john rumery's in search of the secret sauce

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5 Super Simple, Introductory Classroom Exercises

I'm always interested in simple exercises and activities that add value to classes that I teach.  I am especialy interested in opportunities to introduce technology (tools, platforms, etc.) into the classroom that the students can immediately use in their workplace or to add to their professional profile. 

The majority of these exercises can easily be added to existing curriculum with minimal disruption.

This outline represents some very simple ideas for classroom activities, the targeted skills, classes and student benefits.  All of these activities leave room for customization and several of them have potential (and need) for further development (extended project).

I am very interested in your feedback.  What have you used to introduce these platforms into your classes?  How could you improve these activities?  Do you think it is even important?

1. LinkedIn

Snapshot: LinkedIn is a professional networking site.  It's been described as Facebook for professionals, at least that is how I describe it to students.

Suggested Exercise:  I use this as an extra credit assignment at this point but am considering making it a core assignment in my business classes (200 level)

1) I walk through the LinkedIn site, using my portfolio and highlight the different functionalities and compare and contrast to the traditional resume.

2) This leads into a discussion of the dangers and opportunities of social media (I tactfully suggest to be careful with Facebook profiles) and how many H.R. departments are reviewing these sites prior to interviewing/hiring. 

3) For the assignment, I have students create their LinkedIn profile that includes: name, picture, work experience, education and a brief summary of their personal brand (this is an optional field in the LinkedIn profile).

4) To complete the assignment the students need to invite me to "link in" with them which includes writing a personal reason-not the default invite.  They end up writing a short memo on their experience with developing this site (via discussion board)

This assignment is very simple but has the potential to be expanded upon and be very powerful.  For example, there are multiple touchpoints in the site: company information, groups, portfolio downloads, Twitter integration, etc.  All of these could be used for additional exercises. 

Targeted Skills/Classes: business writing, communications, marketing, organizational behavior, market research, entrepreneurship

Added Benefits: Most importantly, for the students that complete the assignment, they will have a start of a professional portfoilio and networking tool to advance their careers.  As mentioned previously, this site also opens the door for discussions on interviewing, resume development, social media and 21st century job skills.

2. MailChimp

Snapshot: MailChimp is an email marketing service. 

Suggested Exercise:  MailChimp has over twenty MailChimp Guides in the resource section of the site.  Very detailed and business oriented.  For this assignment, I have the students work in groups. I then assign a specific guide to review and then present back to the class on the whiteboard.   During their presentation the instructor can reinforce key marketing and writing concepts.  

Targeted Skills/Classes: Business writing, writing ad copy, marketing, customer analysis, trend analysis, technical writing, design, marketing strategy, sales, customer service.  

Added Benefits: Almost every organization has some sort of email marketing campaign. With MailChimp, a student can become profiecient on their own and highlight this skill when applying for a job.

3. Evernote

Snapshot: Evernote is a terrific tool for online research, idea management and content management.  The site is very robust with a ton of tutorials, mini-case studies and is very user-friendly.

Suggested exercise:   Introduce the site the in class (ideally using your own account) before any research-heavy assignment. Using the discussion board function on Blackboard, have the students write a succinct outline of how they could use this site at school and/or at work.    

Targeted skills/classes: online research, content management, analyis, professional development

Added benefits: Evernote is a modern, tech-savvy way to manage research projects.

4. Google Reader

Snapshot: Google Reader is one of many Google products and it creates a personal library of specific content for the user. 

Suggested Exercise: This assignment needs to be part of a larger project, typically a research paper or a semester-long blog.  

1) I demonstrate my Google Reader with students and discuss how I use it stay current on industry specific topics.

2) I have students create an account (they need to have a Google account) and then set up their feeds.  I typically require them to get 5-10 feeds that relate to their project.

3) Once they have this complete, I have them a take a screenshot or send me a link to their site so I can verify their portfolio. 

Targeted Skills/Classes:  Market research, business/information analysis, marketing, management.  This assignment can be used in any class that has a semester-long research component.

Added Benefits:  This is a great starter exercise to introduce students to the world of Google:  Google Scholar, Google Apps, Google Analytics, Google Documents, Google Maps, Blogger (a Google project).  This also leads to great discussions on the importance of reading, staying current and how to become "the expert" on various business trends/skills. 

5. Survey Monkey

Snapshot:  An online survey tool.

Suggested Exercise: This is a straight forward assignment that I used in entrepreneurship and marketing classes.  

1) This is either an individual or group project that has an element requiring consumer feedback.  Typically I require 20 responses from either a target market (likely users) or "experts" in an industry.

2) Student(s) create an account with Survey Monkey and go through tutorials.  Good discussion on "writing" and target market(s).

3) Create a survey and send out

4) Students are then required to analyze results. I also require a written document: what they learned from the research and also what they learned about wording the questions and distributing the survey.

Targeted Skills/Classes:  Market research, research, target market analysis, marketing communication.

Added Benefits:  This is a fairly simple tool to use, but the advanced features require some mastery.  Being profiecient with  SurveyMonkey is a skill that can be added to a resume or LinkedIn profile. 

Under Development.

The following are other platforms and tools that can be used for exercises ranging from a simple introduction to a semester-long project. I have used each of these at one time and am working on creating a template that I can use with future classes.

Blogger

Snapshot: A Google product for bloggers.  Very simple to use and can be integrated with other Google tools.

Proposable

Snapshot: An online tool for writing, sending and evaulating proposal.  Very creative.

Basecamp;

Snapshot:  37Signals product.  Terrific for teaching collaboration and product/program development.  Used in many industries. There is a charge but they have a special program for schools.

 Twitter

Snapshot: A micro-blogging site, very popular and increasingly being used in business.  Many college instructors are using Twitter successful in classes

 Mindmeister

 Snapshot: Online mind mapping and collaboration tool.  

I intentionally left YouTube and Facebook off the list because they are becoming more commonly used in classrooms. However both offer terrific opportunties.

That's all folks!

I am very interested in your comments, ideas and similar exercises.  Please comment!  Thanks

You can reach me at:

John at JohnRumery.com,

Twitter @JohnRumery

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrumery



 

 


 

 

 

 

Vision for a Smokier Grand Rapids

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One of my "jobs" is being the Innovation and Jobs Editor for Rapid Growth Media.  

I recently had an opportunity to write a feature story about grilling and barbecue.  (It was a masterpiece)

Besides my obsession with barbecue, I've been inspired by all the cool-BBQ things coming out of Motown. I recently read an article in the Free Press about the 2010 Restaurant of the Year:  Union Woodshop.  

Maybe not your quintessential barbecue joint, but certainly smoky at it's cure.

Prediction:  Within the next three years, there will be a barbecue renaissance in Grand Rapids.  

ps. the pic is my lonely Weber kettle tucked away in snowbank.

initial feedback

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As usual, the blogosphere and citizen journalists are the first to report:

Startup Weekend West Michigan was absolutely amazing.

Great weekend.  Enough said.

Random Acts of Marketing. Compromising Sincerity

According to Trendwatching, random acts of kindness will be a marketing force in 2011.  Companies "spontaneously" reaching out to customers with surprise gifts.

It sounds good on the surface, but it is the motive I question.  I love business and marketing, but shouldn't "random acts of kindness" be more subtle?  Doing something good without any expectation of "quid pro quo"?

On the other hand, with all the personal information that people are posting, it certainly is not difficult for an alert marketer to reach out to potential customers at their time of greatest need. 

What do you think? 

Social networks also enable acts of kindness to spread far beyond its recipients, as they will gladly tell their friends and followers about the unexpected good news (see SOCIAL-LITES). Two fun examples to copy or improve on in 2011:

  • Flower delivery service Interflora has launched a social media campaign in the UK designed to brighten up the lives of Twitter users by sending them flowers. As part of the campaign, Interflora monitors Twitter looking for users that it believes might need cheering up. Once found, the users are contacted by tweet, and sent a bouquet of flowers as a surprise.
  • Dutch airline KLM’s ‘How Happiness Spreads’ Foursquare-based campaign employed a ‘Surprise Team’ to give passengers tailored, unexpected gifts at the airport. Throughout November 2010, as soon as someone checked-in at a KLM Foursquare location within its network of airports, the Surprise Team went online to find more background information about the person, decided upon a suitable gift and gave it them before they flew. For instance, one traveler tweeted he would miss a PSV Eindhoven football game while he was in New York. The Surprise Team, accordingly, gave him a Lonely Planet guide book of NYC with all the football bars highlighted in blue.

 

Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world's leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwid

Detroiter hits road in mobile restaurant | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Last Updated: October 17. 2010 4:47PM

Donna Terek: Donna's Detroit

Detroiter hits road in mobile restaurant

The Pink FlaminGO! is Detroit's hit-and-run restaurant on wheels. It serves fresh, organic food, cooked right wherever the Airstream Land Yacht is parked. And it's a toss-up which draws more attention, the flavorful fare or the gleaming silver bullet of a trailer.

"So far the response has been amazing," says Kristyn Koth, 45, of Detroit, who cooked up the idea for the meandering meal wagon. "People walk up and say, 'Oh my God, what year is this?' Or, 'I want it; can I buy it off of you?'"

Koth has worked with metal all her adult life, as a student at College for Creative Studies and in her work, welding side by side with partner Taru Lahti in their Detroit fabrication and design business, Parallel Studio, and with their mentor Billy Cusmano of Starlite Restaurant Equipment, making commercial kitchen equipment.

So it's no surprise she would be attracted to the sleek steel of a 1956 Airstream or that, about a year and a half ago, when an artist friend decided to sell his, she felt compelled to snap it up and begin work on her dream of creating a mobile restaurant.

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Then she and a group of nine other North Corktown neighbors got involved in the restoration of the abandoned, century-old Spaulding Court row houses. The Friends of Spaulding Court offered the project's courtyard as a temporary campground to some of the more adventurous visitors to the U.S. Social Forum that met in Detroit in June, installing toilets and a shower for the campers. But where would all these folks eat?

Koth speeded up the process of outfitting the Airstream and brought The Pink FlaminGO! to the rescue, feeding 100-plus campers each day for a week.

After the Social Forum, Koth continued to park the Airstream at Spaulding Court at least two days a week to feed restoration workers and call attention to the project.

Then she began haunting the Recyle Here! recycling center on Holden near West Grand Boulevard on public drop-off days and got a great response. Soon a body shop on Michigan Avenue near Trumbull asked her to park nearby one day a week for its employees. In between she drove her mobile kitchen to other spots she felt a connection to, like Green Garage in Midtown.

It occurred to her that many bars might want to serve food to keep patrons sober enough to drive home safely, so she started midnight forays on the saloon circuit.

It was all a little confusing for customers hoping to become regulars, Koth says. "This guy would call my cell phone and go, 'Where are you today? I just have to have some of your tacos.'" She launched a Facebook page and sent out Twitter feeds announcing where The Pink FlaminGO! would be parked each day.

This ran under the radar until someone a city health department official paid Koth a visit and informed her the city of Detroit doesn't have a licensing ordinance that covers a business that prepares food on-site. Under current law, mobile food vendors must prepare their food at a stationary, licensed commissary kitchen. Then they can transport the precooked food, keeping it warm in steam trays.

"So you could have something prepared at 7 a.m. and not eat it until four in the afternoon," Koth says.

Koth's concept is different. She prefers to bring fresh food, uncooked and refrigerated, to her customers and cook it to order on the spot. So she and close friend David Malik Muqaribu founded F.L.O.C.K., Friends for Lucrative Opportunities in City Kitchens. They hope other area chefs who want to prepare food on-site will join them in lobbying the Detroit City Council to create a license that covers such operations.

Koth is committed to serving fresh, organic food and gets her produce from North Corktown gardens. Her salad greens are grown and harvested a block from Spaulding Court at Brother Nature. Her vegetables come from the Hope Takes Root and Spirit Farm.

"I'm trying to serve food that is healthy, fast and inexpensive," Koth says. "Nothing is processed." Her menu changes according to what's in season. One day it's zucchini flower quesadillas, another it might be black bean burgers, tilapia tacos or Thai curry.

"People tell me all the time that they can tell immediately it comes right from a garden rather than from a processed environment," Koth says.

At a recent Home Slice benefit at Eastern Market for the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, April Woodard of Hamtramck was savoring Koth's Brazilian dishes. "I like that it's very flavorful and it's organic," she said. "It gives the community healthy, delicious, organic food."

"Our food runs around $3 for pretty much every entr" Koth says, though some specialty items might go for $5 or $7.

"We're not really out there trying to get rich," Koth says. "It's really all about just being able to get people good food. It's a love — a passion and a love."

The love shows when friends chip in to help in the kitchen on wheels. "If we have a night where we're cutting our costs so close, we're just covering our food costs, they don't even ask for any money," says Koth. "It's really about everyone enjoying themselves around the whole thing."

One person who seems always to be at her side is Muqaribu, 33, another Corktowner who works out the logistics of getting the Airstream where it needs to go and handles public relations.

The day they were working the MOCAD benefit, Koth's truck broke down. Muqaribu recruited the owner of a pickup off the street to tow the trailer to Eastern Market. They arrived an hour late, but through it all Koth displayed her usual calm. "I don't know how we're getting there," she said into her cell phone, "but I know we will. Malik tells me he's got it handled." And he did.

Mobile food services like Koth's have been sanctioned in other cities such as Chicago and Portland, Ore. "I'd like to bring it to Detroit," Koth says, "and change the way food is brought to people — in a unique setting."

The concept is a little ahead of its time for Detroit, just as the Airstream was once on the cutting edge of industrial design — and that's what she likes about both.

via detnews.com

OK...what is it with the food truck craze????
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo
  
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