What is a teacher?

Public education?

Smart?

Not?

Economics vs intellectual?

I am moving to a new school in September to help create the UAE’s leading mass communication program.

I say leading because if we are going to just do what is typical today there would be no point in moving to CUD from ZU.

We are going to put a program in motion that is in constant re-invention.

We are thinking of journalism in terms of the craft and the delivery.

We are thinking advertising in terms of what, who and where.

We are thinking about PR in terms of the story and delivery.

No more we need huge expensive pools of equipment to make media, WE DON’T NEED A HUGE SET OR A HUGE LAB.

What we need is people who are engaged as mentors and learners.

Watch this video this to me is where CUD’s mass communication program is going.

YES we do give students a wealth of ideas and knowledge.

YES we do tes the life out of students to prepare them for failure and criticism.

But how well do we prepare the average student to make their voice not only heard but remembered?

We try in primary school, so more in high school and in University add more presentations!

The problem is that there are too few presentation and speaking training courses offered and those that are can be pretty bad.

I say that what is offered is pretty bad because we don’t take remedial math when we get a job but we are often sent out to get speaking and presentation training.

So what is missing is a solid foundation in the one activity we really need training in, communication!

I know I am doing my part as an educator to change that, how many other educators can say the same?

I happened upon this piece from Nancy Duarte that I think is inspiring and put the need for communication training into perspective.

The 1st thing that provokes change  is the environment, the larger lay of the land at any time.

The second thing that provokes change is people and their curiosity to try things, invention!

What I believe today is that the old silo structure of education is not only slowing down our advancement but it is applying breaks to personal invention and environmental catalysts for development.

Communication, business and IT are so fundamentally linked today that to consider one without the other is foolhardy.

But how many comm professors are reading business and IT texts or research? Few, maybe none and the same is true for the other disciplines.

The result is missed opportunities.

Here is a great example of the IT, business communication mix that is all but missed in the ivory tower!

Phillips & Co has developed a branding and advertising platform that turns rooftops into billboards. The app, Blue Marble, allows brands to place a QR code on the building, shoot an aerial or satellite image from space, and make it accessible in navigation apps such as Google Earth and Google Maps.

This is amazing!

But is there money to be made?

“I believe the space economy, which is about $260 billion worldwide, will become a trillion-dollar industry and that we’re talking about applications and services leveraging satellite and GPS for private and public use,” Phillips said. “Given the cost of environmental marketing and billboards, we think this is a cost-effective way to provide a nearly permanent billboard that companies can use to serve dynamic information.”

The space economy? Are we teaching this? Are we talking about this?

There is a whole new dimension of communication, marketing and technological interface emerging right now and like in the 1800′s, with communication technology, there is amazing opportunity if we dream a little and apply and link the tools in place.

This is a fantastic 3 minutes.

The worth of validation, our parents, communication, luck…

So many things happen around us that we take for granted.

Maybe we need to sit on the sofa and take a look at our lives once in a while?

This is a clip I am going to watch again and again.

Moving and so true.

(Reuters Health) – One in every 25 teens had “problematic Internet use” in a new study of high school students from Connecticut.

Are we doing enough to make our youth aware of the risk and danger to their physical and mental health with excessive internet consumption?

This Reuters article should make us all sit back and assess where is our education system working and where is it failing.

Is enough communication literacy education happening at school?

Is there a link between the home and school communication literacy program?

Is there a link between home, school and larger societal communication literacy program?

Is there a larger communication literacy program?

There are more questions than answers but we are not talking about the issue of media/communication literacy and in the process we are setting the stage for problems down the road.

Take a look at the study Reuters referenced.

Mental and physical health of our youth needs to be a top priority and I get the feeling that we are of the mind that someone else is looking out for our youth!

There is no someone else!

Too often we all play the ‘I did/You did’ game which is wholly destructive to any organization.

And add to the above, ‘what I did is more valuable than what you did.’

At the heart of the matter is how we value what we do.

Who decides value and how is it decided?

Too often the value of input to an organization is decided after the fact, in retrospect, with little to no thought given to what a person has done and what it would take/cost you to do it .

How do we value thinking and how do we value application?

One is visible and one is not.

Or maybe it comes down to communication of expectations?

This is a huge issue and one that is too often not spoken about.

What makes an organization successful is its ability to harness and apply the abilities of all those within it.

TEAMWORK and we are really not that good at it until we are comfortable and confident in our own ability.

And herein rests the problem with most organizations, they do not work well as a team.

TEDx events both locally, think TEDxDubai, and globally have become shining examples of how organizations can harness the power of a team and what teamwork really is.

TEDx events work because the very TEDx idea is premised on teamwork to a common goal, spreading ideas.

But how do you know a team is working?

1. Each member must be 100% committed to their role.

2. Collaboration not competition.

3. Common shared goals are a must.

4. Open communication.

5. Clear expectations.

*** 4 & 5 become a loop in effect  as these 2 items need to be constantly revisited.

TEDxAustin is a great example of what I am talking about in the 5 points above.

Look at how the team has defined itself and the tasks each member will follow through on.

Nancy Giordano | Licensee + Chief Inspiration and Ideas Wrangler | Play Big, Inc

Jen Spencer | Co-Curator + Connection and Sponsorship Maven | Jen Spencer Coaches

Stacy Weitzner | Co-Curator + Vibe and Voice of TEDxAustin | Bold Muse Creative

Mary Baird-Wilcock | Event Planning + Organizational Superstar | The Simplifiers

Lionel Felix | Tech Wrangler + Possibility Creator | Enfatico

Romy Suskin | Most Excellent Experience Designer + XLab Curator | Creative Content

Shannon Mehner | Systems Specialist + Speaker Liaison | Consultant

Kelley Burrus | Event Shimmer + Shine Specialist | Clink Events

Jerry Giordano | XLab Ideation + Ted-of-All-Trades | writer.strategic envoy

Jennifer Loveland | Application + Data Dynamo | Dell

We have so much gratitude for these folks, and each and every service they flawlessly render!

Lindsey Gregory Tyner | Alt Creative

Jennifer Elsner | Viewers Like You

The Margaret Keys Team | Margaret Keys Communication Strategies

Nancy, Jen and Stacy are at the top of the list but consider what they are doing.

Chief Inspiration and Ideas Wrangler,  Co-Curator + Connection and Sponsorship Maven,  Co-Curator + Vibe and Voice of TEDxAustin.

It is not about who is doing what it is about doing what you do, beyond expectation, to mesh with what others are doing, beyond expectation, to create a magic moment!

So, how do you know a team is working?

For starters the product is WOW.

Second keep it simple and focused so each team member can see the end.

Teams in the end are about people doing their thing to WOW proportions.

We spend our days sitting in relatively well furnished buildings dispensing the building blocks of information to the generation that is going to fix the mess we have made.

But as a rule we academics do very little when it comes to actually practicing what we teach!

Do we get beyond a dusty journal when it comes to sharing what we are doing with the greater community?

Do we take our ideas to the street or only to obscure conferences?

Do we even practice what it is we are teaching?

The sad and sorry truth is not usually.

Sure there are exceptions to the rule and so far an between that you can probably name the culprits who are breaking the pattern on one hand.

That is the sad thing about the evolution of modern academia, we are not asked to actually get out there and do.

PUT UP OR SHUT UP!

I live by that mantra.

I teach communication by day at Zayed University and by night I am a broadcast journalist on Dubai Eye 103.8FM.

My hope is that my students see, well hear, me not only teaching ideas but putting them into practice.

This year I was offered a rare opportunity to put my classroom exercises to the ultimate test, I also teach public speaking and presentation courses, to present at TEDxDubai.

Giorgio Ungania and Natascia Radice, the curators of TEDxDubai, presented me with the ultimate challenge do what I do in the classroom to a critical public audience and in only 18 minutes.

Put up or shut up in the real.

I agonized over my presentation.

Hours were invested in formatting the story and practicing the pitch, because my talk was a pitch to think about ideas.

And I will confess here and now I was more nervous than I have ever been, mostly because several of my students volunteered at TEDxDubai and made a point of telling me that it was their turn to grade me!

Well, I am here to report that the talk happened.

The story worked and I think people took home a nugget or 2.

You be the judge.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One thing is for sure what I did was exactly what I teach my students and a shining example of putting up and eventually leaving the stage!

What is it?

PirateBox is a self-contained mobile collaboration and file sharing device. Simply turn it on to transform any space into a free and open file sharing network.

This is pretty cool stuff and turns any space into an interactive learning environment.

The “at-you” education model simply does not work and is in need of a hybrid re-imagination.

But the greatest problem faced in many environments is easy sharing of content to smartphones and portable devices.

What is even more interesting is how easy PirateBox is to use.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What really makes PirateBox interesting is the ability to share the idea.

DIY PirateBox was created by David Darts and is registered under the Free Art License (FAL 1.3). The Free Art License grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works according to the principles of copyleft.

Imagine if this idea of sharing was made a mandate of education for a start?

And who was talking about this? BoingBoing.net.

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.