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I was asked recently to be a member of the PAC (professional advisory committee) for the Undergraduate Graphic Design program at Conestoga College in Guelph, Ontario. I accepted gladly, as I’m always interested in what other schools with roughly the same demographic as my own are doing in their design programs and really, who wouldn’t accept an invitation that comes with the introduction, “Because you are an expert in your field and we value you as a trendsetter and someone with a finely-tuned acumen regarding the future of graphic design education…” (okay, maybe that’s a bit exaggerated, but it was a very nicely phrased email and my ego was glowing after reading it!)
In early December, we had our first meeting and the program directors presented to the committee, their five year vision and then asked us our thoughts and ideas. It was interesting to hear just how they plan to keep on expanding their program, recruiting students and, totally foreign to me, build a physical infrastructure to support their new endeavors. (As I’ve been teaching in the DE world almost 3 years and a DE student for 4 years previous to that, I tend to forget that people actually have building programs and all the bricks and mortar conventions to make spaces for people to come and learn within. I think it’s great that their view is so grand and if a mega campus is your vision, I’m all about you running after it as hard as possible.) Conestoga is indeed all about a physical presence and it seems if their reality can match even a third of their projected vision for the next several years, it will bring much good to the region. Read more
So, my first doctoral class has just officially ended. Goodbye EDDE 801! It has been a wild wild journey but I have come to love you and being my first…yeah, you’ll always be special to me. : )
Though I have yet to receive my final grade or final paper feedback, being alive, still somewhat enthused about my future research area, and not suffering from any odd stress-related physical ailments other than some deeper character-enhancing wrinkles (and also apparently from the photo above, my hair actually has stopped growing?? a bit odd, but I guess something had to give) feels like a good victory.
As an added bonus, a reduced work load means I can actually get back into blogging because all my words are no longer reserved for making witty, erudite and insightful discussion postings, papers, etc. Hahaa…or rather I actually have some words to write (a month ago that was very decidedly not the case as many painful discussion postings where syllables far outweighed actual meaning no doubt proved I was grasping for anything beyond basic grunting!)
The plan for the next month-ish is to finally update all the bits and pieces of the blog that have fallen into disarray (readings, travels…2014 aka the year-of-the-conference…and cool people who I am now a smidge connected with) and get the blog back to running on a more regular schedule so that next year when magical 802 begins, I’ll already be blog-writing-addicted and not have to publish so much posthumously but, gasp, actually be able to write as it’s all happening. Or at least in theory that would be a great idea. So…here’s to the future, whatever that might hold!
PIXELS & TWEED 