Big week in the media

I don’t often figure in the media, local or otherwise, so last week was unusual in that respect. I managed to participate in a brief interview on the local ABC breakfast show and to be quoted in the weekend edition of the Sydney Morning Herald.

About 2 weeks ago Gus Snow-McLean, USQ PR manager, emailed to say that an SMH reporter was seeking comment for a “back-to-school” piece about computers and wondering if I might be interested. I spoke with the reporter briefly and thought little more of it until Gus emailed again this morning to say that I had apparently been quoted in the article published last Saturday. Fortunately my comments came out sounding sensible. My major points appear to have been that “computers can tidy up written work and take the worry out of such things as spelling and grammar” and that what matters is not how many computers are available at school or home but what you do with them. Simple enough but valid messages.

I’m not sure how people in NSW would have felt about the major sources for the piece being two Queenslanders, me and Glenn Finger from Griffith University.

On Monday of last week I had another contact from our PR section to say that our local radio station was looking for a participant in a “back-to-school” interview about kids, the Internet and education. I took the call at 7:15 on Wednesday and managed to sound sensible. What’s more I avoided the common trap in such interviews of being left to say just “yes” or “no” when the interviewer finishes a long question reciting most of the possible answers. I made sure that I found something new to say or at least elaborated on one the answers provided. Again my major point was simple – good parenting is good parenting whether in relation to the real world or the Internet.

Ah well. I probably won’t have to do that again for a year or two.