The goal of the h/w and s/w task was to let students understand that modern hardware stretches far beyond CPU, memory, hard drives, monitors, etc. With growing ubiquity of computing and universal connectivity almost ANYTHING can become/play role of hardware & s/w. It can be you refrigerator, pen, glasses, even human brain (remember latest experiments allowing the thought control computers directly). This is why in my comments to some student posts I offered a link to the site showing some interesting examples of "hardwarization" of the world.
Increasing mobile capabilities of an organization means actively research and use the network possibilities among various devices. In the future the Internet will be not for people but mostly for devices to talk to each other (like now the biggest traffic is between the switches (computers managing the networks and the Internet traffic).
Although some good examples were offered by the students - I was hoping to see more research and fantasy in students' posts on this topic. Networking, mobility, distributed and enhanced sensing are changing the very essence of human beings, social structures, and organizations redefining what is a part of an increasingly pervasive concept of an Information System and where their boundaries end.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
More on Course Organization
I want to say a few words about the online organization of this class and its goals (you might use some of this info in your Experiential Learning Report to be written at the end of the semester). The experiential learning in this class is based on learning and working in online environments (versus face-to-face). One of your tasks at the end of this semester will be in showing your understanding of this experience, what you’ve learned from it, what practical skills and orientation you obtained, as well as how it served your better understanding of the subject of the course.
The learning goal of placing students in such environment for this particular course is based on the fact that information systems (as the subject of the course) normally include heavy use of computers in communications, orientation, learning and decision making. In the IS major this introductory course is further enhanced with all those chapters that are in the book - as separate courses. From this point of view, being exposed to computer-mediated activities on your own (without the teacher standing behind your back) is important for the understanding of benefits, difficulties, and problems that have to be addressed during IS use and development. In this course you actively use an original IS, which includes Moodle, Internet, and your local systems, augmented by you, as producers/developers and consumers at the same time (so-called prosumers), with additional system components (like Blogger, Zoho, and others that we will use later), with shared files, user-created content, Q&A knowledge base, learning accounts in these systems, spreadsheets, databases and various means of sharing and publishing information across the set of networks (local and the Internet) – the topic of the next week.
Also, as you’ve noticed, the labs as well as exploration of the material require sufficient feedbacks on the work done, that just cannot be offered in an hour and a half of face-to-face lectures. You probably noticed that in this course you have almost an uninterrupted flow of feedbacks from me and other students (those who ask for help or require some guidance from my point of view – get it whenever necessary). This is impossible in face-to-face formats. I am actually spending much more time on this course than coming twice a week to school. My local network shows the course situation on several screens (along with my ongoing research in artificial intelligence). Your course connectivity is close to modern corporate "always on" status too. This allows for dynamic adjustments, additional explanations, and corrections (impossible in traditional environments). Such flexibility is becoming more and more important in the real world settings when change management is continuous and dynamic with similar continuous and dynamic availability of employees to accept changes, corrections and additional info for adjustments in individual work. And here understanding and experience of IT beyond traditional monthly reports is indispensable.
For organized students the possibility of time management and deciding when and how much time to spend at each particular learning episode is important especially combined with saving time on doing this without commuting efforts. Of course, such benefits are not for all. There are students that feel better in the class and cannot work/learn on their own. This is why the course format is announced in advance and only those who feel that online format is better for their situation are expected in these classes.
The learning goal of placing students in such environment for this particular course is based on the fact that information systems (as the subject of the course) normally include heavy use of computers in communications, orientation, learning and decision making. In the IS major this introductory course is further enhanced with all those chapters that are in the book - as separate courses. From this point of view, being exposed to computer-mediated activities on your own (without the teacher standing behind your back) is important for the understanding of benefits, difficulties, and problems that have to be addressed during IS use and development. In this course you actively use an original IS, which includes Moodle, Internet, and your local systems, augmented by you, as producers/developers and consumers at the same time (so-called prosumers), with additional system components (like Blogger, Zoho, and others that we will use later), with shared files, user-created content, Q&A knowledge base, learning accounts in these systems, spreadsheets, databases and various means of sharing and publishing information across the set of networks (local and the Internet) – the topic of the next week.
Also, as you’ve noticed, the labs as well as exploration of the material require sufficient feedbacks on the work done, that just cannot be offered in an hour and a half of face-to-face lectures. You probably noticed that in this course you have almost an uninterrupted flow of feedbacks from me and other students (those who ask for help or require some guidance from my point of view – get it whenever necessary). This is impossible in face-to-face formats. I am actually spending much more time on this course than coming twice a week to school. My local network shows the course situation on several screens (along with my ongoing research in artificial intelligence). Your course connectivity is close to modern corporate "always on" status too. This allows for dynamic adjustments, additional explanations, and corrections (impossible in traditional environments). Such flexibility is becoming more and more important in the real world settings when change management is continuous and dynamic with similar continuous and dynamic availability of employees to accept changes, corrections and additional info for adjustments in individual work. And here understanding and experience of IT beyond traditional monthly reports is indispensable.
For organized students the possibility of time management and deciding when and how much time to spend at each particular learning episode is important especially combined with saving time on doing this without commuting efforts. Of course, such benefits are not for all. There are students that feel better in the class and cannot work/learn on their own. This is why the course format is announced in advance and only those who feel that online format is better for their situation are expected in these classes.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Enter Zoho
As a part of the educational experience closely related to the week’s topics, you will get to work with spreadsheets (one of the most popular part of any office suits) and social network systems. The main trend now is in moving everything to the Web, which provides much higher connectivity and sensitivity for the components and processes of organizational systems. This is why our Web Development concentration program might be a valuable option for a competitive graduate.
During the course you will be creating an information system of your own using blog software as a platform allowing to place other pieces of the IS/IT puzzle on it in order to obtain the desired functionality. This will allow you to learn IS by developing one, which, in our case, will require no need in programming...
Zoho is, so far, the best online office suite offering Software as a Service (you might want to research the keyword SaaS). We will start with spreadsheet tools that not only allow to do what all spreadsheet software (s/w) allows, but also has extended options for sharing, collaboration, and publishing. Best of all, you need only a browser for work with it. Later we will use some other pieces of their suite.
During the course you will be creating an information system of your own using blog software as a platform allowing to place other pieces of the IS/IT puzzle on it in order to obtain the desired functionality. This will allow you to learn IS by developing one, which, in our case, will require no need in programming...
Zoho is, so far, the best online office suite offering Software as a Service (you might want to research the keyword SaaS). We will start with spreadsheet tools that not only allow to do what all spreadsheet software (s/w) allows, but also has extended options for sharing, collaboration, and publishing. Best of all, you need only a browser for work with it. Later we will use some other pieces of their suite.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
More about systems
Congratulations with the successful start of the course (since you are reading this post :) ! This course is designed to enhance/offer an understanding in systems theory and information systems and technologies in particular. The first week is may be the most important since you are getting here the fundamentals of the "so-called" systems vision. Regardless of the variety of entities and processes surrounding you in your personal or organizational lives a stunning discovery has been made by Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy - the founder of the General System Theory (GST) - that they all are systems. More than that there can be created a science that can cover all types of systems as having common properties, features, and traits. Since then the theory has been evolving and now many organizations require from their leading employees "systems thinking" as ability to apply GST to any situation of any kind that they encounter.
After you get familiar with the main systems concepts we move to the applications of this theory to a specific type of systems – information systems (IS) and information technologies (IT). You will often find a term ICT (information and communication technologies) instead of IT. And finally, we will move to the role of IS/ICT in business and organizational systems. The Information Systems major in the Business School (has a minor too) offers students a professional grasp of the most general and widely useful knowledge, which nowadays is being used in all organizations/jobs – IS/ICT. With deeper knowledge and skills in this area students learn of how to dramatically enhance individual abilities by using various methods, skills, and tools that are offered in the major in order to enhance personal ability of consistently making best decisions under all circumstances, of how to put artificial intelligence to your personal and organizational service, of how to design systems that are the most important competitive resource for individuals and organizations, and how to develop electronic businesses and start-ups. This course offers you a glimpse (although important) into the IS/ICT world.
As one of the extensions of the IS activities we offer a completely online Web Development Certificate Program (just like Business Essentials) increasing your knowledge and skills in developing modern Web-based systems, sites, and organizations. This course might be a good foundation for this program.
There is a lot more to the systems theory than we can fit into this course. Such areas a Complex Systems Theory, Dynamic Systems Theory, Chaos, fractal systems, and Theory of Catastrophes are some of the more specific areas that being actively used in economics, finance, business, marketing analysis, medical and biological studies.
After you get familiar with the main systems concepts we move to the applications of this theory to a specific type of systems – information systems (IS) and information technologies (IT). You will often find a term ICT (information and communication technologies) instead of IT. And finally, we will move to the role of IS/ICT in business and organizational systems. The Information Systems major in the Business School (has a minor too) offers students a professional grasp of the most general and widely useful knowledge, which nowadays is being used in all organizations/jobs – IS/ICT. With deeper knowledge and skills in this area students learn of how to dramatically enhance individual abilities by using various methods, skills, and tools that are offered in the major in order to enhance personal ability of consistently making best decisions under all circumstances, of how to put artificial intelligence to your personal and organizational service, of how to design systems that are the most important competitive resource for individuals and organizations, and how to develop electronic businesses and start-ups. This course offers you a glimpse (although important) into the IS/ICT world.
As one of the extensions of the IS activities we offer a completely online Web Development Certificate Program (just like Business Essentials) increasing your knowledge and skills in developing modern Web-based systems, sites, and organizations. This course might be a good foundation for this program.
There is a lot more to the systems theory than we can fit into this course. Such areas a Complex Systems Theory, Dynamic Systems Theory, Chaos, fractal systems, and Theory of Catastrophes are some of the more specific areas that being actively used in economics, finance, business, marketing analysis, medical and biological studies.
Friday, December 28, 2012
How to use your time more effectively
You online attendance is automatically registered. You are required to log in at least once a day to see if there is any need in your reaction or something new and important has been posted (like help materials and messages regarding the quiz, etc.). The most important parts where you get a lot of explanations saving your thinking time and enhancing the quality of your work can be found in Q&A forums – read them all as I assume that you did it, see the posts of the leading students doing the early work to which I usually comment if there is a way of improving the post. Read the News forum (if there is anything new – since MOST important messages will be posted there). A good way of keeping track of ALL my posts and responses (except of the blog) is to follow the method shown in Q&AW1P2 “How do I keep track of the professor's comments and replies?” Checking the bottom-right pane of the Moodle page for new posts is an easy way to follow the blog changes from the same Moodle page.
Meaning of the Gadget Task in W1P2
After you do T1.6 (adding a gadget to your blog) you should realize that leading blogs are not just diaries but special carriers of various types of media, software objects, and live services that could be placed on them. Such services might include games, live images, GPS-based regional information, current events/weather, and practically and app that you can have on your phone. They can be used for secure group collaboration (adding me as a co-author showed it) and many other features. Later we will use these blog capabilities to build on its base a small networked information system to supplement the theoretical aspects from the textbook. They also have static pages allowing to build real web sites, as well as RSS broadcasting of their content (this is how posts from my blog automatically appear in the bottom-right gadget pane of the Moodle front page).
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