Archive for the 'Communication' Category

Kevin Kelch

When you visit Prof. Kevin Kelch’s profile on RateMyProfessors.com, you’ll find a dozen comments left by his former students, including:

I took Presentation Media and Adv. Tech & Prof. with Kelch. I loved both classes and did great in them. He isn’t that strict if you do what is expected of you. Actually, he is one of my favorite professors.

He’s a great teacher, I wish he taught more classes I needed. I’d take him every chance I could! He’s fair, to the point and smart.

I thought Professor Kelch was friendly and I got a lot out of his class. He is very clear on his requirements for papers and presentations.

Very clear on what he wants and a very liberal marker!

This is one grouchy man, but I cannot think of anyone more suited to teach the class. Kelch allows plenty of time to get assignments done. He is very anal in terms of grading, but tells you exactly what he wants to see. In fact the entire class period is dedicated to him repeating what he expects in each assignment…over and over.

Very true. Prof. Kelch’s many students through the years knew he would expect nothing but their absolute best in class. In fact, he insisted on it.

Prof. Kevin KelchHe was my colleague in our Technical and Professional Communication program at Lawrence Tech. I was fortunate enough to call him “Kevin.” We’d debate varied topics such as writing styles for the web, our favorite Adobe products and the occasional misfit student. When he labored to form the Media Communications program at LTU, he valued my humble opinion during its foundation, even going so far as to recommend I teach a course or two. And unlike many of my own professors from my days toting a backpack, Kevin’s door was always open to our students.

He was passionate about rhetoric, fiercely dedicated to his craft, well respected and mildly feared.

He will be sorely missed.

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S-C-A-N-D-A-L

ScrabulousThis is the last in an accidental series of posts related to web and social media coverage of the ongoing Detroit mayoral scandal. The whole thing has been a mild distraction to my regularly scheduled blog outings, and a major one for the entire region. Like most of Metro Detroit, I’d like to move on.

Since we last left off, Kwame Kilpatrick accepted my ‘friend’ invite on Facebook. I debated whether to challenge our embattled mayor to a friendly game of Scrabulous, but thought it best to leave well enough alone. He hasn’t changed his status update since my last post, so, uh, I suppose he remains resolute.

He’s been good enough—again, assuming it’s really Kilpatrick—to allow commentary from all sides in on his “wall”. Among the more eloquent posts since formal charges were filed:

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Mr. Webb: What the web thinks of your client

As promised, I trolled through the web to get a sense of how the latest Detroit mayoral scandal is playing out in social media circles, trying my best to remain unbiased. Yet as I crunched the numbers, I came across the following head scratcher from Dan Webb, attorney for Kwame Kilpatrick:

…I told the mayor we’re not going to try this case in the press. I’ve never done that during my career. I truly believe the system works. The system works best when jurors are allowed to come into a courtroom without being blitzed with publicity for months ahead of time. I assume and hope the prosecutor will feel the same way. Therefore I’m responding today and maybe for the next day or so to these charges and then you’re not gonna hear from me again because I don’t intend to get up and try this case in the press. I also asked the mayor—I basically instructed him I guess as his lawyer—that he should do the same thing. This case should be tried in a courtroom in front of a jury and should not be tried in the press and therefore I’ve asked him not to respond specifically on a day-to-day basis to questions from the press about the case because we’ll do our speaking in court.

Mr. Webb’s statement was undoubtedly followed by knee-slapping guffaws of roaring laughter from every newsroom, PR agency and blogging outpost in town. Simply examining the past five days of online conversation alone…

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Grande Yukon

A newly renovated Franklin Hall, a fresh blanket of snowSince Starbucks still finds it necessary to charge for wi-fi, I am posting this from home, hours after having left Kent. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I pay for a drop of wireless.

I now return to Lawrence Tech, where the wi-fi is deliciously free to use. Today’s YouToo Social Media Conference and Boot Camp at Kent State gave me a much needed boost as I aspire to offer a course in blogging this fall, if not next spring. Of course, I’m still waiting for this spring to arrive. My keyboard is practically frozen as I type.

Rounding out the rest of the day’s highlights:

  • People that never podcasted did so in under 15 minutes.
  • Sage Lewis gave a luncheon sermon that effectively restored my faith in SEO. This was probably a good thing, as former classmate Stefanie Moore and I delivered a primer on SEO do’s and don’ts later in the afternoon.
  • Our day ended with a panel discussion on social media’s impact on the presidential election. Half a million Facebook friends for can’t be wrong, or can they?

I am told that video from throughout the conference will be available online, as will most of the presentations. Brief snippets of mine follow…

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Good to be back

After nearly a two-year hiatus, I’ve decided to relaunch the “LTU Web Design” blog.

Dino BaskovicI suppose the guilt of presenting at a social media conference back at my alma mater in Ohio got the best of me. Thanks, Bill—the itch to blog is back.

That, and after having registered for one of those fancy ISSN numbers, I feel I owe it to you the taxpayer. Well, at least to my students at Lawrence Tech. They pay some hefty tuition to hear me ramble for three hours each week, so the very least I can do is put my money where my mouth is….

As I did in early ‘06, I’ll continue to focus this blog on web design, social media and communication. My previous foray was probably too formal in retrospect, and a tad preachy. Us web standards-types tend to be a bit into ourselves. Starting with this post, I’ll lose the tie and blog about what makes web design in the modern era so great, and why I have so much fun with it as a practitioner and a professor.

If I do my job well, you may learn something along the way. Heck, I’m still learning as I go.

Until next post, catch me on LinkedIn and Facebook, or this Friday night at Ray’s where I’ll talk more about last year’s massive web crash…

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