Fall 2013
Faculty Spotlight
Michael McVey
If you only advise your students to buff up their paper résumés to get a job, you are missing a major tool for both
career and academic development.
I met with Gina Luttrell (CAS) who teaches Public Relations and Social Media. Although her students use social
media to promote a business and connect with consumers, the insights she shares are valuable and pertain to
our work as faculty.
Early in the semester, she has students assess their online persona – the way they appear to the world through
Twitter feeds, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more. The results, for students, are startling and they soon
learn that foul language, inappropriate images, and negative comments about previous employers contribute to
their professional and personal online personae.
This assignment was enough to get one student to change her online name when she found she shared it with a
stripper who has a police record.
Luttrell has observed that faculty who do not know how to use social networking tools themselves risk a loss of
credibility when they attempt to teach them in the classroom. “Students expect you to know the tools and to be an
excellent user of them. In social media, trust is everything.”
When used well, social media can provide excellent opportunities for scholarship and professional development.
Luttrell notes that, “I follow people I can learn from.” Consequently, she is mindful and deliberate about whom she
follows. The creation of a Personal Learning Network is one of the most important tasks a young professional or
scholar can do. You can connect with experts whose tweets, blogs, social bookmarks, moderated discussions,
and chats can enhance your understanding of your field and even provide opportunities to add new voices of our
students to the discussions.
There are other benefits as well. In Luttrell’s class last year, after a semester of interacting within their online
professional learning networks, five of her students received internships, two of which led to full time jobs.