Sporty storyteller, Skype, Holograms next?

Mike Sherman's twitter page

@okieprof
Ask Mike Sherman a question about twitter and @MikeSherman answers by telling stories, stories about people and sports.
Mike, a graduate of our UCO journalism program in the 1980s is now sports editor of the Tampa Bay Times, after holding the same position at our student newspaper, The Vista, and The Oklahoman.
He's an earlier adopter of twitter and considers it essential to covering sports, or anything else for that matter, for a newspaper.

Class member Ryan Dunn's pix and tweet and question.
I bet it won't be 10 years.

He's also an earlier adopter of the twitter for media class when it was first offered in December, 2014...12 versions ago.
Technology met technology as we "Skyped" him in for the second time. He in his newsroom, while watching people in flip flops and shorts outside in Florida, while we shivered with freezing temperatures outside.
The stories he tells are punctuated with specific dates and people of games that long ago, so as a journalist he's a model of how to use twitter professionally.
After the session, we debriefed, and her are some student comments, including a few from four years ago, dutifully recorded by @MadisonSturgill.

• He’s hired people he found on twitter, checking their work
• A storyteller, one for every point
• Talked about “Mr. Unreliable”
• Worked for The Oklahoman for almost 30 years
• He’s not going to hire someone without a twitter presence
• Twitter isn’t the only place to use but it’s a heck of a start
• Can’t live without twitter
• All news is “breaking” these days
• Views himself as a friend of the readers
• Our classes have changed the curriculum at UCO
• Even though everyone wants to get paid it’s a compliment when someone is interested in your work
• Goes to different writers to increase his traffic
• How you conduct yourself on twitter shows how you are as a person
• Try not to use absolutes on twitter
• He uses twitter as a phonebook (found a vet for his old yellow lab)
• Finding out what’s important. That’s how you use twitter
• Watches the game while using twitter at work
• Cautioned us about the negative side of twitter and to be careful
• Be an early adopter. It opens up new ideas
• Twitter can be “all bad and a bag of chips” but it can also be good
•  You have to distribute your own content
• You're your own paperboy
• Liked the “What’s the Headline” and the use of reader involvement
• Staying connected and getting connected is important
• Conversation is the most important technological medium
• Twitter is one of the greatest listening devices of all time and one of the greatest search engines
• After "Mr. Unreliable," he went on twitter and asked the public what ideas were for headlines, admitting they were wrong to lighten the mood about the situation
• The paper is a way of answering questions for the people that can’t ask them themselves

Living lessons in staying up to date in rapid change

From twitter for media class, #clarkclass, at UCO Mass Comm Dept.

Ok, funny photo of #clarkclass, suggested by Dr. Desiree Hill. Humor helps you stay up to date

by @okieprof
How to you stay up to date?
It takes work, curiosity, and associating with those colleagues who set the example.
In rapidly changing times, one of the easiest pitfalls for professionals who become professors is to be stuck in the past, or not adapt to the present and future, even though we urge our students to be able to adapt, to always learn. Do do that negates our valuable experience.
That's one of the joys for me in teaching the twitter for media class, in bringing in colleagues and professionals who are living sermons in living change, from many different fields.

"...this class isn't about twitter, it's about the future and life."

And for me, an old newspaper guy, one person who sets that example for our students is our broadcast professor Dr. Desiree Hill @dezhill.
It's apparent to me from these guests, and my students, that the class is not about twitter...its about the future and life. 
Dr. Hill's quote sums it up for me, "Twitter isn't what it will be."

Dr. Hill brings a wealth of information to our students, with research, with effective teaching methods, with questions, with hands on passion to involve our students in journalism, and life.

So here are student comments from our debriefing, after she left, dutifully recorded by my student@MadisonSturgill.

• Social Media is like a relationship (dating, learning, breakup?)
• For journalists, tweet about everything at least 20 times a day
• Follow opinion leaders, they will often follow you back
• Figure out what that specific social media platform needs from you
• Always protect your credibility
• Hashtags on twitter – see what others are talking about
• Journalists are always in the spotlight when it comes to social media
• Humor is subjective
• The rules of good writing apply to Twitter
• Don’t write anything you wouldn’t say in public
• Journalism is like trying to catch a greased pig
• You are representing yourself and your employer at all times when using social media
• Twitter opens a chance for people to get to know each other
• What is our generation going to look like in 20 years?
• Twitter isn’t what it will be
• You can still be a college student and use proper grammar
• Twitter is a place where you can be a reporter, even if you aren’t one yet
• YouTube keeps going and growing

And, yes, there is a serious side to the class.

Disruptive technology, twitter & an ex-rock star

@okieprof #clarkclass 

Speaker in the twitter for Journalists class today was friend and multi-talented journalist Dave Rhea, @jdaverhea, now general manager of the Oklahoma Gazette.

Dave Rhea and @okieprof

He spoke about still having to write, even though he's now in management--formerly with the Oklahoma City Journal Record business newspaper. 
"If I didn't write, I wouldn't be a journalist," he said. (He writes for Blade Magazine, about knives.)
A former rock band star and musician with a record contract, he related the changes journalism is going through to the changes in the music industry where making money off records collapsed, talking about the Internet as "disruptive technology." He urged students to always adapt to the new technology, or to better yet, invent the "disruptive technology."
I, and my students, were really impressed with how many people he knows in many different fields , and his wide range of reading. He's always learning. My students are amazed at how many really cool people this old prof knows.
So after he left, here's what the students commented on in our debriefing. Thanks again to student Lacey Rhodes @laceymrhodes for the note-taking. More student comments by searching #clarkclass on @okieprof.

• Twitter is just a tool in the toolbox.
• Don’t worry about the outcome, focus on the work to be happy.
• Do something for a half hour a day that you thoroughly enjoy.
• Don’t do your writing for the outcome but remember what pays the bills.
• Disruptive innovators create new ways to do old things.
• At the end of the day publication credibility is the most important thing.
• The bat belt of many different skills is to create story-telling abilities.
• Twitter distributes power.
• Be here now, live in the moment.
• Story telling is always going to be there.
• Be a Renaissance man, have a big skill set.
• Classic forms of networking aren’t always as important anymore.
• How he uses his personality type to do his job to the best ability.
• Pay attention to the creative flow.
• Journalism isn’t stiff and old school anymore.
• The more ways you can tell a story the more ways you can sell that story.
• Be authentic in your work.
• Use writing to give yourself a creative drive.
• He says his personal tweets are personal and do not represent the company.
• When you get calls it’s not usually someone praising you, unless it’s your mom. 
• Everybody is a critic.