“SHOULD YOU JOIN LinkedIn PROFESSIONAL NETWORK?”

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH SOCIAL NETWORKS?
Social networks are not just the rage, they have revolutionized the way we communicate. There is even a movie about Facebook, but I forgot the same. The networks are free and open to every age, from diapers to diapers.

So what’s the problem? The networks have different purposes and require time to contribute. If you don’t contribute, they don’t serve their purposes and benefit you. And TIME is a major issue with all of us.

This blog series is about one specific network, designed for “professionals”: LinkedIn.

TRADITIONAL NETWORKING RESOURCES
Consider our traditional networking resources:

1. stone tablets
2. business cards, held together with a rubber band or paper clip
3. napkins with smeared ink name and phone no. (WAIT! That was for dates.)
4. Rolodex® cards
5. printed directories from institutions, associations, and conferences
6. mobile phone directory
7. PDA directory
8. other “on the fly” techniques you have used

Over the past decade, our institutional Website posts our profile with publications in some set format, which complements 1–8.

WHAT OPTIONS ARE THERE?
Now there’s another option to 1–8: your iPhone® or Black’n Blueberry®. Well, your phone is an option since it can contact anyone and connect with just about every piece of electronic equipment, but that’s not what I meant to type.

What I meant was: LinkedIn. It’s kinda the professional counterpart to Facebook or Twitter. Instead of tweeting or facing, you are linking. Is it a gimmick or a waste of your valuable time?

ARE YOU ON LINKEDIN?
Academicians, in particular, seem to be unaware of LinkedIn and those who are on the network rarely use it to its full potential. “Why?” you’re thinking, or maybe not.

Administrators and faculty are overwhelmed with a bazillion tasks that usually do not require a vast network of colleagues and the need to build a network, advertise a business, and/or hunt for a job. According to my latest calculations, there are about 4 administrators and 3 faculty who use these services on LinkedIn.

Academicians teach, write grants, conduct research, advise students, mentor faculty and students, grade, administer departments, plan faculty development events, write journal articles and books, present at conferences, consult, attend a quadrillion meetings, plus other activities I missed. So why aren’t you on LinkedIn? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?

So, let’s consider 10 reasons why you should NOT join LinkedIn in my next blog.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

Teacher as Performer: Putting It on the Line in an Audition

I just finished auditioning for a role in a commercial video course on statistics in a studio in Austin, TX. It was a “screen test” where I presented two 10-minute segments on stat topics of my choice. It brought new meaning to the phrase putting it on the line.

I recently published “A Tribute to Teaching: Putting It on the Line” (College Teaching, 2009, download from www.ronberk.com). The video series combines the human element in teaching with the high tech capabilities of video graphics. It put my teaching mind, body, heart, and soul on the line in front of the camera in a different way from teaching in the classroom. I don’t know what will happen yet, but it was a challenging and humbling experience.

LESSON LEARNED: At every turn in academia, we are given two choices:
(1) thoroughly do your homework and prepare to the max (aka 150% effort) in all of your close encounters with teaching, research, RFPs, publications, committee leadership, etc. OR

(2) compromise that preparation in favor of other priorities. I still live with these options daily in my speaking and writing.



A lesson that was indelibly etched in my brain by the fictitious law Professor Kingsfield in the 1973 movie The Paper Chase (and subsequent TV series) was NEVER EVER COMPROMISE your preparation for the courtroom, classroom, video studio room, or any other room. It is so tempting to pull back, rather than preparing and practicing over and over again up until the last minute. This screen-test experience affirmed the Kingsfield message. At least, when it’s all over and you’ve finished class, submitted the RFP or article or book manuscript, or completed the screen test, there’s the consolation that you know you have done your best. Even if you get whacked, which will happen, you put it all on the line. That’s still worth a lot. You can win or lose with your integrity intact.
 COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

Welcome Back to School! Survey Your Students on the 1st Class

Almost every year at the Lilly Conference on College Teaching there is at least one session on teaching that first class of the semester. Different suggestions for getting over the first hump have been proffered over the years.

After teaching what students might vote as the “Worst Subject on Mars,” I’d like to pass on a few ideas on how to set an appropriate tone, classroom atmosphere, and connection with your students. This blog focuses on students’ perceptions and expectations. Future blogs will address what you can do to meet or exceed their expectations and connect with them.

What are your students thinking? Usually you’re prejudged to be guilty until proven innocent from the get-go. A few of their negative thoughts might include the following:

“Why do I have to take this course? It doesn’t relate to my major!”
“Now I know why this course is required; no one would elect to take it.”
“What hoops is this prof going to make me jump through this semester?”
“This subject seems boring.”
“I bet this prof is boring.”
“I wonder how difficult this course is going to be.”

Why guess what your students are thinking? Ask them. You can conduct a survey online before your first face-to-face class or live during the first class. Do this before introducing yourself or the course to them. Don’t contaminate their initial impressions.

Here are 6 steps to surveying your students:

1. Ask them to type their 3 feelings or impressions of the course in single words or phrases. In class, students can list them anonymously on a 3 X 5 card.
2. Collect and compile their responses.
3. Sort the impressions into 3 categories: positive, negative, and neutral.
4. List all of the different impressions in those categories.
5. Count the total number of impressions.
6. Compute the percentage of impressions in each category out of the total.

Here is the typical distribution in my stat courses, undergraduate and graduate, semester after semester: ~75–80% of the words are negative, 10–15% positive, and ~5% neutral.

Report your results to the students in the second class. I start with the negative list, which usually includes entries such as boring, painful, ugh, confusing, tedious, yucky, and excruciating. Keep in mind my undergrads have never taken a course in stat. Positive words are good, better than calculus, and fun. Neutral words include ambivalent, whatever, and don’t care. The list, especially the negative words, is a terrific vehicle for humor because many of the students think they are the only ones who have negative feelings about stat. To find out with laughter that you’re not alone and, in fact, in the majority provides a release of tension and drop in anxiety levels. They’re already having fun just thinking: “We’re on this Titanic together.”
My next blog will discuss how to use this information and turn the negative attitudes around 180 degrees.

COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC