Two Patton College of Education professors, a center director, and a graduate assistant/doctoral candidate recently took a week-long media boot camp session to learn how to more effectively communicate with the media.
Along the way, they may have found future research partners, as well.
Associate Professor Krisanna Machtmes, Visiting Assistant Professor Thom Stevenson, Center for Clinical Practice in Education Director Marcy Keifer Kennedy, and graduate assistant Edward Matovu went through training that focused on all elements of meeting with the media, from targeting messaging and answering difficult questions to posture and other details.
“We had no idea how to interact with the media to get our message across,” Machtmes said. The four spent time in front of a camera being interviewed, then discussing how the interviews went.
“We’ve been able to view and share information about each other’s performance that’s made us all better together,” Machtmes said. “My takeaways are understanding the fact that I need to get my message across first.” Other keys include bridging from one conversation to another and responding to difficult questions.
That messaging and structure is something Matovu didn’t have previously.
“I’m now confident that I can relay my messaging in a very short time, and also come up with soundbites, which are important facts that need to be emphasized in the message,” Matovu said.
Keifer Kennedy said she was grateful for the opportunity after past media interviews haven’t turned out well.
“I knew that I needed to better understand the process and I quickly learned how to organize the information in a way that would put maximum emphasis on the most important message, which in my case would be the work of the OHIO Center for Clinical Practice in Education,” she said.
The training included a focus on an inverted-pyramid style of speaking akin to that used in news writing.
“It’s a really powerful way to tell your message first, and then kind of support it with your argument throughout, and then use soundbites at the beginning or the end,” Stevenson said. “I thought I really had to share all the information at one time. It was kind of like an information dump.”
From different areas of the College, the four hadn’t previously worked together, but found common threads the more they discussed their work.
Stevenson, a food waste educator in the hotel and restaurant tourism area, focuses on universal design as a framework for learning. Universal design is geared toward helping students learn in the way that works best for them, and ensuring that they are taking in knowledge, rather than assuming all students will learn in the same way and be successful. Similarly, Matovu’s work in instructional technology focuses on how technology, including artificial intelligence, can be used to help students, whether in an educational or industry setting, learn in their own way through various media. Machtmes’ work focuses on ensuring new educational program launches are successful, and that tweaks in new programming can be made to ensure students gain the intended benefits of the program.
Matovu said artificial intelligence works because it’s constantly collecting data on students that can be used to make decisions about tailoring their individual education, which Stevenson said dovetails well with his work.
“The interesting thing about universal design is it uses neuroscience, which is perfectly partnered with AI, and it uses it in a way that looks at how an individual learns best. It needs information in order to really put that practice or framework into place,” Stevenson said. “When I look at Eddie’s work and I look at my work, it’s perfectly partnered, because at the end of the day, when we have 35 different students in a classroom, you really need to better understand how you can connect each one of them.”
Machtmes said her work as a program evaluator also ties in nicely.
“Program evaluators help take your content experts, of which I have two right here, and pull that together through multiple data methods, and because we evaluate and look at the entire program, we’re able to say to Eddie and to Thom, ‘This worked,’ ‘This maybe needed to be changed a little bit to be more successful,’ but we pull it together and we generate reports that are useful for everybody to use,” she said.
The media boot camp training session was arranged by The Patton College of Education as professional development for interested faculty. The Patton College Dean Renée A. Middleton said it’s important for faculty to be able to connect well with the community about their work.
“Community outreach is an important component of The Patton College,” said Middleton. “Faculty in all of our departments have noteworthy stories to tell. This training will help them tell it better. And I’m not surprised that last week’s workshop resulted in cross-collaboration. We are all lifelong learners and leaders in our fields who acknowledge that only through community and collaboration do we achieve great success.”
All four said they were glad for the opportunity to take the workshop provided by The Patton College.
“With the hustle and bustle of our jobs in higher education, we don’t always get the opportunity to sit and listen to one another,” Keifer Kennedy said. “There are potentially so many opportunities that are lost and I am so very excited to connect and work with Thom, Kris, and Eddie as we move into the new academic year.”
“This professional development opportunity has really honed my communication skills, especially when facing the public,” Matovu said. “I’m looking to use them because I will be spreading my message of how artificial intelligence is being used in individualized training around the world.”
Machtmes agreed.
“If we’re going to show how universities and colleges are important to the common person, to the community, we need to be able to speak about what we’re doing, and we need to be able to speak on the level that everybody understands.”