Mobilizing Faculty into the Future: Using Online Technology as Teaching Tools

Barbara Looney Ph.D.
Pedagogical Statement:
In this Pinterest Project students research a business topic, organize and discuss their findings, and present the material
in both a written report and a visual grid using the social media platform Pinterest. As a separate assignment,
students peer-review one another’s Pinterest Pinboards in a good news, e-mail memo.
With the enormous changes now developing in business communication, due to the rise of social media and the digitally
connected world, this Pinterest Project provides students the opportunity to learn and apply a new social media
platform, or to convert a familiar platform into a more business-specific application.
Increasingly employers seek job applicants who are conversant in business-style social media applications. Enhanced
opportunities for students to work with social media platforms as learning tools will help sharpen their skills in preparation
for workplace expectations. Students with declared majors and defined job-search plans can use the Pinterest
Project to showcase their interest in a specific field or developing trend. The Project can become part of a skills
portfolio that students may take with them upon assignment completion.
Biography:
Barbara Looney has a PhD in English (Univ of So Fla), a Master’s in English (Rutgers Univ), and a Bachelor of Science in
Education with major in English (BHSU). She is assistant professor for two colleges. She teaches Managerial Communications,
a persuasive business writing course, for the School of Business, and Humanities, a survey of human expression,
for the School of Liberal Arts. Additionally she co-advises the Enactus student organization. Looney also holds
paralegal certification (Univ of Maryland). Prior to her collegiate academic career, Looney worked in private industry
as a Customer Service Representative for the Sheraton Hotel Corporation, as a Congressional staff assistant in Washington,
D.C., as a corporate paralegal for law firms in Washington, D.C. and Charlotte, NC, and as the assistant manager
of a bar supply company in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. She also taught high school English and coached debate for four
years in Miami, FL. Looney feels her personal experience handling customer and constituent issues, first in corporate
business and then in government service, helps her connect the practical application of business coursework to realworld
use. The demand for social media competency among business professionals drives her interest in research that
will benefit her instruction and her students. Looney has traveled extensively and lived abroad. She brings to her
liberal arts curriculum a passion for artistic exploration.
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