First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Tapia for creating this exciting class that really gets students involved with real world problems facing humanitarian organizations. The class was presented with some very-well connected experts in the field of humanitarianism and opened our eyes to reality of difficulties that NGOs and the UN face on a daily basis. All the speakers had one thing in common, which ran synonymous with the theme of the Crisis Informatics course; humanitarian organizations are doing everything they can to help people, but really aren't sure how they can efficiently utilize social media and growing technologies to enhance their abilities to save lives and cut on their operating costs. Until technology can be integrated in a way that can guarantee the ability to save lives, these NGOs and the UN will remain skeptical about the technology everyday users interact with.
In the future, I can easily see how IST and SRA students will be working directly with individuals in the humanitarian assistance community. Many IST and SRA students have ideas to contribute to advisers to see if they can be implemented. These same students can also help looking into the current issues with why technology isn't as imperative to people like those at the UN and other NGOs. The advantage to IST and SRA students is that our curriculum is based off real world situations and experiences over a broad range of topics, whether they are more technical in nature or more people oriented, focusing on cultural impacts and societal change with technological means. Overall, this means that when we graduate, we are prepared for any kind of industry and any kind of situation. Our students adjust to different environments and carry on using their technical and people skills to make a difference.
For example, this Crisis Informatics course helped orient both IST and SRA students to ways of taking our technical, analytical skills to observe and analyze disasters that have occurred in the past couple of years to see how technology played a role, and what kinds of information came about from victims, rescue workers, and outsiders altogether. IST students had the chance to take a couple database and computer language courses, which would help them comprehend the amount of data that comes out of an emergency, let alone a disaster with catastrophic results. They would see how a database would need to be organized to handle text messages or how to modify some files to work with the right API to intercept thousands and thousands of tweets for categorization. SRA students have some experience with securing such systems so the information remains either anonymous or locked down to only allow access to certain individuals, but SRA students also have other skills. SRA students also gain plenty of experience facing risks and making decisions that affect both short-term and long-term processes or objectives. They can forecast and predict different scenarios if a particular decision was made compared to another. Overall, whether the student is an SRA major or an IST major, they will be specially prepared to both innovate and analyze problems around the world and with continue to work to find answers and solutions to those problems.
I really hope that sometime soon, organizations like the UN, the Red Cross, and countless other organizations will look towards the ways technology can be used to help their efforts. People around the world continue to contribute to open source projects that could provide serious boosts to the rising demands of technology globally. Students in the College of IST have huge potential, and are ready to do what they can to improve technology around the world.
I agree with everything you said in the first paragraph. But, I would go further in saying that not only has the class “opened our eyes” to the difficulties facing those in the humanitarian field. At least in my, the class has given me a solid base line understanding of the humanitarian field itself. Honestly, I knew very little prior to taking this class. While the IST and SRA major is definitely still developing, I agree that there is a sense of relevance in terms of material that does enable us to relate to what is happening in the industry today. I would not say that we are “prepared for any kind of industry and any kind of situation” upon graduation, but I think the College of Information Sciences and Technology does teach us a way of thinking that enables us to approach issues and problems and work through them in a successful manner. The problem solving approach can apply to various issues. Going along with what you mentioned, I think that one particular advantage of having SRA students play a role in the integration of technology in crisis response is our understanding of risk. Obviously, the stakes are high in the humanitarian system. Lives are at stake. Students in the SRA major learn exactly how to assess risk, communicate risk, and control risk. The best chance of successfully integrating new procedures and technologies into an outdated system can only exist with a complete understanding of the risks involved. After watching the “Research IST Penn State” YouTube video I was a little shocked hearing about all that has gone on in the College of IST at the graduate level.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to second your thanks to Dr. Tapia - This class was certainly a unique and interesting class that has greatly improved my interest in the SRA program at Penn State. This is my first of the "test bed" courses that Penn State offers and I've been impressed so much that I'm taking two test courses next semester(admittedly, they're PL SC courses rather than SRA ones). One of the most impressive and important things about SRA 397A was the lineup of speakers relevant to the field. This was also something I haven't really seen in any of my other courses - speakers are something that are brought in maybe once or twice and they're frequently optional in other classes. I'm not genuinely curious why speakers are so rare, considering they added so much to the curriculum and were also far more interesting than three hour lectures.
ReplyDeleteI'll second Jason's comment about the course "opening our eyes". I certainly learned a great deal about humanitarian aid that I had never imagined. It is also interesting to gain such a perspective of all the different problems in the field from every theoretic angle.
This class has been a lot of fun and very informative, more so than a lot of classes I have taken at Penn State. Dr. Tapia went out on a limb by creating this class and I really hope it continues to be a class at Penn State. It has taken everything we have ever learned and applied it practically. We were able to sit down and speak with some very important people in positions of power when it come to crisis risk management and they explained to us what they do, where the flaws are in the system and how they see room for improvement. This kind of insight has been invaluable as we have been working on our projects and trying to figure out what we are going to do with our respective majors.
ReplyDeleteAs for the opening our eyes I agree, I have a much better understanding of what my major entails and it's practical application. Also I feel like the courses over the past years have come full circle. I see a way to apply the skills and knowledge I have acquired in the real world and see many different uses for it. We could be jack of all trades if we wanted to. We have the ability to learn inter-disciplinary things easier than most which will be invaluable in the real world. Overall very good post and very good semester. It's been fun everyone.
Tony, I agree with a lot of the comments you made concerning why IST and SRA students are great assets to these organizations in the future. As you pointed out, IST and SRA students take a wide range of classes while a student in IST. Instead of learning pure technical skills, IST and SRA students also learn a wide range of non-technical skills. Having a combination of these technical and non-technical skills allows IST and SRA students to bridge the gaps between the two worlds. Often, there is a bridge between these two skill sets that people don’t make any effort to bridge the gap between.
ReplyDeleteAs you also pointed out, IST and SRA is based off real world situations. IST and SRA students are learning how to solve these real world problems and not just the theories of how to do something. In IST and SRA we learn the theory, and then we learn how to apply the theory to the real world. Many students entering the work force today do not have the skills necessary to solve real world problems. IST and SRA students do not have this problem as they have been solving them since they entered college.
One of the skills that you didn’t mention is the familiarity IST and SRA students have working in groups. Every IST and SRA class requires that students work in a group to solve a problem. In these organizations, you will never be in charge of solving a problem all by yourself. Having the familiarity and comfortableness to work in groups will make IST and SRA students a valuable asset in the disaster response community.