I think, just maybe, we are hiding behind technology when it comes to communication today!

The old voice on the phone can be fast, effective, and definitive!

Today, everyday make one phone call when you would normally send an email or text or SMS or otherwise engage technology!

Technology is great,don’t get me wrong, BUT we are failing in a epic way to manage the use of it in a manner that is healthy!

And the classic example of our failure to manage and live with technology is email!

We have lost control of out time and the reality of interactions, on a personal and professional level!

We are living in a crisis of expectations, unreasonable expectations.

Email, by design, is fast, immediate and rich in volume.

But what is happening is we are being forced, by technology, to be hyper connected to issues instead of taking time away to think and ponder a response.

Email gives the illusion of immediacy and to not answer as fast as a message is received seems to indicate some level of inferiority or disregard yet a fast response may be fraught with error and short sightedness.

Our communication technology is new and we need to re-educate ourselves, schools, industry and society in general about how to use these tools for their greatest advantage.

It is great to learn, apply, use technology on the fly BUT at some point we need to reflect and rethink the communication process and that point is now.

To be very honest the use of new communication technology excites me!

I love the way Twitter, #jamesed_me, allows me to communicate links, materials and ideas to my students.

Facebook creates another forum for interaction, especially if the group is protected.

Livestream allows me to actually film and stream the content of my classes.

I know some students are using the tech tools I am throwing open to them and some are not.

But does the use of tech tools to open more lines of communication make the class any better?

I know I spend more time on the back channel with my students and I seem to get a sense, very fast, if they are keeping up or not, this can only be a good thing.

But if everyone in the class is not on twitter am I disadvantaging some students who fail to be part of the complete discussion?

I think we are in a transition phase.

There is still more buy in to be had with tech tools for communication and we need to figure out where the physical and cyber lines cross.

I am glad to be part of the process trying to figure that mix out.

Don’t SMS.

In fact push the technology away for 1 hour a day and during that hour try to communicate old school! (share with me your experience!)

Recently I have started to do just that, communicate old school.

What I have done is commit to spending Xamount on my long distance telephone bill.

And given that I am going to spend Xamount each month I now make enough calls to use that investment.

WOW!

I am having better personal and professional interactions with people than I have experienced any time in the last 5 years.

There is something to be said about the spoken word and actually talking on the phone.

There are so many ways to do it, for cheap, but are you?

Make the effort, I have and it is worth every cent.

Dance, communicate, connect and in the process tell a story about humanity.

Makes me wonder, wonder why we seem to think things need to be complicated to be effective.

What Matt reminds us, and TED is it how you tell the story that matters.

How well do you connect?

Why 7 days?  I figure I am giving the majority of the students involved 5 more days than they would have spent working on the paper.

What the students have to do is very simply research and write a term paper on a specific communication career.  1000 words minimum and no maximum and the work has to be submitted electronically in the end.

Why do this?

My main reason is the simple fact that when the student leaves the university to go into the work world they are simply TOO SLOW at getting things done.  Speed and quality can live together IF YOU GET INTO THE GROOVE. So I am setting my student sup to actually focus their time and do what they can do now instead of leaving it until the last 2 days.

What I want to know is why my professors didn’t do this to me?

The spoken word is powerful and we each do ourselves a dis-service by not ensuring that we have the necessary skills to craft, communicate and re-communicate the most effective message possible.

On a side note I saw a great article in BoingBoingand it made me think that a variation of this could be done with communication skills in a coffee shop or at a mall or maybe in a free zone!  Why not?

The point being that communication can and does play a huge role in our lives and we underestimate the effect it can have on others, especially if it is done right.

Four nights a week I command the airwaves of Dubai Eye 103.8 FM and try to get people to talk, think and listen.  I underestimate on a daily basis the power of this exercise. Last night we had a complaint that really put it all into perspecticve, give it a listen! The saudi guy complaint!

We really do command power when we speak we really do need to pay attention to what we say and how we say it!