A good group of students, in a couple of classes from Spring semester 2009, created these as their final project.

Hope you enjoy their work. Please feel free to hire them. Good students & people!

Cross-posted at PRProspects.com and the future home of that site, too.

• www.melindabowens.com
• www.kelliecelia.com
• www.ammccoy.com
• www.katijones.com
• www.annaetucker.com
• www.johnroberson.net
• www.katlinmulvaney.com
• www.jahnnahall.com
• www.margieevans.com
• www.monicaafanador.com
• www.rachelmmurphyonline.com
• www.sjbivins.com
• www.pbdebow.com
• www.kelseyware.com
• www.kcduffyonline.com
• www.carolinecassidy.com
• www.amandamiles.com
• www.marycstewart.com
• www.mbwaltononline.com
• www.klaurenchandler.com
• www.akjonline.com
• www.hillaryegibbs.com
• www.brookbentley.com
• www.faithpalmer.com
• www.elizabethmahaney.com
• www.rebeccabedsole.com

We were testing Utterli (formerly Utterz) in class. I showed students how it could be automatically posted to your blog.

Students will do their own Utterli podcast interview to include in their final project.

I like Utterli for a lot of reasons. It is perhaps the simplest of audio podcasting tools to use. Utterli may be used to record interviews at events like conferences, live events for organizations, really any kind of interview.

At any rate, we’ll see how this goes in the final projects. Stay tuned.

I’ve shared this information with numerous academics over the years. Just realized, I’ve never really posted all of this information in one place. Well, aside from our class syllabi.

So, in a very conversational tone, here we go. Critiques and suggests are, as always, appreciated. I’ve pretty much pasted the email I sent below.

“Danger, Will Robinson!” A lot of info follows. Sorry if it is too much. Just sharing bits I’ve given to others along the way on all we do. Note: I’ll first share the paid version. Then, I’ll share how you can do it in a similar fashion for free (or very little cost). Choice is yours. Pros and cons to each path you take.

Domains and Hosting

I have the students purchase a domain name. Best option is try and get their name (it is, after all, their brand), but they can get any name. Then, they purchase a very basic hosting package. I suggest Modwest.com, but any place will work.

Best way to go, however, is to buy the domain and hosting from the same provider – whichever you choose. The reason being, the process for pointing the domain to your hosting is easier that way. Most do it automatically for you. If the students get the domain from GoDaddy and hosting from Yahoo!, for instance, then you have to spend time showing them how to change DNS settings. Well, I’m not aiming to create Web developers / server admins, so I avoid that.

Where do we start?

First thing, they write their resume. Then, they turn each section into one simple page. Most sites wind up with 10 or more pages. Look at PRProspects.com to see the sites from the past few years. I have links there. By the way, I created that site to promote the students. You can do the same for yours with your own blog and/or a free blog somewhere. Hey, the more links out there promoting them, the better.

Blogging Activities

My students blog at PRblogs.org. It is part of the edublogs.org network with James Farmer in Australia. I set up that site years ago (thanks to James) providing free blogs to anyone that wishes to write about PR. The site is free and, for all those logged in, free of ads, too. Now, there are some ads that show up to visitors that are not logged in, but I’ve found that they are rare. I agreed to that recently to help James cover some of his server costs. I make *no* money off this, by the way. Don’t want to. James gives us access to his servers for free. A very kind man.

Do you have one site that feeds all this student content out to other sites?

Yes. The sites we use to create content for the student portfolios (and their various writing gigs) are many. We have agreements with local media, national media and elsewhere for the students to submit articles and videos. This gives them clips for their resumes/portfolios.

The “launching pad” – for lack of a better term – for all this content is The Loveliest Village.

That is a Ning.com community I pay for ($30/month) to give the students a place to upload videos and then have an embed code to place them all over the place. The Loveliest Village also serves as a local citizen journalism site, again – giving the students the experience of writing, creating video and posting.

Templates for the Digital Resumes / Portfolios

For our digital resumes, we use templates from site like Open Source Web Design. I also have the students use iStockPhoto.com to get the images they use in the projects.

These are free templates and allows the students to learn HTML by editing. Of course, if they want to create from scratch, that’s cool, too.

Video :: How to do that inexpensively?

Video is created using The Flip camera. But, you can use other cameras. My statement to the students is, if you can bring in a .avi or .mpg file for editing, I don’t care what camera you use. We edit the videos with the free Movie Maker software on all Windows based PCs. Students with Macs do it at home with iMovie and various other programs. We keep the videos pretty simple. Straight interviews, sometimes with cover footage / B-roll. Simple titles, too.

Where do you host all of this?

I also have dedicated servers I use for a myriad of other software: wikis, social networks, meme trackers, RSS trackers and more. I realize that most will not go so nuts as I have. ) A good dedicated server costs about $100/month. I have two, now. Dropped one. Hey, I’m a teacher … doing this for fun (and the students), really. I spend over $300/month on all this. Call me crazy. The department provides no support. So, ya’ do what you can. Don’t get me wrong, good people here. Money for this just hasn’t hit the radar, yet.

Classroom Activities / Lessons

OK, I could go on about this for a long time. I’ll post again later with those types of exercises.

As far as the classroom activities, there are many. Let’s just say the students are writing and creating videos/graphics, etc. at least three times a week for various sites. Truly, after the first few meeting days, we don’t talk about this a whole lot. I know that probably sounds strange, as much as I talk about it in public. But, they have their schedule of assignments and either do them, or not. I have an all or none policy regarding points. So, I rarely have students that don’t participate.

Free or Inexpensive Alternatives

So, if you’re looking for free alternatives, you can do these portfolios using free blogs. PRblogs.org is one, but honestly … I suggest going with WordPress.com. Why? They have domain mapping. We’ll likely have it at PRblogs.org soon, but – for now – check out WordPress.com. Same platform, really. Both sites are running versions of WPMU – WordPress Multi-user.

Students don’t have to pay for hosting and only pay about $10 or $15 a year for the service. So, that’s a domain ($10 to $15/year) & WordPress.com ($15/year?) for less than $40/year versus about $140/year for shared hosting and the domain. Details on mapping are found here.

It is easy to map a domain. They give you instructions. GoDaddy has the easiest redirect I’ve found, so you might suggest the students get their domains there for this WordPress.com solution. However, many other services do it, too. WordPress.com just requires you paste in the domain name you want mapped. Really, it is pretty easy.

The down side is, you have less control over design and styles. But, using the “Pages” function of a WordPress.com blog, you can create all the pages we do for our digital portfolios. You just can’t style them with a great deal of imagination. There are some other limitations, but the WordPress.com option is quite viable. Your student winds up with a URL like http://www.studentname.com and, that’s really what we’re looking for, right?

How do students take to all of this?

As for student response to this? Well, at first some/many hate it (and me). Then, at the end, they realize they have something worthwhile So, they learn by building the site in many ways. It is worth it.

OK, I realize I’ve given you a LOT of info here. Scary thing is, this isn’t all we’re doing. I’ll gladly talk with you on the phone or answer your email questions. Hope this helps.

Seriously, anything I can do to help other faculty do this is good. Yes, the more of you that do it – the less of a lead my students have. OK, but let’s look at it as heuristic … or giving back … or contributing to the discipline. Your students will benefit from creating these sites. They have helped so many of my students stand out and get that internship and job. Not blowing smoke on that one, either. ;o)

This summer, we’ll be doing podcasts using Utterz. I’ll give them a prepaid phone they can carry with them to the activity areas. While taking photos and videos, they can also grab a quick audio interview easily embedded in the camp blog as well as the camp’s social network, ASCCA Friends.

It struck me that this is a very inexpensive way to add one more multimedia layer with fun interviews to the camp’s efforts. For instance, below you’ll see one of their first video offerings.

The idea behind the Utterz podcasts comes from a realization that the students have to manage their time. We’ve found that the time spent editing video, and creation of their converged news packages for media relations offerings to newspapers, limits the amount of time they have to do audio editing, too. I missed the podcasts and they had a pretty strong download history. So, using Utterz allows us to keep audio in the mix. We’ll give it a try and see how it goes. Maybe it will also drive some new traffic to the site.

Find more videos like this on ASCCA Friends

I was fortunate to have Kellie Matthews and Lisa Poplawski join me for an interview some weeks ago. Sadly, I goofed the recording and there were pops and hisses … just a general bad audio hair day, so to speak. So, they very kindly agreed to a Mulligan interview. I am grateful.

Kelli blogs at PRos in Training and Lisa blogs at Crisis in Conversation. Please check out their blogs and I’ll offer a bit of bio information here.

Kelli Matthews: “Teaching public relations is also about helping students figure it all out – from the nitty-gritty of writing to the big picture strategic thinking and from stress management to the job search. I teach public relations at the University of Oregon. I have both my BA and MA from the UofO. In addition to teaching, I co-own a PR and graphic design firm, Verve, with my sister and biz partner, Amy Miller. You can check it out here: vervenorthwest.com.”

Lisa Poplawski: “Lisa Poplawski … a senior at the University of Oregon. 21 years old, I’ll be graduating with a BS in Journalism and Economics this spring. A strange combination, I know, but starting at Oregon’s J-school, we were required to take Econ 201 and 202, and I just fell in love. The combination turned out to be fitting, however, as I’ve just turned in 16 law school applications over Christmas break, and will be attending law school this coming fall with not just logical and analytical skills from my Econ major, but I might be able to write a little bit as well.”

I’ve enjoyed watching the social media efforts of many other universities. The University of Oregon is yet another school that is embracing emerging digital media in their classrooms. The good aspect? They do it well. Their faculty and students are great. So, that’s the reason for this podcast. Hope you enjoy it.

The podcast is 28mb and runs 29:24.

Sure, we’ve been creating our blogs and podcasts. We’ve been following each others writings and media. All fun. All good. But, there really hasn’t been one place for everyone to do a meet and greet … until now.

PROpenMic.org is the place.

PROpenMic? A metaphor. Step up and speak your mind. Our goal is to be the social network for PR students and faculty worldwide. We have common interests, goals and certainly can learn from one another.

The site is open to practitioners, too. So, if you’re interested, please come and join in the discussion.

We can share documents, audio, video … a music / podcast player, forums, blogs & photo albums for each member … RSS feeds, photo albums, and more. Already people are blogging and four forums have begun – PR Syllabi & Resources, PR / Marcom Pros, Faculty and Students. We can start more, too.

Connect & Collaborate

I love sharing and learning. No better way to do that than to interact with your peer groups, right? So, my hope is that we can all come together – from around the world – and connect in this community.

The site is built upon the Ning.com platform, so it has a sort of Facebook-like appeal. The difference? No ads. No apps sending you numerous emails. Just PR people. Hey, I like Facebook for connections, but to do what we wanted to do … a mashup of content in one place … we had to have our own platform, in my opinion.

Meetup, Mashup & Share

Already, in one day, we have people signing up. Blogs, forums & video sharing are already seeing a bit of activity. We want more, though. Interest has come in from Asia, Europe, North America & Australia. How about you? and your students?

I realize that starting this at the end of a semester isn’t the ideal time. But, I had an epiphany on Sunday night and just started building the site. By Monday morning it was essentially ready to go, so I shared PROpenMic.org in Twitter and through an email to about two dozen people.

Please Join

I’m seeking your support, please. Share PROpenMic.org with your students, fellow faculty, PR/Marcom colleagues and more. Sign up yourself and there is a very easy “invite” process for you to use. Thank you.

Note: PROpenMic.org will never sell or share your email address or personal information with anyone else. You choose what to share on the site. This is a nonprofit academic project, primarily for the benefit of our students. No cost. No ads.

And, just so you’ll know … This is for real, too. No April Fool’s silliness, here … unlike this one from Google. Hat tip to Brett Pohlman for that one.

Many thanks to all of the very kind people at UGA for hosting my students and many others from various colleges and universities around the southeast. UGA’s Kaye Sweetser (so this is mass communication?) and Karen Russell (Teaching PR) had their students in top form putting on this conference. Also, thanks to Phil Gomes, Erin Caldwell and the many Edelman PR pros that came all the way down to help us all.

I took seven Auburn students and I’m thinking they had a pretty good experience, too.

The UGA students did a wonderful job putting on the project. Didn’t see a glitch or hiccup in the whole day’s events. Congrats!

During the conference, class activities for students were discussed. Podcasting (both video & audio) was one such experiential activity. The video and audio below are examples I created yesterday.

First, the video was recorded with an inexpensive video camera from Flip Video and features UGA PR student Jenny Reid.

Second, there are two audio podcasts using Utterz. I like their easy-to-use podcasting service.

Utterz is a simple free process which allows you to call a number (1-712-432-6666) to make a recording. Your account recognizes your phone number and posts your recording to your account. You may also send videos and photos to your account by emailing them to go@utterz.com.

To see the three examples of podcasts (2 audio, 1 video), check out the rest of the post …

Here is a simple Utterz audio player. They offer different options to embed or link to the audio/video files. This is the interview with UGA student Jenny Reid. Visit Utterz.com to see/hear the audio with video attached. This audio is with UGA student Jenny Reid.

And, finally, this is the Utter with educators and a photo attached.

After all, students out there pitching and working on a campaign … hey, ya’ gotta pitch in and support them.

The Edelman Digital Bootcamp is taking place at UGA on Saturday, March 1, 2008. Details are available here, at their Web page. Lindsey shared that, as of this recording, several non-UGA student slots are still available. Also, several more faculty slots are open. The registration fee is very reasonable and the benefits are, in my opinion, quite worth the trip.

Our own alum, Erin Caldwell, is the lead for this conference – a joint effort between Edelman and UGA’s Grady College. Erin is a Senior Account Executive in the Edelman Washington, D. C. office. We’re quite proud of her.

To get you up to date on the event, here are a couple of good links for you:

• Edelman Digital Bootcamp (EDB) — Agenda & Other Resources
• Blog for the Edelman Digital Bootcamp
• Kaye Sweetser, UGA – so this is mass communication?
• Karen Russell, UGA – Teaching PR
• Twitter / EDB_erin
• Flickr: Photos from edelmandigitalbootcamp

Lindsey was a joy to interview. She’s active in many blogs, just check out her Blogger profile to see them all.

Photo: From a previous project (not the EDB project), Lindsey is pictured above, second from the right. That undergraduate research team included (l-r) Kristen Smith, Amy Chandler, Laura Jakstadt, Rachel Turner, Lindsey Loughman and Heather Wrye. (Source: Grady News)

The interview is below. It is 18.9 mb and runs 19:45.   We’ve upgraded to the latest Podpress software, so … click the Play button below (and a player will appear) or Play in Popup, or download it. Whatever makes ya’ happy.

Via Twitter, I was able to watch Ashley and Karen Russell – along with many other students – talk about the Safe Kids Athens campaign. So, after looking at the campaign and chatting with the students I thought a podcast was in order. ‘Tween you and me, I’ll use this to spur on my students in their projects, too. Ashley and her group did a great job.

The campaign: PRSSA Announces Chevrolet’s Safe Kids Buckle Up Program as the 2008 Bateman Case Study Competition

Safe Kids Buckle Up was chosen as the 2008 case study because of its unique concentration on childhood safety. “Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death of children ages three to 14,” said Torine Brooks Creppy, director of Safe Kids Buckle Up.

The site: Safe Kids Athens

Safe Kids Athens Area is one of more than 300 grassroots coalitions in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico that bring together health and safety experts, educators, corporations, foundations, governments and volunteers to educate and protect families.

The videos: Virtual Video Showdown

Coile Middle School 6th and 7th Graders compete in the Virtual Video Showdown to promote Safe Kids Buckle Up Athens Area and Athens Chevrolet. Produced by University of Georgia PRSSA

Media coverage: The Safe Kids Athens Media Room

So, that’s the background … now the podcast interview with Ashley Beebe. Ashley’s great. No worries about her future, I am sure. Listen as she describes the campaign, her group members and their work, the involvement of the students and more. Especially listen for Ashley’s post graduation plans. She’s going into the Teach America program. Pretty cool and admirable.

Also, check out Ashley’s blog … cool title – There’s a Mouse in My House … and other tales of college woe.

The podcast is 16mb and runs 16:42. Choose Play Now below (and a player will appear) or Play in Popup, or download it. Whatever makes ya’ happy.

My interests here are primarily on evaluating where people are, what positive aspects they may have gained from our classroom projects, and – how we can make them even more valuable and entertaining. Yep, that’s right. I said entertaining. You see, I believe students will dive in with greater fervor if they feel it is fun and they can see a true payoff at the end.

So, where are they now?  

People on the move … a sampling …

Christin Eubanks, whose blog is located at my PRception, has been doing some interesting writing there – and some work for her sister. Christin created amandAMEubanks to spotlight her sister Amanda’s wonderful artwork. Check it out. Shock of shocks, she even got Amanda started in … wait for it … blogging. She even turned Amanda’s resume into HTML. Wow, what a kind sister. Amanda ought to spring for the paid domain hosting, though.

Mary Kneeland Metcalf has also been active blogging. Visit Displaced In Chicago to follow Mary in her new career with Edelman. I like trying to keep up with students after they fly the nest here at Auburn. I believe Mary’s even started a group blog of past AU grads, too. And, after all, without Mary Kneeland how would I have come across Spatula Diaries from Baton Rouge. Mary Kneeland good! Oh, and I think she’ll kick off Marcomblog’s Fall Season, too.

Now, not one of my old students, but an interesting find. I came upon a trackback from Phillip La Peyre, a PR² undergrad at Deakin University in Australia. He is a student of Ross Monaghan at Deakin. Phillip is checking out Marcomblog and the Student Digital Resumes and Portfolios from Summer 2007 and Spring 2007. I like seeing students interested in the projects. I hope more PR higher ed programs will undertake like-minded senior projects online, along with the print portfolios. I’d love to learn from, and adapt with, what I learn from their efforts.

Karen Russell, of UGA, linked to our projects. Also, Richard Bailey, Leeds Metropolitan University (UK), kindly referenced them in an interview at Karen’s blog – Teaching PR, too. Thank you to both Richard and Karen.

So, I’m happy that there is at least interest in what we are doing. And there seems to be perceived value in the exercises from other faculty, students and my own students. But, what do we keep in the projects and where to we adapt and change? If you have ideas … please share.

So, that’s the past … what of our future semesters …

In Style & Design, which may be renamed – by the way, we intend to continue blogging at both The Loveliest Village and PRblogs.org.

At The Loveliest Village, students will continue to blog and podcast. However, after this summer’s experiment, we’ll just be doing video blogging. Using the Flip Video camera, we’ll have each student creating one video interview – with story and photo – each week.

Thanks to Shannon Whitley, we will continue to explore, and learn from, PRX Builder. We’ll even explore his new PRX Builder NewsAds program.

And, we’ll continue to utilize the resources of the Edelman StoryCrafter tools for creating social media releases, too. Many thanks to Edelman for allowing us access to StoryCrafter.

Style and Design, along with PR Writing, will utilize PRblogs.org for hosting our student blogs. Marcomblog will be re-awakened after a long summer hiatus. Students will interact with mentors there. Look for perhaps two new practitioners to join us – one from Asia and the other from Australia. More on that later.

Then, in PR Writing, we will continue to write daily. A new addition will be the creation of a full blown media room using the resources of Jonathan Arehart’s MyMediaRoom. It is a “News platform that enables organizations to get their message out”, according to the site. I was tipped off to MyMediaRoom some time ago by this Kami Huyse post. Thanks to Kami for continuing to offer great info at her blog, Communication Overtones. And many thanks to Jonathan for allowing us to come in and fill up about 20 new media rooms.

In the MyMediaRoom project, each student will seek out a local nonprofit and build a newsroom for them – from the ground up. Sounds fun, huh? Maybe I can even pair them with a student in Style & Design to create a bit of video for the newsroom.

So, is that enough? Too much? Anyone have other ideas about how to incorporate social media into class activities, while not overwhelming the students? (Oh, they believe I overwhelm them with work anyway, but – you know what I mean … I hope.) Believe it or not, the students still spend the vast majority of their time on working with the software in Style & Design and writing in PR Writing. Social media is a small part. Hey, it is 15 weeks. They ought to be able to accomplish a lot.

Podcasts: Video and audio …

I want to clarify that I’m not abandoning audio podcasts at The Loveliest Village because they aren’t fun, or worthwhile. I just think the students will find the video podcasts more enjoyable. The cost to them will be the same as audio, so I no longer have an aversion to requiring they do video.

One of the audio podcasts I’ll still encourage them to follow is On The Record from Eric Schwartzman. Eric covers media relations, online media, podcasting, new media, PR, and marketing very well. On the Record offers up great interviews. They are probably the best in this genre, easily, and are better than most you’ll find in all of podcasting. That’s my opinion, but look at his site and you’ll see that Jonathan, his podcast and his agency, have won many awards.

Not only that, but students and recent grads, look what else I learned by listening to On The Record…

PR Opportunities for recent grads …

Schwartzman PR has PR Job Opportunities. Yes, they are hiring! This is the same firm that also brings us iPressroom. That’s another cool resource I’d love to show the students. I’d be willing to bet that Eric also has interns at his agency. Ya’ think? Doesn’t hurt to ask and find out.

New sites, toys and such …

Finally, I am very much looking forward to the launch of P.O.T.U.S. ’08 on XM Radio. I’m not really a political junkie, but the format and content seems pretty compelling. I like to dream and in the past I have dreamed of a very well funded project whereby students could have followed the campaigns – creating video/audio/blog content. Man, what a learning experience that could have been. A guy can dream, can’t he?

With the possibility of a tremendous opportunity developing during the semester, I’m looking at many tools to fold into a project for all the classes. Can’t say what it is now, but this one could be quite cool. I can assure you that the person we would have participating in it is quite unique.

Those toys and tools I’m tinkering with (and trying to decide if, and then how, they may be used in class) are: Twitter, Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, and even Robert Scoble’s video podcasts and live streams at ScobleShow. We’ll see how they play out as viable opportunities for class. Any suggestions? I’m open to them.

That’s it, that’s all … what do you think?