Class Schedule

Each week's work will include five components:

• LECTURE, progressive introduction to MIS;

• LAB, hands-on computer exercises in a collaborative environment;

• ASSIGNMENT, indivudial work as reinforcement for laboratory and lecture content;

• THINKING, the intellectual component required for participation in class discussions; and

• READING, including print and digital resources.

You must participate in each activity each week if you hope to succeed in this class. You should plan to spend considerable time attached to a computer. This class is designed to help you learn to recognize, face and cope with technology and all its anxieties...and emerge on the other side prepared to work with others on Management Information Systems.

You must check this website, the forum, and the email list weekly, and should not rely on a printed copy of this class schedule; it is a dynamic document and subject to change. You are encouraged to fully exercise the scsite LAB webpage each week to support your learning.

You may progress quickly through this document by using the navigation-by-date links in the following table, which appears throughout the document. You may also go to the Professor's Table with the last link:

See Notes from the Professor... for details about class configuration and expectations.

Content and Form ©1998 joanne twining williams, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Week 1~ January 20

Introduction

LECTURE:

• Orientation & Housekeeping.

• Information literacy, Computer Literacy, technology literacy.

• How to read a book.

• How to read a window.

• How to use HELP files.

• How to read a website.

• How to read a url.

• The myth of information overload.

• Multitasking, multidimensional thinking, and intertwining.

• Copyright and Intellectual property.

• Proprietary information.

• The components of MIS: Management, Information, Systems.

• twining's commandments for computer users.

LAB:

Computer Literacy Assessment. Windows 95. Multitasking. Remedial training referrals.

Email, Listserv and Forum protocols.

READING:

Discovering Computers; Cover, Table of contents, Index, Preface, Notes to the student; Chapter 1, An Overview of Using Computers; Chapter 14, Multimedia; Chapter 2, Software Applications: User Tools.

ASSIGNMENT:

1a. Send a BRIEF message introducing yourself to the class email list.

The subject line for this message should be "(the number) 1 YOUR LAST NAME, YOUR FIRST NAME" but without the quotes or parenthetical. Type your name in ALL CAPS. Be sure to use the number 1 NOT the letter el. For example: Subject: 1 TWINING, JOANNE.

You will follow this posting protocol for all ASSIGNED messages to the list. Otherwise, you may, and are encouraged to use this list freely to communicate with one another. Only the assigned messages will be evaluated.

Your assigned messages will be "harvested" into a database, which will search for the assigned message. If you do not follow the protocol EXACTLY, the computer will not be able to locate your messages and you will not receive appropriate credit.

In the body of your message, and in one screen or less, tell us something about you: your name, your city, your major and class, your job, your goal(s), what you hope to master this semester, what you think about computers, etc. Provide a "clue" for how your classmates may be able to easily recognize you in "meatspace" Also provide some "nugget" of information that will serve to distinguish you in "cyberspace." READ ALL THE LIST MESSAGES and come to class next week prepared to discuss how you are going to MANAGE the messages you receive via the class list this semester.

1b. Post a BRIEF message in the class forum, to the thread called "copyright."

When asked for "your name" in the message window, use the following format: LAST NAME, FIRST NAME . Be sure to use this EXACT format, all captials. Example: Your name: TWINING, JOANNE

Your message will be searched-for using a computer. The posts to the forum will be matched against a computerized class list. If your name is not entered exactly, the computer will not make a match, and you will not get credit for this exercise. In the body of your message, briefly share your understanding of copyright and intellectual property. Give an example of when it is OK to make copies of copyrighted material, and when it is not. Make a statement or comment about an issue MIS professionals face protecting the proprietary information of businesses in the digital realm. Comment freely on another student's post, creating discussion "threads."

THINKING:

You are going to use computers to "create" a small business this semester.

You will not actually have to conduct business, rather, you will be "constructing" the information side of your business in this class. This business will be the focus of many of your lab assignments, so choose something that will sustain your interest. You will create word processed documents, speadsheets, databases, and graphics for your business, and learn how to manage these documents as an "information whole." Your portfolio will demonstrate your computer competencies and your understanding of how computers are used to manage the information resources of business.

The documents you create will be dynamically linked to each other in a virtual portfolio. You will place a portion of this portfolio in your student web space on TWU's Venus web server. (Instructions for uploading your webpage, as well as instructions for connecting your home computer to TWU are online, courtesy of TWU's Information Technology Services) We will cover how to mount you web page in a later lab.

This week, begin thinking about your business. It need not be "real" or even feasible. Think of a name for your business and begin to visualize how you will represent your business on a computer screen; imagine its "virtual presence." Think about how you might organize your business' growing information resources. Begin thinking about the data and information your business will need, and those it will generate. Consider how your data and information should be logically linked, and logically organized. Think of ways you might enter data once, but use it in many places. Come to class next week prepared to start creating documents for your business.

You will need at least two 3-1/2" IBM-compatible disks throughout this class and should bring them with you to class every week.

Begin thinking about a Managment Information Systems issue to explore for the short position you will write after spring holiday.

Week 2 ~ January 27

Management

LECTURE:

Management at the human:digital interface.

• Balancing people and computers.

• Technolphobia, anxiety, change and adaptability.

• Lifelong learning and organizational training needs.

• Channel, Content, and Context as environmental and intellectual componets of the MIS system.

• Hardware and software basics.

• Hardware cycles. Moore's Law.

• Dealing with error messages, virus' and pulled plugs: the basics of troubleshooting.

• The Microsoft mindset: how to work with MSOffice.

• Computer file structures.

• Software Suites.

• Information as object.

• Data "entered once - used many." Link Thinking.

• Object Linking & Embedding. Dynamic Document Exchange.

LAB:

Virus Check your disks.

Put a paper and a digital label your two disks.

Use a pen and MSWin95 to label your disks:

• Portfolio, LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, Course#&Section, Semester.

• Portfolio Backup, LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, Course#&Section, Semster.

On your Portfolio disk, use MSWord to create three text documents:

2a. The first document will include:

• a brief paragraph explaining what your proposed business will be and do;

• a bulletted list of potential client classes for your business; and

• a concluding paragraph roughly outlining the startup capital needs of the business.

• Use the WordArt component to create a company logo for this document and put this logo on the top of your document. Keep your document simple, uncluttered and parsimonious (maximum one screen.)

• Save your document as "startup" You may, and should, edit and change this document freely as the semester progresses.

2b. Copy and Paste the WordArt logo from startup.doc into a separate wordprocessing file for future use in linking and embedding throughout your portfolio. Save the WordArt logo document as "logo"

2c. Create a file folder on your disk called "portfolio" and move startup.doc and logo.doc into that folder.

2d. Copy and paste the "Week 2 ~January 27" portion of this document into Word. Change the font to Arial 12 point, spell check the document and correct any mispelling. At the top of this document, use copy->paste to insert the location from which you "harvested" the information, datestamp the document, and add the following copyright notice:

copyright 1998, joanne twining williams, all rights reserved.

Save the document as "week2" Do not put the document in the portfolio folder. Leave it as a "renegade" (ie unfiled) document on your disk. DO NOT MAKE ANY OTHER CHANGES TO THIS DOCUMENT. Ever.

Copy your Portfolio disk to your Portfolio Backup disk.

Be sure to follow these directions EXACTLY. You will be asked during midterm evaluation to use the computer to search through your cumulative folders and documents for a key word in the document content. If you have not been EXACT the computer will not be able to do its job and you will not get credit for this exercise.

READINGS:

Go to the WIRED Online site and search the current issue, and the archive of past issues, for articles related to the "new economy," the "information economy," "information management," "management information systems," or any other issue you'd like to explore for your position. Limit yourself to thirty minutes at this site. Notice the file names for the computer files you read, and the story name, or headline, for the article. As you click through this site, notice the filing scheme. Is there a logical pattern in the naming of the computer files? Be sensitive to the tone of the site and the attitude of the articles. Has this site reached a balance between channel and content? Find an article you'd like to read in full, later, and use the computer's file->save as function to save that article to your computer disk. Have we just violated copyright law?

Go to the WIRED NEWS site and search for articles about the recent legal decision in US vs MS (United States vs. Microsoft) concerning the bundling of their web browser, Internet Explorer, with the Windows Operating System software. Limit yourself to fifteen minutes at this site. What is the issue of the argument? Think of the issue in light of the concept of "virtual real estate." Come to our next class prepared to discuss.

Discovering Computers: Chapters 13, Security, Privacy, and Ethics; Chapter 7, The Internet and the World Wide Web.

THINKING:

In the world of information systems, there are "channel" people and there are "content" people. Effective management of Information Systems requires, in part, the ability to put both sides of the MIS equation into "context" and come to an understanding of the balance between the computer system's requirements and capabilities, the human user's needs, expectations and capabilities, and the organization's goals and purposes.

Effective communication, as well as knowledge and sensitivity to all sides of the equation are key to this understanding. If you were managing a MIS system and the channel person says "it can't be done" but the content person really needs that function, what would be your first step in resolving the problem?

ASSIGNMENT:

2e. Post a BRIEF message to the class forum, to the thread "management."

Use the LAST NAME, FIRST NAME format when you are asked for "your name." Comment on a previous message in the thread, and share an insight, perspective, fact, or bit of information from your Wired and Wired News readings. Include in your post the file name for the article you found interesting, as well as the human headline for the same article. Explain if there is any relation between the way the file was named for the computer and the way it was titled for the human. Does the name of the computer file given any indication of the content, context, or channel of the article? Can the article be "deductively found" if only the headline and knowledge of the filing scheme at the site are known (i.e. if there were no search engine)?

Week 3 ~ February 3

Data->Information->Knowledge

LECTURE:

The Data->Information->Knowledge transfer process.

• Data management, information management, knowledge management.

• Databases, databanks, information banks, knowledge banks.

• Data engineering, information engineering, knowledge engineering.

• Data architecture, information architecture, knowledge architecture.

• Information intermediary services: datamining.

• Software tools as business information suites. Information Objects. Linking and Embedding. Dynamic Document Exchange. Responsible linking.

• How to read a URL. Using the web as a thinking tool.

LAB:

Virus check your disks.

3a. Create a workbook in Excel. Save the workbook in your portfolio folder. Name your workbook "workbook"

On page one of your workbook, create a dynamic link your "logo" file (do NOT embed "logo" as an object, do not link it as an icon, do not copy and paste the logo file, and do not insert the file...create a link to it.)

Type the following information elsewhere on that page, and format however you like:

Confidential Financial Information

Virtual Portfolio

Your name

Management Information Systems

Texas Woman's University College of Arts and Science

Department of Business and Economics

Date

On page two of your workbook, create a simple spreadsheet.

Name your rows: Quarter 1, Quarter 2, Quarter 3, Quarter 4, Total, and Grand Total.

Name your columns: Reception, Sales, Marketing, Shipping and Receiving, Manufacturing, Product Design, Accounting, Human Resources, Information Systems, Executive.

Otherwise, format the worksheet however you like. Enter numeric data in the cells, formating the data with no dollar sign, and no commas. Construct an autosum formula for the Total cell in each column. Using the formula wizard, construct a formula to add all the Total cells in the Grand Total cell. Save. Virus Check.

On page three of your workbook, use the chart wizard to construct a pie chart of your page 2 data.

Copy your Portfolio disk onto your Backup disk.

READING:

Discovering Computers: Chapter 10, Information Systems

ASSIGNMENT:

Forums and lists are great ways to deliver training, share expertise, or seek help. If you have learned to do something new, or discovered a useful trick, or need help with the lab, use the forum to communicate with your fellow students. Forums are a great way to form "virtual study groups" and are, in fact, the creation of a "knowledge bank" that will help the progress of our class. You may create new threads in our forum and are encouraged to share your information.

If you create a new thread in the forum, name your thread in such a way that its content is obvious and other students will be encouraged to join the discussion. Be sure your thread does not duplicate an existing one. READ all the messages posted to the forum, and participate in the online exchange of information.

In what information circumstances would you choose the forum rather than the class email list to communicate with your fellow students? When would using the list be more appropirate? What are the advantages/disadvantages of both media?

THINKING:

Use the browsing and searching functions of the World Wide Web to help you think about and center on a MIS issue about which you will write your position after spring break. If you have difficulty centering on an issue, you will find many fine examples in the "hot topics" section of the cscite LAB.

Define "issue" as the first step in directing your thinking: what is an issue?

What sort of issues are relevant to MIS?

Determine which level of business information need you seek to serve: Is your information for senior management? middle management? operations management? nonmanagement? What function within these management levels do you hope to serve by your issue?

It is easy to get "carried away" by the web. Effective use of the web as an information source requires preliminary intellectual investment. Approaching your web session with a clear idea of what you are seeking, and predefined standards of what infomation sources are relevant and pertinent to your information need is important. Judge the information you access by the qualities of valuable information: is it accurate? verifiable? timely? organized? meaningful? useful? cost effective?

3b. Choose a couple of key words or phrases that might be used to define your issue and search Hotbot to get a "feel" for the type of information available from the web. Read the document summaries for other words or phrases that might help you center on your issue. . Notice the URLs for your retrieval set. Is your issue being addressed by .edu, .com, .gov, .org, .net, .mil? Are the sites in your retrieval set from the United States or elsewhere? Keep you eyes open for libraries of articles, research findings, or journals of interest to MIS. If you locate a good one, send the URL to the class list. Visit a few of the sites provided by your search results to determine if you are on target. Don't try to do a complete search at this time...you are evaluating available sources to determine whether your issue can be served by resources on the Web.

3c. Once you have identified your issue, the level of organizational user your issue will inform, and they key words or phrases you have selected for your search, post a message to the class forum, to the thread "issue" and briefly describe your issue, your audience, the key words or phrases you have selected, and any spectactular "finds" you have already located. Briefly describe your search experience and add any comments your classmates may find useful. Read the other student posts and make comments and suggestions as appropriate.

We will use the many online databases available through the University Library to research your issue further in a later lab.

Week 4 ~ February 10

Information Systems

LECTURE:

• Types of Information Systems

• the computer and the human information needs they serve:

  • office systems

  • transaction processing systems,

  • management information systems,

  • decision support systems,

  • expert systems,

  • integrated systems.

• Levels of information need. Determining user need.

• Databases - introduction, vocabulary

LAB:

4a. Use MSAccess to begin constructing a database file for one of the client classes you identified in your "startup" document.

This database will be part of your company databank and will be the point of entry into other, related database files, including those containing detailed information about each client's financial transactions, customer service record, etc.

Think carefully about how your company may want to access the database, and how carefully you must design the fields in your database records. How you design your fields will determine the level of search you may perform. Design the database with your entire user base in mind. Will someone need to search for clients in zipcode 75090 who are engaged in product reselling? Will somone need to find the company who's CEO has the last name Jones and which has the word Tools in it's company name? Start with the following fields:

• Customer identification number

• Company name

• company name

• company type

• street address

• city

• state

• zipcode (five or eight digit? dash or no dash?...check the USPS website for guidance)

• Phone number

• fax number

• email address

• URL

• Add any other fields you might think appropriate: i.e. contact name?

Designate the customer identification number as your database "key" field. This key field will be included in each and every datafile you create, and will be the link to this company's record in each of those databases. The "key" field is the unique identifier for this company in your MIS system. Create your key field carefully. An error in judgement, form, or data entry here is a disaster! Can you use MSAccess to have your database automatically create sequential customer identification numbers in your key field.? Will MSAccess allow you to delimit fields so that data must be entered according to a prescription before it is accepted?

4b. Enter five company records into your datafile. Save. Virus Check. Backup.

ASSIGNMENT:

4c. Visit the amazon.com online bookseller site.

Amazon.com is one of the largest, most successful online retailers. Notice how their website is designed. What functions do you find useful? Is the site well organized? Does the design function intuitively? Can you navigate comfortably?

Search for the book, "Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its Discontents" by Ellen Ullman. Read the online reviews of this book and consider purchasing it for yourself if you are interested in learning more about cybercorporations and systems development from a software engineer consultant's perspective. (recommended!) Look at similar titles, and search for books that might be relevant to your issue. Imagine how amazon.com's website feeds a management information system. What functions might be triggered as soon as you place an order...shipping, billing, inventory, customer support, executive support, etc? What systems components must be in place in order to feed the customers' information need? Come to class prepared to discuss.

THINKING:

Think of what functions you might incorporate into your company's website. Consider how you would have your website feed your organization's information needs. Will it be useful for your site to automatically build a visitor (or potential customer) database? How valuable would this database be..and to whom would it be valuable? Is this visitor database proprietary information? Can you sell it? Is it legal to gather information about visitors who access your website without their permission or knowledge? What other internal databases would you link to this visitor database?

What security measures would you need in order to accept orders online via credit card payment? How could you design your system to protect your customer's information? What liability might your company incur if your customer credit card database were hacked and used?

Will it be useful for your MIS to interface with a shipping company's information system (i.e. UPS, Federal Express, USPS, etc.) as soon as an order is placed? If you were amazon.com, would you maintain an inventory of books, or link up with book publishers and have them handle the inventory and shipping? Would you further connect your system with the book publishers' in order to have your company invoices included with the publisher's shipment? Would your billing functions be linked to external credit card processing systems? What type of information might be generated from this MIS system to support executive decision making?

READING:

Discovering Computers: Chapter 3, The System Unit; Chapter 4, Input and Output; Chapter 8, Operating Systems and Systems Software;

Week 5 ~ February 17

Computer Systems

LECTURE:

Computer systems.

• PC's vs. MACS

• Networks: Peer-to-Peer, Client/Server, Mainframes. Intranet, Internet, Extranet, NCs

• Bits, Bytes and File types.

• Bandwidth, compression.

• Storage devices. Memory conservation.

• Operating Systems : command line, menu, GUI

• File management. Indices.

LAB:

MSAccess Database Queries

5a. Navigating VENUS: Telnet to twu.edu, or access the Venus menu from the Venus icon on the lab desktop. Logon using your student username and password. You are now logged on to the TWU Venus system as a remote user. Notice that you are manipulating software resident on Venus, rather than software resident on your personal computer, as with the Web and other Graphical programs. Venus offers you a command driven menu interface.

Choose LS from the menu. This gives you access to the online databases of questions for various classes. Choose one of the databases and experiment with naviagating. How does this menu interface "feel" different from the GUI interfaces you've been using on the web? Can you navigate intuitively? Is it more, or less difficult to get around? Do you reach "dead ends"?

Exit the LS database by typing X. This will return you to the main Venus menu. At the menu prompt, type MA and push enter to access the Venus Email program. Type dir and push enter to receive a list of all the email messages in your twu.edu email account. Type the number of the message to read that message. Type ex and push enter to exit the Venus email program. This delivers you back to the main Venus menu.

Type ex and push enter to exit the Venus menu. This will deliver you to your username command prompt, which looks like:

Williams11-->

You are now in command line mode, behind the menu. Type dir and push enter. You will be given a list of all the files in your student account. Now type help and push enter. You will be given access to the Venus system help files. Read the help file instructions and practice navigating. When you are ready to leave help, push enter as many times as it takes for you to exit the help files and return to your username prompt. To return to the Venus menu, type menu and push enter.

If you would like to use this opportunity while you are logged on to Venus to have the university email system automatically forward all your incoming Venus email to another email address (such as your private email account):

Enter the email program by typing MA from the Venus menu.

At the e-mail prompt:

EMAIL> set forward [type the e-mail address to which you want Venus mail forwarded] [return]

When you want to reverse this function and again receive mail via Venus:

At the e-mail prompt:

EMAIL> set noforward ["noforward" is one word ; no need to type anything else] [return]

5b. Navigating DOS: On your Win95 desktop, choose Start->Programs->DOS Prompt. This will "drop" you into your computer system's Disc Operating System. Be careful while you are here. The DOS prompt looks like this:

c:>

To use DOS, type the command and push enter. Enter is the "execute" command.

Execute the following DOS commands:

c:> dir

You will receive a directory or list of all the files on your computer system. Notice how files are arranged hierarchically on your system, in folders and subfolders. At the bottom of the list is information about how many files your computer holds, measured in bytes.

c:> dir /p

This tells your computer to give you the file list a PAGE at a time. Push enter to progress through the screens to the end of the list.

c:> dir /w/p

This tells your computer to give your the file list in WIDE mode a PAGE at a time. Push enter to progress through the screens.

Put your portfolio disk in the disk drive. At the DOS prompt:

c:> a:

This changes the drive to be read from your hard drive to the disk drive. You will see a list of files and folders on your portfolio disk. Use the following command to rename your Week2 file:

a:>ren a:Week2 WeekTwo

To display the contents of the WeekTwo file on the screen:

a:>type WeekTwo

To return to Windows, at the DOS prompt type:

c:>exit

5c. Graphical User Interface : From your Win95 desktop, choose Start->Programs->Windows Explorer. You are now in a GUI which uses the WIMP interface (Windows Icons Menus Pointers) to help you perform file management tasks. The left side of your screen shows drives, folders and subfolders. Click on the 3-1/2" disk drive icon. The right side of your screen shows the folders and files on your disk.

Choose help from the menu, choose index, type "copy" in the text box and find the instructions for making disk copies. Use this function from now on to update your Portfolio Backup disk.

Work on any unfinished portions of Labs 1-4. If you are up-to-date, help other students, and pay attention to the way they ask questions and the way you choose to answer them. How important is being specific when you help someone on the computer?

 

ASSIGNMENT:

5d. Visit TWU's Blagg-Huey Library Online. Choose the "TWU Library Resources" link to proceed to the online databases available to you as a student. Choose EBSCOHost_® from the first column of resources. Log on using your student id (the part before the @ in your twu.edu email address; enter your password.)

When you arrive at the search screen, conduct a search for the phrase "management information systems" (don't use the quotes). Browse through the retrival set.

Return to the search page and conduct a search for your issues topic. Email any pertinent or relevant records to yourself. If you find a fulltext record, save to your portfolio disk. Does this violate copyright? If you were to create a link to this article from your portfolio and put the article online, would that violate copyright? If you were to put this article into a company database for internal distribution, would that violate copyright?

Return to the "TWU Library Resources" webpage. Choose FirstSearch1_® from the first column.

Choose "Direct link to FirstSearch1", Logon using your student ID. Choose the "Engineering and Technology" databases.

Choose the "Article1st" database. Search for "management information systems" (no quotes) in the subject field. Browse the retrival set. Notice whether the TWU library holds the journal articles you're interested in, or whether you will have to request the article through Internlibrary loan.

Go back to the search page and construct a search for your issue topic. Browse your retrieval set. Go back and "perfect" your search until you find what you want. Tag any pertinent records and email them to yourself.

If the article you want is not held by Blagg-Huey library, you may request that it be obtained for you through Interlibrary loan (ILL), a service of Blagg-Huey Library. (You may also make ILL requests at the Library, using forms available at the Circulation Counter.) To request an Interlibrary Loan online, you must log on to the OLD venus system using telnet, the remote logon function. After you have logged on using your student account, choose TL from the menu, choose Interlibrary Loan from the menu, and complete the form. You must have the citation for the article with you when you perform this request.

Return to the "TWU Library Resources" webpage.

Choose FirstSearch2, choose "direct link to FirstSearch2." Logon. Choose the "Business & Economics" databases.

Select a likely database. Search for "management information systems" in the subject field. Browse your retrieval set. Search for the same phrase in the title field. Browse your retrieval set. Return to the search page and construct a search for your issues topic. Browse the retrieval set. Switch databases and search for your issue subject. Perfect your search until you find what you want. Tag any pertinent records and email them to yourself.

THINKING:

You just cruised through some of the most powerful proprietary databases available to you as a student. You should freely explore all the online resources the Blagg-Huey Library has made available to you. These resources are purchased using, in part, your tuition and fees, and they are not cheap. You will now be able to use them for each of your classes. Take your time and explore. This will be time well invested. While you are searching, pay attention to how you are thinking. Do you think differently when you are connected to a computer? Pay attention to which style of interface you are most comfortable with. Pay attention to how you would describe how to navigate the databases to another user.

While you are searching these databases, and based on what you now know about management information systems, how did the library arrange for this information to be available to you? Who owns the information the databases contain? How did the database owner organize the information? How did the library make sure you were an authorized user of the databases? At what point of your search did you leave TWU and begin using a remote database? If your business was delivery of this sort of information resource, what services would you include? What part of the university system handles this part of the system? What other systems might live on our university campus...and how might they be integrated? What information might the library be gathering about you while you are online as a tool to assist their management information systems decision-making?

READING:

Discovering Computers: Chapter 5, Data Storage; Chapter 6, Communications and Networks

Week 6 ~ February 24

Communications and Networks

LECTURE:

• Communication Networks: Promises and Reality of the infosphere.

  • Intranet

  • Internet

  • Extranet

  • Push and Pull Technology.

  • Infrastructure: Twisted copper, coaxial, ISDN, ATM, Microwave, Satellite

  • Telecommunications Bridges, Routers, Black Boxes, Backbones.

• File Management

LAB:

6a.

Create a dynamic link from your Word startup document to the bottomline on your Excel spreadsheet.

ASSIGNMENT:

6b. Search the AltaVista database for job descriptions and employment opportunties MIS professionals. What kind of companies are in need of MIS professionals? How much does this kind of work pay? What skills are MIS professionals expected to have? What other kinds of courses will you have to take to get these skills? What is the difference between a MIS professional and a systems analyst? ..a systems engineer? ...a computer programmer? Are there opportunities for generalists in the MIS field? Is it possible for one person to know, and do, everything?

THINKING: One of the most difficult tasks in MIS is construction of user help systems: documentation and instructions that must be at once absolutely accurate, logical, well presented, upgradable and economical, while serving the many styles of learning reflected by your user base. Many poorly documented systems rely on knowledge vested in their human operators and captured in their brains. Employees who have rich "internal" databases are called "gold color workers." What power do these gold collar workers possess? How important is it that your system be well documented? Why is documentation so necessary? If you were to construct a user manual for your company's MIS system, where would you start?

READING:

Discovering Computers: Chapter 11, Information Systems Development.

Week 7 ~ March 3

Systems Analysis and Design #1

LECTURE:

• Systems Analysis & Design, Introduction

• Review & Remediation

LAB: Review & Remediation

READING: www.scsite.com

ASSIGNMENT: Review & Remediation

THINKING: Review & Remediation

Week 8 ~ March 10

Review & Remediation

LECTURE:

• Q&A

• Review and remediation

LAB:

• Mid-Term Evauation Your midterm will be a directed, online, in- class, exercise, and requires that you have successfully completed all of the Lab assignments to date and are prepared to demonstrate and exercise your portfolio. Students should be prepared to apply information evalutation criteria to fellow students' portfolios. This is a pass/fail examination. No makeup exam will be given.

ASSIGNMENT: Assimilation and Reflection

THINKING: Assimilation and Reflection

READING: www.SCsite.com

Week 9 ~ March 17

Spring Holiday!

Week 10 ~ March 24

Systems Analysis & Design #2

LECTURE:

• Systems Analysis & Design, Continued

LAB:

READING:

Discovering Computers, Chapter 12, Program Development and Programming Languages. Chapter 9, Data Management & Databases

ASSIGNMENT:

10a. Search the Yahoo! site for websites for hardware and software for businesses. Compare and contrast the features of each system and come to class prepared to discuss. Does your business need a verticle system, or will a horizontal system do the job? Will your business have specialized information processing needs?

Use the Yahoo! site to search for computer magazines, trade publications, newspapers and other online publications relevant to systems analysis and design, computerized business solutions, systems analysts and consultants, and hardware vendors. Who are the major advertisers in these publications?

Look for "buzzwords" or concepts that are cutting-edge, and try to determine what these words actually mean. Choose three of the best sites (according to the informational evaluaton standards discussed earlier) and, using the copy->paste function (to avert mistyping), send the URLs, with a brief description of the sites to the class list. Annotate your urls with comments about the scope of the sites. Look particularly for sites that provide non-advertising "value added" information to support systems design decisions.

10b. Use the Hotbot site to search for online RFQ, RFP and RFIs. How detailed are the specifications? Is this an effective way to advertise an information systems need? How do you submit an RFQ, RFP or RFI online? Come to class prepared to discuss.

THINKING:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a single VAR (value added reseller) for your company's hardware system?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of purchasing vs. leasing your company's system hardware?

Who "owns" software and what "rights" do you pay for when you purchase a software license?

Week 11 ~ March 31

Data Management & Databases

LECTURE:

• Data Management

• Databases: Fields, Records, Databases, Databanks

• Database construction

LAB:

MSAccess...Create a second datafile using the Key field from the.......

 

............making your databases tuple.

ASSIGNMENT:

Search the databases we have explored so far and begin conducting research for your issue. Begin your citation list. Remember, you paper should address an clearly-defined issue concerning MIS and must reflect a postion that you are recommending for your company. You document must be BRIEF, so be highly selective and critical, synthesize generalities and cite only key documents.

READING: www.SCsite.com

THINKING: Research shows that people not only think differently when they are online, but they read differently: there is higher "information drop" with online documents, and some people have a problem orienting from the verticle layout of the printed page to the horizontal layout of the computer screen. Also, for some, virtual documents often do not offer the same sort of contextual feeling offered by print.

Online documents do offer the opportunity for multidimensional navigation, however. This multidimensional navigation allows us to create hyper documents, and build in links and connections to related information, based on perceived information needs. This allows the author of hyper documents to anticipate and satisfy multiple information processing styles simultaneously.

There is fear that we are becomming processors of "chunks and nuggets" of information. As you begin writing your issue, think of the many styles of thinker your document will serve, and how you might provide a link to related informaiton to satisfy an information need. At what point does it become possible to "link" every word in a document to another, related document? How can you "control" navigation through your document by the careful and strategic selection of links? If you link-to another document, how will you make sure the reader returns to your document instead of "wandering off" into cyberspace?

Week 12 ~ April 7

Relational Databases

LECTURE:

LAB: MSAccess

ASSIGNMENT:

THINKING:

READING: www.SCsite.com

Week 13 ~ April 14

MIS Issues

Position Paper Due

LECTURE: Class Discussion

LAB:

Formatting from MSWord to .html; uploading to the Venus server

ASSIGNMENT:

THINKING:

READING: www.SCsite.com

Week 14 ~ April 21

The future of MIS

Portfolio Due

LECTURE:

LAB:

Convert and upload portfolio to web.

ASSIGNMENT:

THINKING:

READING: www.SCsite.com

Week 15 ~ April 28

Review and Remediation

Week 16 ~ May 5

Final Exam

Course Evaluation

Copyright 1997, 1998 joanne twining williams. All Rights Reserved. Last Revised: 01/20/05 03:42 PM -30-