Student engagement as a means of professional development

I went back to school this week and learnt some important lessons. Working with students is a robust means of learning and development.

I joined a class from the University of Oregon London summer school this week led by Damian Radcliffe. Oregon is one of the largest faculties for journalism and PR in the world.

If you ever get the opportunity to participate in a workshop or guest lecture I cannot recommend it enough. You’ll benefit as much as the students you’re teaching.

You’ll also create relationships with future talent. Metia is hiring in Austin, Seattle, London and Singapore.

The students from Oregon had spent the morning creating promotional stories on Instagram for London tourist destinations.

I joined the class as Damian was leading a critique of their work.

Here’s my first lesson. How often do you openly sit with colleagues in a room and review how you could improve your creative work?

The second lesson was the familiarity that students had with the platform and the tools that they were using. These are individuals that don’t know a world before the internet. Their skills will be invaluable to organisations that have yet to get to grips with modern forms of media.

Support for dissertation projects

You don’t have to teach to benefit from learning from students.

Masters students are currently working on their dissertations. You may have spotted requests for help posted on social media or received direct approaches via email.

I highly recommend setting aside some time to help students out. It’s something I do every year.

This year topics range from equality to diversity, from fake news to trust in branded content, and from the impact of AI to workflow. Each discussion pushes you to consider a topic more broadly.

Head back to school. I guarantee you’ll learn something new.