FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM @DGMC Mumbai

A faculty needs to constantly upgrade and update himself in order to stay and sound relevant in the ever evolving competitive digital world. The students' expectations have risen manifold times in the past years and in order to cater to the growing intellectual demands of the taught, the teacher must also walk in-step with the changing scenarios. So, be a part of the Faculty Development Program at the Deviprasad Goenka Management College of Media Studies on 16 January and get an edge in your teaching career.

Changing Trends of Teaching -Learning

What is the role of a teacher in the present scenario? This is the question I often ask myself as I retrospect my teaching journey.

Over the years the role of a teacher has changed to a great extent. It has become very challenging as we are in an era of information explosion. The profile of students today is that of a sharp and updated lot. They are all digital natives and easily adapt to the new technology.  

As a result, the role of a teacher has become that of a facilitator, who can navigate them to their goal through this ocean of knowledge. This can be rightly illustrated by the example of the TED Talk winner Sugata Mitra. He has proved through his experiments with the underprivileged children that when the learner gets access to technology or the means of acquiring knowledge, they become quick learners. 

   

Now is the favourable time to motivate students for self learning. Though the wealth of information is just a click away, yet for selecting relevant chunks, the students require assistance of teacher. It has been a common observation that in spite of the huge reservoir of knowledge a majority of the students still shy away from exploration of such a facility on their own.

The teacher also has to catch up with the speed of change and update herself on the changes to be able to win confidence and trust of the students. One of my students at #DGMC had conducted a research on how the teachers are coping up with New Technology and the results could be very useful for all the teachers. The research concludes that teachers who have used traditional methods for teaching are now learning new technology and using it.

In a nutshell, a teacher’s role as a facilitator or catalyst will always bear significance upon the student’s all-round understanding of the subject matter and will always be instrumental in creating leaders for tomorrow.

-Prof. Shubhangi Dharma

Off Side

Blogs always make me horrified. When I started my career (forced to get into it for my pocket money rather), I was told by a well-wisher (or was she a trainer? I cannot recall) that blogs are where authors speak their mind (bad idea, mostly); you can be informal and do away with regulations (who said, I had nasty experiences!). This idea itself is scary. If trains did not have a track to go by, chances of derailing would have gone up. When you don’t have a rule to follow, format to cope with or guidelines to look up to- you tend to get lost. I sincerely believe that we all meet the world with a mask on where no one can see our true self. Hence, such kind of paucity of regulations indulges us in letting the bun loose; making you speak your mind in front of the world.

However, a lot of you might be wondering why I am constantly pondering over the fact that my inner self might be unveiled in the blog! That is primarily because I don’t want my simple blog to stretch itself to the size of an epic. I will try to keep it short and precise and rather concentrate on that one topic that I am going to talk about. I know the name must have evoked some curiosity within the readers (and I have been beating around the bush about why blogs scare me, my bad!) and let me clarify it’s NOT about football (I am a crazy football lover though). The blog is actually a story, a story about me.

Those who are aware of the term ‘offside’ knows that in a football match a forward/midfielder player cannot deliver an assist to another forward player (team mate) who is already ahead of even the second defender (any defender after the keeper) of the opposing team at the moment of loosing the ball from the assist’s feet. Confused? Well, the bottom line is that you must not take the advantage of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I traveled to a new city in order to complete my studies. I haven’t even achieved the MA degree (and to add to the surprise, I need 5 more months yet to complete my MA) and I got the offer from #DGMC to work as a counselor; to help students with their career decision. I sensed the peril: staying alone in a city accelerates your growing up process and you realize soon that pay-for-me-dad days are over. Then again, getting a job is just the first step- I need to perform to stick to it. And frankly, I wasn’t sure whether I’m the one who can help students out with their career choice (just listen to the phrase: simple near the ears, scary near the brains). So, you get the wrong time... wrong place... off side linkage? Connecting, are you?

There was a tiny gap of 4 days between me getting the offer letter and walking into DGMC as a counselor. During those 4 days I had constantly questioned myself, my real inner credibility. However, by no means should you feel that I doubted my confidence or the selection-skills of the management- all I am trying to say is that I was trying to reach the ‘self actualization’ phase through constant questioning. I would love to quote Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ‘Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya’. We all move from darkness to light; darkness of questions will always be fought with the light of experience and confidence. That is how we learn and the fire of comprehension emancipates a newer self within us, like a phoenix. I stood in front of my mirror the night before I was supposed to join, and looked into my own eyes-I just realized that you are not born anything, you impose the designation onto yourself in the course of life. It’s all role-playing and I was ready to play the role of a counselor, finally.

Finally on my first day, clad in my most perfectly ironed formals (those I have been keeping inside the darkest corner of my almirah so far), I arrived at DGMC with a question-free mind with plethora of excitement and flacon -full of hope to spray around the college. I have been constantly told that I gel up with new people pretty fast (thanks to my adapting skills) and DGMC was not an exception as well. When you like the place, the people, you also love to concentrate on the business part naturally. I could get into the frame of my work faster than I expected. Every time I uttered the name of the college to an aspirant, new excitement used to fill me in. But every time I see that the student is sitting in front of me, on the other side of the desk (where I have been, less than two years ago), it reminds me of being on the offside. I always tell myself, I need to be there, rightfully: no matter how much you try to score from the offside, they are not going to be counted. So, I need to prove that I am at the right place at the right moment: At DGMC, now.

-Madhubanti Mitra

Evolving from a Student to a Professor

Until a few months back, roughly around six months back, I was playing the role of a student. Being a student is always a luxury, as you are a recipient of all the knowledge imparted in an institution and are not bound to any sort of full time responsibility. As a student you tend to be frivolous, can engage in intellectual debate, challenge the professor’s point of view and live a truly stimulating life. What is more interesting is that during this phase, the practical necessities of life- earning a living or making it big in the world, do not seem to bother the student. Hence it gives you a free reign to cherish these few days of freedom before you will be thrown into the real world.  Although, this freedom also comes with a few commitments and the idea of absolute freedom seems a little ambiguous or may be unachievable to me.

But these commitments also revolve around the same process of learning and exchange of ideas and thoughts. Being in a university with a vibrant cultural atmosphere is all the more invigorating and one does not feel like leaving it ever. It’s like a cozy little cocoon where one can just spend the rest of their lives and not conform to the reality outside. A University like the one where I studied gave a lot of room to students for critical thinking, raising questions and the most fascinating part about it was that the line between the authority and the students seemed to blur. The professors were approachable and ready to help at any point, would converse with students just as any other person of our age would.  But I guess one cannot stay in a cocoon all their lives as it can be delusional. Well, a lot of them do but I wasn’t that fortunate enough to stay back and continue due to some practical reasons. So coping with the world outside the university and returning to the so -called ‘real’ world was a little challenging. To add to it I was faced with what most people of my generation go through is utter confusion- what would be my next step after graduating from the university? The idea of teaching was on my mind but I wasn’t confident about completely plunging into it. 

With the thought of teaching a lot of anxieties and fears seeped in. I was inexperienced, I was a student myself and how Iwould deal with a class full of 60-70 students and engage them for 2- 3 hours was a constant concern for me. It seemed quite a daunting task. Being a part of a Jesuit school as a kid and then later moving into a typical college in my high school years, I was aware about the teaching methods I wouldn’t adopt.  But again, looking back at some of my professors in undergraduate years and then at the Masters level, I had thought of a lot of interesting ways to approach the class, drawing from my memory and personal experiences. And that’s it. I was fortunate enough to be given a chance for a demo lecture at DGMC. I was very apprehensive about delivering a class on French New Wave cinema, though a lot of labour had gone into preparing for it but the fear of keeping the class engaged for three hours was constantly looming over my head. And eventually, when the moment arrived, I just started speaking and everything started flowing organically and all my apprehensions were resolved. The first half of the lecture was a little taxing for students mentally as the nature of the topic discussed was primarily theoretical. In the latter half, there were screenings of clips from various films and all that was discussed in the first half converged in the minds of the students.I felt the response was favourable and I heaved a sigh of relief gauging from the students’ reaction. I also realized the students are very enthusiastic and sensitive in learning about different cultures and their cinematic practices, provided it is presented in the right manner.  There are high chances of them scoffing, sniggering, if something explicit appears on screen but the real task for the professor lies in how to communicate these ideas that may be unsettling or not openly discussed in our cultural and academic institutions.  The satisfaction one feels in elucidating or debating about these issues and in the art of teaching is indeed ecstatic.

After all, we are dealing with something that is invariably a part of our lives, and has shaped our experiences, emotions and imagination- Cinema.  I believe we cannot teach cinema, but at least we can inculcate the idea of reading cinema critically and deconstruct its nuances to broaden our understanding of this powerful medium. That will be my goal and intention as a faculty in this institution…

-Dinesh Khemani

Why Do You Need Great Content To Connect?

Most of us still recall a few good childhood stories. Whether our teachers,   parents or friends told us, one thing was clear, they fired our imaginations and provided great satisfaction. I know it was true for me. Like a ripping song, stories are mesmerizing because they touch us in lasting ways. “Who cares about great content ? Your customers do !And you know what ? People never outgrow their love of good stories.Over the past few years, marketers and public relations professionals were caught up in over-stuffing their news with keywords to increase search engine optimization, perhaps losing sight of what was important:the real news. Moreover loosing target audience to the millions of online search results, or allow them to click away because the content didn’t engage.Google's changes in search engine optimization have enforced marketers to re-think how they present their news.

Content is no longer confined to the written page in the digital era. It is outspreadacross web and mobile, taking the appearance of words, videos, podcasts, webinars, widgets, and blog posts, and empowering people everywhere to voice their opinions. Content tells the story of your products or services and propels your brand into the hearts and minds of your prospectus, customers, and others. Well-crafted story telling has always been of great importance and even more so today with Digitalization, but it means nothing if it’s not written well. Content rules the web, we all are publishers today. All content isn’t suitable for a global audience. Producing content is easy. Producing effective content is not easy to do, and most brands are failing at it (miserably).The trick is to make your content more about the value it provides and less about the marketing and sales of your products and services, rather finding a way to tell a story with your products, services, and company as a whole. What are the values that drive your business ? How can you connect to your target market in emotionally enriching, mutually beneficial ways ?alongside you need to be empathic with the end reader in mind.

With all the “noise” and interruption, you need a way to break through the clutter, a way that will impact people and help them understand where you are coming from. You need a way to help customers appreciate the authentic space that you live in within your industry, to present your content in a way that will absorb them and get them to want more. In the business environment, and especially with content marketing, you should embrace and nurture storytelling. When you do, your audience will like to engage intellectually and emotionally, and feel they are a part of your story. And because you took the time to connect with them in a unique and sincere way, the way that they remember from stories of long ago, they will find ways to connect with you in meaningful, long-lasting ways.

Why are executives like Mark Zuckerberg (Co-founder and CEO of the social-networking website, Facebook), Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim (Co-founder, You Tube), Kevin Systrom (Co-founder of Instagram), Jan Koum (CEO,Whatsapp), Drew Houston (CEO, Dropbox), Reid Hoffman (Executive Chairman, Linkedin), Nick Woodman (CEO, GoPro),ChetanBhagat (Writer), Sachin Bansal and BinnyBansal (Founders, Flipkart), Steve Jobs (CEO, Apple), Bill Gates (Founder, Microsoft), Jeff Bezos (CEO, Amazon), and Jack Ma (Founder and Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group)are so legendary ? In large part because they are able to engage people’s emotions. Within the confines of your digital presence, you can do the same thing, and you’ll indeed be able to compete seamlessly in the content age. Crafting scenarios of possible future happenings, using personal dialogues, and talking about experiences can genuinely get people your potential customers to stand up and take notice. The how and why and when of content are everything, to repair the fractured emotional customer’s experience. If you don’t connect, you don’t sell, and that’s the bottom line. Done strategically, logically, intelligently, and innovatively, content marketing can provide grand return on investment ever.

KEEP READING UPCOMING ARTICLES, AND YOU’LL SEE WHY... 

-Prof. Amisha Dawda

MMC-It’s back with a bang…

#MumbaiMediaChamps that’s MMC for the Mumbai college circuit-a 3-day action packed inter-collegiate extravaganza that has already become the talk of the town is yet again set to raise the bar for students’ participation. As I see it, this time around the organisers have simply unleashed their creativity…and I am proud to be a part of it all (chuckle).

Thinking about the last year’s edition of MMC it feels so like yesterday and I distinctly remember how the momentum actually picked up in the final fortnight. Though the groundwork was being done from two months before that, there wasn’t anything conclusive to show for it.

Then like in the movie 300, the general invoked in his lieutenants a strong emotion to pull it up and gave the war cry. Being a part of the DGMC staff, I too chipped in with my might.

Never before had I taken to the facebook phenomenon so fervently like I did it for promoting MMC last year. I started updating the minute by minute status of MMC and also shared it with different groups. My next bet was sending the MMC info to other colleges all over Mumbai. I guess that must have certainly added to the buzz):-

Another phenomenon I witnessed then-On such occasions, even the teachers get to learn a thing or two from their pupil. And they too accept it with an open heart. The camaraderie between the faculty and the students, the teamwork and the drive to make it successful, has now been etched in my memory. Like they teach in their filmmaking classes, what stays with you long after the event gets over are the visuals. Images that bring alive the memories!

Speaking of memories-the red carpet looked simply inviting and ignited the passions, literally! Students-participants and management committee both cast a longing glance at it dreaming of walking on one when they make it big someday!

The inauguration ceremony that followed was graced by well known producer Madhav Roy Kapoor, Karl Gomes(Advertising Professional), Shailendra Singh Sodhi (Lyricist).  With them on the dais, the occasion had acquired the aura of an international film festival. During the next three days of MMC a total of 75 dignitaries from the glamour industry registered their presence. Of them, notable were screenplay writer for Ramleela Siddharth and Garima, Sangram Singh (Wrestler and Reality TV star), Feroz Khan (Choreograoher),  Ajinkya (DID), Amar (DID) , HarshvardhanDeo (Actor), Tanya Malik (Actor), Kushal Punjabi (Actor), SriramRaghavan (Film Maker), G. K. Desai (Producer/Actor), Harshit Chauhan (Singer) RamiraTaneja (Singer), Monika Murthy (Actor/TV Host), Ravi Kennu (Actor), Hemendra Bhatia (Actor/Director), Dr.DilipPotnis (Theater Actor), ParikshitSahani (Well known Actor), Khamoshi Movie Pair Ali Fajal (Bollywood Actor), SapnaPabbi (British Model/Actress), Divya Kumar (Singer), Aaditya Narayanan (Singer), Clince Varghese (Musician) etc were the charms of the MMC. Last day all MMC mob enjoyed Divya Kumar and Aaditya Narayanan singing and dancing.

As the library in-charge, I not only got to have close encounters with the who’s who of the media world, but also made sure they all immortalised the time they spent here in forms of words of encouragement.

That brings us to here and now. Mumbai Media Champs is waiting for our war cry. 

-Geetanjali Wani 

What is Public Relations?

WHAT exactly do you mean by public relations? Why does public relations play a significant role in times of cut-throat competition? Every business depends on customers for sales and profits; organisations depend on employees for productivity; industry relies on skilled professionals; society depends on the government to provide basic utilities and so on. All these have created a great need for relationships and communications among all people at different levels. Times are changing. Business, trade and commerce are becoming extremely competitive in this age of globalisation. Companies need to have an edge that makes them stand out from the crowd. For this, it becomes necessary to know and understand how the world of public relations functions revolves. Simply put, public relations or PR is all about creating a two-way communication between an organisation and target groups. It aims to enhance corporate image and reputation, resolves conflicts of interest, seeks common areas of mutual interest and establishes complete understanding based on truth and knowledge.

Definition of public relations

PR has been defined differently by management scholars and experts. According to Sam Black, a British PR practitioner in his book Practical Public Relations, The purpose of Public relations is to establish a two way communication to resolve conflicts of interests and to establish understanding based on truth, knowledge and full information. In the words of Edward Bernays, Public relations is an attempt by information, persuasion and adjustment to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution.

Read more article on http://goo.gl/W48jyN

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