A New Year, a New Post

Hard for me to believe that it is 2011, but it is. And I've been thinking alot about what we need to be discussing in classrooms.

Yesterday I spent some time with my friend, Deb, who runs an excellent Internet marketing company (you can find more information about her firm here). We wound up talking about Chris Anderson's article in the August issue of Wired, The Web is Dead, Long Live the Internet. How can you predict the "next big thing?" Will it really be apps? Deb contends that Facebook is over; what's next?

And how does that affect our curricula?

Things to ponder....

I'm back-reading Program or Be Programmed

I have a new blog-you can find it here.

I'm still serving as the Interim Dean, so that's why I've got the Dean's blog, but at heart I'm still an Information Systems Professor, so I'll keep this one, too.

And it's an exciting time to be an IS/IT professor. The field is changing, our courses are changing, and the definition of Information Technology is changing. Our students know more about some specific things than we do, but less about the overall field than we do-and that is a problem. One of my colleagues, Joe, sent me a "must read" note about a book, Program or Be Programmed, by Douglas Rushkoff-you can watch a video here. Rushkoff gives me pause.

Why is this different from, say, just getting in my car and driving? Well, for one thing, I usually steer when I drive. Many of the applications we use on the web "steer" us. I'll end with this thought. Rushoff's "ten commandments" are important-here's a snipppet from a review in The Miami Herald:

The author’s Decalogue here is a set of rules of conduct. To wit: Do Not Be ‘Always On;’ Live in Person; You May Always Choose ‘None of the Above;’ You Are Never Completely Right; One Size Does Not Fit All; Be Yourself; Do Not Sell Your Friends; Tell the Truth; Share, Don’t Steal; and Program or Be Programmed.” Each of the command(ments) comprise a chapter.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/22/1936739/be-a-driver-or-a-passenger.html#ixzz16USZ3nCx

Being an Interim Dean?

I've been named Interim Dean, effective July 1 (although I jumped right in and am "deaning" now). Should I change the name of this blog? No, I'll just start a new one- The Dean's Diary (http://seidenbergdean.blogspot.com Every Friday I'll post what I did for the week and where I'll be.
Should be interesting-I never thought I'd be dean, never really planned for it but it feels like this is what I was mean to do-isn't that weird?

Graduation!

This is what I've been looking at ALL DAY! Cleaning up e-mail, marking papers, posting grades.

The semester is over and now I can look forward to arguing with students about their papers and working on plans for the Doctor of Professional Studies program.

Oh, and maybe being interim Dean-that will be different!

I love it when people ask what I do all summer. This summer will be no different from earlier summers. I'll work like a dog trying to "catch up" only to realize that I can never catch up. Oh well, I should know better but "hope springs eternal."

My two computers

My two computers,
originally uploaded by caknappprof.

Doesn't everyone have two computers? My trusty go-everywhere-with-me laptop and my favorite iMac? It's hard to believe that when I started working at Pace, back in the "dark ages" I didn't have a computer-I had a terminal that allowed me to connect to the mainframe to read my mail, such as it was!

If anyone had explained to me that I'd have a laptop that went everywhere with me, a cell phone that fit in my pocket and that I had to be careful not to lose, and a PDA that would keep track of all of my phone numbers, passwords and to-do lists, I would have wondered what drugs that person was taking!

I can't remember the last time I held a piece of chalk!

My Office in Pleasantville

My Office in Pleasantville,
originally uploaded by caknappprof.

I've been working on a project, part of which has me taking photos of my work place and home. This is what my bulletin board looks like-maybe I should clean some of that junk off!

On the other hand, what would I do with a clean bulletin board, or a clean desk for that matter!

Dissertations!

I've just come from the doctoral dissertation defense of a former Master's student of mine, Tom. Way to go, Tom! But why did you have to remind me that I had you as a student 15 years ago!

Dissertation defenses are nerve wracking events, I believe, for everyone. This was my fourth as a committee member (Doug and Bucky in the Lubin School of Business, and Joe and Darren in the Seidenberg School). The next one that I sit through I'll be the advisor (Nora) so perhaps it will be less nerve wracking. I'm reading Seth Godin's book The Big Dip (you can learn more about Seth Godin here: Seth Godin's blog. I realize now that writing and defending the dissertation is "the big dip" that separates the ADBs from the PhDs.