Wiltse and His Bowling Trophy

Academics isn't all about teaching, research, committees, advising, vacations.

Sometimes it's about bowling.

Let me preface this blog post by stating that bowling is not really my game. In junior high and high school, I played football and baseball, skied, fished and hunted. These days, I mostly do the latter three.

But bowling has been on the periphery of my life. My junior high school was next to a bowling alley. When I worked at a newspaper, a bowling alley was across the street. So I've spent some time on and near the lanes.

Not much time recently, though. The COJO Department used to have a bowling team when there were lanes in the student union. But I haven't bowled much since then, except occasionally at kids' birthday parties.

Earlier this semester, however, COJO students organized a bowling night to raise money for Professor Frank Millar's cancer battle. Even though bowling is not my game, I somehow managed to get high score for faculty and saw my name placed on the faculty bowling trophy. I am the third winner, along with Cindy Price and Ken Smith (pictured).

This is only my second athletic trophy and the first since my baseball team won the local Little League championship in 1966.

The trophy is on display in the COJO office until I can raise funds for a pedestal display case with ceiling and floor spotlights.

Welcome to Laramie, Kristen

Those of you who read my posting of Nov. 13, 2009, may be wondering what happened to the COJO job search for a new faculty member.

It is my pleasure to announce that the search was successful, and we hired Kristen Landreville as a new assistant professor in new media starting fall semester.

Kristen is finishing her dissertation from the Ohio State University and is living in Columbus, Ohio. Her undergraduate degrees are from the University of Florida.

According to her Web site, Kristen's research involves "the intersection of mass and interpersonal communication on political and social outcomes, especially how uncertainty, emotion, and engagement in political entertainment (e.g., documentaries, satire) influence political discussion."

She has published research articles in such journals as Mass Communication and Society and Communication Quarterly.

Next fall, she is scheduled to teach Online Journalism and Politics and the Media.

To find out more about Kristen, check her Web site.

Teaching online: Cyberlearning has pluses/minuses

Somebody once told me that the best thing about teaching online classes is that you can work in your pajamas.
I won't admit to ever wearing PJs while teaching, but I will admit that I will never wear a necktie while teaching online.
I've been teaching two online classes - Public Affairs Reporting and Investigative Reporting - since 2006 during fall semesters. This is the third time I've done Public Affairs, and there has been a steady increase in enrollment. The first year, 16 students signed up. The next class there were 19 and this year there were 26 students enrolled at the start of the semester.
In informal surveys that I send to students at the start of the semester, they are asked what they like and dislike about online learning. Their responses are enlightening.
"I enjoyed the freedom of being able to access ‘class’ from various locales. I did not, however, enjoy the detachment I felt from both my classmates and my prof in lieu of a real classroom," said a woman in this semester's class.
"I liked online because I can do things in my own time. I like that I can set aside my own time to do things and having online lets me manage some more credit hours," said another woman.
However, she added, "I disliked online, because sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly what the teacher wants. I like having face to face interaction, because I think I understand things more clearly."
A male student echoed that dichotomy: "I liked how you could set your own schedule, the class fit to you instead of you always having to fit to it; I found it hard when I needed to contact instructor because in a face-to-face if you are still confused you can ask them right there where in an e-mail you have to send another and another until you have the answer."
Surprisingly to me, their likes and dislikes are similar to my own as the instructor. The convenience of teaching whenever and wherever I please are two of the main draws for online instruction for me.
However, I am convinced that many students will not learn as much in an online class because they need the face time and hands-on instruction that can only come from a classroom environment. However, research has shown there is no difference in performance for students in online vs. traditional classes. Essentially, students learn as well online as they do in live classrooms, according to studies.
I try to include as much interaction as possible in online classes. We hold weekly live chats in real time. There is a threaded discussion each week in which students post comments to a question and interact with each other by posting responses. And students can and do e-mail me all the time.
One reason that I developed the two journalism classes offered online is so students at the UW-Casper College campus can take required courses without having to come to Laramie, or without me having to drive to Casper.
Besides Casper, students in my online classes have been based in Colorado, Jackson Hole, Gillette and even Hawaii.
Online classes will probably continue to expand in the COJO Department because there is demand for them from students and UW administration.

COJO changes: Faculty take new posts

There will be some changes in the COJO Department when fall semester begins later this month. Two faculty members are moving to new jobs that will affect the department.
Tracey Patton, associate professor, took over as director of the African-American Studies Program on Aug. 1. She will continue to teach three classes a year, including her popular Cross Cultural Communication course that has raised money for an orphanage in Africa.
Tracey also was director of graduate studies in the department. Dr. Michael Brown will resume that role.
At African-American Studies, Tracey replaces Gracie Lawson-Borders, who also is an associate professor in the COJO Department. Gracie moved from AAST director to associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences on Aug. 1. As associate dean, she no longer will be teaching COJO classes. Those include Media Convergence and Minority Media Ownership, which I consider crucial classes for our journalism majors.
We wish them both the best of luck in their new endeavors.
However, their departures coupled with the hiring freeze at UW will impact students. After a couple years of requests, the department finally obtained permission to hire a new journalism professor. We had to shut down our job search after budget woes forced the university to make budget cuts.
As a result, we won't be able to offer as many courses, particularly in journalism, as in recent years.

Hardball: Chris Matthews Live

One of the great things about working at the University of Wyoming is the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, from all walks of life. One benefit of being in Wyoming is that the state attracts a lot of famous people, too.

Over the years, I've had former Interior Secretary James Watt speak to a class, talked about horses with former 20/20 anchor Hugh Downs, and listened to former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson's stories and yarns at several social functions.

The latest public figure to visit campus was Chris Matthews. The host of MSNBC's Hardball was on campus today at the invitation of Al and Pete Simpson to discuss the Obama presidency. But first, Matthews took the time to have lunch with students and faculty from the Communication and Journalism Department.

Most of what I know about Matthews comes from Saturday Night Live skits poking fun at him and from recent quips from the right wing about his "man crush" on Obama. I've seen his show a few times but don't watch it regularly.

So it was interesting to hear him talk about his career as a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner who has written five books and got into journalism because he was fascinated by politics.

Although he had just returned from Egypt and was kind of run down from the quick trip to Wyoming and our 7,200-foot altitude, Matthews was very accessible to the students who wanted to know, basically, what it's like to be him.

His biggest news story? Covering the fall of the Berlin Wall for the Examiner easily topped the list for him.

His gaffe while dancing on the Ellen Show? He praised Ellen DeGeneres for having the savvy and guts to turn the controversy over her lesbianism into one of the most popular TV shows on the air.

But my favorite anecdote had to do with his role in the Culture of Celebrity. Matthews said he was shopping for sunglasses in Bloomingdale's recently and, within 20 minutes, somebody had put video of his shopping trip online.

Thanks to the Simpson family for inviting Matthews here, and thanks to Chris Matthews for taking the time to talk with our students.

Scholarships: Demand up, but so is supply

As we enter Week 12 of the semester at the University of Wyoming, students and faculty alike realize that the time to learn is winding down. Some students are so far behind that they probably can't catch up. Others are improving their scholastic work every week as they absorb and process new information and skills. Those are the ones who will see their efforts rewarded.

Last week, the Student Interaction Committee met to award scholarships to deserving Communication and Journalism students. Demand was up this year, but so was supply - a welcome economic situation during the current recession. More than 40 students applied for scholarships for the next academic year and for this summer. The increase probably is due to two factors: 1.) their parents can't afford to fund students as much as in the past due to the lousy economy, and 2.) better efforts by the department to publicize the scholarships.

The committee - Rebecca Roberts, Eileen Gilchrist and me - sorted the scholarship applications into several stacks based upon grade-point average, major and residency. Some scholarships require a GPA above a certain level. Others were aimed solely at journalism majors or students in advertising and public relations. One was geared for students from certain Wyoming counties.

Another factor we considered was extra-curricular activities. For instance, students who worked on the Branding Iron and other student publications, or those who had internships with newspapers, businesses or public relations agencies sometimes had an edge over students without those experiences for certain scholarships.

In the end, we awarded as many scholarships as possible to deserving students. Some scholarship funds had as much as $3,000 in them. We usually chose to split that sum into two or three awards to spread the money out among as many students as possible.

The big addition this year was the availability of summer scholarships that would pay for COJO classes taken during the summer sessions. The $10,000 available for summer scholarships made it possible for the committee to award some money to every student who applied for those.

On April 19, we will hold the annual Student Recognition Reception to publicly acknowledge the efforts of students receiving COJO scholarships.