Ending on a Good Note - I Can See Clearer Now

            As this course Leadership and Media Strategies comes to a close in a few days, I must admit that from beginning to end the materials have helped me to learn so much about myself, my professional life and the amazing world around me.  Starting out with Diffusion of Innovations and ending with a look at the future and leadership, as a strategic communication student, I know that I have so much to learn and so much to contribute as a result of this class. It is interesting that one of our final TED Talk videos featured Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.  A few years ago, I quoted her when a colleague questioned the leadership ability of a bossy 18-year-old.  I told the group that Sandburg suggests that instead of dismissing a young lady off as bossy, why not look at her bossiness as a strength, a great leadership trait. She said that a young boy being called bossy fits right in with society, but that people look at bossy young ladies in a different, negative light.  Sandberg is so right in pointing out how society treats women differently than men. I am glad that I recognized this years ago. Now I work to help young ladies tap into their true leadership abilities early on in life, even the bossy ones, like Sandberg encourages us to do.   

            Early on in this course while looking at Diffusion of Innovations, I fit in with the Newsasaurs, steadfastly holding on to some old methods of communications while on the outside looking in on the new amazing technological innovations that I see my younger students and colleagues using all the time.  It was during these early weeks that my curiosity began to work with my creative spirit.  As I have said before in this class, I have been out of college for a long time, and while beginning graduate school, I really started out with more questions than answers.  I wanted my master’s but it was hard pinpointing what field of study since I have gained much more exposure to different subjects since receiving my bachelor’s.  The one thing that I have always cherished is my creativity but sometimes that has limited me professionally.  Just like one of our TED Talk speakers this week, John Maeda, when people realize that I am smart, they applaud me, but when I say that I am artistic, the reaction is much different.  Thanks to this and most of the TED Talks this term, I have found vital information that is helping me to better plot my path for my future career. I am also learning and using more things from this class to better engage and help my high school students to plan their futures.  

            Like John Maeda, who is featured in the TED Talk “How Art, Technology and Design Inform Creative Leaders,” I see art in most things.  I work in higher education, and some people here and some family and friends still do not see the significance that art plays in society or what I can do with it career-wise to make a difference.  This is my favorite of all of the TED Talk videos this term because it helped me to realize that even though I do not know exactly what I want to do with gained knowledge from this graduate program that I am right on track to finding my way.  Maeda points out that technology makes possibilities, design makes solutions, art makes questions and leadership makes action. It is the combination of all of these factors that makes great leadership in any organization, and as a communication professional, being aware of these things will help me to use all of my talents and the talents of everyone around me to create better engagement. 

            When I began this class, I did not realize how important the Internet and social media played in everyday professional communication practices.  I often call myself old-school because up until now my main use for social media was getting in touch with old friends and family that I haven’t communicated with in decades.  I often thought that my young students were wasting their time by always being on social media. Technological advances like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the many Internet crazes that pop up every day can be put to so many good uses in strategic communications.  As a matter of fact, thanks to this class and some tech-savvy students, I am already learning to incorporate them.  Again, I work to prepare high school students for college.  Now I am posting more on Facebook that will help my students.  I am writing a script for some learning materials and hoping to produce a video for YouTube.  I am thinking about beginning a personal blog for a couple of my passions and hoping to gain a following and help people.  It is funny how at the end of this course, I have become a major target of the Diffusion of Innovations. 

            I am happy with my progress.  Another TED Talk feature this week included a cancer doctor from 2011 talking about all of the amazing possibilities in medicine that can result from “exponential technologies.”  Dr. Daniel Kraft, in “Medicine’s Future? There’s an App for That” said in 2011 that there were around 22,000 apps available.  Out of curiosity, I found on the website The Statistics Portal that there were over 2 million apps now available between IPhone and Android users.  What a growth, and the possibilities are endless.  Just as technology grows and continues to grow exponentially, I am growing also.  I cannot say that my growth this term is exactly exponentially.  I am growing slowly but greatly by combining my creativity with the arsenal of technological advances that exist. This will help me to grow as a strategic communication professional and in other areas of my life. 

            Yes, I still hold onto my old tried and true methods of communications, but now I am open to and using new methods that present endless possibilities.  Going back to Maeda, he says that he realized, “It isn’t about old or new.  It’s about something in between.  It isn’t about old, the dirt; new, the cloud.  It’s about what is good, a combination of the cloud and the dirt is where the action is.” Leadership is about action, and I am finding that in me. I look forward to tapping into my old-school capabilities and merging them with all of the new-school technological advances and producing some great materials in the future.  After all, as communication professionals, this is the future. We have to take what has worked in the past and incorporate it with what works in the present and the future and keep up with communication trends in order to be effective. To think, at the beginning of this course, I didn’t have a clue, technologically. Thanks, Dr. Padgett, for all of the possibilities to which you have introduced me.