I always feel like I talk to much when asked to introduce myself (as I did yesterday)…so I will keep this short. I am the Communications Director at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD)and celebrated 20 years with the agency back in March. I am a student at Texas State because I have always been a “planner”…and a few years ago I began thinking about “what’s next” after retirement from TPWD. I also asked myself what I wanted to accomplish by the time I am 50, and earning a master’s degree came immediately to mind. I will be 50 next August and hope to graduate in May, so I will meet that deadline! I will likely retire in 2016 and at that point I want to do something different….possibly teaching at the community college or university level. After I graduate next year I plan on doing what I can to begin teaching as an adjunct professor or similar role (maybe here at Texas State?)…to get a feel for what that might be like. I do a lot of communications training here at TPWD and I think it will be a natural fit….but we’ll see.
I really enjoyed class last night. The reading list alone will make this experience well worth the price of admission! This is all stuff I should be seeking out and reading myself….I don’t do nearly enough of that as I should. With a more than fulltime job and school the last 5 years with other homework and reading and research papers it’s hard to keep up. To have all these wonderful articles dished up in an outline to be read over the next 5 weeks is a wonderful prospect. And I will get a semester’s credit to boot! Way cool.
What is my definition of new media? Well, as I reflected on the readings I realize that there is no static definition. To categorize any one “thing” as new media makes it immediately obsolete! I think my favorite article was the pencils to pixels one. Each one of those examples was a new tool of media whether it was a pencil or a computer. And by the way, I had no idea that Thoreau’s livelihood was pencils! Who knew? The article about the history of Apple and the cool online graphic that had all the shots of apple products was a graphic representation of how quickly the technology is moving. The Ipad will be tomorrow news sooner than we think….
It’s an exciting time to be in the communications business and I am a bit of a johnny-come-lately to all the communication changes on the landscape and especially new media. But I have snapped to and my educational experience here at Texas State has played an important role in my professional development.
Today has been a stressfull day as I have had to deal with fallout from some ill-advised posts that apeared on one of my employee’s facebook page yesterday. As a result, the time I should have spent at noon crafting a more thoughtful blog was spent with the Human Resources Department.
Future posts will be more thoughtful. In the meantime I have a 2:30 meetings with some folks regarding some ideas I have for a research paper. One of the ideas is rather ambitious and I will need to get started on it if I have any hope of finishing it by the deadline! I hope to discuss with Cindy tonight….
