Dr. Sandra Chrystal . Dr. Mark Kann . Fiona TorranceUSC TEACHING HAS NO BOUNDARIES AWARD
(Dr. Mark Kann presents Award to Dr. Sandra Chrystal April 18, 2006)
Showing posts with label Dr. Sandra Chrystal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Sandra Chrystal. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Monday, April 03, 2006
Dr. Sandra Chrystal on "Exploring Ethics in Business"
Marshall School Students Explore Ethics in Business
"Most students believe they've learned what's right or wrong, but few have examined typical on-the-job dilemmas and formed any strategies for solving them.
In fact, when our Advanced Writing for Business class conducts anonymous surveys, many students are surprised to learn that classmates disagree on values and decisions.
Discussing a variety of decision-making strategies, providing positive individual and corporate examples, and formulating strategies to communicate ethical decisions encourages improved critical thinking and socially responsible actions.
The Advanced Writing for Business classes at USC's Marshall School of Business already includes an assignment for students to write at least one article exploring ethics in business.
To extend the writing classes' ethics study, a subcommittee of the faculty is compiling a six hour module for any professors who want to add it to their current syllabus."
"Most students believe they've learned what's right or wrong, but few have examined typical on-the-job dilemmas and formed any strategies for solving them.
In fact, when our Advanced Writing for Business class conducts anonymous surveys, many students are surprised to learn that classmates disagree on values and decisions.
Discussing a variety of decision-making strategies, providing positive individual and corporate examples, and formulating strategies to communicate ethical decisions encourages improved critical thinking and socially responsible actions.
The Advanced Writing for Business classes at USC's Marshall School of Business already includes an assignment for students to write at least one article exploring ethics in business.
To extend the writing classes' ethics study, a subcommittee of the faculty is compiling a six hour module for any professors who want to add it to their current syllabus."
Thursday, March 30, 2006
USC Marshall School -- Top Of The Blog!
Today I received wonderful news -- USC Marshall School of Business, Center for Management Communication, are crafting an upcoming course in Communications Management that will cover online communities and blogging for business!
Also, IPT hosted an open house tonight on "Relevance of Technology to Careers in Business". Although I was unable to attend, I look forward to hearing the outcome of this event.
By recognizing the impact of technology in business and therefore in the classroom, and by tailoring courses accordingly, the Marshall School of Business will prepare students to meet opportune moments with confidence and success.
Dr. Sandra Chrystal from USC's Center for Management Communication is one of the earliest pioneers in the field of blogging, wikis, podcasting, and PRS technology to enhance student learning.
On Tuesday, I presented corporate blogging and the use of my blog to Dr. Sandra Chrystal's Advanced Business Writing classes. Students gave valuable contributions to the discussion -- many of which can be viewed in the comments section of the post: "Non-Traditional Business Communications -- The Blog" posted 3/14/06.
We reviewed a number of the corporate blogs listed in the blogroll of my site -- such as Randy Baseler's Boeing Blog, Ted Leonis of Aol's Blog, and the GM Fastlane Blog -- this exercise proved most useful in identifying differences between the corporate blogs.
But I have specifically focused on Bob Sutor's blog (Bob Sutor is Vice President of Standards and Open Source at IBM) for a number of reasons:
Students can discover and compare corporations through this medium and either determine a suitable fit for career objectives, or prepare projects in line with a specific corporation's interest. The corporate blogosphere platform presents an ocean that students can dive into and learn from.
Because it's a new medium, even corporations are testing the waters. Some more hesitant than others. Corporate blogging is learning in evolution -- for business, for schools, for faculty, and for students.
Here are some tips to get started:
Also, IPT hosted an open house tonight on "Relevance of Technology to Careers in Business". Although I was unable to attend, I look forward to hearing the outcome of this event.
By recognizing the impact of technology in business and therefore in the classroom, and by tailoring courses accordingly, the Marshall School of Business will prepare students to meet opportune moments with confidence and success.
Dr. Sandra Chrystal from USC's Center for Management Communication is one of the earliest pioneers in the field of blogging, wikis, podcasting, and PRS technology to enhance student learning.
On Tuesday, I presented corporate blogging and the use of my blog to Dr. Sandra Chrystal's Advanced Business Writing classes. Students gave valuable contributions to the discussion -- many of which can be viewed in the comments section of the post: "Non-Traditional Business Communications -- The Blog" posted 3/14/06.
We reviewed a number of the corporate blogs listed in the blogroll of my site -- such as Randy Baseler's Boeing Blog, Ted Leonis of Aol's Blog, and the GM Fastlane Blog -- this exercise proved most useful in identifying differences between the corporate blogs.
But I have specifically focused on Bob Sutor's blog (Bob Sutor is Vice President of Standards and Open Source at IBM) for a number of reasons:
- Bob Sutor uses his personal voice
- He discusses business issues and also personal tales in an appropriate manner for his position
- His writing style is professional yet relaxed enough for comfortable reading
- The layout of his site is easy to follow and his entries make sense even to someone from a non-tech background
- He links to his earlier personal blog sites and this shows his interests, his growth as a human being, and the evolution of his use of the blog as a communications tool -- for personal and for professional use
- As a reader, you feel a connection with Bob Sutor and therefore with IBM -- this blog is highly effective.
Students can discover and compare corporations through this medium and either determine a suitable fit for career objectives, or prepare projects in line with a specific corporation's interest. The corporate blogosphere platform presents an ocean that students can dive into and learn from.
Because it's a new medium, even corporations are testing the waters. Some more hesitant than others. Corporate blogging is learning in evolution -- for business, for schools, for faculty, and for students.
Here are some tips to get started:
- Take time to research our doubts about blogging -- is what stops us recognizing the value to a business blog legitimate?
- Speak with a blogger about corporate blogging
- Determine our blogging objective -- what will the blog represent/what is its use?
- Research, get help, decide on the engine (e.g. Blogger/Typepad) and on the look/layout
- Take the time to set it up and consider preferences such as comment moderation
- Solicit feedback on the initial blog layout and function
- Update the blog at least once a week with posts relevant to the blog objective/use
- Respond as much as possible to comments or feedback on the blog
- Copy and paste your template (html) in a Word Document in case something happens to your blog
- Interact with other bloggers with blogs relevant to your objective by commenting on their posts and linking to their sites
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Reflection on paper submission to USC Undergraduate Writing Competition titled: “Why is corporate blogging relevant to business students?”
Writing this paper and reflecting on it is a great learning experience, and the major reflections started the morning after the submission in Professor Sandra Chrystal’s office.
Here is a summary of the dialogue that followed:
Professor Chrystal: “Fiona, here – take a look at your paper and tell me what you would do differently.”
Fiona: “Let’s see … (taking a look at the first page of the paper) … I would change the way I structured it.”
Professor Chrystal: “Here’s a pen, write the changes down.”
Fiona: “Starting on the part with my own research, I would place my findings under headings and then discuss corporate blog comparisons in light of the findings, linking this to why it is relevant to students. Under the heading, “Blogs develop corporate networks”, I need to single out specific blogs and show how these blogs develop networks and how this is relevant to students. What is also interesting is who is listed and linked via the blogroll of various corporate blogs.”
Professor Chrystal: “Do you think the Pew Survey information belongs where you placed it?”
Fiona: “Pew Study … (taking a look at page 3) … what I need to do is show how corporations network on blogs through use of the blogroll, leading into showing the growth of corporate blogs, and then introduce the Pew Study. A comparison of different survey findings would be useful – such as with Jupiter and the writers4business one. This establishes the importance of corporate blogs and why business students need to be aware of their uses and impacts.”
Professor Chrystal: “And what would you do differently about how blogs create a published history?”
Fiona: (Looking at page 1) I did not effectively show how students’ personal blogs affect their professional lives.”
Professor Chrystal: “What do students learn from blogging?”
Fiona: “Critical thinking, writing, and statistical interpretation (evidence).”
Fiona: (Looking at pages 6-8) “Yes, and the entire section on blog-use in the classroom, discerning between blogs in terms of authenticity, quality, and credibility, including the ethics section needs to move under the heading of “blogs in business involves learning to interact and write more effectively”. A summary comparison of blog ethics policies, such as Sun’s and IBM’s, would be useful. The paper needs to be reshuffled.”
Professor Chrystal: “What will help you restructure your paper?”
Fiona: “Stopping in the middle of writing it, walking away for a while, and then doing another outline?”
Professor Chrystal: “Yes, but also storyboarding – create a storyboard of your arguments with questions and answers. Or write down sentences starting with “This is true (referring to argument or answer) because…”
Fiona: (Light bulb went on).
Here is a summary of the dialogue that followed:
Professor Chrystal: “Fiona, here – take a look at your paper and tell me what you would do differently.”
Fiona: “Let’s see … (taking a look at the first page of the paper) … I would change the way I structured it.”
Professor Chrystal: “Here’s a pen, write the changes down.”
Fiona: “Starting on the part with my own research, I would place my findings under headings and then discuss corporate blog comparisons in light of the findings, linking this to why it is relevant to students. Under the heading, “Blogs develop corporate networks”, I need to single out specific blogs and show how these blogs develop networks and how this is relevant to students. What is also interesting is who is listed and linked via the blogroll of various corporate blogs.”
Professor Chrystal: “Do you think the Pew Survey information belongs where you placed it?”
Fiona: “Pew Study … (taking a look at page 3) … what I need to do is show how corporations network on blogs through use of the blogroll, leading into showing the growth of corporate blogs, and then introduce the Pew Study. A comparison of different survey findings would be useful – such as with Jupiter and the writers4business one. This establishes the importance of corporate blogs and why business students need to be aware of their uses and impacts.”
Professor Chrystal: “And what would you do differently about how blogs create a published history?”
Fiona: (Looking at page 1) I did not effectively show how students’ personal blogs affect their professional lives.”
Professor Chrystal: “What do students learn from blogging?”
Fiona: “Critical thinking, writing, and statistical interpretation (evidence).”
Fiona: (Looking at pages 6-8) “Yes, and the entire section on blog-use in the classroom, discerning between blogs in terms of authenticity, quality, and credibility, including the ethics section needs to move under the heading of “blogs in business involves learning to interact and write more effectively”. A summary comparison of blog ethics policies, such as Sun’s and IBM’s, would be useful. The paper needs to be reshuffled.”
Professor Chrystal: “What will help you restructure your paper?”
Fiona: “Stopping in the middle of writing it, walking away for a while, and then doing another outline?”
Professor Chrystal: “Yes, but also storyboarding – create a storyboard of your arguments with questions and answers. Or write down sentences starting with “This is true (referring to argument or answer) because…”
Fiona: (Light bulb went on).
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