Sherry Turkle, Patricia Diaz Dennis, et al., from Living in the Information Age
As a young woman soon entering in the workplace, I had a particular interest in this article. Turkle and Dennis are concise and direct in their assessment that the technological education of girls needs to begin in the K-12 area and continue through high school and college. Their main concerns are that technology is not created with women in mind (as the creators are men), and that current cultural ideas and action circulating among women regarding technology point out the deficits and short comings of current technology education methods.
They point to the lack of "quality of educational software" as well as few, if any, "opportunities to design" programs and software that can be used to best suit needs across disciplines in a single classroom.
While all of this is true and extremely relevant to the students at Saint Mary's, what I would have liked to see fewer bullet points and more discussion. Perhaps I'm just a HUSTian at heart and have been trained to read rather than scan; I do know, however, that more things can be said in a essay than can be said in a set of bullet points. But I digress from the point of things.
My actual and non-superficial critique of the article is that Turkle and Dennis seem to have forgotten one key detail in the implementation of new technology methods in the lower divisions and new pedagogy in higher ed: support. I.e., Money. American greenbacks make the US school systems go 'round, and without financial support from tax payers, administrators in the individual school systems, parental involvement and support, the change will not occur. I can easily identify with the problems, as several, if not all, of their changes should be made within my high school. Seeing as I still have siblings in that school system and the high school itself, I've heard many a tale of what's changed and who's left and who's replaced them. What I haven't heard is that improvements have been made to the computer labs, the teachers' computers themselves, or that software upgrades have been purchased. Oh, I'm sure certain upgrades have happened - I'm betting that all the Dell's are running XP Pro by now, and that the single Mac lab has one of the last three OS upgrades.
Most school systems (based on what I know of the school systems in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties) don't have a large budget marked out for computers and technology. The ones that do are typically one of the magnet schools that specifically use technology for art or science. The liberal arts' relationship with technology is non-existent as far as high schools are concerned, suffering from some misconception that all liberal arts folks need is an OS and MS Office (Which is completely incorrect and crazy, I don't know what I'd do with a computer on which I could only write papers. Maybe use it as a paperweight?).
Other problems rear their head in the issue of funding. Thanks to the Bush Administration's infinite levels of unquestionable wisdom, most teachers don't have the time to worry about giving their students a comprehensive education that includes decent computer knowledge (and I don't mean programming or building from scratch; we're talking basic "this is Office and it's a set of programs that make your life easy;" the distinctions between web browsers and e-mail clients, etc.). Instead of learning new techniques, ideas, and software and then incorporating that into the curriculum, teachers are forced to spend time going over basics in reading, writing and math so that students can take pointless, ridiculous standardized tests which then determine a great many fates: the student, the teacher, the school and even the school system. No Child Left Behind places an emphasis on a sort of false holistic approach to education and leaves no room for individual learning and teaching styles, forgetting that the world is a dynamic place.
(I shall endeavor to leave that soapbox; I obviously have a deep and long-standing dislike of NCLB, having been the first graduating class that suffered under its delusions of success and grandeur. I make no apologies for it, however, and never will.)
However, it is my deepest hope that as more women join the technology field, it will be seen as more socially acceptable, feasible, and even promotable to increase the availability to computer classes to young women, as well as teaching styles from the beginning. I do have one thing that I would like to add to Turkle and Dennis' ideas: the expectation of computer competence. When parents and teachers begin to treat young women as a) competent computer users and b) give the proper guidance and tools (which is largely influenced by economic status, I am aware), then female students will not feel that this is a boys' realm. It will become simply a skill to possess, like spelling or addition. Non-gendered and demanded is my hope, I suppose. Let's see how long that actually takes.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Helpdesk Tracking Systems; or, A Shout Out to Bonnie and Sue (and Nate, too!)
One of the best parts of any job is the perks. To be honest, there aren't too many perks in the world of student workers. Some of IT student workers have it a little better than others on campus: ResNet and Helpdesk girls get Fishsticks (flashdrives), one week early move-in during the Fall, and easy access to a printer from 8-5pm (all wonderful things!).
One of my personal favorite parts, though, is working with the IT staff to bring new things to the dept. and to campus. One of our current projects is researching and the eventual implementation of a new task/inventory tracking system for the Helpdesk. As much as we all "love" the current system (and by "love," I mean despise), a new and functional tracking system is long overdue.
Kathy, Sue, Bonnie, Nate, Francis, myself and other members of IT put together a list of wanted and needed features for a new program last semester, and Kathy spearheaded the hunt. We've had meetings with two vendors already, with two more to come. We've looked at everything from open source to "everything in the box - the KBOX" and we've come across a variety of ideas, costs, and capabilities of programs, with some very interesting conversations along the way.
One of the things that we've discovered is that most of the programs include an inventory bit, which we currently don't have. The impact of this feature is that instead of HDCs (Helpdesk Consultants) having to remember to ask for this information from users (as there's no field to remind us), the program will tell us what that user has. I do a little dance of joy at the thought of no more confusion: "Do you have a Mac or a PC?" "What kind of PC?" "What model of [Dell, MPC, etc.]?" "Laptop, desktop?" and my personal favorite: "What kind of printer are you talking about?" We'll be handed the information!
The really exciting feature for the HDCs is that all of the programs can be tied to the LDAP server. In other words, tied to the ePhonebook, eliminating a step in our already laborious process of creating a record. Other fun features include user and machine history databases, user-created tickets, and automatic replies to users.
I think that the best part of this, as I mentioned earlier, was that we're bringing something new to SMC. We're offering better service, and a faster turnaround time on responses and the like. We're also learning how to use a new piece of software that will prepare some of us for other IT positions or jobs that use large-scale ticket systems. And we're offering faculty and staff a chance to be more involved with their computers as they enter their own problem. They'll learn about their computer in the process, hopefully.
A different aspect of this process is that I get to work more closely with members of IT that I normally wouldn't. Sue, Bonnie and Nate spend a lot of time running around campus, fixing computers. I have a chance to interact with them in a new facet; I have a better understanding of what they need to do their jobs. It's always interesting to have a product meeting with them, because they have questions that I never would have thought to ask but I know will help the HDCs and the Helpdesk, simply because I don't do their jobs.
So here's to Bonnie, Sue, and Nate - for doing an awesome job of keeping the profs (and therefore us!) and the College's computers happy!
One of my personal favorite parts, though, is working with the IT staff to bring new things to the dept. and to campus. One of our current projects is researching and the eventual implementation of a new task/inventory tracking system for the Helpdesk. As much as we all "love" the current system (and by "love," I mean despise), a new and functional tracking system is long overdue.
Kathy, Sue, Bonnie, Nate, Francis, myself and other members of IT put together a list of wanted and needed features for a new program last semester, and Kathy spearheaded the hunt. We've had meetings with two vendors already, with two more to come. We've looked at everything from open source to "everything in the box - the KBOX" and we've come across a variety of ideas, costs, and capabilities of programs, with some very interesting conversations along the way.
One of the things that we've discovered is that most of the programs include an inventory bit, which we currently don't have. The impact of this feature is that instead of HDCs (Helpdesk Consultants) having to remember to ask for this information from users (as there's no field to remind us), the program will tell us what that user has. I do a little dance of joy at the thought of no more confusion: "Do you have a Mac or a PC?" "What kind of PC?" "What model of [Dell, MPC, etc.]?" "Laptop, desktop?" and my personal favorite: "What kind of printer are you talking about?" We'll be handed the information!
The really exciting feature for the HDCs is that all of the programs can be tied to the LDAP server. In other words, tied to the ePhonebook, eliminating a step in our already laborious process of creating a record. Other fun features include user and machine history databases, user-created tickets, and automatic replies to users.
I think that the best part of this, as I mentioned earlier, was that we're bringing something new to SMC. We're offering better service, and a faster turnaround time on responses and the like. We're also learning how to use a new piece of software that will prepare some of us for other IT positions or jobs that use large-scale ticket systems. And we're offering faculty and staff a chance to be more involved with their computers as they enter their own problem. They'll learn about their computer in the process, hopefully.
A different aspect of this process is that I get to work more closely with members of IT that I normally wouldn't. Sue, Bonnie and Nate spend a lot of time running around campus, fixing computers. I have a chance to interact with them in a new facet; I have a better understanding of what they need to do their jobs. It's always interesting to have a product meeting with them, because they have questions that I never would have thought to ask but I know will help the HDCs and the Helpdesk, simply because I don't do their jobs.
So here's to Bonnie, Sue, and Nate - for doing an awesome job of keeping the profs (and therefore us!) and the College's computers happy!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Somehow, it's already Week 4 of classes...
...and time stops for no one. The last few weeks I've been absent due to workings on my HUST comp, but I thought perhaps a quick update on things IT and Communications-related wouldn't go amiss.
The IT Strategic Plan is taking shape, bit by bit. A meeting between section leaders, Janice and myself took place in the first week of classes and it was decided that we would be using Google Docs to put the major pieces of the Plan together. By using Google Docs, rather than a shared space on th network, emailing a Word document back and forth, or any of the wealth of possible solutions to working collaboratively, we're able to add, remove, move around, undo, redo, cut, copy and paste to our hearts' content. Revisions are saved on Google's massive array of servers, enabling us to go back and use data previously removed. Additionally, we're able to tell who made what revisions. It makes for a very nice cohesive (and free!) web-based program for the huge amounts of collaborative work that we're doing for the Plan.
However, my favorite part of all this is purely from selfish reasons: I'm the master editor for the final draft! With everyone working like this, my job will be made much, much easier in the end. All I have to do it take the documents, download them onto my computer as Word documents, put them together and load it back up into the Google Docs for everyone to review. Love it!
Other news from the IT front is that once again, a student body election platform ran, promising crazy technological advancements. HDCs and RCCs (and a couple of ClusCons) laughed at the ideas proposed. One of their claims was wireless in LeMans and Holy Cross Halls, which is planned for the future, but they said that they would move budgets around so that it would be finished by the end of the summer. Right. Of course they'll be able to do that. The student body presidnt/vp positions are nothing to sneeze at, in terms of influence for the college, but one thing these two seemed to have missed is that they have no control over IT's budget and certainly not the greater college's.
Other than that, I worked with Hayley and Kathy at the beginning of the semester to get the transfer students up and running with IDs and email accounts, which went swimmingly and was nothing compared to the Fall Invasion (almost 500 freshman plus everyone else registering computers, asking for assistance and getting accounts/IDs sorted out. Always a barrel of monkeys!).
The IT Strategic Plan is taking shape, bit by bit. A meeting between section leaders, Janice and myself took place in the first week of classes and it was decided that we would be using Google Docs to put the major pieces of the Plan together. By using Google Docs, rather than a shared space on th network, emailing a Word document back and forth, or any of the wealth of possible solutions to working collaboratively, we're able to add, remove, move around, undo, redo, cut, copy and paste to our hearts' content. Revisions are saved on Google's massive array of servers, enabling us to go back and use data previously removed. Additionally, we're able to tell who made what revisions. It makes for a very nice cohesive (and free!) web-based program for the huge amounts of collaborative work that we're doing for the Plan.
However, my favorite part of all this is purely from selfish reasons: I'm the master editor for the final draft! With everyone working like this, my job will be made much, much easier in the end. All I have to do it take the documents, download them onto my computer as Word documents, put them together and load it back up into the Google Docs for everyone to review. Love it!
Other news from the IT front is that once again, a student body election platform ran, promising crazy technological advancements. HDCs and RCCs (and a couple of ClusCons) laughed at the ideas proposed. One of their claims was wireless in LeMans and Holy Cross Halls, which is planned for the future, but they said that they would move budgets around so that it would be finished by the end of the summer. Right. Of course they'll be able to do that. The student body presidnt/vp positions are nothing to sneeze at, in terms of influence for the college, but one thing these two seemed to have missed is that they have no control over IT's budget and certainly not the greater college's.
Other than that, I worked with Hayley and Kathy at the beginning of the semester to get the transfer students up and running with IDs and email accounts, which went swimmingly and was nothing compared to the Fall Invasion (almost 500 freshman plus everyone else registering computers, asking for assistance and getting accounts/IDs sorted out. Always a barrel of monkeys!).
Sunday, December 30, 2007
The Beginnings
Welcome, one and all, to Erin's InfoTech blog!
The purpose of this blog is to post weekly reflections from my upcoming internship with the Saint Mary's College Dept. of Information Technology. The internship is made possible through a collaborative effort of IT and the Communication Dept., as I will be examining the multiple and diverse roles of communication within the Saint Mary's community. I will be working with various members of the IT Dept. and with Dr. Vince Berdayes of the Comm. Dept to understand communication made possible by and within Info Tech as it relates to Saint Mary's. Special thanks go to Kathy Hausmann and Dan Mandell for helping me develop this internship, providing assistance and encouragement.
Communication has always fascinated me. Especially remote communication. As a Humanistic Studies major and an Anthropology minor, I have long been interesting in how the past communicates to the present, how the present will communicate to the future, and how different cultures communicate with each other. Preservation of information, whether it be user manuals, diaries or clay accounting ledgers, is something every single culture (past, present, and future) attempts. Some are more successful than others, but no one and nothing desires to be forgotten. The difference between past civilizations and the current world we live in is that we possess marvels that were unimaginable 20, 30 years ago. We are able to communicate with members of our own community at miraculous speeds, even though they are across campus. Through simple web-based application as e-mail and instant messaging, we can talk in "real" time with friends, coworkers, professors, family and classmates no matter their location on- or off-campus.
This kind of remote technology is dependent on many people, much time, and a LOT of hard work. The folks in the IT Dept. work some pretty insane hours, all for the good of the college, its students, its faculty and its staff. Through their diligence and skill, we have a (relatively) functional e-mail, a huge set of databases, a LDAP server that does just about everything, and a whole host of things of which I know nothing. That is one of the major aims of this next semester: learning what makes an IT dept. tick, and how communication (verbal, non-verbal, text, etc.) makes it all possible. What is "good" communication, and what is "bad"? What forms are most or least effective; does that change when dealing with different constituents (students, faculty, staff, IT staff specifically)? What kinds of information do members of the community want to hear about, and in what manner?
I also seek an understanding of technology and communication from a different angle than the present. I am, first and foremost, a student. My understandings of communication technology within Saint Mary's is primarily that of the student user, and for good reason. I spent a year and a half working in the Trumper Computer Cluster, a year working in ResNet, and I am currently the Technology Commissioner for the Board of Governance. I have, however, branched out from just the student user. As the Helpdesk Student Manager, I must; an understanding of the fac/staff user is required for the job. The last user in the User Tridiuum is that of the Tech User. I fall somewhat into that category myself, as a student member of IT. But the difference between IT users and everyone else is that they do more than use the technology.
They create it. They maintain it. They facilitate what everyone else can't even fathom.
Creation (and maintenance) of communication technology looks at what I and the other users mindlessly take advantage of on a daily basis, and looks at it hard. And differently. All in all, it's pretty amazing what you can do as a creator. Maintaining is less exciting, but still very important. Just using...well, like I said. It's fairly mindless. Working with the other aspects, such as hardware, software, spacing, timing, requirements, and so much more...it's like working with a huge jigsaw puzzle. It's complex, complicated, time-consuming, frustrating. You can hate it one day and love it the next. But in the end, there's a certain satisfaction in knowing that you're intimately involved with the life-blood of the College.
I love jigsaw puzzles. And I'm looking forward to the next semester, and all that I'll learn.
The purpose of this blog is to post weekly reflections from my upcoming internship with the Saint Mary's College Dept. of Information Technology. The internship is made possible through a collaborative effort of IT and the Communication Dept., as I will be examining the multiple and diverse roles of communication within the Saint Mary's community. I will be working with various members of the IT Dept. and with Dr. Vince Berdayes of the Comm. Dept to understand communication made possible by and within Info Tech as it relates to Saint Mary's. Special thanks go to Kathy Hausmann and Dan Mandell for helping me develop this internship, providing assistance and encouragement.
Communication has always fascinated me. Especially remote communication. As a Humanistic Studies major and an Anthropology minor, I have long been interesting in how the past communicates to the present, how the present will communicate to the future, and how different cultures communicate with each other. Preservation of information, whether it be user manuals, diaries or clay accounting ledgers, is something every single culture (past, present, and future) attempts. Some are more successful than others, but no one and nothing desires to be forgotten. The difference between past civilizations and the current world we live in is that we possess marvels that were unimaginable 20, 30 years ago. We are able to communicate with members of our own community at miraculous speeds, even though they are across campus. Through simple web-based application as e-mail and instant messaging, we can talk in "real" time with friends, coworkers, professors, family and classmates no matter their location on- or off-campus.
This kind of remote technology is dependent on many people, much time, and a LOT of hard work. The folks in the IT Dept. work some pretty insane hours, all for the good of the college, its students, its faculty and its staff. Through their diligence and skill, we have a (relatively) functional e-mail, a huge set of databases, a LDAP server that does just about everything, and a whole host of things of which I know nothing. That is one of the major aims of this next semester: learning what makes an IT dept. tick, and how communication (verbal, non-verbal, text, etc.) makes it all possible. What is "good" communication, and what is "bad"? What forms are most or least effective; does that change when dealing with different constituents (students, faculty, staff, IT staff specifically)? What kinds of information do members of the community want to hear about, and in what manner?
I also seek an understanding of technology and communication from a different angle than the present. I am, first and foremost, a student. My understandings of communication technology within Saint Mary's is primarily that of the student user, and for good reason. I spent a year and a half working in the Trumper Computer Cluster, a year working in ResNet, and I am currently the Technology Commissioner for the Board of Governance. I have, however, branched out from just the student user. As the Helpdesk Student Manager, I must; an understanding of the fac/staff user is required for the job. The last user in the User Tridiuum is that of the Tech User. I fall somewhat into that category myself, as a student member of IT. But the difference between IT users and everyone else is that they do more than use the technology.
They create it. They maintain it. They facilitate what everyone else can't even fathom.
Creation (and maintenance) of communication technology looks at what I and the other users mindlessly take advantage of on a daily basis, and looks at it hard. And differently. All in all, it's pretty amazing what you can do as a creator. Maintaining is less exciting, but still very important. Just using...well, like I said. It's fairly mindless. Working with the other aspects, such as hardware, software, spacing, timing, requirements, and so much more...it's like working with a huge jigsaw puzzle. It's complex, complicated, time-consuming, frustrating. You can hate it one day and love it the next. But in the end, there's a certain satisfaction in knowing that you're intimately involved with the life-blood of the College.
I love jigsaw puzzles. And I'm looking forward to the next semester, and all that I'll learn.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)