After taking this class personally I feel that I have learned a lot about disasters and the best ways to be prepared and combat them to the best our abilities. I feel that the SRA students that have taken this class have a head start compared to everyone else that has not taken the Crisis Informatics class this semester. We have covered so many different disasters in the duration of the class as well as the best solutions to these disasters. Some of the disasters we have covered range from terrorist attacks to hurricanes and finally to earthquakes. The point is that no matter the natural disaster you must realize that in a sense these are all manmade because man has a way to either prevent or mitigate these disasters no matter what type they may be. I think that is one of the most important things that we learned in this entire class.
I think that this class was made up of most if not all SRA majors compared to IST majors. I actually believe that there was one geography major in the class and I think she was lucky to pick up this class because we have learned so much this semester about disaster response. If anyone is looking to really getting into the disaster response field this was defiantly the class to take. Most people in the Information Science and Technology major are getting a hold of the latest technology that the Penn State campus and money has to offer. I have learned of many technologies such as Analyst’s Notebook, Arc GIS, ACH diagrams, and the Extreme Events Lab here in the IST building that have given me a good basis of things that are to come one day in the intelligence field and/or the crisis management field.
One of the most effective solutions to natural disasters that I have learned from this class would have to include social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Twitter is the most visited topic that we have hit this semester and its effect it has on disaster relief. I need no go into detail on how it works because we have all been learning about it this semester. May I say as well that if you have not taken this class and you are reading this blog I highly suggest learning from some source or another how social networking effects disaster relief efforts.
Overall, I would have to say that the Security and Risk Analysis students have a leg up on the competition compared to any of the Information Science and Technology majors and any other majors because of all the perks and technology we are able to get our hands on and learn for free. I feel that I have chosen the perfect major for dealing with new technologies that may emerge in the near future and finding ways to implement them for crisis management. At the link below you can find a video describing the importance of crisis management:
Just as you said in the beginning of your blog post, I have also learned a lot about the crisis response and humanitarian world with NGOs and technology integration to the response system. It was quite frustrating I believe in the beginning when we read the United Nations Report. The whole class also made us frustrated at why things didn’t work like they should have in our minds. I liked the class because it was mostly all SRA majors compared to some other IST classes, I feel that the class wasn’t to technical for them and didn’t have a lot of coding for them to bore themselves with.
ReplyDeleteYour comments about how the College of IST provides students with some of the best technology out there except for the computers in our classroom which sucked. For example in my time at PSU I have used some pretty cool programs that a lot of people in the real world use on a daily basis (i.e. Analyst Notebook, ArcGIS, ACH diagrams, and the Extreme Events Lab). The University as a whole represents some of the best and brightest minds in the country and it is all located here in State College. It is a hub for thinkers and people to try new things or explore ideas, facilitating a place where students, faulty, and the community can develop new ways to help in time of crisis anywhere in the world.
Hello Jesse,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your first point, covering the fact that by taking this class, students would have an immediate head start compared to other students out there who haven't taken the class. Although, there are many people out there in the world who don't necessarily have to take this class in order to address many of the problems facing the humanitarian assistance community. Many projects, like some of the ones our speakers have discussed through the semester, were projects developed when people had both free time and a strong motivation to try and make a difference in the current situations facing devastated areas. Ushahidi was one example how Patrick Meier had those two things and acted so that he could go ahead and make his mark in the world. He wasn't concerned with anything else besides making information more comprehensive to aid workers down in Haiti. And as the world continues to change with time, we will continue to see disasters and catastrophies occur, mainly because there isn't much that can be done to stop some natural disasters, but at least we know that there will always be people out there who are ready to help and act at a moment's notice. Again, they don't necessarily have to have taken this class, but we should really focus on trying to find these grass-roots, technological developments and show the world how much they can help. I know how much you weren't a fan of Twitter, but still press at how useful it can be, and I think that is a perspective we don't see in some of these aid communities. NGOs and the UN really need to accept the fact that technology has surpassed their growth rate, and really should learn how to adapt to the changing times. It was a pleasure having you in class, and I look forward to hearing about your final project.
Tony
You brought up some good points that I didn’t even think about. For one, you stated the fact that we covered such a wide range of events that stretched from terrorist attacks to hurricanes to floods. This is a great thing because a lot of people who are in our class are going to be going into the intelligence and/or disaster relief and this class has prepared us for everything that might come our way in the future. After all isn’t this what college is all about, learning things in the classroom that we are going to be able to incorporate in the real world? This class did a great job and gave the students a head start above all other job applications because of how prepared we are for anything. In a way we are all entrepreneurs in the disaster response in a college classroom because this is the second time that this class has ever been taught. Especially for Security and Risk Analysis students this really gives us a head start in the field of disaster relief. I have not sent out any applications yet because im only a junior but I am defiantly going to put this class on my resume, which is going to look great. Another great thing about this class is that it gives us a look at the technologies that are used in the field of disaster response and how they are used. Furthermore, and maybe even more important this class showed us what we need in the field. It showed us what technologies we need to improve and what technologies we need to create in order to make disaster relief more sufficient and better. All in all this class was a great experience for the students and even the teacher. I believe that we all learned a lot and have a head step in the real world competition for a job.
ReplyDeleteJesse,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the SRA and IST majors whom have taken this class have a leg-up on our fellow classmates. Before this class I never would have realized how much technology impacted crisis management and recovery. I remember the first class that we had this semester Dr. Tapia said that there is no such thing as a “natural” disaster; all disasters are man made. And at the end of this class, I have come to agree with her. The label of ‘disaster’ makes any unfortunate event that much worse.
Twitter was definitely talked about the most in this class and for good reason. Its connection with widespread use during crises has led to many debates over if they should be used to aggregate data during crises, or if it is better to completely discredit any Tweets or other social networking posts because of the few individuals who have bad intentions.
I also agree with you that this is a great major for learning and getting to use the latest technologies and seeing the direction of where the next new piece of technology is headed. I definitely think that this class opened everyone’s eyes in terms of what our majors can do outside of the usual Intelligence or Programming positions.