A few notes from week 2 of classes

A Few Canterbury Tales

Wow, since classes began last week, the University of Canterbury has been a frenzy of activity. Faculty are busy cramming information into students' heads and trying to carve out some time for research.

Dr. Linda Jean Kenix and I have adapted my co-authored play Quest for the Clio (RSU, 2006) into Quest for the AXIS. The advertising awards here are so named. We changed some of the references and context to provide a satirical critique of the advertising industry here. Students will perform the one-act play in Dr. Kenix's class in advertising and cultural consumption.

Being a large university, Canterbury has larger class sizes than RSU. The advertising class has 90 students, so the performers will need to project quite a bit. Large classes have tutors for one-on-one instruction, much like RSU's language lab, writing center, and video production tutor. The department has master's and Ph.D. students, but no graduate teaching assistants.

I'm very pleased to read Lindsay Bolt's blog and to see the capstone students' resumes posted. It lets me see a little bit of the activity going on at RSU. The capstone class has really grown, both in size and in the quality of output, since I taught the class in 2006.

Big kudos to our broadcasters who cleaned up at the statewide awards. First-place is hard to come by, and to have so many in one year is stupendous. Congratulations! I imagine Profs. Coomer and Williams are as proud as they can be also.

The big secret I've been keeping is that I hope to do video blogs. Thus far I've been hampered by technical glitches. But I'll know within a couple of days if they will be possible.

In the coming weeks I move from observer to speaker here, with presentations for the University and an area Kiwanis club. Have a great day, Rogers State University! --Jeff G.

Posted 27 February 2013