Welcome to A Class Act
January 2, 2007 by Gary Schlee
Thank you for visiting A Class Act, a blog that focuses on Public Relations and Corporate Communications education in Canada. It is my hope that this weblog will be more than the personal ramblings of an academic. If this site can help spark the conversation about public relations education in this country, I’ll be a happy professor. Surely you wouldn’t deny me that! So, feel free to comment on the postings – about one a week – or pass on any ideas or issues you’d like to see addressed here.
There are at least 17 colleges and universities in Canada offering full-time PR programs, but very little opportunity for academics to share information. Efforts by the Canadian Public Relations Society and the International Association of Business Communicators have helped strengthen PR education in Canada and ensure consistent standards. But, there needs to be more done in this area, and PR academics need to take a greater role in advancing the importance of quality curricula.
A Class Act flows from the keyboard of Gary Schlee, co-ordinator of the postgraduate Corporate Communications & Public Relations program at Centennial College in Toronto. Join in the conversation!
7 Responses to “Welcome to A Class Act”
Welcome to PRblogs, Gary.
I wrote about your new blog and hope that will bring you a few visitors.
We look forward to reading your blog and those of your students.
All the best.
- Robert
Welcome to the blogosphere Gary.
I’m looking forward to reading your posts and being part of the conversation regarding them.
Great to see you blogging Gary! I’m subscribed and I look forward to joining the conversation alongside your students.
Thank you for the welcome, Robert, Joe & Paull. The birth pains of hitting the ‘Publish’ button the first time to create A Class Act hadn’t left before I’d already heard from three movers and shakers in the PR social media space! Robert French is PR academia’s most ardent social media cheerleader and the mastermind behind PRBLOGS, the site I’m pleased to call home for this blog. Joe Thornley is one of Canada’s most consistent PR bloggers, with posts full of real substance. Paull Young, a new practitioner from Australia, is another social media evangelist who hosts the podcast at Forward for young PR types. It’s great to be in such wonderful company!
I want to contribute to continuing the dialogue by being the first student to participate.
I have always believed that electronic communication tools can greatly enhance our collective learning as a class if we choose to utilize it properly.
Thank you for at least providing the forum for us to do so.
Hi Gary (and hello Omar),
I like the idea of developing a Canadian commission to audit PR cirricula, from both the student and the educator perspectives. It would enable us to develop and ensure the quality of the programs offered; huge potentials open up to us when we even attempt to calibrate what we do. That is an exciting idea.
In the larger picture, too, there is an opportunity to present a varied, perhaps alternate,Canadian perspective on public relations and public communication. I’m referring the the comment in the report about the desire in the U.S. to cultivate more on-campus ‘anti-terrorism’ initiatives among PR academics. There are other communication avenues to this issue, including cultivating more conflict resolution techniques, studying the language and communication of peacekeeping (the real kind – by which I mean keeping the peace before conflict erupts.) PR has much to offer in the diplomatic and public security information realms.
Best, and thanks for developing this forum,
Diane
Hey Gary,
Nice to have you in the blogosphere. We can use your experience and insight. Consider me subscribed…
Ter