Online Training Spiral

In "The Online Training Spiral", the first chapter of the book Preparing Educators for Online Writing Instruction: Principles and Processes, the authors evaluate five pedagogical principles used to train educators to teach online. Investigation, immersion, individualization, association, and reflection are highlighted in an effort to showcase the ways these principles can shape a "learner-centered framework". The chapter also provides trainers and directors with management strategies for utilizing these principles.

When addressing the immersion principle, the authors suggest that "teaching online necessitates training online," (11) and as such it is imperative that an online training program for educators should include an online component. While a simple assertion, the writers fully outline a series of useful strategies to achieve trainee immersion even when faced with trainee resistance to online tools. "Moreover, given the practical exigencies of employment requirements, budgets, and timelines, immersion helps to initiate new instructors with optimal efficiency" (12).

Reflection is the last principle addressed by the writers, in this chapter, and they suggest that it is important to "address demonstrable competencies" (23). As trainees come with a wide range of experiences and as they improve their skills it is important for them to receive feedback and be given time to "consider, question, and synthesize that feedback." "Such external and internal examination also is vital in the online teaching venue, not least because individuals are making sense, firsthand, of the distinctive nature of online learning" (20-21).

The authors offer the notion that "rigorously examining teaching and learning processes as they occur in naturalistic settings is essential to advancing any education-related program" (6) and suggest that a training program should build into its framework a way for the trainee and the program itself to conduct ongoing research and development. Any teacher orientation to online instruction should be fluid allowing for tweaks and evolution. "This stance is invaluable, given the collective need to rethink and theorize about broader education goals in the online environment - both beyond the particulars of specific platforms, and influenced by the potential instructional media that each new platform suggests" (25).

While this chapter is best suited for trainers and administrators, it does provide higher education instructors, in any subject area, with tools to orient student learners in the online environment. In addition, it effectively highlights the nuances of the adult-learner and best practices for facilitating learning in the online sphere.


Hewett, Beth L., Christa Ehmann. Preparing Educators for Online Writing Instruction: Principles and Processes. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 2004.

Teaching Writing in Asynchronous Environment

In chapter three of the book Preparing Educators for Online Writing Instruction: Principles and Processes, the writers take five pedagogical principles: investigation, immersion, individualization, association, and reflection, defined in chapter one, and apply them to teaching in the asynchronous environment. This chapter is intended to provide trainees - the main audience - and other educators with an orientation, employing the one-to-one asynchronous writing conference as the primary point of reference. It is also designed to provide educators with tools to create a program.

The chapter achieves this by defining the online writing lab (OWL) and asserts that asynchronous instruction has the ability to "represent a dialogue interaction as reflective of the social-constructivist and the related computer-mediated communication (CMC) paradigms" (70). The chapter also provides principles of asynchronous OWL. "These principles, tested both in the face-to-face and asynchronous online teaching modalities, are built on widely accepted beliefs about the writing process and serve to ground trainees within a common sphere of instruction" (72). The writers advocate a problem-based approach and address writing from the following principles: fluency, form, and correctness; they draw from audience, purpose, and occasion to manage the revising phase of the writing process.

Next, the writers apply the principles, offering five steps to help the instructor manage the time spent reading and responding to student writing, a concern expressed in our class discussions. Two of the steps stand out in my mind. Step 2 suggests that instructors have access to archives of previous writing submissions, while step 4 asks instructors to consider a student's requests for additional help and offers a few response suggestions. In addition, the writers offer asynchronous questions, summarize teaching techniques, and evaluate the online writing program that uses the asynchronous OWL.

As an instructor who has employed very few asynchronous instructional tools, I found that the chapter provides a comprehensive framework for this type of instruction from principles to evaluation techniques. Though more experienced instructors might find some of the information a bit basic, the chapter outlines online writing instruction in such a way that the beginner is given a road map with which to navigate program creation and execution, complete with an "advice for trainee" paragraph at the beginning of each section. It does this without dumbing down the language, providing pedagogical rational throughout the chapter. The authors also make a point of embracing long held practices by adapting them to the online environment. While the writers' intended audience in this chapter is the asynchronous instructor, I find that many of the things outlined could easily be applied in F2F and synchronous classrooms.


Hewett, Beth L., Christa Ehmann. Preparing Educators for Online Writing Instruction: Principles and Processes. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 2004.

New Writing Pedagogy

Topic

New writing pedagogy: web-based social networking

Overview

This article proposes that the new paradigm shift in writing pedagogy may be here, with the incorporation of web-based networking tools into the writing curriculum. "It's been almost 40 years since the teaching of writing in the schools had its last major shift, a move to an emphasis on the 'writing process,' which still holds sway in most classrooms today." (45) With the use of Internet based networking tools, the publishing of a document is no longer the last step in the writing process. It is instead the "midpoint", a point where readers can join in the discourse, through comments and feedback. (48-49)

The article also outlines the benefits and risks of web-based collaboration and suggests that using networking tools in the classroom allows students and teachers to go beyond simply communicating. These tools allow them to connect. While none of the learning environments examined in this piece were delivered fully online, the writers suggest that even some level of integration can be meaningful. This is in line with Warnock's philosophy that even as a hybrid option, technology integration is a worthwhile endeavor.

Overall Usefulness

While the anecdotes and references in this article address experiences in grades K - 12, it does provide college level writing instructors with some incite into the techniques being employed at these grade levels and showcases potential aptitudes, experiences, and interests of freshmen entering college. It also provides a comprehensive list of writing instruction software complete with descriptions and estimated cost, though most would not be appropriate for college level writing instruction for both content and cost. In addition, the article lists a number of tools from web-based word processors like AppJet's EtherPad to research-tools like Diigo, in passing, giving educators a grab bag of options to explore further.

As I read this piece it caused me to consider, among other things, the following:

• Student safety in an online collaborative environment if writing/communication is available to the general public
• Copyright protections for students' original work - right to adapt and/or distribute work

Research Methodology

This pieces provides no quantitative data, but does reference, among other scholarship, an article written by Andrea Lunsford, professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University based on a five-year study. Lunsford believes that we are "in the midst of a literacy revolution" unlike anything we have seen since "Greek civilization." (50)

Pascopella, Angella and Will Richardson. "The New Writing Pedagogy," District Administration November/December 2009.

Preparing public relations students for the Blogosphere

Topic

This blog entry takes a look at the study "Educating Public Relations Students to Enter the Blogosphere: Results of a Delphi Study," written by Shearlean Duke, Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at Western Washington University, in the winter of 2009.

Subject

A study that examines preparedness of public relations students to enter into practice with the ability to utilize blogs to conduct public relations initiatives

Study Methodology

The Delphi technique, a qualitative method of extracting expert opinions by way of questionnaire developed by the Rand Corporation in the 1940s and 1950s (BNET, n. pag.), was employed in this study in an effort to probe public relations practitioners about the ways in which Weblogs (blogs) are reshaping public relations practice as well as ways in which instructors can prepare students for these changes.

Questionnaires were disseminated over time in an effort to obtain feedback, opinions, and forecasts from the panel of seventeen practitioners. This method does not offer controlled scientific methodology with any quantifiable data; however, there are some advantages to this technique in public relations scholarship as "it enables researchers to collect opinions from a select group of highly qualified practitioners who may work at competing organizations in a wide geographic area," (Duke, 321).

Study Pool

While the study used a small pool of participants, Duke is careful to clearly frame the researchers efforts to identify "qualified" participants. The panel included top executives from global agencies as well as two international consultants. It also included experts in new media who were middle management as well as some junior practitioners. In addition, most of the panel participants blog. "A 2007 study concluded that practitioners who blog thought they possessed more expertise than those who do not blog," (Duke, 322).

The research questions in the three questionnaires focused on "two specific topics: (1) how blogs are changing the practice of public relations, and (2) educating future practitioners so that they can succeed in the blogosphere," (Duke, 323).

Conclusions of the Study

Result of topic (1) (How Blogs are Changing the Practice of Public Relations):

• Blogs have expanded the communication channels in which public relations practitioners operate. It has allowed practitioners to to engage with new publics to include "citizen journalists". This has forced practitioners to rethink how they announce information and to whom it is announced. Other public relations communication devices are mostly single directional communication tools and the proliferation of the blog now allows target publics to join the discourse. This paradigm shift, in my opinion, has moved us far beyond traditional gatekeepers to a system where each member of the PR practitioners target groups has the potential to become "key-holders" and shapers of the conversation.
• PR bloggers must also learn the art of "blogger relations" as they have mastered other techniques like media relations.
• Journalists are increasingly beginning to serve in the capacity of traditional journalist as well as blogger and it is wise for practitioners to track these blogs and encourage their clients to join in the conversation.
• The available delivery vehicles have increased . . . "PR practitioners need to ensure their tactics enable a story to be told through multiple outlets including visual forms, such as online video, narrated slideshows, and photo galleries (all of which can be linked to or embedded in a journalist's blog)."
• May also change how practitioners conduct crisis communication.

Result of topic (2) (The Educating of Future Practitioners):

• Consensus among panelists established that it is essential for students to understand the blogoshphere and its power to impact PR practice. Students should begin to interact with blogs by learning to track online conversations and begin to comment on existing blogs.
• Students need to develop online communication skills.
• An executive in the study informed the study mediators that about 40% of its agency time is spent working with bloggers.
• Students need to learn how to research as well as track issues via the blogoshpere.
• Students need to learn how to blog ethically using many of the existing codes of ethics.
• The findings reveal expert consensus that establishes that students need to hone conversational skills based in the online sphere, have the ability to communicate with bloggers, and learn to use blogs as a means for monitoring issues. "However, panelists said that educators should not require students to blog because forced content skews the transparency of the blogosphere," (Shearlean, 317).

Overall Usefulness

This piece took a very specific area of public relations practice and used the Delphi study as well as a comprehensive literary review to provide a comprehensive look at the impact of the blogospher on public relations and the ways it has and will continue to shape it and provided a comprehensive road map for PR scholarship that will provide educators with direction for preparing students.

Literary Review

This journal referenced 77 sources in varying fields to include public relations, business management, as well as general research techniques. This vast bank of data served as a nice complement to the study results.



BNET, "BNET Business Dictionary" http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/delphi+technique.html n. pag. (accessed May 18, 2010).

Duke, Shearlean. "Educating Public Relations Students to Enter the Blogosphere: Results of a Delphi Study." Journalism & Mass Communications Educator, p.317 - 332, 16p Article, winter 2009.

Purdue OWL. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 10 May 2008. Web. 15 Nov. 2008.

Internet in Public Relations Curriculum

Growler, Karla K. and Jung-Yul Cho. "Use of the Internet in the Public Relations Curriculum." Journalism & Mass Communication Educator; Summer2001, Vol. 56 Issue 2, p81-92, 12p, 4 Charts

Subject:

An evaluation of the use of technology and Internet tools in public relations practice and the competencies needed to enter the field prepared to effectively utilize those tools

Study Methodology:

A study was conducted by compiling results of an exploratory e-mail survey, designed to determine what Internet tools and practices are being used by public relations agencies to provide services for clients.

The aim of the study was to identify the skill sets practitioners deem important for the practice of "Internet public relations," and ascertain ways in which instructors can best prepare students to step into the field armed with the tools needed to meet the demands of practicing public relations in a digital age.

The core research questions were developed as a result of literature reviews in the area of public relations and the Internet. The books, journals, and studies referenced were written between 1984 and 2000. In my opinion, some of the technology referenced in the literary review section of this journal included a few outdated tools like word processors and some of the Internet based tools used today were not referenced.

Survey Pool

A total of 81 public relations practitioners working for public relations agencies, a response rate of 28.9 percent, responded to the survey. The agencies represented were in operation at a range of 1 to 72 years.

Conclusions of the study & literature review:

It is widely accepted that educators of public relations are seen as having accepted technology into public relations scholarship. All of the firms surveyed stated that some percentage of their business used the Internet as a communication medium. What was interesting was the wide gap in usage ranging from three percent to 100 percent, with a 34.97 percent mean.

Many of the respondents establish that while Internet competencies is an important part of student readiness, core skills are the most important. "Writing, reliability, honesty, strategic and critical thinking, and the ability to react quickly are considered the most important skills, none of which are exclusive to the practice of public relations on the Internet."

What are the teaching & practice implications:

This article confirmed my beliefs that Internet based tools are essential to public relations pedagogy. It also stated that educators must teach potential uses of the Internet and restates a commonly accepted notion that the Internet allows practitioners to bypass gatekeepers and speak directly to their intended publics. However, the article caused me to ask more questions than were answered include the following:

• Does the client's perceived need for Internet based solutions vary by industry? How do industry demands shape public relations scholarship.
• How varied was the survey pool's training and competencies in the area of Internet public relations? What was the average age of the respondent pool? Where did the respondents rank on the organizational chart? Were the respondents in management positions?
• Is there consensus among public relations educators about the minimum information technology competencies needed to be prepared to step into the field today?
• What was the ability of agencies surveyed to effectively create Internet based services and products and communicate them effectively to their clients.
• How do students move beyond PR basics towards PR 2.0?
  
  Overall Usefulness:

While the authors referenced research conducted by other scholars in addition to their own survey, some of the literature referenced was often outdated. In addition, the journal makes grand pronouncements to include the fact that educators must teach potential uses for the Internet, but it falls flat as it doesn't even attempt to project any of those uses.

I would suggest this journal to students who are interested in a baseline understanding of public relations practice. If you are interested in an in-dept study that addresses public relations pedagogy and the Internet, you may find this piece lacking.

Writer's Introduction

After writing my first short story, bound with cardboard and construction paper, in elementary school, I became hooked on writing.

I have spent more than a decade serving as a corporate communications and public relations practitioner in the not-for-profit sector; I am now a mommy of three precious girls and currently teach English at Tidewater Community College.

I hope to be accepted into the PhD in English with a concentration in Professional Writing and New Media Program at ODU in the Fall of 2011. If you have any tips or best practices for achieving this goal, please send them my way ;-) teshabenjamin@yahoo.com