Welcome to cohort 2013!

Well hello and welcome to the New Year. This year we have a cohort of student from MDIS (Management Development Institute of Singapore), SCU students studying on-campus at Riverside at Tweed Gold Coast, and a scattered group of students studying by distance education. Of course, it's technology that makes all this feasible. Warm welcome to you all.

To get started, you can read our unit information guide, available on our ISY00244 MySCU page, under "Unit Overview".

Here's a photo of myself: as you can see, I'm ready to go! I hope you are too.

I made a wordpress site

Given that I really ought to practice what I preach, I set out to make a wordpress site this morning after posting, below. And I succeeded, and it wasn't too difficult, and nothing bad happened when I made mistakes ... All in all it took me two hours, from start to finish.

I found out you can get a free wordpress site if you keep the "wordpress" in the url: so my site is called "thosethat" and is listed at http://thosethat.wordpress.com/

I chose the title as a ironic riposte to the old saying "Those that can, do, and those that can't teach" :-D

If you'd like to make you own start at this site: https://en.wordpress.com/signup/

Wordpress for your website

A few students are already experienced in working with Wordpress for their website; which is great. Some others are trying it out: if you are, I'm very happy to support you in this, and appreciate the time and effort you are putting in to learn a new skill. Here is a link which helps explain how to go about it.

One of the main objectives of this unit is to help and encourage you to step out of your "ICT comfort zone" and acquire new knowledge and skills, so well done on those students who are doing exactly that!!

"Why are we getting ripped off for wi-fi?"

The Sydney Morning Herald travel writer, Clive Dorman, has some interesting points to make on why hotels charge for internet use. He suggests that the trouble is, that:

'...while wi-fi is a simple and cheap installation, most hotels regard it as a cash-cow in the same way as most airlines now price-gouge for so-called “ancillary services” that cost next to nothing to provide.

Most hotels wouldn’t dream of turning expensive air-conditioning systems or refrigerators into an ancillary revenue stream, but it’s still open slather for wi-fi.'

Read more here.

"The rain in Spain ...

... falls mainly on the ground". And plenty of it. Due to the wet weather and rising flood-waters both at the Tweed and Wilson rivers, the catch-up class today scheduled for 1.30 will not take place face-to-face, but instead will be run as an Elluminate session using Blackboard Collaborate. All students (internal and external) are invited to attend. Go to MySCU, click on Blackboard Collaborate, and join the session from there. I have already put a short 7 minute "test run" session under "recorded sessions": feel free to explore that one beforehand. The sound doesn't start till around the 1:37 mark as I was setting up the audio.

The first photo above shows the sudden rise in river height at the Wilson river crossing. Where the river is usually about 1.5 metres deep, it has risen to nearly 4 metres deep overnight. Once it washes over the bridge (about 5 metres above the river), I'm marooned physically. But we still have ICT :-D

The second photo is a snapshot of the radar loop showing cloud and rain formation over the Northern Rivers at 10 am this morning. Both sites are provided by the Bureau of Meterology. If you're in the Northern Rivers you can find your river heights here; and the Brisbane radar can be found here. Right now Southport is being subjected to a deluge!!

Putting things in perspective...

Worried about your studies? Worried about how the trimester will pan out? It's OK. Relax. Give yourself a good sense of perspective: have a look at the "interactive scale of the universe tool".



Now ... where *did* I put my car keys?

Welcome cohort 2012

Hello students from Southern Cross University (Australia), Naresuan University Bangkok City Campus (Thailand) and the Management Development Institute of Singapore. Welcome and be part of our transnational team for the unit ISY00244. My name is Dr Mieke Witsel and I'm the unit coordinator for this unit. Today is Friday 13 January 2012 ... and I'm working from home (see photo of my farmhouse, taken in 1885), using technology to communicate with all of you, all over the world ... I still think it's amazing!!

There are four 'cohorts' this trimester: there is a small group studying internally at Tweed Gold Coast campus (with myself as facilitator); a group of external distance-education students (with myself as facilitator); a group at Naresuan University (with Dr Thotsapon Sortrakul as facilitator) and a group at MDIS in Singapore (with Mr Jonathan Lim as facilitator).

Most of the unit resources can be found in two places: all publicly available material can be accessed here on this blog (follow the labels on the right hand side) and non-publicly accessible material can be found under our university blackboard site, known as MySCU. Your SCU student login will gain you access to our ISY00244 MySCU blackboard site. Having said that, MySCU will be down this weekend for upgrades and will be live again on Monday 16 January.

Your first task is to familiarise yourself with the unit resources and the unit information guide. The unit information guide is available on the MySCU site under ISY00244 > Unit Documents.

Why airlines make you turn off your mobile phone...

Have you, like I have, wondered why airlines make passengers turn their mobile phones off in the plane? Do you too, like I do, mutter to yourself "If all it takes is for my mobile phone to be switched on to potentially bring this plane down, then no-one should be flying in this potentially lethal crate!". And, do you think to yourself, as I do, "Why bother with security screening and taking away my weapons of mass destruction (nail file and deodorant) if all it takes to disrupt the plane is for people to switch their phones on?".

The rules about mobile phones and air travel were brought in decades ago (much like mobile phone use in hospitals). Actually, there is little evidence in research to suggest that mobile phones disrupt the technology on the plane. BUT, (and here's my subjective opinion creeping in) ... the rules are in place, etched firmly in the policies and protocols of airline companies. And to change protocols and policies takes a huge amount of bureacracy, paperwork, and time. Time is money. Ergo, it's cheaper to ask everyone to switch their phones off than to change the rules.

Sigh... I suppose, though, to be fair, it is more considerate for fellow travellers if phone use is kept to a minimum.

Read more on this interesting topic at this media article.

What are your own thoughts on this?

A quarter of bosses head to Facebook to vet CVs

WATCH what you post on social media over the silly season or risk losing out on your next job.

The warning comes as research reveals more than a quarter of Australian bosses are using social networking sites to screen job candidates.

Almost half of those screening applicants admitted to turning away prospective candidates based on something they had seen on Facebook or Twitter, an online survey conducted by Telstra said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/a-quarter-of-bosses-head-to-facebook-to-vet-cvs/story-e6frfro0-1226208260693#ixzz1f3F5ETHP

Have you ever wondered how much internet activity occurs in any one 60second bite around the world?

Click for bigger.

With thanks to my good colleague Dr Kurt Seemann

Tired of getting spam?

Sometimes we do have to register online for some services or products. I always worry that if I do, the company is going to sell my email adress to other companies, and I am going to get even more spam than I already do. Spam is time wasting, resource wasting, and frustrating!

But, help is at hand: there are some techniques to find out which organisation(s) is/are leaking your email address to spammers. This Reddit link tells you how to find out.

NB Thanks to Minnesotastan's blog TYWKIWDBI which alerted me to this useful information.

iPhone, therefore I am: are gadgets stealing our humanity?

Smartphones and other gadgets have literally become extensions of our minds and hold out the tantalising promise of never being bored again, but are we sacrificing too much in the process?

Technology pundits, social researchers and even philosophers are now pondering whether society's relentless march towards information overload is stealing rather than augmenting our humanity.

During a talk at the TEDxSydney conference at the weekend, Professor David Chalmers, director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University, argued that gadgets, particularly smartphones, had “become part of our minds”.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/iphone-therefore-i-am-are-gadgets-stealing-our-humanity-20110531-1fdi2.html#ixzz1NtHhhVGb

Tips for Assignment 3

- Before you submit your individual Assignment 3, go back and re-read slides 15, 16 and 17 of the introductory powerpoint slides for this session, found under TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEMS FOR HOTELS, CONVENTIONS AND EVENTS (ISY00244-2012-A) > UNIT DOCUMENTS > LECTURES AND RESOURCES

- A web presence is only part of your whole ICT strategy. It does not constitute the entirety of your ICT strategy.

- Likewise, ensure that your ICT strategy does not only focus outward (marketing, clients etc) but also inward: it supports the internal workings of your organisation: eg your databases, staffing, finances, staff intranet, acquisitions & assets, etc etc.

- Make sure you don't just 'copy' the structure of the example ICT plans I posted on this site. Sure, it can give you an idea of what an ICT plan looks like: but you need to go further than that. By now you should have much academic information (gleaned from readings such as Buhalis or Graham, and all your background reading, discussion and references for Assignment 2) which give excellent academic advice on what should be included in an ICT strategic plan.

Ethics and ICT

A fascinating area, and one we are morally bound to explore, is the issue of ethics and ICT. As a forerunning academic, Krystyna Gorniak-Kocikowska argued, "the computer revolution has a global character and that Computer Ethics should be therefore a global ethics."

But given that even Australian states can't agree about something simple and practical such as a standard gauge for railway tracks (hence, a train cannot travel across the border from NSW to QLD or vice versa: the railway tracks are different distances apart), getting the world as a whole to agree on global ethics seems to be an optimistic but elusive dream. But that doesn't mean we should avoid the topic.

Start your exploration of the topic by reading and discussing Dr Gorniak-Kocikowska's paper "From Computer Ethics to the Ethics of Global ICT Society"

Dr Gorniak-Kocikowska makes some very strong arguments. But is it achievable? Read and discuss Professor Luciano Floridi's wonderfully strong social-justice commentary called "Information Ethics: An Environmental Approach to the Digital Divide". It's powerful stuff. (If you're interested in his views on business ethics and information ethics, with especial notice on the concept of 'profit', read this article.)

The excellent Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a good overview article on Computer and Information Ethics. If you're interested in delving deeper into various perspectives, I can recommend "Phenomenological Approaches to Ethics and Information Technology".

ICT: future developments

One of the developments in ICT that I have seen around me over the years is a shift from seeing ICT simply as a means of delivering pure text more efficiently ("books but better", "newpapers but better"), to the increased use of imagery ("photos, but then better") and now an emphasis on the use of sound. I wonder what the future will hold: which of the (intellectual) senses will ICT stimulate?

These thoughts were provoked by viewing (listening to!!) this excellent advertisement.

Sawasdee ka!

Sawasdee ka! I have arrived in Bangkok and very much look forward to meeting my Naresuan University cohort this evening.

Yesterday I went to visit my favourite temple in Bangkok, the wonderful Wat Po temple. Of course I paid my respects to the Reclining Buddha, and I admired the beautiful murals all around the walls. The beauty and the artistry is incredible.

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”

--Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

It may sound ridiculous now, but the prediction was actually true for about ten years after it was made. Almost every forecaster would settle for a ten year limit on the testing of their forecasts. Of course, by the 1980s and the advent of the PC, such a statement looked plain daft.

Some example strategic ICT plans

Here are three strategic information technology plans, freely available on the web but collected here for your benefit:

University of Wollongong Information Technology Strategic Plan (6 pages)

Department of Immigration and Citizenship Information Communication Technology Strategic Plan 2009 - 2012 (16 pages)

NSW Health Information and Communication Technology Strategic Plan 2006 - 2011 (50 pages)

You can find many similarities between them, which indicate that those aspects are usually included in an ICT strategic plan. Each of them has strengths and weaknesses. Personally I'm disappointed at the lack of attention to Human Resources, development and training (humanware!!) in some of them but overall they're very good to look through to give you some ideas for your third assignment. You can also consider how they've approached structure and layout.

Lecture slides: ICT planning and evaluation

Tutorial task today

Please do online research using this blog as a starting point to answer these questions:

• When embedding photos in your website you need to consider copyright issues. What does this mean, in practical terms, for your webpage assignment?
• How can you improve web accessibility for people with disabilities?
• What percentage of the population are colour-blind? Which colours are most affected?
• What are some of the major mistakes made in designing webpages?
• What aspects of navigation and labelling are most important?
• What three measures can you take to improve the readability of your webpage?
• What are some of the quality criteria for website excellence?
  

The "how" of making decisions on information technology in hotels

The how of making decisions on IT in hotels.rtf (416.097 Kb)
A very useful article by Ian Graham, Director in the Hospitality & Leisure practice at Andersen. Essential reading, and one you should use for your second and your final assignments.

I have placed the article under our MySCU site, because it is a copyright article and not for public distribution. Please see TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEMS FOR HOTELS, CONVENTIONS AND EVENTS (ISY00244-2011-A) > UNIT DOCUMENTS > LECTURE RESOURCES

Software you might need or like for this unit

As a SCU student you are eligible for some software that we have bought educational licenses for. Under our MySCU site I have placed some links to software you might need or like for this unit, including some freeware. Please see our MySCU site under TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEMS FOR HOTELS, CONVENTIONS AND EVENTS (ISY00244-2011-A) > UNIT DOCUMENTS > SOFTWARE ESSENTIALS

Welcome cohort 2011

Hello students from Southern Cross University (Australia), Naresuan University Bangkok City Campus (Thailand) and the Management Development Institute of Singapore. Welcome and be part of our transnational team for the unit ISY00244. My name is Dr Mieke Witsel and I'm the unit coordinator for this unit.

There are four 'cohorts' this trimester: there is a group studying internally at Tweed Gold Coast campus (with myself as facilitator); a group of external distance-education students (with myself as facilitator); a small group at Naresuan University (with Dr Thotsapon Sortrakul as facilitator) and a group at MDIS in Singapore (with Mr Jonathan Lim as facilitator).

The unit resources can be found in two places: all publicly available material can be accessed here on this blog (follow the labels on the right hand side) and non-publicly accessible material can be found under our university blackboard site, known as MySCU. Your SCU student login will gain you access to our ISY00244 MySCU blackboard site.

Your first task is to familiarise yourself with the unit resources and the unit information guide. This document is available on the MySCU site under ISYoo244 > Unit Documents.