By: Samantha Wright Allen
A blend of real-world experiences, new media in the classroom and old-fashioned understanding sums up Mary Francoli’s teaching philosophy.
“I treat (students) like people,” says Francoli, a communications professor at Carleton since 2005. “Which seems really silly and it sounds really basic, but understanding that everyone has a life outside of here and there are many things that influence your academic performance. We have to be sensitive to that.”
That approach is one of the reasons why Francoli was the 2012 recipient of the New Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award.
Though Francoli didn’t start in communications, the political science PhD says the discipline is a perfect fit for her. “The ability for me to look at politics in a whole new light just revived and refreshed my interest in it.”
She says she cares about preparing students for life after graduation. She even has a workshop with that name for her fourth-years. Her assignments often focus on that end, designed to get students out of the classroom to develop applicable skills. Or she brings the outside in, organizing a speaker series of specialists in the various arms of communication.
“I think it gives them hope that there’s something that they can do after they leave,” Francoli says with a laugh. “It’s really interesting for them to hear from people that are employing some of the skill sets that they are learning.”
But, Francoli says it’s the one-on-one moments that remind her why she loves teaching – whether it’s guiding a student through their first conference presentation or proofreading a journal abstract or hearing from working students that her assignments were applicable to a “real-world environment.”
New media is both a research passion and a teaching tool for Francoli. “My attitude to teaching towards media is to really embrace it rather than banning it.”
Instead, Francoli uses online polling and other programs to encourage interaction in the larger classrooms.
“I use that as a starting point for discussion and engagement,” she says, adding she uses Twitter to answer questions and share interesting links. Even guest speakers use the course hashtags.
For the last couple years, she’s focused on the “interesting tension” created by the adoption of social media practices in federal government, which can be antithetical to Twitter’s instantaneous and interactive quality. And for Francoli, teaching keeps her engaged in the subject she loves.
“It’s an opportunity for me to feel refreshed about what I’m learning and researching. The students always have really good ideas – talking to them I get different insight which I find really compelling.”