Developing 21st Century Communicators

2012 Proceedings of the Information Systems Educators Conference ISSN: 2167-1435
New Orleans Louisiana, USA v29 n1950
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©2012 EDSIG (Education Special Interest Group of the AITP) Page 1
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Developing 21st Century Communicators
Jami Cotler jcolter@siena.edu
Computer Science Department
Robert Yoder
ryoder@siena.edu
Computer Science Department
Eric Breimer
ebreimer@siena.edu
Computer Science Department
Deb DelBelso ddelbelso@siena.edu Career Center
Siena College
Loudonville, New York 12211, USA

Abstract
What are the characteristics of an effective communicator in the 21st century business world? How can we equip our students with the skills necessary to successfully navigate the computer-mediated communication landscape during this time of globalization and rapid technology growth? In this paper, we examine these questions and discuss several methods for addressing the increasing demand for the diverse, complex and often non-routine communications skills required of today’s business and information systems students. Drawing on practitioners from education and industry, along with our own research and observations, we discuss several teaching approaches that include developing professional collaboration skills using shared workspaces, delivering presentations using web conferencing, becoming comfortable in front of a video camera, using ePortfolios to articulate and reflect on learning, and professionally leveraging a social networking presence. When introducing new methods of communication there will inevitably be lessons learned and improvements that can be made in future iterations. This paper discusses students’ perceptions of their experiences using computer-mediated communication and reflections on how we can improve the way we teach these concepts.

Keywords: 21st century communication skills, computer-mediated communication, web conferencing, elevator speech, ePortfolios, wikis, collaborative learning
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