DR4WARD

Introduction to a Few Tools to Help Us Learn, Share, and Work Together

In a previous post I asked Can We Afford Not To Use New Media to Learn, Share, and Work Together? 

The conclusion made in the post is that new communication technologies, the ever increasing pace of change, and global competition require important learning skills today to harness the vast amount of information online and to learn how to share it, discuss it, critique it, and make something new out of it. 

If skills for creativity, communication, and collaboration are needed today than what are some of the basic things we need to get started to do this? A starting point is understanding the big picture on how the separate tools are connected together. Please excuse the language but Marta Kagan asks and answers a great question ....

What The F**K is Social Media?

Understanding Social Media helps us to understand how Web 2.0 new media is used to share information, create and critique information, and to collaborate with others. If students truly learn what they do than what are a few of the new media tools that students can use to get hands on experience with these skills and get started today? 

In the Marketing and Advertising classes I am teaching at Ferris State University we include Google Reader / RSS Feeds, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blog Comments. Wikis will be discussed in a future post.

Google Reader and RSS Feeds allow blogs and news feeds to find you. Here's how. Are you using RSS Feeds and Readers to have information find you?

Twitter is a Micro-Blog that allows people to share ideas, information, ask questions, collaborate with others and update others on what you are thinking about or doing now. 

Are you using Twitter to share ideas and information with others? Are you finding smart people to follow and learn from?

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: 2.0 social)

Get a free Twitter Handbook to learn What Twitter is all about, Why People Tweet, How best to communicate with people on Twitter and to supercharge your Tweeting.

Google Docs allows you work in teams and share and create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Have you set-up Google Docs for an upcoming project or presentation?

YouTube and other video sharing and streaming sites are a new form of expression and communication. Michael Wesch explains why in his "An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube" presentation to the Library of Congress.

The only way to learn how to use new media is to just start using the tools. Most of these are free so there is no excuse to not trying them and experimenting. Use these tools today to start a conversation, share an idea, ask a question, and find interesting people who can help you learn, share and work together.

I look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep Digging for Worms!

Can We Afford Not To Use New Media to Learn, Share, and Work Together?

I have been working with my Ferris State University students to use new media to engage them and help them find significance with their education beyond just getting a grade.

The old model of teaching has trained students to ask "What's on the Test?" or "What do I need to know or do to get a good grade?" The learning usually stops there and the students forget the answers the next day or week.

As Michael Wesch points out, the vast majority of information today is available online and all around us all the time. Today the most important learning skills are how to harness this information and share it, discuss it, critique it, and make something new out of it.

A little background information is required before we look at a few of the new media tools that we are using in the Marketing and Advertising classes I am teaching at Ferris State University. New tools like Twitter, Google Reader, RSS Feeds, Google Docs and Blog Comments will be shared and explained in a future post.  

I would like to acknowledge and thank Michael Wesch, Howard Rheingold and Robert French for helping accelerate my learning and thinking on teaching and using new media in the classroom.

In the "Web 2.0 - The Machine is U/sing Us" video, Michael Wesch looks at how everything about the way we find, create, critique, and share information has changed. Some people claim there is no Web 2.0. Do you agree? What does Web 2.0 mean to you?

In the "Information R/evolution" Michael Wesch further explores the changes in the way we find, create, critique, and share information. 

In "Did You Know III ?" Howie DiBlasi shares the rapidly changing, highly competitive global world that students enter after graduating today and how the acceleration of change is ever increasing.

Students report that they like to learn but as this video of a "Vision of Students Today" demonstrates the old ways of learning are not working and students are not engaged. Does this video accurately reflect your learning experience?

The new media can be used to bring students together and teach them to work together in new ways. Students need to learn how to explore and use new media and to use these tools to learn about whatever the subject is that they are learning about. Michael Wesch gives specific examples of how he is using new media in his classroom.

Robert French's PROpenMic and his thinking on incorporating social networks and Blogging and Managing Your Personal Brand are also examples of how to use new media for learning and sharing.
What do you like about these examples of using new media for learning and sharing? Do you see any challenges with doing this with your classes?

Blogging & Managing your Personal Brand

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: commenting identity)

Are you managing your Personal Brand online? How?

I look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!

The Future of Marketing - Cannes Lions

Day 4

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, today's blog will be rather short due to misplaced notes. Sorry!

Getty Images (Seminar)

The first seminar I attended today was hosted by Moderator Lewis Blackwell of Getty Images. This presentation/forum discussion was titled "Advertising Activism! New Secrets for Going Beyond Propaganda." As mention in many of my previous blogs, the Advertising world is evoling rapidly with the emergence of new technologies. The way consumers are engaged with new media content, whether it be strictly visual or an interactive experience, has given Marketers and Advertisers newer and modern opportunities to engage. A key message taken from the seminar had been, "Advertisers must embrace and align all channels of communications (Both Online and Offline) with an audience whenever, whereever and however the ever-on individual desires." We must be able to work on various levels to create a unison approach to create not only a simple Ad campaign, but also a entertaining one as well.

Cows In Jackets (Workshop)

The first workshop I attended today was hosted by Daniela Kraustsack of Cows In Jackets. The workshop was titled "From Art to Urban Trends: Future Directions of Ambient Advertising." To understand the workshop completely, you must first understand what Ambient Advertising is. Like Guerilla advertising, Ambient advertising utilizes the world as a platform to create an interactive brand experience fused with entertainment. Major cities may very well represent the future of advertising through the interactivity being used to engage consumers. One example mentioned was a Installation with Phillips and the use of light. Phillips Energy utilized a national landmark to get their message of an efficient product. Ambient Advertising mixes these live experiences to reach target audiences in “hard to reach places” and keep the message fresh and clear in their minds on a day-to-day basis. The future of Advertising will rely, as Krautsack states, "...by new mixes of light, architecture, and [mass] media." These relevations will drive the way brands communicate and interact with their consumers daily. The following link showcases many of the different ways brands utlizing natural space to create an out of home experience. Ambient Advertising Media

Until next time,

Cheers!

Irving Escobar

Cannes Young Lions Student Delegate's First Day

The following entry outlines my experiences at the Cannes Lions Festival to learn more about these seminars and some of my own opinions go to fancy-jane.blogspot.com

Petite Dejourner, emphasis on the petite. Breakfast with the young lions was nice and certainly petite. I had a nagging feeling that I was eating it wrong, but ignorance is bliss in that situation I suppose.

I browsed advertisements of all genres in the viewing halls. (Photos on Photobucket.com/fancyjane)

The “More Mobile Relations: More Champagne And Mobile Relations” was the first workshop I went to.

SUMMARY: More Mobile Relations invites delegates to a workshop about mobile marketing. Instead of endless presentations, they work hands-on to apply concrete mobile solutions to delegates’ challenges. They feed into the process experiences from best-in-class (i.e. Pepsi) cases and results from a fresh mobile marketing survey, showing how utility services are now paving the way for consumer acceptance towards mobile marketing.

The first speaker, Rick Boyko, was part of the Young Lions masters series. Rick is the Dean of VCU(brandcenter), he used to work for Ogilvy and is very insightful when it comes to the fusion between education and marketing. Rick shared with us a video on this very topic; illustrating the education system as being seemingly obsolete in a very viral way. Essentially Rick spoke about overcoming change and finding constructive and true talent.

Then a group of us went to the theatre to watch some medical and alcohol advertisements from all around the world, and in different countries.

After lunch and a little shopping, a group of us went to a gallery of socially active ads. The ads conveyed very strong messages, in a way that I believe only social advertisements can.

The next master’s class was presented by Nick Law, who, while noting the recent advancements of Apple and Nokia, explained the importance of word of mouth advertising and the danger in marketer’s reliance on entertainment. He also addressed some of the classic, yet contemporary, success stories of social marketing; such as the Dove Evolution video.

The workshop entitled, “MySpace: Tapping The Influencers: How Brands Can Leverage Social Networks To Create The Momentum Effect”, was effectively presented by Fox Interactive Media VP of Sales & Operations, EMEA, Jay Stevens.

SUMMARY: Social networks are rapidly shaping the entire online user experience. Far from being a fad, they are the driving for of web 2.0 – often superseding the established online portals in terms of delivering both an audience and a unique environment for marketing communications. Whilst the behavior and trends of social networks of social network users (Currently 534 million worldwide) are becoming better understood, the value of social networks to advertisers is largely not quantified. To address this, MySpace commissioned MySpace 08, the largest study into social networks outside the U.S. exclusively at Cannes Lions 2008.

To conclude the evening at the festival, students traveled over to the awards ceremony where we walked the red carpet and watched as sr. delegates distributed the lion awards.

Ciao,
Fancy-Jane a.k.a. Ashley Fantigrossi

ALFRED UNIVERSITY TO LEARN, TWEET, AND BLOG AT CANNES LIONS 2008

Alfred University was the first college to take advantage of the student delegate package launched by the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2007.I will be taking a second group of Alfred University student delegates to Cannes Lions 2008 from June 14 - 21 to learn about the future of 360 Degree Branding,  Integrated Marketing Communications and Social Media from the biggest brands.

To share our wonderful experience the students and I will be posting on Twitter throughout the day during the Festival and we will also be blogging daily at Dr4Ward.com. If you would like to follow us you can receive automatic blog updates by subscribing to receive email updates or RSS Feeds at Dr4Ward.com. You can also follow our Tweets throughout the day after signing up for a free account and joining Twitter. For those of you not familiar with Twitter, according to Wikipedia it is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (SMS), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.   

I will be taking Alfred University students Irving Escobar, Ashley Fantigrossi, Stephanie Hankins, Kayla Peterson and Scott Liao to the Cannes Lions 2008 55th International Advertising Festival as student delegates. The students majors include Art & Design, Marketing and the MBA Program and they receive course credits in their related disciplines for their participation in the International Marketing and Advertising Program that I developed. Scott Liao will be attending the prestigious Roger Hatchuel Lions Academy held during the Festival. Kayla Peterson and Scott Liao will also have their art and design work on display at the Festival in the Young Lions Zone .

I have been very impressed with Cannes Lions and the industry commitment to mentoring and training students and young professionals through the Young Lion Zone for Cannes Lions, Master Classes, Young Lions Competition, and the Roger Hatchuel Lions Academy. Young Lions and Students get a world-class experience during their week at the Festival and the fantastic line-up of speakers, seminars and workshops provide education and training for the global leaders of the future.

The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is the largest gathering of worldwide marketing, advertising, media and creative professionals, each year drawing more than 10,000 delegates from 80 plus countries.  Students and professionals attend over 50 comprehensive seminars and 25 interactive hands-on workshops with the best marketing, advertising, and creative professionals from around the world. Daily film screenings, exhibitions, Content Showcases, and galas/award ceremonies, celebrate the best strategic and creative marketing from over 50 countries entered in a variety of competitive media categories. For a flavour of the Festival, view video and images from Cannes Lions 2007.

I look 4Ward to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!

MARVEL CHARACTERS IRON MAN / HULK = BRAND ENTERTAINMENT

Like many of you I grew up reading Marvel comics featuring the Marvel Universe of Super Hero characters.  I spent many hours imagining what it would be like to be Spider-Man,The Incredible Hulk,  The Silver Surfer, Captain America, and Iron Man or to be part of a team like the X-Men or the Fantastic Four. I am a Marvel fan and have also seen all of the television shows and movie adaptations over the years and I am happy to see the blockbuster box office success of the Marvel Comics Film Franchise. Who is your favorite Marvel Character?
 

I realize that some of the films based on Marvel characters have not been as well received as others. However, I am pleasantly reminded of the movies of one of my other favorite film franchises, James Bond 007, based on Ian Fleming's fictional spy character from his novels. James Bond films have also had varied levels of success and have survived and thrived over 40 plus years, 22 films and six lead actor changes. (The Sean Connery James Bond films from the 1960's are my favorite in the series but I  enjoy the new films with actor Daniel Craig too.) Which actor is your favorite Bond?
 

I am eagerly awaiting the release of Iron Man on May 2nd and The Incredible Hulk on June 13. Iron Man (starring Academy-Award nominated Robert Downey Jr. and Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow ) and “The Incredible Hulk”(starring Academy-Award nominated Edward Norton) are the first films produced by Marvel Studios. Which Marvel film are you most looking forward to?
 

How is Marvel Brand Entertainment?
As a marketer I am impressed with how Marvel has strategically marketed the characters as celebrity brands paving the way for Marvel's success. Brands want their products integrated with the characters and story in Marvel films through product placement and marketing tie-ins. The Audi R8 , part of the Iron Man product tie-ins, is driven by the Iron Man / Tony Stark character in the film and is also featured in Audi sponsored advertising referencing the film. (James Bond drove Aston Martin and BMW autos in his films.) Burger King and 7-Eleven also have product tie-ins in Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk. Why are product placement and marketing tie-ins important? 

TOPLESS MEETINGS / CLASSROOMS ENGAGING CONTROVERSY

As a teacher, researcher and marketing professional I have been watching the coverage of Silicon Valley meetings going 'topless' with great interest. No laptops, cellphones or email/internet hand held devices allowed in company meetings and in classrooms is a growing trend. Here is the link to an ABC News story on Ditching the Devices. (Warning - ABC forces you to watch a brief pre-roll ad before the story).

In my post on Multitasking Addiction A Turnoff I explain how cognitive research supports that the devices are a distraction and multitasking is a myth. Dan Saffer at Adaptive Path coined the topless term (as in laptopless) and even posted the Rules for "Topless Meetings." I can tell you from first hand experience that enforcing topless meetings and classrooms can be a challenging task.

It is very telling that the Social Media and Marketing experts who rely on this technology are recognizing that these devices can also be a distraction. At the same time that corporate America is going topless there is also a competing trend in the classroom that technology is the answer to learning. You can also see the challenges and opportunities in the classroom in the video below, "A Vision of Students Today" and then compare and contrast this with the trend in "Topless Meetings."

I have "Topless Classes" but I also try to address the multitasking addiction and create an interactive learning environment by using eInstruction Interactive Wirless Remote Clickers. The clickers allow students to interact and respond to the PowerPoint slide presentations. No cellphones or laptops are allowed because I find that most students who bring these devices are not working on class stuff. They  are too tempted to feed the multitasking addiction and give only partial attention to the discussion at hand. An article in Wired titled  Classroom clickers make the grade explains why these devices can help to stimulate discussion, participation and learning.

To encourage learning and engagement I also try to use a lot of interactive technology including Audio / Video Podcast downloads of the PowerPoint slides, Internet Activities and online Toolkit Exercises, Digitally Submitted Assignments, Electronic Feedback of all assignments within a few days of submission, and online quizzes and exams.

New technologies can be used to create collaboration and engagement and increase learning opportunities. However, if technology is used without structure, discipline and monitoring the multitasking addiction will continue to creep into the classroom and in meetings. The multitasking addiction will continue to distract us from human interaction and focusing on the task at hand until we learn how to turnoff at the appropriate times.

I look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!