Semester in review

From Twitter to tenure, it has been a busy semester here at The Communication and Higher Education blog. Thank you for reading, emailing, following, liking, and tweeting throughout the semester! As the term draws to a close, it is easy to shift into a reflective mode. This is true in the blogosphere as well. There were many diverse topics this semester.


Check out some of the top posts (most often read, clicked, or those resulting in the most emails) from the recent months and consider sharing a few of your thoughts or comments:

That academic life: 

There were many discussions about our sometimes tenuous hold on faculty life and the swirling responsibilities housed within that life, but the top read in this arena were:

• "Faculty job descriptions" and all of those unexpected responsibilities...
• "Mock productivity" in the academic work day...does it steal your time, too?!
• "Faculty and first names" drew a lot of emails. How do your students and colleagues address you?
• "More effective meetings" ... yes, we can all use this post when we enter the next, new semester!
• "The lost ink pen" illustrated the way our work life can change with new technologies.
• "Prepping for RTP" shared some lessons learned on the road to a tenure review.

Teaching and technology:

Tech toys and options for our class including:

• "YouSeeU and online public speaking" to handle the issue of student video projects...and guess what? There's now a student app (currently FREE!).
• "Tech tools to avoid the midterm slump" showed a few easy options for enhancing our grade-based productivity.  
• "Embracing the large lecture environment" showed new ways to reach large audiences. 
• "New semester perks: a few sites to explore" helped us find new ways to start a new term.

Most read:

Of no surprise at all, the most read topic of this Fall 2011 semester was..."Social media in the college classroom" which resulted in many emails and some amazing conversations about the changing place of social media in our every day instruction.

THANK YOU for sharing this semester with Communication and Higher Education blog and look for many new topics (and continued topics) throughout the winter break and as we embark on another new term in January.

Don't forget, you can "like" Communication and Higher Education Blog on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CommHigherEdBlog