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Virtualization Continues October 18, 2009

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After a month of using the virtualization process in the Network Technologies and Java Programming course, there have been some problems and other times when the environment has been a great success. Probably the biggest issue has been the large number of students using the environment and the system performance problems.  Perhaps this environment is too popular and there are too many users? Mr. Steven Engorn, the creator and manager of the virtualization effort, has ordered more hard drive space for the system. Mr. Phil Desroiser has been endless working with the system to help make it work better for us. He will be adding the disk space and hopefully the virtual environment will be working better.

 From the success of the project there is discussion of the environment being expanded to more courses and more students having the opportunity to use it next semester. As the Information systems area goes more online and less dependent on the physical classrooms, there are some benefits not only for the school  by reducing costs, but also students. The will not be forced to work in a physical classroom using the university’s computers. They can do their work for class at any computer that has access to the internet and the Stevenson website. This is very appealing to the IS faculty and students alike.

Working in this type of virtual environment not only helps students while attending Stevenson, but also many businesses are using this idea in the workplace. So these skills that are learned at Stevenson will be valuable for gaining employment and used in the workplace. It seems logical that students and faculty in the Information systems area are excited about the virtual environment and hoping for the project to expand.

Changes in the Classroom September 20, 2009

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At the beginning of the IS481, Project and Knowledge Management, course, one of the first assignments is a discussion about how the internet is changing the way that students learn in the classroom. The discussion involves examining some of the remarks that are critical of students and their use of the internet. One student, Catherine McHenry, commented on how the classroom has changed in the last ten years.


“I am at the tail end of the Net Generation, having been born in 1978.  The difference between my first college experience (1996 – 2000) and this one is remarkable; the resources available to me now were unthinkable then.  I did not own my own computer until 1998, when I was a junior in college, but even then projects, papers, homework, etc., involving research meant a physical trip to the library, the card catalogue, and the Dewey Decimal system for information that was potentially out of date.  Now I can access that same information, as well as up-to-the-minute information, from my home.  I defy anyone to say that doing it the old way was “smarter”; the information is better now, as is the access.  Greater effort does not equate to greater intelligence.”


There are challenges associated with the use of the internet in the classroom, but it has a number of advantages also.


Fall 2009- Virtualization Begins August 21, 2009

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The summer is over and next week classes begin. I think we are ready to use the virtualization process in a small number of courses in the IS department. I will use the process in the Networking Technologies and Java Programming courses. Although both courses are in the Information Systems department, Virtualization will be used in different ways. In the networking course the virtualization process will be used to create a virtual network. Students will be accessing and analyzing the network to understand how it is put together. For the Java Programming course, Virtualization will be used to create a secure programming environment. The environment will not be used by anyone other than Java students and we can set up the environment for our unique purposes. There is a web server, two database servers and the programming development environment set up in the Virtual lab.

This semester will be the first semester that a large number of students and users will be using virtualization and we will find out how well the system scales. Most of us that are using virtualization are looking forward to how all of this will work and we are optimistic about it. I think there are about 10 classes and over 100 students that will be using virtualization this semester.

Taxonomy & Creativity July 22, 2009

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With mindmaps a structure of the connections of concepts is developed. Based upon this diagram of concepts a taxonomy is developed connecting the concepts of a domain. This domain can be data in a database, project tasks for a computer project or the concepts that are involved in learning a subject. With the concepts displayed in a taxonomy, others can understand the structure and the relationships involved. One of the negative effects of studying the taxonomy and becoming very knowledgeable about the concepts in the structure is the boundaries that can develop on what the user of the taxonomy understands. This results in a silo style of thinking and limits opportunities for creativity.

 

To encourage creativity it is necessary to develop another seemingly unrelated taxonomy of concepts. This means that there are two taxonomies and analyzing ways to relate the two taxonomies are an opportunity for creativity. As an example of this in the Networking course (IS231), students learn and work with the binary and hex numbering systems. Students learn binary and hexadecimal numbering systems that are used in computer networking and other computer related processes. A taxonomy is developed connecting the concepts of the numbering systems and computers. Another completely unrelated taxonomy is family birthday celebrations. Traditionally there are lighted candles on a birthday cake to help celebrate the age of the individual celebrating a birthday. The two taxonomies seem unrelated, but the binary numbering system can be used to indicate the age of the individual celebrating the birthday. Using the binary technique of lighting or not lighting candles, the person’s age can be represented in a limited number of candles.

Objects & Taxonomy June 22, 2009

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In the IS department at Stevenson University we have been teaching and using object oriented programming and technologies for the past 20 years. We have been discussing how to write programs based upon classes that encapsulate both methods and attributes. Once the objects and classes are specified we have taught how to write programs and develop computer systems using them. But the question that is left unanswered is where the classes and objects come from. How does an organization determine what are the classes that are needed? The traditional answer to this question is frameworks, design patterns, best practices and lessons learned. These tools and techniques are used to organize the software. Another source for determining classes and objects are taxonomies. By building a taxonomy of the application processing, a structure appears. From this structure, attributes and methods can be determined. With attributes and methods, classes can be created. When hierarchical relationships are discovered, inheritance can be used in the creation of the classes. With multiple taxonomies being used in an organization computer system, an ontology can be created showing the relationships between the taxonomies.

 

By having a clear understanding of the taxonomy in the organization’s computer application, this helps the organization exchange data and applications with other organizations. This exchange of data is essential for e-commerce, communication with suppliers and exchanging financial information with banks and the government.  As the internet grows and more data is exchanged, the internet will be seen as a large data repository. Users will be able to use data as is needed.   This is the idea behind the semantic web. When the organization starts from a taxonomy for their own procedure processing to create computer application, the organization is beginning the process to become part of the semantic web.

Changes on College Campuses June 14, 2009

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According to a recent article (May 20, 2009) in US News and World Report, there are 17 Ways College Campuses are changing. At Stevenson University a number these changes can be easily seen. Changes such as first-year experience courses, a number of interdisciplinary programs, an emphasis on “service learning” and studying abroad are all part of the educational environment at Stevenson.

 

One of the changes that the article refers to is the increase use of e-resources. In the last few years the Information Systems department and the entire School of Business and Leadership are seeing increased uses of e-resources in the classes at Stevenson. We use Blackboard as the educational content management resource for classes. Students have online access to the syllabus, assignments, classroom discussions and even tests in this environment. I am a little wary of tests in the online environment, but under the proper situations it can be an effective tool. Blackboard is not the only e-resources that are used, but also wikis and YouTube videos are a part of my classes. In the fall semester we will be using the e-resource of virtualization for needed operating systems, programming and database environments to enhance the learning in the classroom. With these e-resources more education will occur outside of the traditional classroom.  This is different than the way courses were taught ten years ago.

 

The article goes on to discuss a variety of subjects such as the high cost of education and the desire for students to choose a major. Stevenson is similar to other universities on these subjects. For students enter Stevenson in the fall of 2009, be aware of how things have changed in the last ten years. The school is still focused on graduates being able to begin a career this is the same as it was ten years ago. The difference now is that the resources and the environment have had a few changes.

New Chair of Information Systems Department May 28, 2009

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There is a new chair for the Information Systems Department, Dr. Larry Burgee. He will take over the department for the Fall Semester 2009. With the new School of Business and Leadership, virtualization and the development of online learning programs, Dr. Burgee will be very busy over the next few months.

With the arrival of Dr. Burgee, this means that Mr. Ken Snyder will no longer be the head of the Information Systems Department. As head of the department, Ken did an incredible job and we deeply appreciate his leadership over the last few years. He developed the Networking track and the Forensic Studies. He moved the program from a COBOL and mainframe based operating environment to a PC based environment. He established the core courses for the Information Systems department and all of this while he was still teaching the capstone courses in the AIT graduate program. As an indication of Ken’s impact, look at the success of the students that have graduated from the IS program and the job opportunities that are available to them.

All of us in the Information Systems are looking forward to working with Dr. Burgee, but we certainly need to say thank you to Mr. Ken Snyder for everything he has done to improve the IS programs and provide the best education possible for our students.

IS Graduation 2009 May 12, 2009

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Another group of Information Systems (IS) students are graduating. Even in this horrible economy a large number of the IS graduating students have been able to find full time employment opportunities in the Baltimore area. There even a few graduating seniors that have multiple offers and are trying to make a decision between two very good organizations. The Career Services area just does an incredible job finding opportunities for our students. Some of the students started working as interns for these companies during their sophomore and junior years. Now as they graduate they have the needed skills to be successful employees and begin their careers.

 

At the end of the IS481 course, we watch Steve Jobs graduation speech from 2005 at Stanford University. This year with Steve again having health issues the speech is even more powerful. Steve closes the speech with the farewell message from The Whole Earth Catalog. As our IS students graduate from Stevenson University, that is the message I would like to send to all of them.

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish”

Virtualization for Information Systems March 30, 2009

Posted by afoote in : Information Systems, Uncategorized , 2comments

The Information Systems department is analyzing virtualization for course delivery. One of the major issues in teaching Information Systems (IS) courses is the setup of the physical computers that the course is being taught with. In the ideal world the IS program would only teach a limited number of courses all using the same Operating Systems, Database Management Systems, Web Environments and networking environments. Unfortunately this does not happen at Stevenson University. We teach courses using Windows XP, MS Access, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Visual Studio as the primary operating environment. In our efforts to prepare students for employment in the computer industry, courses need to be taught that do not use the primary operating environment. We do teach courses in Unix and other networking configurations. We do teach courses that use Oracle, IBM DB2 and MySQL as the Database Management System. The overhead of time and money that is involved with setting up computer labs for the different environments is a challenge. For the students there is the challenge of an assignment that needs to be completed in an unusual operating environment. Where does the student find a computer that will have the needed software and network available to complete the assignment?

The process we are looking at is to have the computer environment needed for the course to be residing on a server on the school network. As a student needs a particular computer configuration, the student will select the environment from a menu and the operating system, database management system and web configuration will be setup for the student to perform their course work. The environment resides on the server and is not using the operating system and network of the computer the student is using. This is similar to the computer terminals of the mainframe environment of twenty years ago. The student will use the computer configuration delivered from the server for the work that is needed and close the system when the session is over. The next student will be able to select the computer configuration that is needed without making any changes to the computer that is being used. 

Over the years we have tried a number of strategies to solve this issue including portable hard drives and setting special classrooms for particular courses. These strategies all have had limited success and students have had limited access to the environments outside of class time.  With virtualization we are hoping to solve these problems and possibly find ideas for delivering computer technology courses for the web based e-learning environment.

Information Systems Not Computer Science March 20, 2009

Posted by afoote in : Information Systems, Uncategorized , add a comment

 

The computer program at Stevenson University is Information Systems or Information Technology. The program is not Computer Science. There is nothing wrong with computer science programs and they are extremely important to the computer field, but at Stevenson University the program is information systems (IS).

According to Wikipedia, a computer science program is focused on the properties of programs used to implement software such as web browsers, operating systems or database management systems. Information systems  is focused on systems, data and the activities of individuals to process that information in an organization.

The Information systems program is part of the School of Business and Leadership and focuses courses on systems needed by business. The program studies how operating systems, web browsers, network operating systems and database management systems can by used to process information. All of the courses work with business applications, such as accounting, marketing or management.

Usually in a computer science program there is an abundance of mathematics involved in the computer work. For the IS program there is a smaller amount of mathematics required with Statistics and Algebra being the major courses.

At Stevenson University our Information Systems (IS) program is divided in three major parts with additional programs branching off from them. The Software Design track is concerned with programming and business application development. The Network Design track is concerned with setting up networks for business and the Business Information Systems track is concerned with using computers in the business. This program studies how a business would use networks, databases and the web.