I have already said that I love , and I had a post where I made a case why journalism students here at Lehigh and elsewhere need to jump in the fray now. But I wanted to sketch out some thoughts about why Lehigh University as a whole needs to be looking at GPlus.

The short version is that this tool is going to change education. And I think it’s here to stay. There will be some quoted sections from my journalism post, which I’ll put in block quotes so you can skip if you read the other ones.

As the new-kid-on-the-block challenger to Facebook, there are many questions out there about whether it’s worth it to learn it. I’m already on record about the fact that I think this thing is a game-changer, and I think it’s time for our Lehigh journalism, marketing, and PR students to get on the train now so they can be ahead of the curve. We don’t want to wait until someone tells us at a leadership or strategic communication seminar 2 years from now.

I’ve been an evangelist for as a journalistic tool since 2007 and first used it in my classes at Missouri in 2008. Back then it had a funny name and wasn’t instantly seen as useful. People thought it was silly or a waste of time. I had (and have) a great role model in Jen Reeves to keep pushing, and over time the journalism crowd came around.

I hear similar things about Gplus. “It’s a waste of time” or “Not ANOTHER social network!” or “Why do I need another Facebook?” or “I don’t understand it.”

Some of my rationale for journalism does apply to universities as well. The page feature, for example, is a great way to interact with alumni who might be using a different product than Facebook, so it’s a space you need to be in. And building those connections is a bit easier than it is on Facebook. When I was building my circles, for example, I discovered we had a Lehigh grad working at Google. That it can be used to drive traffic to your news and department pages also is a big one, and I’m already seeing evidence that it’s more effective than Facebook at this for my own sites (it is early, though). You can’t afford to note be in these spaces at the PR, communication, or department outreach level.

Hangouts in potential represent a great opportunity for the university to put its face forward. Chatting with professors, students, senior leadership, and so forth could be offered to newsmakers or alumni to help build that connection to the university. The interactive components are huge for alumni relations folks.

But there’s much more. As a teaching tool, Plus intrigues me. I’m already planning on holding Hangout office hours this fall for students, where they can get on and ask questions about class material. And because it’s multi-user, others can hang out in the lounge and listen. Sometimes I go over the same stuff with multiple students in multiple meetings; this could streamline that process.

Every student in my multimedia class will be required to sign up for GPlus, and I am planning on keeping a circle for each of my classes so that I have another way to communicate, collaborate, and interact with my students. I also have circles for my former students in case I have things such as job postings or articles of interest to share. This is my Classroom Without Walls on steroids; the learning won’t stop just because the semester ends.

The ability to share videos you can all watch at the same time is huge for me. I can initiate a Hangout with a student in my multimedia classes, watch one of the videos they make, and then go over it with them. Real time feedback similar to a paper conference.

But playing with Hangout now is important if the rumors are true that PowerPoint or OpenOffice integration is coming. You can have up to 10 people in a Hangout; imagine if we could hold webinars or research collaboration meetings online. If we get the ability to screencast slides or even shared Google Docs that we can work up while chatting, look out. But again, get the learning curve of the interface out of the way now so when these components come online you are ready.

Already I can see Plus having a bunch of advantages over Blackboard or the Moodle learning system we use here. About the only advantage those products have is the gradebook. Every other interactive tool those offer is inferior to what we have on Plus right now. Facebook has some great collaborative tools, but the privacy interface is so clunky that I rarely used the tools in classes for fear of being seen as infringing on their personal space. Circles changes everything. We’ll be using GPlus in my multimedia courses as perhaps the most essential course-management tool.

Finally, the university should look at Plus because there is more coming. A lot more. Google is looking to connect its myriad apps, products, and widgets with Plus. That means this thing is going to evolve a lot. I, in particular, am looking at Blogger integration, but that’s just one example. The staggering array of tools Google has already is great for education, but when folded into a social tool made for collaboration then they have much greater potential.

Silagh White and I are going to work to have a meeting on campus that goes over the basics and will have some networking for folks interested in using Plus here. More on that to come, but if you want to take part then please email me or leave something in the comments. And make sure to circle me on my profile.

And if you’re interested in the topic of Plus and education, I recommend taking a look at Brad King’s post on it his own classroom plans.

South By Southwest’s panel picker opened today, so I officially have SXSW on the brain until next March. I wanted to talk a little about a panel I proposed and also plug a few others that I have voted for.

A shameless plug for our panel: If you like what you hear, please vote for us using the link a couple grafs below this one. It requires a short registration but you aren’t obligated to attend the event in Austin. Ours is the only panel tagged “journalism education” and so I think we bring a lot to the table here. Read more

Stuff I’m reading and thinking about …

USC has launched Intersections to help cover South Los Angeles, which is a terribly underserved part of the region. One of the stated goals is to “train a new generation of journalists for open-minded, culturally literate reporting.” I love the positive vibe of the way the community is presented but wonder whether it overdoes it at the risk of distortion. All things considered though, this looks like a cool project and is worth watching.

Claire McCaskill took the time to share she as a United States Senator would be interested in using Twitter. She notes, “As I am walking to a hearing, or riding the tram over for a vote, I think of what I want to tell the folks at home about my work or life. This, I believe, is a fairly decent way to stay connected.” A lot of people criticize her for not using Twitter “correctly” in that she has amassed many followers but does not follow anyone. I am not in that camp (partly because I’m not sure there’s a “right way” to use Twitter, although there are many wrong ways). Followers can still reply in real time to things she says. It’s not like she’s not hearing her constituents.

Scott Murphy thanked the users of DailyKos.com for helping him win the NY-20 special congressional election. Users were donating and phone banking on his behalf even if they couldn’t vote for him. This is partly the future of civic engagement and a major leg of my dissertation. People who want to help people or causes they care about are no longer constrained by geography.

Erica Perez at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a great story about professors using Twitter in the classroom. I’ve dabbled in it a bit this spring and plan to do more with it in the coming semester. Twitter itself might be a fad, but as an instructor it’s important to find ways to better interact with students.

I’ve been teaching a large lecture class this semester, my last one here at MU before I start at Lehigh in the fall. It seems like the lessons I’m learning as an instructor are much different than mid-size classes, and I’m not sure if it’s because a 200-student course means different challenges or if I’m just noticing issues more because the problems are being multiplied by 10.

I should preface anything here by saying I love being a teacher and enjoy being in the classroom. I know I’m not great at it yet, but I’ve learned a lot in six years of doing it and relish those moments where you feel like you’re breaking through with students and helping them develop as thinkers. A great question in class yesterday, for example, where a student on their own connected free speech issues to the Jena Six problem (showing curiosity and application) was one of those moments that gets you high.

Still, I’ve struggled with one part of the class, and that is enforcing standards. The students are required to do five participation events in the semester, which entails them going to an approved event (a lecture or civic meeting of some sort) and writing an essay that is pretty wide open in terms of format (personal reflection, recap, news style, etc.). The one thing we’re asking is the essay quotes someone who was at the event and that they list their contact information on the essay. We do this because we are verifying the students actually attended. Read more

This summer, I’m going to help my students brand themselves.

In about three months I’ll get my second go-round here at Missouri with Online Journalism, the online-only course we teach our masters students through Blackboard. I taught it last summer and had a great experience and am looking forward to doing it again.

The MU Direct program tends to attract journalists looking to get their M.A. while retraining for a new set of skills. Last year we focused on blogging early on, perhaps a little too much. The student reviews, while positive, reflected a desire to do more. In fact, it was a hunger. Read more