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When I got my driver's license, I couldn't really drive. It was just a license to practice, and the certifications are kind of like that. You get a chance to understand what is available in Google AdWords, but you don't really practice it until you do a campaign.
Debra Zahay-Blatz
St. Edwards University
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That really gets me excited because I think a lot of us who were on this first wave of digital professionals -- the digirati, as some people call them -- we were all self-taught. We just learned by getting in, getting our hands dirty, and clicking and figuring out. Unfortunately, that's a really slow process. Anything that that wave of professionals can do to help make it a little bit easier for the younger generation of marketers coming up to accelerate that digital learning, that's really what I think closes the skills gap.
Nate Riggs
Ohio University
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Ironically, in 2004, my students knew this kid named Mark at Harvard who was doing this Web 2.0 thing. And I spoke with Mark a couple of times to bring him into my class. They signed up for his little idea. They were probably number 10 or number 12. And it was Mark Zuckerberg, and ironically, they kind of knew what was going on well before I did, certainly.
Randy Harrison
Emerson University
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I think of my class in three levels. In the lecture, they learn about what's the latest thinking, how digital marketing ties to what's being done out there in agencies and in the corporate world. For the skills themselves, I use certifications and materials from the best thinkers out there. Then they have to apply those skills through what we call service learning. That's where we partner with local businesses or local nonprofits to apply those skills.
Lin Humphrey
Florida International University