Practically Speaking

During the winter 2012 semester I taught a course (CMNS 380) called The Cross-Generational Workplace: Closing the Communication Gap. 

I designed this course to provide students with the skills needed to interact and communicate effectively within a day-to-day workplace environment and build on the potential that a cross-generational workplace can have.

The workplace now has at least four generations of employees. Gone are the long held stereotypes of generational level expertise. Younger people are bringing technologically advanced skills to the workplace; and experienced older people are working well past traditional retirement age to contribute their intellectual capital.

The course turned out even better than I planned. You have to love it when that happens!

The classroom mirrored the cross-generational phenomenon occurring in our workplaces.  There were students from every defined generational group: the Traditionalists, the Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials (also known as Gen Y).

As a class we even had a great debate about how we felt about the new labels being given to the generation just about to enter university.  Depending on what you read you will see this new group of students being called Gen Now, Gen Net, Gen Z, the Internet Gen – and even Gen 911.

It will be interesting to watch which of these labels will stick!

So what is it like teaching a cross-generational class?

I like to think of teaching this course as “gen mixing.” This meant that my teaching and learning strategies needed to be just that :  a mix!

There were print materials, formal lectures, online discussions, visual student lead presentations, creative group collaboration assignments, student lead online presentations and social media engagement.  The course was delivered as a hybrid; some weeks we met face-to-face and sometimes we held the class virtually.

We mixed it up!

One of the class’s favourite assignments was the course blog.  This was done instead of a formal paper.  What the students appreciated about this assignment is that they got to see each other’s writing, and learn from each other.  And for those students without techno-literate skills – they had the chance to embrace a new communication avenue.

Each student created a blog posting on a topic related to cross-generational communication that interested them. Though the course blog was erased at the conclusion of the course, over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing with you five student blog contributions:

• Tammy MacAdams, “Millennial Generation Rule Breakers are the New Rule Makers”
• Daphne Cockerill, “Think Before You Post”
• Jacky Kim, “Is There Such a Thing as Young and Old Humour?”
• Trevor Kavanagh, “Gamification and Motivation”
• Erin Hailstone, “Uniting Generations in the Workplace Using the Appreciative Inquiry Approach”

My thanks to Tammy, Daphne, Jacky, Trevor and Eric for permission to share your insights!

As Carolyn Martin and Bruce Tulgan put it in Managing the generation mix, “The most successful people in the twenty-first century will be true Gen-Mixers, people of all ages who bring to work every day their enthusiasm, flexibility, and voracious desire to learn.” My students in CMNS 380 showed just these traits in making the course a success.

On May 13, 2012 (which also happened to be Mother’s Day) Samantha Pattridge competed in the Toastmasters International District 21 Evaluation Speech Contest and was awarded first place, making her “the Premier Evaluator in District 21”, representing all of BC.

The contest was the culmination of several levels of competition, beginning at the club level. Samantha is a member of the Rise and Shine Toastmasters club, which meets on campus at UFV (Fridays from 7:20 to 8:20 am in A225). After winning the evaluation contest at the club level, Samantha went on to compete against Abbotsford and Mission clubs in the Area Contest, and then on to the Division Contest to compete against clubs from all over the Lower Mainland.

Samantha was one of ten competitors to duke it out at the province-wide District Contest, which is also the highest level for this particular speech contest. Samantha’s husband and 6-year-old daughter were on hand to see her receive the award, which Samantha considered the “best Mother’s Day present yet”.

If you’re interested in perfecting your oral presentation and speech-making skills, you can benefit from Samantha’s prize-winning evaluation and instuction by signing up for “Oral Communications for the Workplace“, offered this fall at the Clearbrook Library through UFV Continuing Studies.

Congratulations on the award, Samantha!

A few notes from my first full day in St. John’s, Newfoundland at the 29th Annual Qualitative Analysis Conference; scholars that get together to talk about experiences, insights, and innovations in using qualitative research methods.

I couldn’t help but think about the communication practices of Newfoundlanders as I started my morning off at the local Timmy’s, everybody chatty (some more than others) and ready to engage in a conversation at the drop of a hat, to complete strangers. It was a nice feeling just to be in that atmosphere and it set the tone and my mission for the rest of the day – trying to notice what other kinds of communication made up the culture of Newfoundland.

As I walked back to Memorial University and crossed Elizabeth Ave., I was startled when the little guy on the “walk” light told me I had 44 seconds. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than 28 seconds anywhere in the west. As the day went on, I had other chances to see up to 68 seconds and nothing less than 33. Could this be a symbol of a more relaxed atmosphere?

After a day of research presentations, I decided to figure out the bus system and head downtown for a walk around. What better way to really get a feel for the local community? In all the places where I have ever had the opportunity to ride the bus (San Francisco, Puerto Rico, Vancouver, to name a few) I have never had quite the experience I had today. First the bus driver greeted everybody that got on the bus (many by name), and shouted out to have a great day when they got out at the back. They shouted back thanks every time. I made sure I did when I got off as well. As I sat down a bit back from the driver I noticed a sign that I had never seen on any bus before – a “friendly” note to help make sure that patrons didn’t leave the bus forgetting a possession. More evidence.

It was a great day enjoying the friendliness on the Rock and doing a little qualitative communication research.

*****************************

Dr. Marcella LaFever (University of New Mexico, 2005) is an Associate Professor in the Communications Department at the University of the Fraser Valley. She specializes in intercultural communication and brings that expertise to various subjects such as communication for workplace, instruction, social media, team and public speaking contexts.

Does science communication have a place in the university? I briefly interrupted my search for the best gelato in Florence to contemplate this question during a session at the 2012 Public Communication of Science and Technology Conference. While Bruce Lewenstein from Cornell University, Suzanne de Cheveigne from CNRS in France, and Brian Trench from Dublin City University didn’t reach agreement on this topic, the lively discussion prompted me to consider my own position as a science communication researcher, practitioner, and teacher at UFV.

When I consider the environmental problems facing us in the Fraser Valley – including declining salmon populations, water availability, and a proposed expansion of a pipeline pumping tar sands oil through our region – I realize that science communicators are in positions to influence how people respond to health concerns, our environment, technology uptake and careers in science.

Brian Trench argued that the public communication of science and technology belongs at the university because it is already part of undergraduate and postgraduate programs, including Dublin City University’s Masters of Science Communication Program. Trench speculated on whether science communication will survive as a distinct field; its interdisciplinary nature makes it unique but also vulnerable without a key discipline to support it.

I found myself nodding in response to Suzanne de Cheveigne’s comments that knowledge only comes with specialization. Science communication researchers use tools from a wide variety of disciplines: communication studies, sociology, history, psychology, and philosophy. It is important for researchers to know and use these tools well, gaining expertise that only comes from in-depth study into each area.

Bruce Lewenstein argued that science communication doesn’t necessarily belong at the university but in institutions that work between the intersection of science and the public, such as San Francisco’s Exploratorium. Science communication has traditionally been an importer of ideas from other disciplines rather than an exporter, but its focus on the boundary between theory and practice in engaging publics makes it unique.

I saw evidence of this combining of theory and practice everywhere at the conference, with researchers, journalists, policymakers, and practitioners for science museums contemplating new science communication work from a range of perspectives including values, aesthetics, notions of the sublime, ethics of science communication, and the constitution of publics. So, while establishing academic credibility may be important (I met a new crop of researchers with PhDs in Science Communication), for me science communication’s real value remains in its goal to make science accessible to everyone.

This emphasis on accessibility means considering science communication’s place not just at the university but in all levels of government, in the press, within secondary education and informal education institutions, and so on.

Filled with new enthusiasm and insights into the role of science communication in society, I can return to my other quest for superlative gelat0. Already I can report that if you are ever in Florence, you owe it to yourself to visit Grom, but I’ll keep you posted about any other great locations my search uncovers.

What information does the reader need? What’s the best format to deliver it? These were the essential questions that students in CMNS 390: End-user Documentation Design worked on answering over the Winter 2012 semester in hopes of making the lives of UFV students easier.

This past Wednesday UFV staff from Student Life, Advising, Student Services and Arts Advice were invited to attend document release briefings to ask questions, provide feedback and consider adopting the documents as part of the UFV retinue.

Four student teams, after participating in a focus group session at the beginning of the term, decided to design documents titled:

• How to $ave Money: A UFV Guide
• Healthy Eating on an Unhealthy Budget
• A Practical Guide To Your Degree At The University Of The Fraser Valley
• Getting Involved at UFV

Kudos to the students on their excellent documents and presentations:

Cameron Cal, Allyssa Epp, Nader Hussein, Anusha Iyengar, Clair Jensen, Jacqueline Klassen, Mitchell Lock, Jillian Lowe, Tammy Macadams, Cassidy Meadows, Maxwell Mooney, Leonard Naimi, Kacey Oravec, Jonathan Vandermey, Jessica Webster.