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January 29, 2007

Joe Hoyle, Master Teacher

Last week, Bill Beville, the Prentice-Hall sales professional in eastern Virginia, introduced me to Joe Hoyle, the David Meade White Distinguished Teaching Fellow in the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond.

Joe is a veritable fountain of great ideas on teaching.  He's published a (free for download) book on Tips and Thoughts on Improving Teaching which you can download from here.  The book has 35 days worth of exercises and thoughts for teaching.  Although Joe teaches financial accounting, all of his thoughts are pertinent to those of us who teach MIS.

One of Joe's ideas is to ask the students who earned an A in his class to write a memo to future students explaining how to obtain an A.  A sample of one term's memos is here.

Joe doesn't want to waste the first class period, so he sends an email to his students before their first class meeting.  In that email he describes his expectations, sets out classwork ethics standards, provides other class background, and gives the first assignment.  He wants to start everyone off with an expectation of hard work.

I'll be featuring more of his ideas here, but if you're intrigued, it's well worth downloading his book.

Thanks to Bill for the introduction and to Joe for being so generous with his materials!

Posted by DavidK at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

Q4 of 25 Questions about a Career in IS:

The IS discipline has many varied and interesting careers.  One way to think about them is to consider the five components of an information system:  hardware, software, data, procedures, and people.  Consider the following careers for each component:

People

Many information systems careers involve working with people.  Computer sales people sell hardware, network services, software, database consulting, and other systems services.  Such sales people must possess sophisticated knowledge of their customers and their industry as well as have broad knowledge of the capabilities of their products.  Sales support personnel assist the sales personnel with the installation and use of the product either pre- or post-sale.  Sales support personnel are usually more technical than sales people and are trained to give in-depth demonstrations of their products.

Computer support personnel assist system users.  They may work on telephone support, or they may write documentation for the support web site. Some support personnel work in the offices of the users whom they support.  Computer training personnel teach users how to employ the information system to accomplish their job tasks.

Change agents specialize in helping users adapt to new or modified information systems.  Typically, users resist change and it is the responsibility of a change agent to determine the source of the resistance and to help users overcome their reluctance to adapt to the new system.   

Procedures

Every information system has procedures for use.  Systems analysts work with users to determine, early in a project, what the information system is supposed to accomplish.  Systems analysts interview users to specify the features and functions that are needed.  Then, systems analysts work with other IS professionals to design and document procedures.  They coordinate with system support personnel for the development of training materials.

Technical writers develop documentation for using the system.  Some writers create the help text within computer programs, some create external documentation on a web site or other facility, and still others create training materials.  Technical writers need strong writing skills, an empathy for the user, and a fearless ability to dive into complicated subjects.

Data

Three job titles are common for the data component.  Database designers meet with users and systems analysts and create a data model of how the users view their data.  They then transform the data model into a database design.  Some database designers alter existing database designs to adapt to new or changed requirements.  Database design requires someone with both effective communications skills and strong conceptual thinking abilities.

Databases are shared resources and subject to conflict and misuse.  Database administrators establish policies and procedures for controlling and protecting a database.  A large database may be supported by an office of database administration.  Most database administrators have strong database skills.

Data administration is an enterprise-wide function that concerns the effective use and control of an organization's data assets.  A data administrator (or office of data administration) works with top management to set organizational data policy (for example, privacy restrictions on customer data) and to ensure that effective controls exist for protecting the organization's data.  Data administration requires strategic thinking and strong diplomacy skills more that it requires technical knowledge.

Software

The common jobs involving software are computer programmers and software testers.  Programmers design and code computer programs and software testers evaluate those programs against their specifications.  Maintenance programmers are entry level programmers who adapt existing programs to meet new or changed requirements,  Today, much software testing is done by automated systems and some software testers are also programmers who write the testing programs.

Some IS professionals install, tune, and test pre-built or licensed software.  These people, who may have been trained as programmers, do not actually design or write the computer code, but instead install an existing software product in a customer's site, tune that product to best meet the customer's needs, and test the installation.  

Hardware

Jobs for this component involve setting up and operating computer hardware and networks.  The titles system administrator and network administrator are common.  Such people setup new hardware, install components, and they sometimes repair computer and network gear.

 

         

Posted by DavidK at 09:06 AM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2007

Q3 of 25 Questions about a Career in IS:

What is the Difference between Computer Science and Information Systems?

Computer science deals primarily with the software component of an information system.  Computer scientists learn how to write efficient and effective computer programs.  They also study database design and the efficient processing of databases.  Computer scientists are normally not concerned with the design and development of computer hardware; usually that topic is addressed in electrical engineering programs.  Computer science courses are taught in the College of Engineering.

IS students are concerned with the application of information systems to help organizations achieve their goals and objectives by creating competitive advantages, enabling organizational cost savings, solving problems, and so forth.  Information systems deal with all five components of an information system.  Information systems courses are taught in the College of Business.

Someone who specializes in IS needs to know not only technology, but also business.  An IS professional needs to know the fundamentals of accounting, management, marketing, finance, organizational behavior and strategy, as well as other business topics.  IS professionals do not need to be as technical as computer scientists, though some are.  IS professionals are like cultural brokers; they bridge between the needs of an organization and the capabilities of information technology.

Posted by DavidK at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

Half of Today's Students Are below Average in Intelligence (!)

Heading is a quote from the first of a series of three back-to-back editorials in last week's Wall Street Journal.  Written by Charles Murray, the editorials examine the limits created by intelligence in educational experience.  In the first, he wonders if we are not attempting to educate students beyond their capacities to learn:

"Our ability to improve the academic accomplishment of students in the lower half of the distribution of intelligence is severely limited. It is a matter of ceilings. Suppose a girl in the 99th percentile of intelligence, corresponding to an IQ of 135, is getting a C in English. She is underachieving, and someone who sets out to raise her performance might be able to get a spectacular result. Now suppose the boy sitting behind her is getting a D, but his IQ is a bit below 100, at the 49th percentile.

"We can hope to raise his grade. But teaching him more vocabulary words or drilling him on the parts of speech will not open up new vistas for him. It is not within his power to learn to follow an exposition written beyond a limited level of complexity, any more than it is within my power to follow a proof in the American Journal of Mathematics. In both cases, the problem is not that we have not been taught enough, but that we are not smart enough."

Posted by DavidK at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

The Need for Respectable Vocational Education

Murray continues in his second editorial by reiterating his thesis:

"It is possible for someone with an IQ of 100 to sit in the lectures of Economics 1, read the textbook, and write answers in an examination book. But students who cannot follow complex arguments accurately are not really learning economics. They are taking away a mishmash of half-understood information and outright misunderstandings that probably leave them under the illusion that they know something they do not. (A depressing research literature documents one's inability to recognize one's own incompetence.) Traditionally and properly understood, a four-year college education teaches advanced analytic skills and information at a level that exceeds the intellectual capacity of most people.

And then he argues for socially respectable vocational training:

"No data that I have been able to find tell us what proportion of those students really want four years of college-level courses, but it is safe to say that few people who are intellectually unqualified yearn for the experience, any more than someone who is athletically unqualified for a college varsity wants to have his shortcomings exposed at practice every day. They are in college to improve their chances of making a good living. What they really need is vocational training. But nobody will say so, because 'vocational training' is second class. 'College' is first class."

"Combine those who are unqualified with those who are qualified but not interested, and some large proportion of students on today's college campuses--probably a majority of them--are looking for something that the four-year college was not designed to provide. Once there, they create a demand for practical courses, taught at an intellectual level that can be handled by someone with a mildly above-average IQ and/or mild motivation."

(Italics mine.)

I think his argument is valid, but it suffers from a static definition of what is a college education.  In fact, many collegiate institutions are responding to the demand for practical courses and providing courses for students with mild motivation.  This make them less collegiate only if we define college as Murray does. 

Posted by DavidK at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)

Education for the Gifted

His third editorial argues for special education of those students with an IQ above 120.

"The encouragement of wisdom requires a special kind of education. It requires first of all recognition of one's own intellectual limits and fallibilities--in a word, humility. This is perhaps the most conspicuously missing part of today's education of the gifted. Many high-IQ students, especially those who avoid serious science and math, go from kindergarten through an advanced degree without ever having a teacher who is dissatisfied with their best work and without ever taking a course that forces them to say to themselves, 'I can't do this.' Humility requires that the gifted learn what it feels like to hit an intellectual wall, just as all of their less talented peers do, and that can come only from a curriculum and pedagogy designed especially for them. That level of demand cannot fairly be imposed on a classroom that includes children who do not have the ability to respond. The gifted need to have some classes with each other not to be coddled, but because that is the only setting in which their feet can be held to the fire."

"In short, I am calling for a revival of the classical definition of a liberal education, serving its classic purpose: to prepare an elite to do its duty. If that sounds too much like Plato's Guardians, consider this distinction. As William F. Buckley rightly instructs us, it is better to be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard University. But we have that option only in the choice of our elected officials. In all other respects, the government, economy and culture are run by a cognitive elite that we do not choose. That is the reality, and we are powerless to change it. All we can do is try to educate the elite to be conscious of, and prepared to meet, its obligations. For years, we have not even thought about the nature of that task. It is time we did."

Worth reading all three editorials.

Posted by DavidK at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2007

I Wish This Didn't Seem Familiar ...

A student was asked to explain the impact of Roe vs. Wade on the American political system.  He thought hard and eventually answered, "Well, that was one of the key decisions that General Washington had to make before crossing the Delaware."

In a similar note, I saw the following bumper sticker today:

    "As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools."

Posted by DavidK at 05:32 PM | Comments (0)

2007 Resolutions

I let blogging slide last fall, partly because I was busy getting a new book out, but also because I lacked focus.  Blogging about MIS education is too broad, at least for me.  I'm thinking this year I will focus on two phenomena:

Posted by DavidK at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)

I Just Don't Get It

I've just returned from the Prentice-Hall National Sales Meeting in which the sales reps learn about new books and new products.  It's a great meeting ... I'm so impressed with the dedication of everyone to learn as much as they can about their products.

There are about 500 people at the meeting and as I walked through the hallways it seemed to me that about every third person was using the term database.

"I'll check my database on that."

"He keeps all the contacts in a database."

"Our new database marketing system identifies key opportunities"

"Let's create a database of the events and sponsors ..."    

Now, database technology is my thing and I'm attuned to that term, but even still, it seems like database was constantly in use.

If that is the case, why are our MIS database classes empty?  Why do we have five students when a few years ago we had three sections of 35?

Here are some possibilities that come to mind:

  1. All the databases are already developed as part of licensed software
  2. All the database jobs went overseas
  3. Microsoft Access is so easy to use that no one needs a database class
  4. The U.S. is creating a huge shortfall of IS professionals
  5. We are doing a terrible job at marketing the IS profession

Can anyone think of other explanations?

In the weeks to come, I'd want to investigate these and other possibilities on this blog.

Posted by DavidK at 05:28 PM | Comments (0)

Introducting 25 Questions about a Career in IS

Meanwhile, regardless of the answers to possibilities 1-4, above, I know that number 5 is true.  The experience of Elota Patton at UT, Austin, indicates that better marketing can raise enrollments by 40 percent or more.

So, in the next several months, I want to answer 25 Questions about a Career in IS.  I hope these questions will be useful to you and that you can share and discuss them with your students.  The Intro to MIS class is our best chance for increasing IS enrollments.

So, here are answers to my first two questions:

Posted by DavidK at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)

25 Questions about a Career in IS, Q1:

What Are the Elements of an Information System?

An information system consists of five components:

    Hardware, Software, Data, Procedures, and People.

Notice that an information system has a "hard side" Hardware and Software and a "soft side" Procedures and People.

Posted by DavidK at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)

25 Questions about a Career in IS, Q2:

Why is IS Not the Same as Computer Programming?

Computer programming involves only one of the five components of an information system.  The other components must be developed and managed as well.

For example, what is the best way to enroll for classes?  Does your university have the best possible procedures?  Are all of the users (you, faculty, TAs, admins, department heads) well trained?  Is there a better way?  What is the procedure for attempting to enroll in a closed class?  Is it the best way?

Someone designed the procedures to use.  Those people were not computer programmers; they were, in fact, social scientists.  When creating the system they had to consider how people work, how they are motivated, how they manipulate for self-interest, how they resist change, etc.

If you like people, if you like orderly processes, if you like thinking about the best way for a group of people to interact, you might be interested in a career in IT.

  

Posted by DavidK at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)