2 posts tagged “elaine young”
At the moment, my VOX blog seems to be the place where I post information about the books I am using in my Champlain College class rooms. I like to move beyond the traditional text book and bring in books that resonate with students (and with me). My Blogger blog, (yep I've got two!) is more about classroom interactions, and random stuff that impact marketing in general. Of course, this too may change! Anyway...
Some classes are just not textbook friendly. For example, my Non-Profit and Social Marketing class is one of those classes. I've taught this class for two semesters -- I'm in the third one now -- and one of the biggest challenges has been trying to find a book that reflects the main themes of the course: THE POWER OF ONE and PASSION. Traditional textbooks about non-profit work are boring. There is no life and there is no passion. With all due respect to the professors and authors, you've taken something that requires passion and beat it to death so there is no life, no engagement and no interest.
The past two times I've taught the course, I've cobbled together a host of different readings and articles. It's worked, but not to the level I had hoped.
What makes this course even more challenging is that it is a Service Learning Course -- one that requires students to work with Non-Profit organizations on a marketing challenge. I needed something that would really set the context...something they could read and refer back to and connect and make meaning out of.
About a month before the semester began, I hit Amazon and did a quick search...just in case. It was then that I say the book from Katya Andresen. The description was very interesting, so I ordered the book. When I received it, I begain reading and knew within one chapter that I had finally found THE BOOK for this course.
Andresen has captured all of the main pieces of non-profit marketing that I have incorporated into the course. The power of one, the passion, and the marketing imperatives that drive the best marketing decisions -- whether they be for profit or not for profit are outlined in this book.
The students read it in three weeks. It has set the context in a way that I have been unable to do before.
I believe it has made a huge impact on the focus in the Non-Profit course and that impact has been beyond positive. It has been affirming for the direction I have taken in the course, and it has provided students with a point of view that a traditional text would have NEVER done.
Thanks Katya!
Is there something wrong with blogging in more than one place, other than the fact that I can't keep up??
As I explore VOX, I'll compare and contrast this with blogger. Which one is better from a user stand point? Which one really gets at that social media optimization thing and should I keep both or do something else?
It's a good question. But at the moment, VOX is looking pretty interesting with it'sMySpace/Facebook/Linked In feel but with the blogging and yet...it seems to be more. It's much easier to format and play with the text, the tagging comes very easy and the fact that I can include the video, audio etc. is very cool.
I like the book listing. For example, I can click on Books and then bring up Amazon and link to a book that I think is something that my students should read (see right hand side). I can move it around the page very easily.
I've also been able to select video from YouTube or iFilm or Amazon, searching them from directly within VOX and then add them to my page. The video I have selected is from the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. I selected it because it is a social marketing campaign that I've been following for some time and that we talk about quite extensively in my Non-Profit and Social Marketing class. We started looking at it last year...and now this new video which has been put on YouTube and iFilm:
Of course I can also add in audio as well. I can tag each element and tag my overall post. And there's spell check!
Lot's of bonuses here so far