Saturday, June 09, 2012

Post 1: Welcome


Welcome to our class blog! In your first posting, please introduce yourself and tell us where you are from and what brought you to Iowa State University. Are you and on-campus or off-campus student? What program are you in and what is your ultimate career goal?

We will use the Blogger system throughout the semester. Feel free to add a photo or other details to your profile. Please be aware though that the information you provide is public. Use appropriate language and professionalism in your exchanges with other students.

To respond to this post, please use the comments link below. Be sure to come back and read the posts of your classmates. You are expected to comment at least once on someone else’s blog post each week. Look forward to rich and thoughtful online discussions!

6 comments:

Bobbi Newman said...

Hi My name is Bobbi, I live in Des Moines and take classes online.

I'm enrolled in the MA in Public Policy and Administration program. I already have a MA in Information Resources and Library Science. Right now I am attending school full-time but I am still very active professionally in librarianship, I serve in several positions within our profession organization.

I have spent the last couple of years focusing on libraries and the "new" literacies, digital literacy etc and the course work I'm doing now compliments those interests nicely. If you want to know more about me and my involvements you can visit my blog here http://librarianbyday.net/about-me/

Daniela Dimitrova said...

Hi everyone,

It is very nice to "meet" you in this online forum and I am delighted to see such a diverse group of students. More introductions are still to come, but I wanted to introduce myself as well. There is a brief Meet Your Instructor video on Blackboard that some of you may have seen by now.

I came to Iowa State in 2003 and loved the campus and journalism school where I teach. My doctoral degree is from the University of Florida (in mass communication) while my undergrad is from the American University in Bulgaria (double major in journalism and political science). My dissertation examined the diffusion of the Internet in Eastern Europe and I have published a number of research articles on the digital divide in this region and globally.

I continue to be fascinated by the way we use technology everywhere around the world. This class provides an excellent opportunity to explore such issues and I look forward to the conversation! Please do not hesitate to contact me at any point during the semester with questions, concerns, or suggestions.

Sam Shenker said...

Hey everybody,

My name is Sam. I currently live on campus and am originally from the Greater Boston area. I transferred into Iowa State this spring to study materials engineering. I’m not 100% sure what I want to do yet but I know that I want to help move and develop society from non-renewable resources to a sustainable energy economy.

I’m constantly surprised and fascinated how communication has changed so much by new technology in the last twenty years. I am especially interested in what the difference in culture will be for those who are brought up in this always connected society verses those who “plug in” later in life.

Profile said...

Hello Everyone-

My name is Matt Behrens and I'm currently pursuing graduate studies in HCI. I'm really looking forward to this course and the chance to learn from each of you as we explore Communication Technology & Social Change together.

A little background about myself:

I currently serve as the Administrator of Enterprise IT Services for the State of Iowa with responsibility for centralized state government IT Operations including Infrastructure Services and Application Development. I completed undergraduate studies in computer science and humanities with Distinction from Iowa State University and hold a Master of Business Administration with Distinction, Beta Gamma Sigma, from the University of Iowa Tippie School of Management. In 2011, I was nationally recognized by the Council of State Governments with the Henry Toll Fellowship, the nation’s premier leadership development program for state government officials. I've also received Iowa’s top recognition for state employees, the Golden Dome Government Excellence award, for work to consolidate and streamline state technology systems.

I'm interested in the impact on public trust in governments and private sector firms as they transition from from human-based services to digital services. My research is focused on strategies corporations and governments can use to increase public adoption of digital services.

I'm looking forward to the course!

Unknown said...

Hi all,

I'm Josh Solyntjes and I'm currently working on my MS in Human Computer Interaction. I'm originally from Cedar Rapids, IA and graduated with my BS in Computer Engineering from Iowa State a little over 5 years ago. Since then, I've been working as a Software Engineer at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids working on In-Flight Entertainment systems.

I mainly got interested in HCI from seeing and hearing the complaints from our customers about how our system works, so I wanted to get a better understanding of why they have complaints and how to improve things. I think this class will be interesting to see the roles of technology in communication and help further my goals in understanding HCI topics.

Shaun Kelly said...

Hello. I'm Shaun Kelly. I live in Atlanta, GA. I'm an off-campus student in my third semester in the MS Human-Computer Interaction program. I received my BA in English and Psychology from Kenyon College in '02. By day, I am a Sr. Technical Writer and Project Manager for a small consulting firm here in Atlanta. My goal when I complete this program (or sooner!) is to start in a new career in User Experience design, making technology easier and more enjoyable for everyone to use.

I've been fascinated and involved with technology since I was a young child. As much as I enjoy the more technical aspects, I am most interested in how we use technology and how it affects our lives.

So far, I'm finding that the ideas in Rogers' book have been pretty widely diffused (see what I did there?) I'm familiar with a lot of the concepts that he discussed in the introduction (S-curve, adopter categories, etc) yet had no idea where they came from or the academic background behind them. Looking forward to learning more this semester.