your status. The item you picked appears in your status as a link.

It’s just one more way to make the hyper-connected world of Facebook even more intertwined.

Thoughts? Is this helpful? A gimmick? Or another “I wanna be just like Twitter” update?

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Putting a face to the Internet.

Posted by: leeerickson on: September 11, 2009

When the Internet and email first started being used for communications many complained that it would never be as rich as face-to-face communications. It was devoid of emotion, feeling, or personality. You couldn’t really get to know the person you were interacting with. But over time that has changed. Individuals have come up with interesting ways to add emotion and feeling to their communications, and new technologies such as audio and video are allowing individuals to hear an individual’s tone of voice and watch their body language and mannerisms.

We are emotional creatures.

People are by nature emotional creatures. We gain many clues to others by watching their body language, listening to the tone of their voice, and looking them in the eye. How many times have you heard the saying, “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it comes from?”

With email and the Internet all that was missing in the beginning. Sometimes individuals misunderstood messages because there were no external clues to what the sender really meant. But as social beings, we have come up with many creative ways to add emotion, and therefore understanding, to our electronic communications. I’ve been lucky to be able to see these changes being used by more and more people over the years.

Adding emotion to our electronic communications.

Below is a list of just some of the ways we are putting a face on our communications (well the ones I can think of). I’m sure I’ve missed some, so if you think of others, please add them. Note that I am not including all the design tricks such as color, font, and layout that designers can use to create a “feeling” around a web page. Instead these are things that most individuals can do to convey emotion using a basic keyboard.

  • CAPS LOCK. A simple way to add emphasis. Basically the electronic equivalent of yelling.
  • Bold. Another simple way to show emphasis.
  • Emoticons. Probably the most interesting. Those pesky little characters often added to email, IM, and blog posts to convey feelings. Smile:  :-), wink ;-), shock =o to name a few. Interestingly, emoticons didn’t start with email. There were actually used on the Plato system in the 1970. But the popularity of email has made them more known and common to the general public.
  • Profile photos. Profile photos on Facebook, Twitter, and forums are great ways to send clues about personality (or hide them). Whether they are actual photos or avatars both convey a sense of the person you are communicating with.
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Overheard on campus…

Posted by: leeerickson on: September 2, 2009

I’m what they consider a “non-traditional” student here at Penn State. Basically that means I’m coming into the PhD program having taken a 20+ year detour into the business world. So I guess the non-traditional part is the “real-life” experience I bring to the table (because I don’t really want it to just mean I’m older).

That said, as I walk around campus I’m immersed in a sea of 18-20 something year olds. I get to overhear a lot of very interesting conversations. OK, maybe I listen in in an attempt to feel closer to my kids of the same age whom I left back in VA.

That said, in the spirit of “overheard” Web sites everywhere, I launch the inaugural edition of “Overheard on campus.” It’s about conversations I find interesting or at least revealing in terms of the younger generation and their experiences at college and it’s as close to the actual conversation as my “non-traditional” brain can remember.

Overheard on campus…

Male: “As long as I’m here I’ll never miss a football game.”

Female: “Yeah right, unless, like, you have to go home or something.”

Male: “Why would I go home?”

Female: “You know, for family shit.”

Male: “We don’t do shit in our family.”

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The struggle for control created by social media.

Posted by: leeerickson on: August 24, 2009

I’ve been mulling this around in my mind for a while and the more I think about it, the more I come to believe that all the anxiety and excitement centered around social media is about control – gaining it, and losing it.

Social media, user-generated content, and an expanding set of social tools have shifted control to consumers.

Today, consumers have a voice. And because of that voice, they have gained control. They are no longer satisfied with the information organizations push at them. Instead, they are talking with each other, becoming better-educated consumers, and often banning together to demand better service or products. We’ve heard stories where they promote brands and where they bring brands to their knees.

Consumers have more control. Businesses have less.

Businesses along with PR and marketing companies have less control.

Because consumers have more of a voice, hence more control, it is forever changing the way marketing and PR companies generate awareness, drive sales, and position companies. I’ve seen the reluctance and resistance to give up control first hand. PR companies want to control the message, releasing only what they want when and where they want. A model that, in the past, has been very successful. Marketing companies are reluctant to bring customers into the conversation – “what if they say something negative?” “How do we control the conversation?”

But social media allows consumers to impact and shift the PR message and customers are already talking about companies and their brands.

Control is shifting at schools and at home.

But this shift in control doesn’t seem to be limited to business. It’s happening within school and at home.

I’ve come across much debate about the negative effects the Internet, social networks, IM and other such online social channels are having on this younger generation. I’ve also run across much debate about the role of social media in the classroom.

Is this debate fueled by issues of control? Do parents feel they are losing control in terms of monitoring whom their children interact with? Do they feel a loss of control because they don’t understand how to navigate the new wired landscape (something their kids know more about than they do)?

Some educators feel they are losing control of their classrooms because of all the distractions social media brings. Are they losing the battle for their students’ attention?

As with consumers, students and children now have more of a voice. They can post their thoughts on professors, journal about their parents, and broadcast their opinions to more people than ever before on Facebook and MySpace. They are experiencing more control and having more of a voice than ever before. It that threatening to the older generation?

Is it about control or something else?

So what do you think? Is it all about control? Is social media shifting more traditional relationships and turning things on their heads? Are consumers and the Net Generation more vocal because of this newfound control?

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Holy crap. What’s going on in education today?

Posted by: leeerickson on: August 11, 2009

Holy academic turmoil, Batman. What’s all this I’m hearing about the state of education today?

Some say students don’t care.

Professors, researchers, parents, and even the kids themselves say students today just don’t care. They’re not interested in education. They would rather be Facebooking, IMing, or otherwise engaged even during class.

Check out this video made by students at Kansas State University. It’s not a pretty picture.

Some say higher ed refuses to change.

There’s another vocal group that say it’s not the students but the teachers who are the problem. Don Tapscott talks about this in his book Grown up Digital. Academic Commons also explores the issue in a series they published earlier this year.

They suggest that today’s teachers are stuck in the old “I know more than you, so I’ll talk at you for an hour, and you listen” approach to teaching. They refuse to cater to their students’ latest whims (i.e., social media). Teaching isn’t about entertaining but learning.

It’s starting to freak me out a bit.

I’m going back to get my PhD for many reasons, but one of the biggest is because I love teaching and I want to get back into the classroom. I imagined myself teaching at a university, engaging students in great discussions, opening them up to new ways of thinking, and having them do the same for me. (Insert heart warming, inspirational music here.)

But there appears to be a lot of negative energy out there especially in regards to today’s youth, their commitment to education, and the future of education as we know it.

Is this really the right time to go back to school and start a new teaching career?

Not knowing the answer is what makes it fun.

To me that’s what is so amazing and interesting about where we are today – we don’t know the answer. We get to experiment and play with new ideas. Some will work, others will fail. That’s the fun part. So, for me, this is exactly the time to get back into the educational system.

I want to be one of the ones that get to experiment. That get to try new things both as a student and as a teacher.

Come to think of it, that’s what excited me 11 years ago when I started designing web sites for businesses.  We had no idea what we were doing. There weren’t any accepted right and wrong ways of doing it. That’s what made it so exciting. We were breaking new ground.

Pockets of hope.

What’s interesting is if you read deeper and avoid the “sky is falling because social media has ruined the world” types, you see many examples of teachers and students who are revolutionizing learning.

There are many professors out there actively experimenting with new media in a sincere effort to connect with their students. There are universities that embrace new media and actively look for the best ways to leverage it.

I choose to listen and follow those forging a new path. Those excited about the potential of new technologies, and who fundamentally believe students do want to learn.

It’s an amazing time where students can learn form teachers, teachers from students, and teachers from teachers. I believe that social media is revolutionizing our world – business, personal, and education – and those who embrace the change and share their stories will help the rest of us get smarter about what makes sense and what doesn’t.

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Learning and new technology, what works, what makes sense?

Posted by: leeerickson on: August 8, 2009

As an educator, I’ve always looked for new and interesting ways to engage my students (that desire also followed me into the corporate world when I started speaking and presenting to clients).

As a future college professor, and hopefully a soon to be teaching assistant, I’m collecting examples of how professors are using technology to connect with students where they live (i.e., online) and to create more dynamic learning environments.

Here are some resources I’ve come across related to using technology in the classroom.

  • Academic Commons attempted to “understand better the changing nature of learning in new media environments and the potential of new media environments to make learning–and faculty insights into teaching–visible and usable.”
  • Visible Knowledge Project, “a five-year project looking at the impact of technology on learning, primarily in the humanities, through the lens of the scholarship of teaching and learning.”  The studies were conducted from 2000 to 2005, and a lot has changed since then, so it will be interesting to see if findings still ring true.
  • Classroom experiment conducted by Dr. Wesch at Kansas State University. “Instead of the standard syllabus that requires everybody to read a few articles to discuss, we decided instead to organize ourselves into a Smart Mob that would try to read a good hunk of the literature on a single topic in one go.”

I hope that all educators continually mix up what they do in the classroom, looking to find the right mix of technology and face-to-face with the hopes of creating a more dynamic, and yes, fun, way to learn.

If you know of others experimenting with technology in the classroom, let me know.

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That’s cool.

Posted by: leeerickson on: August 4, 2009

In the that’s just plain cool department Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale. Try to sing along.

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