October 2008 Archives

Today IST held a Graduate Career Seminar. At first I thought the information discussed wouldn't be of much value yet since I just started this semester. However, before the morning was over I soon realized how important it is to start early in preparing for your next steps, whether you want to enter industry or academia. Even as a first year student I need to start thinking of where I want to work when I finish my studies, where I want to publish my work and who I want to include in my network of contacts. In fact, it was at the last session of the day when we began to discuss the importance of networking and were given tips on how and where to network that I began to tie the entire days discussion to this week's blog post.

When I hear other graduate students talk about wanting to publish or present at a conference it seems as if their focus is only on the paper or the event they will be attending.  However, conferences are also excellent avenues for meeting future career contacts.  So, with this in mind I began to think about the conferences I wanted to attend a little differently.  Instead of looking at the conference as a presentation or publication outlet I started to consider it as an opportunity to do career networking. I asked myself a few questions: "Where will my work make a difference? or Where do I think my work will make difference?".  And, "Where do I want to meet people who are also doing research in areas similar to my interest?"

Since I am interested in Education Technology, I believe SIGCSE is a natural choice.  I've attended the conference before so I know it's format and what to expect. It isn't as large as other conferences but the program has a lot to offer those of us that are interested how technology is used in education. I also know it isn't the only Special interest group of the ACM.  Another is CHI, the Special interest group for Human Computer Interaction(HCI).  I have never been to any of their conferences. However, what I've heard from other students and professors this is the conference to go to for those of us interested in HCI.

It's been a couple of years since I've been to a Grace Hopper celebration of Women in Computing conference. In fact, I've only attended one, but it was a great experience and I want to consider it as a future publication venue. The organization works on promoting women in computing, getting more women to consider technology careers and there are opportunities for anyone that is interested in doing work in gender research.  I am very interested in learning more about women, education and technology, hopefully my research work will lead me to incorporating all three.  I recommend all students check out this website. You never know when you will find yourself on a committee helping with the recruitment and retention of students.

The last conference I'm including is one that was mentioned in an email in the last week, IDC.  It has to do with Interaction Design and Children.  From what I have been able to find out from their website, it is a conference that I definitely want to discuss with my advisor to get more information. Since I hope to work with technology that will benefit children as well as adults, it may be a conference that will be a good venue for future presentations.

These are the conferences I have come up with so far, I know there are some I am not considering, mainly because I don't know about them...yet!  

This weeks discussion is a little different for me. The topic concerns communities we see ourselves a part of someday and also the importance of networking within these communities. I already consider myself a part of an academic community. Having worked as a systems analyst, corporate trainer and college professor I have had the opportunity to  attend different types of conferences, attend workshops and meet people that I now consider in my network of professional contacts. During my decision process for graduate schools I contacted people in my academic community for information and advice on graduate schools. Some might say they did the same thing. Just go to your professor and ask, however I went to people I met in my academic community. In fact, it was at an Alice workshop at Georgia Tech that I spoke to Dr. Stephen Cooper, who recommended that I consider applying to Penn State (the school wasn't on my list at the time). How did I find out about the workshop?  I had gone to a conference. Every year since 2003 I have been attending the SIGCSE conference. This conference is for people interested in Computer Science education. It isn't one of the larger, more prestigious conferences some of you may know about but have always found the sessions and keynotes very informative.  Also, the people I've met at conferences like SIGCSE have led to opportunities to work as a panelist for the National Science Foundation, start a Women in Technology group at our college, develop kids technology summer programs and more. Each of these events also expanded my academic community.

Conferences are a great way to meet other people in your field, they also have a lot to offer graduate students and many times if you volunteer at them the benefits are pretty good. Many have opportunities for students to showcase or compete with their research.  Either way, I've always thought it was a great way to get feedback on your work. There are other conferences I have attended and I'll discuss those in a future posting.

Is my community complete?  Far from it! I hope to be a presenter at the conferences I have attended and I also want to see my work published in some of the Journals of the ACM, especially the ones that have an HCI (human computer interaction) focus. I also hope to keep in touch with members my current academic community while I'm at Penn State.  I realize that going to SIGCSE will probably not happen next year since we are kept pretty busy here, but I know I'll get there or somewhere else in the next few years. Who knows what the future will hold for any of us?

It always amazes me how technology is used. It wasn't until my sister-in-law came to Texas that I really started to use text messaging.  Yes, I realize many people cannot live without it but it just wasn't something I grew up with nor was it a technology that I had any reason to use.  But in the last year that has changed.  I text more than I used to, probably not as often as some but definitely more than many of my generation of
friends.

So, who else is texting out there?  Well, it appears elephants are now using texting.  This weekend I ran into one of those technology articles that your catches your interest. It seems that in Kenya at the Ol Pejeta conservancy there is an elephant, Kimani, who is wearing a
special tracking collar that can send text messages back to the rangers.  This is done with a mobile phone card placed in his tracking collar. These text messages alert the rangers when Kimani is too close to a village or crops and allows them to herd him back into his territory before he can cause any destruction.  This collar with text messaging capabilities puts a virtual fence in place for the elephant. This way the rangers have more options to choose from to handle the elephants, previously they had to resort to shooting the elephants that were
destroying crops and attacking villages. Google Earth is also being used to help track the animals, in fact on the Save the Elephants website you can locate the elephants they are currently monitoring.

You may be wondering why I found this article so interesting. Here I am, a person who has never been shy about using technology, yet I had problems with texting and there's this elephant texting in Africa. That was part of it, but it goes deeper.  I think it is wonderful that organizations that want to preserve these wonderful creatures and beautiful countries are able to use a technology we take for granted and are at times reluctant to try. What other technologies are out there waiting to be used in ways we wouldn't expect?

During my first few days at Penn State another student happened to say hello to me when I was looking a little frazzled.  She was friendly and encouraging on a day that had been a little hectic.  Her name was Hansa Sinha, one of the advanced IST students. As we talked I learned about her research interests which were similar to mine. We discussed our programs with high school and middle school students, shared some of the lessons learned and found we had a lot in common. She really helped turn a day around for me, helping to make the first few days seem a little less overwhelming. Its interesting how one person we casually meet in a hallway can help us feel more welcome.

When we were reminded this week that we should interview a student who was in at least their 3rd year of the program, I thought of Hansa. As I gathered information on her I realized we had a lot in common. She has been a resident of State College for as long as I have lived in San Antonio, has a family too, published papers and attended conferences.  In her free time (yes, I did wonder if that would be a strange question to ask a graduate student) she enjoys painting.  I thought this was interesting since I have always wanted to paint.  I have brothers and a mother who can paint but sadly that was one gift that was not granted to me.
 She would like to travel to Switzerland, so would I, as I child I didn't appreciate going there with my parents.  Sometimes we seem to appreciate places more as we get older; it's strange how that works.  

One item that Hansa did not mention but I will is the 2009 IST Graduate Symposium.  She probably didn't want to say anything about it since she has been advertising it to all the classes for the last few weeks. However, I think it is important to note that she is the committee chair this year. Being the committee chair of a Symposium of this size is quite a major undertaking and can be very rewarding.  All the members of the committee are working well together and this speaks well on Hansa's leadership skills. So far from what I can see she is doing a great job and it should be a great event all should plan on attending.  

This week we take a look at the academic careers of our advisors.  Most people are familiar with resumes, the document that lists a person's education, experience and previous employers.  However, in academia, the document that is used to list a person's life work and accomplishments is the curriculum vitae (CV).  For those of you who are reading this blog that are not familiar with the CV, the first thing that may seem strange to you is its length. While we are often told to keep our resumes to 2 pages and should only consider a 3^rd page if absolutely necessary, a CV has no maximum length requirement.   My advisor, Mary Beth Rosson, has one of those rather extensive CV's and for good reasons. Dr. Rosson is a frequent presenter at a variety of conferences on topics such as Human Computer Interaction, Human Centric Computing, and Design of Interactive Systems. The conferences that you may frequently see her the ones held by the ACM or IEEE organizations.

 

When it comes to publications the list in the CV is quite extensive.  Dr. Rosson has been writing journal articles and books for many years.  Although her work is found mostly in journals such as the Communications of the ACM, IEEE Interactions on Software Interaction and Human-Computer Interaction; articles have also been published in Educational Technology & Society and Learning Technology. Dr. Rosson's interest in Education Technology as it relates to IST is one of the reasons I am excited to have the opportunity to work with her over the next few years.