I’m still working on that dissertation and I’m currently looking for people to interview via email or IM. A good interview candidate:

• uses a lot of communication technologies (email, IM, mobile phone, social networking sites, etc…)
• is always (or nearly always) connected with a web-enabled cell phone (iPhone, Blackberry, other PDA or mobile phone)
• has a job - you can work in any industry, in any job, as long as you are at least partially employed (since I study organizational communication, I’m interested in communication that relates to your work)

Both interview types will take less than an hour. An email interview is broken up into smaller segments, which you can answer at your convenience. An IM interview would be conducted all at once in real time, but over IM instead of in person.

Let me know if you’re interested! You can email me at jenn [at] deeringdavis [dot] com. I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Classes start tomorrow (here at UT, at least).  For those of you with another few days of vacation, enjoy them! I always love the first day of class, especially as an instructor. I’m really looking forward to meeting my new class tomorrow.

I’m teaching Organizational Communication again, which is nice.  That’s CMS 313M, if you’re interested. This is my second year teaching this class, and my sixth year as a student in this area.  As a doctoral student, I am funded to teach half-time, which means teaching two small classes or one larger class. Org Comm is one of those larger classes (60 students), so I only teach one section. Though I miss the immediacy of a smaller class, I do like teaching a single section.

It’s interesting to teach a class where I don’t have to select the textbook or come up with assignments; the syllabus is basically written for me. That makes complete sense. For the lower level courses with multiple sections taught by different instructors, there needs to be consistency across sections. But it does mean I have to tailor my teaching style and preferences to a pre-made syllabus. That’s okay with me at this point - it’s certainly easier and less time-intensive this way!

This semester, I’m making a few changes in how I communicate with students. I taught my first class in 2003 and I always included my IM name in my syllabus. At that time, many of my fellow grad student instructors and friends thought I was crazy for giving my IM name out to students. I didn’t see it as a problem then, and I still don’t now. With IM, I can control when I’m accessible to students, when I respond, what I say when I do respond and so on. I think it’s the perfect medium for interacting with students outside the classroom.

But I am making myself more available on Facebook than I ever have before. When I first got on Facebook in late 2005, only college students were allowed to join. Since I was a young graduate student, I felt I had to draw a clear line between my students and me, in order to ensure an appropriate power distance between student and instructor.  So I kept my profile incredibly private and never accepted friend requests from students. I have since decided that is an artificial, even silly, boundary and now have a number of former students as Facebook friends. But this semester, I plan to use Facebook as one of the main ways I interact with current students. I haven’t quite decided what that is yet, but it will be something.  Last semester, more than 90% of my students had Facebook accounts, so obviously I can’t use it for all vital course communication or a few would be left out. But I think I can use it as another avenue for interaction, in addition to email, IM and Blackboard.

Anyway, I’ll be writing here about how that goes. In the meantime, here’s my fall CMS 313M syllabus. If any new students are reading this, feel free to leave a comment and let me know you’re here! I’m looking forward to an interesting, educational and fun semester.

I’m not very good about getting my hair cut. Seriously, I’ll go months without even a trim.  It’s an awful habit, and one I’m trying to break.  But I’ve had bad luck with stylists in Austin. I found one I liked well enough, and she even worked at a salon near my house, but she moved away only a year after I started to visiting her. So then I bounced around a little, trying a few other stylists at the same salon, as well as some different salons in the neighborhood. None were worth recommending. None were totally terrible, but if I’m going to pay good money for a haircut, I would like for it to be a great haircut.

So today, I asked my friendly and ever-so-helpful Twitter friends for advice. I got tons of excellent recommendations and, after some prompting from a friend, thought I would share these recommendations with you.

• Studio Tilee
• Platypus
• Orbit
• The Cutting Room
• Ulta
• Hairy Situations
• Zig Zag

Alas, no one recommended Sexy Scissors.

I made an appointment next week at Orbit, so I’ll let you know how it goes!  And if you have any recommendations or experience with these (or other) salons, leave them in the comments.  I’m sure there are others we can add to this list.

Fall courses at UT start in two weeks, so I’m getting back into school mode.  Not only does this mean preparing my syllabus (I’m teaching CMS 313M again this year), prepping lectures, and back-to-school shopping, but it means returning to my dissertation work after a recuperative and productive summer break. I’m very excited about starting round two of interviews - for real this time - and really burying myself in this project.

I’m also excited about the final stretch of a long graduate career. It’s hard to believe that this is my sixth (non-consecutive) year of graduate studies, and though I have really enjoyed it, it’s time to move on. Not to mention, it’s about damn time people started calling me “Dr.”!

Anyway, I’ll still be posting several times a week over on Appozitegeist, but I’ll also be writing much more regularly here as I get back into my dissertation.  In case it’s been so long that you’ve forgotten, my dissertation is about being always connected to work through mobile devices and near-ubiquitous wireless internet, and the various ways this changes how/where/when we work. I’m always looking for interviewees, so find me on Twitter (@jdeeringdavis) or email me (jenn at deeringdavis dot com) and let’s talk!

I can’t wait to get back into writing about communication and technology. It’s been a nice summer off, but I’m ready to get back to work. Check back soon for more.