Monday, January 23, 2012

Great advertising is everywhere - if you know where to look

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Here is the latest masterwork in my oeuvre - as I continue to test my microphone and iMovie.

I swear: if I can keep this up, in just 25 years I'll be as good as lonelygirl15.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Zinio: the easiest way to read a digital magazine


A screencast about a digital magazine reader? How po-mo of me.

As our first-year students embark on a tradition dating back to before even I was a student - "the magazine project" - I hope that they take heart at knowing that this might be one of the last years we care about whether they print it or even call it a "magazine" (I hope - I'm starting to feel like I'm trying to sell Gutenberg a stone tablet).

As the magazine stand at 7-Eleven continues to shrink and print pubs continue to fold, I thank Zinio for keeping the magazine-reading experience alive and well on my laptop, iPad, and iPhone.

Zinio bills itself as "the world's largest newsstand and bookstore," allowing you to subscribe, search, read, share, save, and sync magazine content. 

You can buy the Zinio app for iPhone and iPad in the App Store, or download the Zinio Reader for your laptop.

Screencasting for dummies (like me)

By the way, the embedded video above is my very first screencast, as you can tell by my "ummms" and "tsks."

I made it using the trial version of the Snapz Pro X software, which is pretty cool if you can get past having to wear the nerdy microphone headgear ("roger, roger!"). To post it here, I simply recorded it on my laptop using the software, uploaded it to Vimeo (YouTube works too, but I hate it), and used the embed code to show it on my blog.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Your mission in '12, should you accept it


We've shattered the mission-statement glass ceiling.

Every year, my PR students write a mission statement for our class. Each student composes one, I shortlist the candidates to five or six, and the class votes on them. The winning mission statement is our reason for being and motivating force for the semester.

This year - with help from student Scott "The Hatchet" Best on shortlist duty - the class selected the mission statement written by Jennifer Thiessen, which is the first time that a woman has taken her place on the Mission Statement Wall of Fame - a well-deserved and long-overdue distinction.

The PR-class mission statement Wall of Fame:

"To learn Kenton's ways so that we may one day take his place."
- Ray Brickwood (class of '08)

"You can't spell party without PR."
- Will Cooke (class of '09)

"Share some laughs, share some beers, share some work (just kidding, that's plagiarism!). Share some tears, shake some hands, walk away the better for it all."
- Thor Blondal (class of '10)

"To propagate, not contaminate."
- Eman Agpalza (class of '11)

"To systematically break down students' will and character, then rebuild them as indestructible PR robots (or PRobots)."
- Jaremy Ediger (class of '12)

"Our mission is to be creative, unlike this mission statement."
- Jennifer Thiessen (class of '13)