SWECJMC - A Yearly Favorite

One of my favorite conferences is the Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication's (SWECJMC) Annual Research Symposium. After virtual meetings, it was lovely to be face-to-face again! The Baylor University team was an awesome host. The Friday afternoon crew is pictured below at the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC).

Research presentations interest me, but the panels are where I scribble notes to bring back to my own program. Here are some of my notes to self:

• Some programs are integrating AR, VR, and AI through digital clubs. "Playing" with the tools (like an Amazon Deep Racer) is OK as we explore what they can mean for news and brands.
• TikTok is a quick way to introduce AR filters.
• Writing Alexa scripts and working through AWS could be a good resume and skills boost.
• Programming a chatbot might be a good way to work through FAQs and think of stakeholders and target audiences.
• One faculty member encourages students to explore new technology and apps by assigning a project where they must find a new XYZ, teach themselves and then teach him. 

Another thing I love about SWECJMC is catching up with colleagues. Dr. George Daniels, University of Alabama, and I celebrated 22 years since our days at the University of Georgia! And I met Jon Zmikly, Texas State, after about a 10-year virtual friendship. I also met new friends and research colleagues and witnessed so many great presentations by graduate students who will be joining the faculty ranks soon. 

See you in Jonesboro, Ark., next year! 

Mini-conference: Easy class transformation

Transforming your classroom into a mini-conference takes a bit of planning, but it's well worth the effort. For my graduate ethics course, I have been slowly adding more conference-like attributes each semester. You could do this for almost any level of course, with any student presentations. Students can get an introduction to conferences in a low stakes environment.

Our conference was Ethics beyond Utilitarianism: 2018 Case Study Conference, where panels of four students presented their cases in 5-8 minutes, with about 15 minutes left for Q&A.

Explain conference-style - Students may have no point of reference for "conference-style" so you will need to educate them about expectations for your field. Beforehand, I shared videos (through our learning management system) from our national conference to help set the stage. This is where you can share valuable tips like using your phone's timer to monitor your own time while presenting, checking the room's technology before your session, and having your presentation loaded on the presentation computer before the panel begins.

Room organization - If you're lucky enough to be in a room where furniture moves, organize your tables for a panel presentation in the front with audience-style seating for attendees.

Program - Ask students for the names/topics of their papers or presentations ahead of time. Work those into a program with three or four students on a panel. Print hard copies of the programs to hand out as students enter the conference.

Roles - Seek volunteers for moderators and discussants — or assign these conference duties to students interested in attending other conferences. Add their names/roles to the program. Remember to give students a short primer about these roles and expectations. Explain the role of the audience to ask questions, and when and how to do that.

Publicity -  Advertise your mini-conference to your department head, colleagues and other classes meeting at the same time. Outside attendees can make it feel more like a conference, and students can share their findings with a larger audience.

Debrief - Be sure to explain the conference experience after each panel finishes. You are essentially using your class as a conference simulation. We talked about how to facilitate networking following your presentation, adding your social handles to your presentation or nametag, how to handle wonky questions from the audience, and the awkwardness of being in front of the crowd while the other panelists present.

Individual feedback - After the conference, I emailed individual feedback to each panelist.

In the future, I want to incorporate live video feeds and answering questions from virtual attendees. My hope is that more students will consider submitting their work to a conference because they have had a small taste of the experience.