FAQs

While it is understandable that research articles may need to be "guarded," GIFTs were meant to be shared! The program encourages colleagues to exchange ideas freely to benefit the academic community. Please make every effort to give credit to the one who shared the teaching idea. The GIFT program is non-profit; the price of the journal covers production costs only.

AEJMC convention planners work with the hotel staff in finding the biggest and best banquet room possible--as budget allows--for the GIFT poster session. The GIFT committee does not have control over the space, lighting or sound system.

Door prizes, donated by colleagues, range from collegiate wear from various colleges, books and motivational teaching items to fine chocolates, coffee mugs and GIFT journals.

In the spirit of gift-giving, donations for door prizes are welcome. Please contact the GIFT coordinator at [email protected] who will collect them at the convention and wrap them in white paper and decorate the gifts with crossed red ribbons and bows to match the GIFT program motif.

Specific awards (for newswriting, history, ethics, advertising, etc.) would be nice. However, there is an imbalance of submissions and not enough in other categories to merit too many other awards. The sponsoring divisions have budgeted for one monetary award for the GIFT grand prize and will give away commemorative certificates to scholars for their tenure/promotion portfolios at the convention site.

Because of the imbalance of submissions per specialty, and because scholars feel that most GIFTs can be adapted and used across mass communication, the journal simply organizes the articles alphabetically by author.

All GIFT submissions are sent to judges from the representing co-sponsors of the program (between 6-8 judges). Each judge receives a set of GIFTs and ranks the submissions in that set according to originality, creativity, practicality, adaptability and impact (no two GIFTs should receive the same score and rank in each set). Following recommendations from each judge, the GIFT coordinator must eliminate the lowest scoring and bottom ranked papers. Twenty-five GIFTs are chosen from all total submissions; the top papers are ranked again by the judges for the grand prize.

The GIFT committee appreciates "sportsmanship" from those whose submissions did not make it to the final round. Please note that finalists only are notified of their status and please understand that individual feedback for non-finalists cannot be given because of the volume of papers and record-keeping. The non-finalists' submissions are kept on file; some have been reformatted with the author's permission/participation to fit a given teaching theme and printed as feature articles in The Community College Journalist--which count toward "publication" in the author's vita/portfolio.

Way too much--except judging.

ADVICE TO GIFT SCHOLARS

• Future GIFT scholars should find someone on their campuses that would let them use a large-format printer to make their posters (or get their departments to buy one). I had one very large horizontal poster--all on one piece of paper. My poster was easy to transport on a plane and it took me about five minutes to attach to the bulletin board!

• Bring lots of business cards for networking. Also bring sample assignments and handouts.

• Make sure there is enough battery power if you use a laptop to demonstrate your GIFT. A portable or folding table helps, too.

• Be sure to get around the room and see the GIFTs when you get a chance.

• My advice for future GIFT scholars is to make their presentations very readable and lively. The ones that drew people's attention were those that were well laid out, bright and readable and not just PowerPoint slides pinned to the board.

• Even your simplest ideas can be a great GIFT to others. Don't discount something you do in the classroom on a regular basis as being too basic. Others may benefit from borrowing what seems to be the most elementary technique. So submit a GIFT! Try to keep those great ideas for teachers coming for all of us to share and use.

PRAISE FOR THE PROGRAM

• I best liked the opportunity to meet others teaching in my field and my area of interest/research. The format is wonderfully conducive to networking and connecting with others. I swapped a lot of ideas and business cards with folks.

• It's been an easy way for me, as a newcomer to AEJMC, to get involved and get 'published.' This type of contribution doesn't take as much time as a full-blown paper presentation but still gives you a role as a convention presenter.

• I met lots of great folks. Received nice praise (and, like, when do we ever get that??). Enjoyed looking at all of the displays. Picked up some great ideas for my own classes. Even the raffle was fun and the lemonade, too! While my favorite aspect of the conference is the research panels--to be honest, I enjoyed the break--interacting with other educators finding ways to improve how we get through to students.

• What I liked best about the GIFT experience was access to information about teaching strategies that have been classroom-tested. Also, the ideas are so creative as well as creatively presented. It was fun to talk about my GIFT and see genuine interest from other professors as well as have access to the teachers to discuss their ideas.

• As a presenter, I was able to share my love of teaching with my peers. As a "lurker," I found more good teaching ideas.

• We're "teachers" first and "researchers" second. Sometimes AEJMC has become too theory-oriented that we should not forget the practicality of pedagogy. I'm glad the GIFT program has provided something applicable for convention attendees.

• I liked best seeing imaginative ways of presenting information and of involving students in learning. I truly appreciate others sharing these techniques.

• I just wanted to say that the GIFT program is extremely valuable to us. Teaching is not something we are trained to do and most of us get thrown in front of a classroom without any idea of how best to communicate ideas and information to our students. I enjoyed being a participant in this year's poster session and especially valued the opportunity to talk to other teachers about their innovative methods.

• GIFT is so unique in the way it provides journalism and mass communication educators with practical, innovative teaching tools and techniques they can immediately implement in the classroom. I gave each member of my adjunct faculty a GIFT journal during a semester start-up mentoring session. Several adjuncts have already told me success stories in ways they've used GIFT ideas to engage and educate our students.

• What I liked best: Aside from the honor itself, it was great.