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[music]
>>DIXON-BROWN: Hi, my name is Melody Dixon-Brown, and I am in the Communication Studies department,
and I teach business communication, small group communication, and also event planning.
In most of my classes, I assign team projects. So, one of the reasons I use technology in
the classroom is to encourage my students to use technology to communicate better in
a team.
The Web 2.0 tools that I use are Google Docs and Basecamp. I use Google Docs because it
allows my students to share writing projects, written proposals, reports and they can edit
and make changes very easily and quickly as a team, versus sending several drafts back
and forth via email. I use Basecamp as a means of keeping my students focused and on task.
It is a great way to organize each member of the team in terms of roles and responsibilities
and specific tasks, and more importantly, specific deadlines.
[pause]
>>DIXON-BROWN: One example of how I use Basecamp and Google Docs in my classroom is the Event
Planning class where I use those tools to help plan and execute a communication studies
celebration night. It’s really an awards banquet. And we use a Whiteboard for example
on Basecamp to brainstorm ideas for our theme for the awards banquet. We use Google Docs
to share the seating arrangements, and make changes constantly to the attendee list. So
Google Docs is a way for us to make ongoing changes to documents, but Basecamp really
is what helps us stay on task. We know exactly who is responsible for what and when the deadlines
are due.
The Communication Studies celebration night, our awards banquet, has been in existence
now for almost 5 years, and really is a great time for us to come together and celebrate
the achievements of our faculty, staff and students.
[pause]
>>STUDENT: Thanks to Google Apps and Basecamp we were able to really keep things organized.
We always knew what to do and what was due. And it really was just great to get to learn
those tools. I think they are going to be useful as we go into our careers.
>>DIXON-BROWN: It really is just a wonderful time to get together with family, friends,
students, faculty, and staff and celebrate the achievements of everyone in the department.
For me the mentoring, the sharing of professional best practices, giving guidance from a career
prospective has been very, very fulfilling. I really enjoy that aspect of teaching.
It’s interesting. One thing that I will say about technology, I have a bit of a confession
to make. I am actually a technophobe. I have a terrific fear of new technologies. For me
turning on a computer is a feat in itself. So, using these technologies was as much of
a challenge for me as it was for my students. And what I always tell my students is, if
I can use this technology, anyone can use this technology. And it really is something
that is critical to your growth and development professionally. So, I try to role model what
I preach to my students by challenging myself to continually improve my technology skills
and understanding of the different tools that are available to us.