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A Tribute to My Mom, Barbara Anderson

Barbara Anderson & Barbara Nixon (AKA Mom and me)

Barbara L. Anderson

August 16, 1929 – May 25, 2010

Barbara Ann Lindley was born in Chicago, IL, on August 16, 1929, to Avalon and James Lindley. She spent her childhood years in Chicago. During her teen years she was involved in the Eastern Star’s Rainbow Girls and at 16 became a Worthy Advisor.

She is the proud mother of six children: Avalon Braun of Eugene, OR; Thomas Alton of Las Vegas, NV; Nancy Sanchagrin of Orlando, FL; Susan Borchini of Kissimmee, FL; James Anderson of Jacksonville, FL; and Barbara Nixon of Lakeland, FL. Barbara had 13 grandchildren ranging in age from 10 to 34 and three great grandchildren. She was predeceased by a daughter, Kathleen Lee, who died in 1964 from a premature birth.

Throughout her life, Barbara was involved in volunteer activities. In her younger years she was President of the P.T.A., our Brownie and Girl Scout Leader, President of the local Garden Club, and she also started a Mother’s Club in Niagara Falls, NY. She was a Census Taker in 1960 and with her earnings bought camping equipment that started a lifelong love for camping in the Adirondack Mountains, yearly trips to Groton State Park in Vermont and then in Arkansas. Some of our fondest memories were those camping trips.

In Livermore Falls, Maine, Barbara was a Baptist Youth Fellowship Leader, Vacation Bible School teacher and a Deaconess at the First Baptist Church. She also volunteered with the Red Cross.

In her later years, Barbara moved to Atlanta and became involved with Meals on Wheels, Northside Hospital Auxillary (Escort Service), and the Crafty Ladies Craft Group at Christ the King Lutheran Church.

Not long after moving to Atlanta she and her daughter Barbara worked in marketing research together. Her last position was a medical records clerk at the Hug Center/Healthfield in Atlanta. She was first person to retire from the Hug Center.

Barbara had a love for cooking and flowers. You could always find her whipping up a new recipe. She loved to travel and did a lot in her retirement years.

Barbara was well loved by her family and friends and all who knew her. Her sense of humor kept everyone in stitches. She had a lifetime of service to her community and was always willing to lend a helping hand. She will missed by all.

She wanted to make sure that all her friends knew how much she appreciated all the wonderful support she received during her three-year struggle with lung cancer. Her family extends a tremendous sense of gratitude for the kindnesses shown during her illness. With your support, Barbara was given the highest quality of care and love during her last days. Know that she and her family will always be thankful to you all.

Barbara died on May 25, 2010, at the age of 80.

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How to Annoy A TV Reporter

This morning, I learned of a video on how to annoy a TV reporter from Jeremy Pepper’s blog POP PR Jots. Though I have known Jeremy (online) for two years now, I thought there was something fishy about this video. I mean, why on earth would Marc Slavin, communications director at  Laguna Honda Hospital, be touching reporter Dan Noyes so much and getting up into Noyes’ face like he did? This had to be something staged, right? I mean, Holy Man-Handling, Batman!

So I did a little looking. And yes, this video IS real. And as they say on The People’s Court, the participants “are not actors.” This situation really happened, and it was caught on tape — and uploaded to YouTube and other sites pretty quickly.

For more stories about the altercation from this video, see:

So, if you’re Marc Slavin (the man-handling communications director), and this video has gone viral, what would you do?

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Floral Photos :: In Memory of Barbara L. Anderson

After a several-year battle with lung cancer, my mom (Barbara L. Anderson) passed away in her sleep at her home last night. She loved gardens and flowers. So after I got my kiddos out the door to school this morning, I went to Lakeland’s Hollis Gardens, took a long walk and snapped these photos. I am confident Mom would love all of them — except maybe for the one with the dragonfly on it 🙂

Thank you, Mom, for inspiring in me a love of flowers  . . . and cooking. (I just made her famous Chicken Cacciatore for my family for dinner tonight.)

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9 (More) Tips to Help You With Online Summer Classes

We’ve now into Week Two of our Summer 2010 online courses at Georgia Southern University. On a daily basis, I am receiving e-mails from students saying they’re confused about what to do and when. I know that taking online classes is new for most of you. So here are some tips that should help clarify things:

  1. Read all e-mails I send to you at your georgiasouthern.edu account. (Check your e-mail at least once a day.)
  2. If you are having problems with GeorgiaVIEW or Wimba Live Classroom, first try using a different browser. Then try a different computer. If you still have problems, please use the available tech support (GeorgiaVIEW or Wimba) to help you solve the problems. Sometimes I can answer tech support-type questions, but often I cannot.
  3. Read the 10 FAQs About My Online Classes at GSU that I originally posted prior to our first week of class.
  4. Attend the “live” sessions I host, when you can, in the Wimba Live Classroom on GeorgiaVIEW. I know some of you have classes or full-time jobs that don’t allow you much flexibility in your schedule. For that reason, I have recorded ALL of the live sessions I’ve held. However, when I look in the Tracking, I see that just a small handful of students have accessed the archives. There is information I share “live” in those sessions that you may not find elsewhere. It’s in your best interest to attend / watch / listen. (Just like if you miss class for a traditional brick & mortar class you wouldn’t expect the professor to rehash everything for you individually, you should not expect it for an online class.) If you ask me a question via e-mail that I addressed in a live session, I’ll probably refer you to the live session archives to find the answer.
  5. When I schedule a “live” online class, I always send out a meeting notice via Google Calendar. Either accept or decline the notice so I can know how many to expect. (This also lets me know that you received the notice.)
  6. Buddy up with another person in your class. Keep in touch with him/her every few days. Rely on each other to work through issues/questions before e-mailing me. You can see the Roster for your class in GeorgiaVIEW.
  7. Check GeorgiaVIEW for the “regular” (as in non-blog) assignments & assessments. Many times, the brief description of the assignment in GeorgiaVIEW will have a link to the complete description here on my blog.
  8. To know what is expected in your blog, read the Blogging Guidelines for your specific class.
  9. Finally, if you’re overwhelmed by the amount of information available at my blog (some of which may not apply to your specific class), look on the right sidebar of my blog. You’ll see a widget titled “GSU Class Links.” Click on the Category that describes your class, and up will pop ONLY the blog posts that apply to your class.

The main reason I have everything here in one blog is that I have many students who are in multiple classes with me. It makes sense to centralize the information so no one needs to remember where to go to find their information. As long as you remember to click on the Category of your class, you should find my blog easy to navigate. And who knows, you may even learn something be reading about what is going on in other classes.

If you are one of my summer PR students, please reply to this blog post with a comment so that I know that you’ve read it. Thanks!

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PRCA 3330 Student Blogs :: Summer 2010

As of 10:45 a.m. on May 27, this is the listing of student blogs in my summer 2010 PRCA 3330 (Public Relations Writing) class. If you are a student in this class and your name does not appear on the list, please be sure complete this Google Form.

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PRCA 2330 Student Blogs :: Summer 2010

As of 11 a.m. on May 27, this is the listing of student blogs in my summer 2010 PRCA 2330 (Introduction to Public Relations) class. If you are a student in this class and your name does not appear on the list, please be sure complete this Google Form.

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10 Blogging Tips That Will Change Your Life (or Grade, at least)

Originally published on 9 December 2009 & featured in Ragan’s PR Daily. Updated on 20 May 2010. Updates are in italics.

Over the past few semesters, I had nearly 450 of my students blogging as part of their grades in public relations courses. And this semester, I have more than 75 more. Based on their experiences and mine, here are some tips for maintaining your blog (especially when it’s graded as an assignment):

  1. Your professor may require a certain amount of posts on specific topics and perhaps even a specific length. Follow these guidelines to a T. Refer to the assignment sheet/post often to be sure you’re doing what’s needed.
  2. There may be interim deadlines for your blog posts. Keep up. Even if there aren’t interim deadlines, blog throughout the semester. If you do all your posts toward the end (or even the day they’re due), it’s not to your advantage. It will appear as though you procrastinated. Your readers will likely not read more than a post or so a day, so piling a bunch into one day actually hurts your readership.
  3. Make an editorial calendar for yourself based on the blog requirements. Consider using Google Calendar to keep track of posts you intend to write and when they should be written. (Google Calendar can even send you text message reminders.)
  4. Stuck for topics? Ask your readers at your blog what they’d like to see, or ask your followers on Twitter for help. Read Ragan’s PR Daily and listen to PR podcasts for additional ideas.
  5. Proofread. This should go without saying, but since I’m saying it, it apparently doesn’t. Misspelled words and poor grammar significantly detract from your credibility. If you know you’re not a great speller, then write your posts first in Word, where SOME misspelled words and grammar errors show up more easily. Partner with a friend and proof each others’ posts, too. (NOTE: If you write in Word first, be sure to use WordPress’ “Paste from Word” feature, or else you will end up with some really ugly formatting.)
  6. Write in short paragraphs. Long paragraphs are really grey and hard on the reader’s eyes.
  7. Use photos licensed by Creative Commons to add visual impact to your blog. I recommend Compfight for finding images.
  8. One of the best ways to become a better blogger is to read & comment on others’ blogs, too. It’s not all about you. Once you start commenting on others’ blogs, you may notice that your readership will increase (because of people clicking on your name in the comment and finding your blog.)
  9. Change the name of your blog from whatever WordPress “gave” you as the default (which may be something like Bnixon13’s Blog) to something more professional and interesting. Though you cannot change the URL for your blog, you can easily change the name. And definitely change or get rid of the default tagline “Just another WordPress weblog,” which screams N00b.

Yikes! I promised you 10 tips, and I only gave you 9! I need your help. What’s one more tip you’d provide to round out this top ten list?

barbara_is_listening

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Accessing Archived Recordings in Wimba Live Classroom

From time to time throughout the semester, I will host “live” sessions in Wimba Live Classroon in GeorgiaVIEW. Attend the “live” sessions I host, when you can, in the Wimba Live Classroom. When you attend live, you have the opportunity to ask questions for immediate clarification.

I know some of you have classes or full-time jobs that don’t allow you much flexibility in your schedule. For that reason, I have recorded ALL of the live sessions I’ve held. However, when I look in the Tracking, I see that just a small handful of students have accessed the archives. Not listening to the archives is the equivalent of missing class.

Here’s how to access the archives.

View on screencast.com »

There is information I share “live” in those sessions that you may not find elsewhere. It’s in your best interest to attend / watch / listen. (Just like if you miss class for a traditional brick & mortar class you wouldn’t expect the professor to rehash everything for you individually, you should not expect it for an online class.) If you ask me a question via e-mail that I addressed in a live session, I’ll probably refer you to the live session archives to find the answer.