Congrats to the 2017 Top GIFT professors!

Congratulations to the professors and their 25 Great Ideas for Teachers which have been selected as finalists in AEJMC’s  2017 GIFT Program. More than 40 entries from across the U.S. were submitted this year for consideration. The Small Programs Interest Group and Community College Journalism Association of AEJMC collaborated to present GIFT this year, which (with one exception) has been an annual feature of AEJMC Conferences since 2000.

These 25 finalists will present their GIFTS in a poster presentation at the 2017 AEJMC Conference in Chicago on Wednesday, August 9, from 10 am to 11:30 am CDT. John Kerezy of CCJA and Cuyahoga Community College will be back for this one, and will be coordinating door prizes, making announcements, and – of course – announcing the TOP GIFTER of 2017.

Many thanks to the following panel of judges and especially to Kris Boyle, Ph.D., of SPIG and Brigham Young University who coordinated the submissions and vetting process. Judges are:

Mary Liz Brooks – West Texas A&M
Pamela Brubaker – Brigham Young University
Brigitta Brunner – Auburn University
Patricia Hernandez – Cleveland State University
Rich Johnson – Creighton University
Katie Place – Quinnipiac University
Jim Sernoe – Midwestern State University
Kathleen Stansberry – Cleveland State University
Edson Tandoc, Jr. – Nanyang Technological University
Chris Wilson – Brigham Young University
Carol Zuegner – Creighton University

And here are the 2017 “Top 25” GIFT entries and submitting professors:

TITLE (may be abbrev.)                   SUBMITTER(S)                             INSTITUTION

Embedding for Empathy            Michelle Carr Hassler                Nebraska-Lincoln
Personalized learning to            Peggy Rupprecht,                       Creighton Univ.
engage students …
Inherent Bias                                C. Cunningham, P. Walck          Duquesne Univ.
Managing the Masses                  Chandler Harriss                        Tenn.-Chattanooga
Invisible Messages                       Jennifer B. Cox                            Salisbury Univ.
Audience Analytics Consulting…      Miao Guo                              Ball State Univ.
Stop, Look and Listen                  Carol B. Schwalbe                      Univ. of Arizona
Inviting Students to Grade…       Qun Wang                                   Rutgers Univ.
Bringing the Election Home …   Kathleen Wickham                    Mississippi
Scavenger Hunt Challenge         C. Brown, J. Caplan                     CUNY
Bolstering Understanding…        Kelly Bruhn                                 Drake Univ.
Ethics in 140 Characters              Dhiman Chattopadhyay            Bowling Green
Check that Tune!                            Susan Keith                                 Rutgers Univ.
Amplifying Voices Project             Susan Robinson                       Wisc. – Madison
Twitter prompt!                               Jennifer Hoewe                       Univ. of Alabama
Music to my Ears                           Lovette Chinwah-Adegbola     Central State Univ.
Jeopardy! Teaching through …    Ngozi Akinro                     Texas Wesleyan Univ.
Making it Real …                              Robert Bergland                 Missouri-Western
Snapshot: A Day in…                        Jennifer Billinson            Christopher Newport
Grading the Audience …                 Serena Carpenter               Michigan State Univ.
Fight for Rights                                 Marsha Ducey                     Brockport – SUNY
From “Colored’ to …                          Lillie M. Fears                   Arkansas State
Effectively Teaching …                     Y. Ah Lee, R. Blom             Ball State Univ.
15 Steps to Group …                            Robin Spring                    Grand Valley State
Google Analytics Workshop            Melissa Adams                   N. Carolina State

Congratulations again! AEJMC is looking forward to seeing your posters and learning more about yout GIFTs in Chicago this August.

 

2016 GIFT Finalists announced

For the past five competitions, I’ve been privileged to be a small part of one of the Association of Educators in Journalism & Mass Communications’ most important annual activities, GIFT, an acrostic for Great Ideas For Teachers.  This is the college/university journalism profession’s only “peer to peer” sharing of best tips and advice about classroom teaching, the primary purpose of our careers and professions.

For the past several years, I’ve been privileged to be a small part of one of the Association of Educators in Journalism & Mass Communications’ most important annual activities, GIFT, an acronym for Great Ideas For Teachers.  This is the college/university journalism profession’s only “peer to peer” sharing of best tips and advice about classroom teaching, the primary purpose of our careers and professions.

Dr. Edna Bautista began and headed up the first GIFT competition in 2000. The Community College Journalism Association (CCJA) division of AEJMC has been the sole continuous GIFT “sponsor” since it began. The Small Programs Interest Group, (SPIG)  has been a partner with CCJA for just about the entire 16-year history of GIFT.  The Scholastic Division has also been a frequent partner as well.

This year, Professors Mary Jean Land of Georgia College and  Nicole Kraft of The Ohio State University have been the primary movers and shakers behind GIFT. Nicole coordinated entries, and Mary Jean judging.  THANK YOU. There were more than 30 GIFT entries submitted. Congratulations to these 15 winning “GIFTers” whose great ideas will be unveiled via poster session and peer-to-peer sharing on Thursday, August 4, at the AEJMC Conference in Minneapolis.

At least four of this year’s “Final 15” are repeat GIFT finalists.  Having read many of these (and some of the non-finalists as well) myself, I can say without hesitation that this is the best group of GIFT submissions I have seen in my six-year association with Great Ideas For Teachers.

THE 2016 GIFT FINALISTS AND THEIR Great Ideas for Teachers are:

Dianne Bragg, Univ. of Alabama, “Making the First Amendment Real.”

Susan Bullard & Andrew Bechtel, Univ. of Nebraska, “Skimming the News.”

Kay Colley, Texas Wesleyan Univ., “Crisis! Zombie Apocalypse Descends on Campus.”

Shugota Dastgeer,  Univ. of Oklahoma, “Visualizing research methods.”

John Freeman, Univ. of Florida, “The lives of others.”

Nicole Kraft, The Ohio State Univ., “You be the justice.”

Adam Kuban, Ball State Univ., “Privilege.”

Kathleen McElroy, Oklahoma State Univ., “Vote for Journalism.”

Chad Painter, Eastern New Mexico Univ., “Teaching across through a public records project.”

Donnalynn Pompper, Temple Univ., “Overcoming time zone barriers when teaching students about crisis in a social media age.”

Carol Schwalbe, Univ. of Arizona, “Pairs and squares: engaging all students in class discussions.”

Rachel Somerstein, SUNY New Platz, “Picturing Diversity: Using Theory and Content Analysis to Drive Journalism Practice”

Darren Sweeney, Central Connecticut State Univ., “Going Live: owning the breaking news story”

Lisa Waananen Jones, Washington State Univ., “Making data personal.”

Tamara Weltner, Biola Univ., “Learning a tool to teach a tool.”

Susan Kirkman Zake & John Bowen, Kent State Univ., “The People vs. the Simpsons.”

The GIFT Committee also expresses its appreciation to our panel of judges for this year.  They are:

Kelly Bruhn – Drake University

Lori Dann – Eastfield College

Patricia Dobson – Eastern New Mexico University

Tamara Gillis – Elizabethtown College

Mary Jean Land – Georgia College

Jeremy Sarachan- St. John Fisher College

Christina Smith – Georgia College

Cindy Simoneau – Southern CT State University

Carol Zuegner – Creighton University

This is also one of the best judge panels in my memory. Several of the judges are former GIFT finalists themselves.  Thank you for your service to AEJMC and GIFT. As in years past, the top GIFTer for 2016 will be announced at the AEJMC Conference.

GREAT 2012 GIFT session!

Wow!  More than 200 people attended the 2012 Great Ideas for Teachers (GIFT) session at the AEJMC Conference in Chicago on Thursday, August 9.

Below are some pictures from GIFT and the GIFT poster session.

Congratulations to CAROL SCHWALBE, of the University of Arizona, who received a $100 check and a plaque as the TOP GIFT RECIPIENT of 2012!  You can obtain a copy of Carol’s GIFT submission and those of the other 24 GIFT Finalists by sending a $5 check, made payable to Community College Journalism Association, c/o John Kerezy, Cuyahoga Community College, 11000 W. Pleasant Valley Road, Parma, OH 44130.

GIFT is one of the leading events at the AEJMC Conference, as it is a “double blind” competition with winners chosen from a panel of peer college journalism professors.

Watch later this year for details about the 2013 GIFT, which will be in Washington DC.

                                      

                                     

                                     

                                    

      

AEJMC chief judge MARY JEAN LAND, GIFT Coordinator JOHN KEREZY of CCJA, and SUSAN LEWIS of SPIG