Oklahoma Gardening, a local television production hosted out of OSU agriculutral communication services, is seeking a motovated intern who is interested in gaining experience in Broadcasting and Production.  No previous experience in broadcasting is needed, but a desire to learn is very important.

If you are interested in finding out more about this opportunity, or wish to apply, please email a cover letter and a resume to Kevin Gragg at mr.gragg@okstate.edu.  Also, you may look at the Oklahoma Gardening Website.

An intern is needed immediately, and the position will continue through the summer.  One paid internship is available and other unpaid internships may be possible for students who are wanting to gain experience in their field.

This semester, I’ve been enrolled in an online course at TCC. I love the work. I know the teacher knows her subject. The assignments are helpful in learning the material.

The problem is that the teacher is also an employee for the school and her time is stretched far too thin. Because of that, she is not able to put into the class what she needs to. There is also a problem with the Bulletin Board system which causes a great deal of confusion to the students on what the assignments are for the week. Our questions remain unanswered for days, and apparently, she does not see the same thing we see on the Bulletin Board because when she answers the questions, it does not totally clear up the situation.

It appears that the teachers at TCC have very little time to spend on teaching the courses. From what I have heard, they receive a very small payment for teaching the class. They mostly all have other jobs and only do this for extra money or in hopes of getting on full time as a teacher (which I understand is getting rarer and rarer). Because they are working their other jobs, they are unable to put into the class what they need to.

As a student who pays her own tuition and has a job, I understand their problem, but I resent the lack of academic professionalism represented by a school who would allow this type of behavior. The solution is to hire qualified teachers to teach full time. Our teachers don’t need other jobs. Of course we all know the answer they will give to this: they don’t have enough money to pay them. If we pay them more, our taxes will go up.

I guess we will eventually have to homeschool college to get an adequate education. It seems that it’s the only cost-effective way to learn!

UPDATE: I just read in my PR textbook that corporate support is what education needs. Now this I totally agree with. Why not use some of that wealth to help educate those who need educating, especially in the basics: reading, writing and arithmetic. The support needs to come with more than just money. We need people to help in the classrooms.

Yesterday, I went to the Phi Theta Kappa meeting to see what that is all about. I did join, although I probably won’t get much benefit out of it at this time of my life! But the prestige is fun - imagine me - a stay-at-home mom for almost 40 years and just now getting into an honor society!

While there, I got talking to some of the other students about degrees, etc. and discovered I might be able to get an Associates Degree on the way to my Bachelors. So I went down to the Advisors officer and discovered that I was four classes, a highschool transcript, and a college transcript away from my Associates Degree. One of the classes was Computer Concepts which I don’t need for OSU. I didn’t want to have to pay for and take another class so the advisor told me I could test out of it. I thought, why not? I’ve been on computers since the 80’s. So I went down and took the test.

What I didn’t realize until I started the test was that it was Windows based. (I know - I should have known.) I have been on Macintosh all my life. So I stumbled my way through Word, Access, Powerpoint, and Excel questions. I do use Word, Powerpoint, and Exel on the Mac so I was more intelligent guessing on those. Access - I have no clue. BUT, I managed to get a 86 so I passed!

Now I have to get that transcript sent. I graduated in 1968 from Lewes High School. It has now consolidated into Henlopen High School. All the old records are on microfiche in the town library. It took me four months last time to get one. And the lady who worked there wasn’t too happy about doing it. But, I’m so close to getting that degree, I’m going to call her again!

After I got home, I was a bit sad that I took the test on a whim. I didn’t get an A. Now I’ve messed up my 4.0 that I had! That’s my biggest disappointment! I also have to watch that that doesn’t make my GPA go too low for OSU. I have to get A’s this semester again or I might be in trouble.

If you are a current student, whatever you do, DON”T let you GPA get low. You will suffer for it later!

I just received a letter inviting me to accept membership in Phi Theta Kappa at TCC! PTK is an honor society of the two-year colleges. I only have three classes left at TCC, but I accepted the invitation anyway. There is a meeting next Wednesday that I’ve been invited to to learn more about the society. I’m probably too old to benefit from membership, but it is an honor anyway!

Today I went to the New Media Seminar sponsored by AWC at OSU-Tulsa. It was well worth attending. I learned a lot of good information from the speakers and met some great people in Communications from the Tulsa area.

The Keynote Speaker was Ed Schipul from The Web Marketing Company. He was an exceptional speaker, easy to listen to, and very knowledgeable. Here are some of the technologies that he discussed:

Flicker and Picasa for photos along with showing us some examples of who is using them such as Library of Congress. He also touched some on Creative Commons licensing.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. I was invited to Facebook by a friend and haven’t used it much as you can see. I’m still not sure how to use Twitter!

Social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us and Ma.gnolia.

Social powerpoint sharing through Slideshow.

He talked about blogs and using them to find out what others are saying about your organization using Google Alerts, Google Trends, and Blog Pulse.

I also learned how to use Google Reader to keep up with all my blogs and RSS feeds.

And how to use a search engine for blogs such as Technorati.

A lot of information in a small amount of time. Wish we could have heard more from him.

Dana Sterling gave a seminar on how to started in the blogosphere. She talked about how she resisted it for years, but her love of Lord of the Rings took her to a Discussion Board where she got her first taste of social networking. From there she created her own website and blog and is now quite comfortable with the technology. She talked about how new media is different from old media:

1. Interactive - you can talk back unlike books,TV, radio.

2. The grass roots nature of the content.

3. Convergence - how different technology is used to perform the same task such as a cell phone that includes a chip that can be waved in front of a coke machine to purchase a drink.

I enjoyed her as she brought it down to the everyday person’s level and showed us how we could take advantage of new media.

Finally, I got to talk with Marnie Delcato from Rex Public Relations. This was a special treat because I had just gotten an assignment this week at college to interview a public relations person. One of the choices was Marnie! She worked on the the campaign to make Tulsa Zoo America’s Favorite Zoo and the campaign to get the young people out to vote for the Tulsa River project. It was interesting talking with her about the techniques she used for both campaigns.

Juicy Campus is a gossip Web site about college students that has gotten out of control. Comments about student’s sex life, negative personal appearance, and popularity are all fair game. Students write anything they want about a student under the guise of free speech. It even blocks the writer’s ip address so that no one will know who posted the gossip. It’s so popular that I’m still waiting to get on the site.
Now, many students are calling for college administration to ban the Web site. Here’s a recent article that discusses the free speech issue. What do you think?

Do you get frustrated trying to find what you are looking for on the Internet? I did until I found this “Guide to Effective Searching on the Internet.” This guide will help you learn how to refine your search and use Boolean queries.

I’m doing research on India for my Comparative Justice Systems class and discovered Dayamani Barla. For those of us in journalism, her story is inspiring. Read this brief account of Dayamani Barla posted in Asia Media on Jan. 24.

Today, I went to the Tulsa Chapter of Association for Women in Communications at the Philbrook Museum.

I enjoyed it immensely! The speaker, Sharon King Davis, was very interesting - she talked about Women in Oklahoma History which gave me some ideas of things to add to my Oklahoma History curriculum. The food was fabulous and it was a great place to network. I sat next to two successful women, Kim Fuller and Jane Carlson, and “picked their brains!” Kim Fuller is owner of Kim Fuller Public Affairs and Jane Carlson works for KBEZ 92.9 FM. It was interesting to hear about what they do in their day to day work in the communication field.

For information about a chapter in your area, check out the Women in Communication Web site.

I just received this information from Fastweb.com - a $1000 scholarship for blogging! It’s called Blogging for Progress Scholarship. The goal is to blog for ProgressiveU.org, the New Media Voice for Students and earn points for each blog. The ones with the highest points by June wins the scholarship. Check out the website for more info.