Snow, Plugged-In February 23, 2010
Posted by afoote in : Information Systems, Knowledge Management , add a commentAfter the first month of the spring semester and four feet of snow, the Information Systems department is getting things going. Stevenson was closed for nine days with all of the snow. The IS481 Knowledge and Project Management course was able to continue without disruption while school was closed by using blackboard, email, wikispaces and youtube videos. My other courses were disrupted, but not the IS481 course. The internet does provide a reliable platform for the delivering course materials and the internet never affected by the weather. As a matter of fact the internet never seems to go down.
A recent story in the local paper, the Baltimore Sun, Plugged-in Generation, multi-tasking big time, suggests that children are using electronic devices such as cell phones, ipods, gaming consoles and computers 7.5 hours a day. The article seems to raise some concerns about this behavior. These devices provide entertainment, but as I saw in the recent snow storm it can provide a means to care on educational courses while the schools are closed. Even in the courses that were interrupted by the school closing, students were kept informed of schedule changes and what they needed to have completed when the schools were opened again. Yes, students are using these devices for a large amount of their time, but it is not all bad.
The article made a point of how children are multi-tasking while on the electronic devices. In the 7.5 hours on electronic devices they are doing 11 hours of activity. From my discussions with students they think that this multi-tasking is a commendable skill. Sometimes it does seem to be a valuable skill, but there may be other times when it is not. Texting while driving may be a problem.
As one student in my IS481 class stated “Children that are part of the Net-Generation are still learning how to control new technology. With proper balance and instruction on what is appropriate on the web, that generation will be able to strive to even higher advancements for society.”
It should be an exciting future.