Pleased to share my article that held the lead spot on the Poynter.org website on Friday afternoon. I love the headline: "What's a journalism professor to do when his students miss class to cover March Madness?"

It begins: "This is a story about a journalism instructor dealing with journalism students missing journalism classes so that they can do journalism. Two undergraduates skipped my classes in Milwaukee — as well as those of their other professors — so they could report on Marquette University men’s basketball games at major postseason tournaments." The nut graph: "So why was I ... questioning my students for seizing real-life experience?"

Enjoyed persuading one of my students to wake up at 6:15 a.m. (PST) so I could interview him by telephone as he sat in his hotel lobby in Phoenix. Wish that I could have included in the article something from everyone who helped inform my perspective and evolution on this matter. Stay tuned for my next two blog posts as there is definitely more to share about student journalists major covering sporting events. (Hints: a Q-and-A with a university official and an offering from another academic about the school and organization where she works.)

By the way, this is my second article published by Poynter.org. The first, which I shared when it ran in August, was "New Pew study confirms digital divide in mobile news interest." Hoping for more articles in the future.

I love divine intervention? The latest for me came in a wonderful email early Friday from John Watson, J.D., Ph.D., an associate professor at the American University School of Communication, and someone recalling when we were members of the fledging Garden State Association of Black Journalists in the late 1980s.

"I just finished reading your commentary on the AptiQuant hoax in the Journal of Mass Media Ethics," Watson wrote. "Well done. It's a rare experience to discover someone I met in the professional world of journalism writing in the peer-reviewed scholarly journals. As someone who made the transition a bit earlier than you and who still sometimes finds it bewildering, you seem to be handling it well."

Specializing in communication law and journalism ethics, Watson also let me know "I am available if you need any help navigating this new world." I quickly thanked him for his encouragement  and asked for immediate help. I needed a three-page curriculum vitae by today! Could he email a copy of his CV so I could perhaps model it during the weekend? He shared his full academic-size version and one only four pages long. Just what I needed!

The notion of a CV has been, well, bewildering. For most of my career, the focus has been on one-page resumes. On the other hand, a complete CV seems to need basically everything you have ever done in your life. Last June, I created what I thought was a thorough three-page CV, only to have a friend and mentor  tell me I had crammed six pages worth of information into it – with little chance of any of it being read by swamped evaluators. Another challenge is producing a suitable document when my experience is much more professional than academic.

A few helpful guides exist online, including "Writing the Curriculum Vitae," "How to Prepare a Killer CV" and "The Alternative to Your Journalism CV." This time, however, I gratefully used Watson's example – and one shared by my fellow Marquette alum Andrew Mendelson, Ph.D., the journalism department chairman at Temple University – to fashion a legitimate three-page summary of my work and service so far in academia. My hope is to have a more extensive CV by summer's end. Your suggestions and prayers are much appreciated.

I had the pleasure of being the guest speaker at a Social Media @Marquette event earlier this month. Tim Cigelske, a communications specialist with the Marquette University Office of Marketing and Communication, asked me to focus on using social media in the classroom – and using it to engage with students away from class. It was a GROW With Marquette event, so my audience included mostly staff and administrators of various non-academic units who were, hopefully, interested in using social media to extend their personal and organizational branding.

So that those present could see someone curate what just happened, I asked Marissa Evans, a junior journalism major in the Diederich College of Communication and a self-described CLT (Chronic Live Tweeter), to capture the hourlong session using Twitter. Her efforts made it possible for me to share some of the highlights of my presentation, "Digital Footprints: Using Social Media in the Classroom and in the Office," using Storify.

I love using Storify to preserve on the Web what happens at an event, whether large or small, for long after it is over. That's right, program coordinators, social media isn't just for increasing attendance and promoting results. It's also for showcasing mission and identity to current and prospective students as well as to alumni.

Anyway, I enjoyed showing how my students use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Storify, Delicious, etc., for their class assignments and journalism pursuits, and how they and I use Facebook and Twitter to interact outside class. Here's hoping that my colleagues across campus will be inspired to maximize social media. As I said in my presentation, I came to Twitter kicking and screaming – but once I started using it for fun, using it for work was so much easier.

It's unclear who knows more about the other: my wife, Mira, or my students. Each student in my Digital Journalism I (JOUR 1100) and Digital Journalism II (JOUR 1550) classes this semester follows her on Twitter (@miralowe) and she does likewise. All I know is there were smiles aplenty when "Mrs. Lowe" appeared in both classes yesterday.

In JOUR 1100, Mrs. Lowe focused on how journalism students can best present themselves to recruiters. "I'm going to talk a little and then you're going to work a little," she said. "That's the deal – I talk, you work." (That's how it goes at home, too, but I shall not digress.) She first urged everyone to have a LinkedIn account – and to check it every day – before introducing the class to vizualize.me, a compelling new way to showcase one's life experiences.

Next, Mrs. Lowe offered advice concerning print versus electronic clippings when applying for internships. "You're kind of in that middle of old-school and new-school (recruiters), and until the old-school retires, you're going to have to do both," she said. "Start out with digital and have paper ready." Then, she started showing off with cuttings.me, an amazing new digital-clipping tool for journalists, bloggers and writers. "Make sure those links work. It's very important," she said before borrowing my admonition: "Don't let someone else's mistake become your mistake."

She spent the rest of her time with JOUR 1100 focusing on the importance of grammar, spelling and punctuation and, more to the students' delight, offering a great deal of helpful tips for crafting successful cover letters.

Later, in JOUR 1550, Mrs. Lowe again presented vizualize.me and cuttings.me and warned against frustrating recruiters with broken links: "Make sure you have a copy of everything you've done. You want to take control of your work and get access to it." Then, more cool social media tools – Paper.li, The Tweeted Times and Klout – before ending her presentation with nine rules for writing online headlines that will top most search-engine lists.

Finally, as Mrs. Lowe was leaving to catch a cab to the Amtrak station, the inevitable praise from her newest fans, at my expense, of course: "She's much better than you." "She's definitely your better half." "When she said her name, I got really excited. I had to contain myself." "It was wonderful meeting your wife – best part of the semester."

Borrowing a favorite phrase my wife and I say often at home: "Just like I planned it."

As someone who teaches digital media to college students, I eagerly awaited Journalism Interactive: The Conference on Journalism Education & Digital Media. Told my Digital Journalism II class to expect to be set on fire from all that I might discover at the two-day event this past weekend at the University of Maryland.

I figured 60 to 100 journalism educators would join me on Friday and Saturday. Wrong! More than 400 people from more than 120 institutions attended. By all accounts, it was a worthwhile trip and job well done by the conference committee; the host, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and its corporate partner, publisher SAGE/CQ Press.

I won't even to try to capture all that I learned from the 75 or so great speakers in a single blog post. Hoping to share a few related posts soon. A couple of highlights, though, readily come to mind: "Emerging Tech Trends for Academia," by multimedia guru Amy Web, CEO of Webbmedia Group, and "The Social Media Teacher's Toolkit" by Jeff Cutler, social media trainer for the Society of Professional Journalists' Newsroom Training Program.

Another highlight: the Teach-a-Thon, featuring 14 journalism educators – shout out to Craig Herndon, Andrew Lih, Ed Madison and Stacy Spaulding – who each had a few minutes to share fantastic ideas and techniques they employ in their classrooms. You can find the Teach-a-Thon resources here. Indeed, their presentations are among the archived videos of those sessions streamed live during the conference.

It impressed me that some of my students back at Marquette University spent time following the conference via Twitter – even on a Saturday morning! "Loving these tweets from@herbertlowe at #jiconf. I feel like I'm there," @becca_french tweeted. @katie__doherty, a self-described "overachiever," ended up engaging Burt Herman, CEO and co-founder of Storify, after I had tweeted he was on a panel. (My #JOUR1100 and #JOUR1550 students each did their own Storify after live-tweeting the university's recent presidential inauguration. Here are my Storifys.)

From Katie: @herbertlowe Tell @burtherman I'm liking the new @Storify as I work on NY latest live-tweeting project. 

From Burt: @herbertlowe @katie__doherty Thanks for the kind words and please let us know your suggestions!

From Katie: @burtherman @herbertlowe You're welcome. @Storify has become a great tool for young journalists to utilize in the classroom.

Well, that's all for now. Like I said, more posts stemming from this great conference to come soon.

As the faculty adviser for the Marquette University student chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), I worry when its leadership and direction is left to its own energies and devices.

But when NABJ-MU announced it had secured Benet Wilson, the Aviation Queen and chairwoman of the NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force, to do a webinar on digital portfolios on a night this week I could not attend, I didn't worry. I knew that "Aunt Benet," as students affectionately call her, would ensure all went well – just as when she moderated a similar workshop, "Brand You: Creating Your Online Identity," at the NABJ convention in August.

Appreciated the live tweets from the webinar. Here's one from chapter president Marissa Evans: "Looking at best practices on using Weebly.com for digital portfolio already see ways I can improve mine at www.marissaevans.com #NABJDP"

From Erin Caughey of my Digital Journalism II class: "Students attending #NABJDP tonight walk away with some helpful tips from @NABJDigital and @benetwilson to update personal sites. #JOUR1550." 

And from the chapter's Twitter account, @NABJ_MarquetteU: "Special thanks & much love to our dear Aunt @BenetWilson/@NABJDigital for a GREAT webinar this evening #weloveyou #NABJDP."

Many thanks to Aunt Benet for sharing her wisdom with the only NABJ student chapter in Wisconsin. I look forward to seeing her produce the NABJ convention in New Orleans in June. She's the convention program chairwoman.

Twelve years ago today, the former Mira Thomas of Brooklyn, N.Y., and I became husband and wife at First Nazarene Baptist Church in my native Camden, N.J. I should say, that is, the former "Lovely Mira Thomas," since that's what her Newsday colleagues called her while we dated. Yes, a dozen years later, she's still oh so lovely.

And, yes, times sure have changed. In 1999, many of the 200 friends and loved ones who witnessed our nuptials had to come from New York, North Carolina and elsewhere. Today, nearly that same number shared their love and congratulations via Facebook. Amazingly, more than 115 people hit the "like" button on Mira's post featuring one of her favorite wedding photos. More than 50 of them took time to offer a comment. They all did so presumably from the comfort of their homes on this Sunday and the flurry blew away Mira's previous most-liked post: the one in which she let everyone know that a new Five Guys restaurant was opening in our Chicago neighborhood.

Mira and I greatly appreciate the virtual hugs. For more of the lovely Mira, check out the audio slideshow and companion website that I gave her as 10th anniversary presents in 2009. The slideshow offers smiles aplenty along with one of my favorite songs, “Your Smile.” You can find other audio slideshows capturing our wedding and our life together here and on the 2009 site. By the way, on that site we answer an often-asked question: how did we meet?

In September 2006, I wrote my "9/11 Chronicle" in hopes of having my 3,600-word personal experience published as a Flash presentation during the five-year anniversary of the terrorists attacks against the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. My skills and passion as a multimedia journalist were just beginning and so my 9/11 package did not develop in time for that commemoration. Five years later, as the world reflected on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, my experience on that fateful day earned me a media grand slam: coverage in print, radio, television and online.

For sure, the advent of social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, helps any individual share his or her personal story. But it also helped to have the valuable assistance of the Marquette University Office of Marketing and Communication, which handled media inquiries after posting a 9/11-related news release on August 16.

The first query came from Mitch Teich, executive director of "Lake Effect," the locally produced weekday magazine program on WUWM-FM in Milwaukee. Here's the radio interview he did with me and my Diederich College colleague, Danielle Beverly, about our 9/11 experiences. Below is the other coverage stemming from my "9/11 Chronicle."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an abridged version of my "9/11 Chronicle" as an op-ed piece in its Crossroads section on Sunday. I edited the complete 3,600-word text to 1,600 words. No small feat, I'll tell you.

Here's the video of anchor/reporter Tom Murray interviewing me about my 9/11 experience on "Live at Daybreak" on WTMJ-TV (Milwaukee) at 6:45 a.m. on Sunday. My first live TV interview since 2005 in Rochester, N.Y. Enjoyed getting an email from one of my former students right after he later saw the segment on the 11 p.m. newscast.

Here is a video, "Flashback 9/11: Herbert Lowe," that one of my Marquette journalism students, Katie Doherty from Chicago, produced as a companion piece to her story, "After ten years, effects of 9/11 still felt in U.S.," for The Marquette Tribune on Thursday. The video, Katie's first ever, is at the bottom of the page containing her article. 

Last, but not least, this posting I wrote for Communi8, the Diederich College of Communication blog, last Tuesday.

Does it get any better than a shout out on Twitter? A really good brother posted this tweet this week: "Big shout to my man @herbertlowe for schooling me on the site builder weebly.com. Herb, the site is now official: www.jessewashington.com." Man, amazing how someone typing 140 characters can really make your day!

Last month, I shared how Jesse and three other branding experts had wowed a crowded session, "Brand You: Creating Your Own Online Identity," at the NABJ convention in Philadelphia. Moments after the session, Jesse texted me, asking to meet so we could catch up. Minutes later, he and another friend of mine, Austin Fenner, chatted some more about branding and how to create a personal branding website. I showed them this site on Jesse's iPad and recounted how easy it was to build using Weebly.com. I could tell Jesse was feeling it.

The next week I shared the "Brand You" Storify I did with Jesse. Urged him in no uncertain terms to get a website ASAP after only finding online about him a short story on USA Today's site. The story is very inadequate considering Jesse's career. He assured me his site was soon to go live. Hence, the tweeted shout out this week!

Jesse's site looks very good, very distinctive. I really like his home page, especially how he is explicit about what he does and what he doesn't do. Looking forward to reading the articles he has posted as well as his blog. I'm sure that when I do, he'll be schooling me – and my students – about great storytelling about what he calls "real people."