Welcome- Fall 2009

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Communication 240: Business and Government. I am looking forward to a creative and productive semester. I look forward to getting to know each of you and watching you evolve as effective communicators. I am excited to be here at TCNJ. This is my third semester. I enjoy teaching this class because I teach from a practical perspective, although we will examine some ethical and theoretcial dimensions too. It is so satisfying to help so many of you get prepared for your professional careers. We will be examining communication from a number of different directions all in the context of real life in both business and government settings. A few of the many paths that we will explore include investigating how messages are created from the perspective of the sender to how they are received from the perspective of the receiver. The channels used, the effective of culture in the formation of a message and the networks used. We will understand how to effectively communicate in business and examine how messages travel in a business environment whether you the management or subordinate. Additionally, we will focus on the presentational skills needed to give a talk, train an employee or ace a job interview, just to name a few. We will address the message shared in government and politics by using the issues in today's government. Examining the message and learning that making important decisions is more than the charisma but, analyzing the message. We will observe and apply technology and explore how it creates and changes in the message in new and fascinating ways. And, lastly, we will focus on networking and interviewing that occurs in professional settings. Blogging on our class blog will be an important method of capturing our thoughts. We will be using this blog to communicate in many ways in the class, so it is an important class requirement that you visit this blog a few times during the week to keep abreast of assignments and other important class information.We will be using blogs as a means of recording our learning and studies. Every student is required to blog. You can begin by posting your blogs on our class blog post or as the semester evolves, create your own blog. Whatever the case, it is important that you remember that this is an extension of our academic classroom. You must use appropriate grammar, spelling and ideas in all your posts. Also, trying to rush through an assignment or making a weak effort in posting will be evident for all persons to see. Also, be sure to adhere to copyright issues in all posting. Only your originals work(s) whether words or pictures may be used. Please check out the Com 240 links throughout the semester for helpful places needed while in this course. You should feel free to email me at the address on the syllabus at any time for help, questions, concerns, or possible class absences. We will be using this blog to create discussion and complete written assignments this semester. Please be sure that you create a gmail account so you can post on our blog this semester. Please email me if you have any problems asap.

Use this blog post to introduce yourself to the class. We will use it as a practice post. I am looking forward to a pleasurable and productive semester! Share with us similiar information from class and be sure to include how you hope this course will help you further your career or personal goals.

Crititquing Yourself - Final Critique Post

I was so "wowed" by the presentations. The time, attention and creativity that went into these blogs was outstanding. There were some minor suggestions made by the class for each student. Please comment on the suggestions that students made in class after your presentation. What kinds of things would you change now? What kinds of things did you create that you found reinforcement for your creative thoughts? And, then, post on the second part of this blog comment your own self critique on your speech performances this semester. How did you improve this semester? What strengths have you gained? What will you take away with you regarding your own communication and presentational skills?

Networking

We discussed in class the importance of developing career networks. Networks are important for developing identify, developing contacts for information, advice, and moral support as you pursue your goals. Kellly Pederson, a Career Specialist, at Rider University states that 75-80% of jobs are found through networks. And, a referral generates 80% more results than a cold call. We discussed that an important part of the networking process is developing a 30 seconds to one minute commercial of yourself. The commercial should contain your background information, current/prior roles in your responsibilities, education and knowledge, strengths and areas of interest and goals. Please post two parts to this blog. First, post your ideas for places that you can reach out to develop these network contacts (religious affliations, friends, prior work situations, etc.) Second part of the post should include your commerical script. Bring a hard copy of your commerical to class too.

Persuasive Presentations

Wow! Fantastic presentations. I am so impressed by the academic effort made in these presentations. Working in groups isn't an easy endeavor and yet, these groups seem to work in harmony illustrating strong organizations and argruments. BRAVO! Please comment with a crititque to this blog with the student that you were assigned in class. Be sure to include both strengths and improvements in both delivery and content. Remember, feedback is a gift. So, help your assigned speaker improvement with some helpful advice!

Tips for Your Virtual Portfolio

I know a lot of students (myself included) have had some trouble working with blogs and virtual portfolios in the past. I et it. It can be very confusing! Well, in order to help you out a little bit more, here are some tips for creating and managing your virtual portfolios...
First of all, make sure your colors and titles work. /by that, I mean to look at your blog template after choosing it and make sure that all of the words are clearly visible. Your colors should stand out. The text should be a color that is easily read on top of your background. This doesn't mean that you can't have a color theme (I know many of you liked the green and pink setups), it just means that you should be sure to have your text in a color that fits in, but is easily seen. As for titles, make them fun! They should be catchy and positive (i.e. "Discovering Dana" or "John's Journey"). A name like "My COM240 Blog" just isn't going to cut it. Remember, you want to catch an employer's eye!
Now, we turn to the more technical stuff. It's important that you have good examples of what you do and who you are on your blog. For me, that meant some video and script work. For someone else it may mean research papers and presentations. Also, your resume MUST be on your portfolio somewhere. To put these things on your blog, use Google Docs. Remember, when using Docs, you must upload your work, save it and then publish it. To do this, click on "Share" and then choose "publish/embed." Once the page comes up that shows your published document's link, you can take that link and put it in the "Edit Html" of your post so that it is immediately viewable on your blog (This is best for PowerPoints), or take the link and hyperlink it in your post using the hyperlink button on the "Compose" of your post. To make sure that this works, log out of your Google account and go on your blog as a visitor. Then click on the hyperlink and see if your document comes up. For those of you who may want to upload a video, use Youtube and then put the link in the "Edit Html" of your post. 

For some great examples of blogs here are a few from the last class (Yep. Mine is one of them.): Alex, Amy, Jason, Melissa, Jaime (Me!).

I hope this helps shed some light on things, and as always, you know where to find me if you need anything! :c)

~ Jaime

Emotional Intelligence

What is your EQ? This post follows up our class discussion on Emotional Inelligence Please review this article entitled "Teaching Emotional Intelligence In The Business School Curriculum" by Frank Bellizzi, Quinnipiac University. Then, check out this self test. Please create a post that makes application to your own emotional intelligence based on this reading, the results of your self test and any other experiences or readings on this subject.. The blog post should share your top two "personal" EQ improvements. What needs to be improved to develop your emotional intelligence? Share with us your personal strategies and/or plans to put them into action. Why might developing a high EQ be important to your long time success? Post due by March 31st.

Informative Critiques

Nice effort on our first round of speeches this morning. A strong effort was shown in your performances on several levels (dress, delivery, outlines, etc.) The majority of you illustrated a sincere effort to present quality work in class today. This effort was noted and appreciated. Keep up the good work! Please post your informative critiques here. Please include in your comments three strengths and three improvements. The improvement comments should include suggestions on ways to make for a stronger performance in the next speech. Give a classmate some positive support! Comments are by March 3rd.