Personal Vision Assignment
Part of my teaching philosophy relates to what it means to be intelligent. I see my job as an educator to be helping students find their voice and being able to articulate their perspective in an informed and substantiated manner. While teaching particular information systems trends, or discussing the ways in which organizations can gain competitive advantage from IT is central to my job, I define success as the ability to encourage critical analysis related to these topics. Such analysis must be articulate, thoughtful, researched/supported, and original. All such characteristics are reflected in the Vision and provide me an opportunity to talk with students about what matters to them, about how to develop, research, and fine-tune their ideas, and allows me to evaluate them over time. Many students found the Vision assignment very rewarding, gaining from it what I had hoped they would:
"...I have to tell you that I used that report [the Vision] as a writing sample when I went for a job interview. I got the job offer, and she mentioned she liked the report, so I'm really glad now that you had us write it! It was the job I really wanted, so thanks a million!"
"That vision assignment: At first not really excited about it. Now I'm all over it and it's beginning to be 'my baby'. It take a lot of effort but has been really beneficial."
"Vision is the most thought provoking assignment I have received at the Hotel School. It really allowed me to be creative while applying concepts from class."
"I thought the vision was going to be a bad assignment but it ended up being very interesting."
"I liked the paper because I get to use what I learned about information systems."
"Paper was an excellent way to wrap-up the course and personalize the content to encourage us to learn something that was valuable to us."
Samples of student work - below are examples of exceptional visions. These visions have been chosen because the authors met the criteria outlined in the assignment for getting an A, in addition meeting the highest level of cognition identified as necessary to obtaining course objectives. What I hope students will learn from reviewing these visions is that there is no recipe for success, rather you must find your own voice and link your ideas to course content. Students currently enrolled on the course are able to view the titles of Visions written last semester through the Course Info web site. With permission from the author, students can read any of these papers.
HA475 Fall 2003
The vision of Iselin Skogland I have selected this student's
work as evidence of the extent to which the vision can be applied. I don't
use Iselin's vision as representative of the typical SHA student, rather
Iselin's work indicates the interdisciplinary nature of information systems and
the potential to inspire 'non-IT' students toward careers in IS management.
Further, in the 2004-05 academic year Iselin began an MSc at my alma mater, The London School of
Economics in the department of Information Systems. This accomplishment speaks to the effectiveness
of the Personal Vision assignment. Iselin included her vision as part of her
application and her ability to conduct original research, develop a thoughtful
thesis, and articulate it well, was fundamental to her acceptance. I
expect that Iselin will further develop the ideas expressed in this paper during
her studies at the LSE.
The vision of Hernan Donoso This Personal Vision is used to illustrate student growth over time. Hernan was a student who attended class but received only average grades. After receiving feedback on the required homework assignments and obtaining a grade of 78 on the first prelim, Hernan came to see me about a Vision topic. I encouraged him to write about what he loves and find a link to IS. I also told him that to improve his grades he should try and assimilate the course content rather than memorize definitions. I encouraged him to say what he felt and support it with evidence from lectures and readings. On the 2nd prelim he scored a 90.5 and on the 3rd prelim a 99. He received an A on his vision assignment because of his original ideas and ability to link his vision to course content. I worked with Hernan this summer to convert his visionary idea into a magazine article format which we have submitted to HR Magazine for publication consideration. Hernan comments on the course below:
"In this class I had very little background about information systems, but then I began to incorporate concepts into how they could fit in with what I love to do, the concepts became clear. I wasn't just memorizing for the sake of getting a passing grade, but I was understanding and [became] able to develop my ideas. I let the book and lectures stop doing the thinking for me and I began to think with my own opinions, while reinforcing it with what I was learning. I let go of the fear that what I felt might be the wrong answer and let it just be expressed, while incorporating the class material."
While Hernan's vision has room to be improved stylistically and developed further, the links he makes from rock-climbing, 'psychology of flow' discussed in Professor Kwortnick's class, and IS development is PhD material in terms of originality.
Spring 2004
The vision of Sarena Arora This
vision results from dedicated and sustained effort on the part of Serena.
She began with an interest in studying the future of outsourcing because of the
prevalence of such initiatives
in India. Over time Serena honed her
vision into a sharp analytical piece where she argues that talented Indian IT
graduates should work to maintain their expertise at home rather than go abroad.
The vision of Lindsey Cragg It sounds good to say 'in the future all concierge will have an information system that allows them to share their expertise and store their knowledge in a central repository' and this is how Lindsey's vision began. The vision you will read here is quite different in that Lindsey highlights the importance considering the appropriate functionality of an IS over the 'bells and whistles' that are possible. It is not the case that concierge will be willing to share all their expertise with fellow concierge at the same hotel property. As such, Lindsey highlights the importance of allowing individual concierge to use systems collaboratively while also letting them maintain privacy related to some of their knowledge.
The vision of Martina Vela When I told students to write about something for which they have passion, Martina listened. This student came to see me throughout the semester, she was nervous at times that she would not do well in the course because she didn't excel on exams. It was clear to me that Martina knew the course concepts and if she could communicate that in writing she would produce quite a strong vision. What you read here is Martina's take on the ski resort industry through the lens of information systems. Martina proposes viable and profitable changes to the industry - not through the purchase of IT but through the design of IS.
The vision of Gary Yamada analyzes the use of biometrics to increase customer safety and hotel security. Gary's paper is a particularly good example of adopting an analytical perspective when writing a visionary paper. While he does describe biometrics and his vision for the use of such indicators in hotels, he does not fall into the trap of writing an overly descriptive paper. Instead he presents this information in an informative and persuasive manner that convinces the readers of his perspective.