Education and the Community

Within the community, I have found that many scholars and graduate students have found their assistantships that were consistent with community awareness and help.

I know specifically, one of the COMM graduate students participates in an inner city education program in Blacksburg. He helps with mentoring and guiding young students to a promising future by leading them to go to college, or at least finish high school. This impact plays a significant role and further proves that ideals that the university does care about the community around them.

Additionally, there are also some summer programs in Blacksburg that helps younger (middle school) people how to use design techniques and can produce things like yearbooks. This concept of layout can help build a students imagination and can help with future careers and interest. All in all, there are definitely programs within the COMM dept. itself in helping the community around the university

Ethics

One of the aspect that we, as faculty, focus on is the idea of ethics in the classroom. What is correct/not correct to present to students. Is it OK to relate to students at the expense of being unprofessional? All of these subjects matter, but I want to discuss inner-departmental ethics, especially dealing with graduate students and faculty.

I remember standing in front of a public speaking class in my second semester. I found myself teaching a portion that I did not believe was helpful in the field of public speaking. Not that it was a poor idea, I just thought there were ideas that should be emphasized more than the one that was on my script. Therefore I was a bit daunted, but I proceeded with the lecture with a fake smile on my face. To me, I found that this was a breach in ethical principles. Normally, I would of said, that the information is not accurate in my mind, but my faculty thinks so. However, I am a GTA, therefore I provide my opinions. I am not tenured, I did not create the lecture, I am not running the course. Therefore, I cannot tell my opinion or focus on the subject matter that I want. I must conform to the material

So there is the ethical breach. If we do not like a faculty members decision of what to teach, then we can do a few things. We can say that the information is complete garbage and explain why your method is most effective. However, it may come to bite you because the faculty may find out you have avoided the subject matter

Second, we could always teach the subject matter despite our opinions. Which is the safe way to go, but is it ethical? Should we automatically conform for the sake of conforming? Or should we break the barriers and try to teach something else. That as well tends to be an ethical breach, therefore it is difficult to decide what to teach.

If you have meetings about lectures beforehand, ethically speaking talking with the course director beforehand would be the most effective strategy. You haven't had to compensate for a lecture, but then again, you can provide your own opinions in theory. Some professors will not be as accepting as others, but the most ethical way of approaching the subject matter is at least trying to explain the nuances of the class. The professor may be stubborn, but the idea should be applied instead of not doing anything about the class.

Diversity

In this session I will be discussing diversity and it ongoing importance in the classroom and faculty relations. Due to the increase in technology, there has been a bridge of how we can reach new cultures and students from other nations. Global relations have never been higher, and therefore we have to understand diversity and how to interact with other cultures, especially in the classroom

Within intercultural and marketing studies, we have had to come to the reality that differing nations have different ethics, morals, traditions, the way they work, how they approach uncertainty, proxemics, amongst many other things. As a university, we need to understand these barriers and accommodate for the difference in another individuals culture. 

Research has been great in mass media studies and intercultural relations. Having students that know different languages can help expand the research of how other media outlets outside the United States handle a crisis or an event that the US covers. That breaks down cultural variables and limitation. This is important and those are only a few reasons of why diversity has expanded and why we need to accommodate. The more we learn from other cultures, the more we can expand knowledge and reduce uncertainty in the classroom and within the faculty that teaches the students

Academic Freedom

While assessing the latest thread, I found myself in a quandary of interpreting academic freedom. Although there seemed to be a great deal of freedom when professors teach, the reality is that for junior faculty it is not so.

Obviously a junior faculty would not be given the same freedoms as a full tenured professor and would be carefully viewed as they created their curriculum. But I do believe we have freedom within our lectures to display knowledge, enthusiasm and and overall sense of care for the students. We do have that particular freedom in the classroom in itself.

The main thing that I am upset with is the fact that research has too many restrictions and limitations. It is important to make sure that you recognize prior studies. However, to what extent? Is a reviewer going to decline my work just because I did not include someones name and their study? I think that limits the idea at hand. Sure, you want a study to be grounded in prior literature, but not to an extend where we are required to place a name with your study. There needs to be a balance and a general acceptance of what the main idea is, what the study is grounded on, and is it an original and practical idea. That should be the main focus of research.