Commonwealth Scholar - The iSchool at Pitt

Check out the life of a graduate Pitt iSchool Commonwealth Scholar!

Tag: Information science (Page 2 of 2)

Why I Chose Pitt: The Path to MSIS

I just wanted to leave everyone with my point of view before Admitted Students’ Day. Finding the program for you is very important. Not everyone gets the chance to hear a current student’s perspective, so I wanted to provide one for potential applicants and students.

Background

Throughout grade school, I was exposed to science and technology, ultimately guiding me to select Computer Science as my college major. After a couple of years in the fast-paced, highly demanding University of Maryland curriculum, I decided to change my major to Psychology. I wasn’t mature enough to dedicate all of my time to computer science (I struggled through most of my courses and needed to study all of the time), and wanted to move to something where I was better-skilled and equally interested. When I changed to Psychology, I loved it. I grew quite fond of counseling and cognitive psychology, but something was missing. In my cognitive class, my teacher talked about using cognitive psychology in technology and how there were so many complex mathematics behind the social science. I knew what was wrong; I missed computer science. So, in my last semester of school, I took all courses that related to technology and business, including Human Factors and the Psychology of Video Games to learn all I could learn about relating psychology to technology.

What’s It Called?

Regardless of what field I chose, I had to get an advanced degree because there’s not much you can do with a B.S. in Psychology. I would be on Google everyday searching random phrases such as “psychology and computers,” and “majors where you can use psychology and computer science.” There it was, information science. I had NO clue what it was because I never heard about it before. Sure, I heard about human factors engineering and human computer interaction. But, something so general and incorporated so much more? It’s like all my answers appeared in two words. Actually, that’s kind of funny that I found answers in information science…because you know… it’s information, ha.

The Metaphorical Glass Slipper at NSBE

During the NSBE Fall Regional Conference (2 Hype!!), I went to the Career/College Fair and ran into the School of Information Sciences at Pitt. Long story short, they handed me a packet with all of the information about the school. I looked at the packet and fell in love. I’m the type of person who is interested in everything and this school was going to teach it all to me. Being that I applied to and almost attended Pitt in undergrad, I knew this was fate. This was my school. I was Cinderella and Pitt just slipped the information science shoe on my foot; perfect fit.

Trying Not to Put All My Data on One Storage Device (or Eggs in One Basket)

As a responsible prospective graduate school student, it is your duty to research more than one school to ensure that your needs are met. I could go on and on about the other schools I looked into, but I prefer to leave them to your own discovery. Instead, I will leave you with a few reasons why Pitt stood out to me.

Freedom: Most of the programs that I looked into were VERY specific. You could specialize in human-computer interaction, or you could study information systems, but you couldn’t do both. At Pitt, you have an array of choices. You could specialize in any information topic, even selecting more than one track, or you can be a general student. It’s like the grownup version of creating your own major. Currently, I am a general student. While I have interests in HCC and web development, I chose not to be constrained because I’d like to dabble in telecommunications as well.

Technical Curriculum: A lot of the programs I found focused a lot more on business and social science, and less on the technical parts of information science. While the former appealed to me, I still wanted to develop a holistic understanding of technology and continue to develop my computer programming skills. Pitt gives you that by offering a lot of project-heavy courses, while also offering courses that focus on concepts and research.

Location: Simply put, I wanted to get away from home and experience life in a new place. Because I love home so much, I’m pretty sure grad school was my last chance to get out there, at least past DC/MD/VA. Pittsburgh is a nice city; not too loud, not too crazy. I can ride anywhere on the bus for free (thanks, Pitt) and nothing is more than 15 min out of reach if you have a car (paid street parking before 6pm/10pm can be a burden, though). Night life is pretty decent if that’s important to you. It is to me, so I love it. I also love that there’s so much food to experience!!! I love different foods, and eating something other than food from big franchises is a treat. I seldom eat big-named pizza (Domino’s, Pizza Hut, etc.); I usually go to my local pizza shop, Pizza Perfecta. But, let me not ramble on. This can be another topic for another day.

What Happened Next?

I started four applications and only completed the one for Pitt. As soon as I got accepted, I stopped worrying about the others. I got into my #1 school, with scholarships!

 

 

For those who are making a decision about Pitt’s MSIS Program, whether accepted or still applying, feel free to contact me at jourdan.ischool.pitt@gmail.com or cwscholars.ischool.pitt@gmail.com. I promise I’ll give a full, honest, unbiased opinion (I won’t act like a Pitt rep) of my experience within the iSchool and the program.

Day One of iFest 2014 – TEC Conference

Sunday was the first day of iFest at the iSchool and we had our TEC Conference. Before I go on… if you weren’t there, you missed out, buddy.

TEC stands for technology, entrepreneurship and creativity. This conference combined these ideas and created a space for LIS and IS students to think in innovative ways. Pretty much……..it was freakin’ awesome. I hate talks…and lectures…and seminars. But this was eye-opening and fun and sooooooo great. Let’s go through my day.

First, I hung out with my closest iSchool friends until 3AM, talking about life, so it started out like this:

……..exactly like this. But, I rolled out of bed at 8:45 and slowly got ready in the 30 minutes I gave myself (Sleep > Food+Beauty), met with Angela, and drove to the iSchool.

Opening

The event kicked off with Dean Larsen giving us the introduction to the iSchool. I always enjoy hearing the story, particularly because it mentions ideas coming together in a bar. Not to mention, Dean Larsen is an awesome speaker who can talk about anything impromptu and get back to his prearranged speech with such ease.

After the dean welcomed us, he gave the mic to our keynote speaker, Josh Sager. Josh is my inspiration for all of the gifs and visuals in this blog entry because that’s exactly how his talk went. He was so funny, entertaining, and had a great message about creative tinkering. I don’t want to write TOO much, so I’ll just hit you with the lessons learned: Don’t be afraid to work on ideas. Practice, do side projects that interest you, and learn from others. Doing these things will expand your knowledge, fill the gap between your skills and your personal expected quality of work, and open new worlds and opportunities you never dreamed of having. Your dream job doesn’t exist? Create it.

John Mahood, ImageBox

John was a pretty nice guy and wanted to make this talk more interactive, so he spoke to us about what we were all working on. I wish I wasn’t so shy because I was DYIIIIIIIINNNNG to talk to him. I wanted to tell him that I’ve been into visual and performing arts for YEARS and I couldn’t focus on one skill to be the starting point of my future entrepreneurship. When he talked about his life and how he came about creating ImageBox, the only thing I could think was, “OMG I WANNA DO THAT!!” John was interested in a lot of visual art, took as many computer and art classes he could, and began designing logos or whatever anyone needed. After years, ImageBox became a reality and his company grew to the awesome business it is now! My favorite part of the talk was when he said he wanted to impact the businesses that he served. So, a lot of his work is with small businesses who need a designer to enhance and assist in their success. I’ve always wanted to start a productions business and use my skills to help others realize their dreams, so I was so excited to hear John express the way in which he used his talents to change lives.

Lessons learned:
6 P’s (in the design business – what you need, what you provide the client):
1) Problem 2) Product/Service/Solution/Features/Benefits 3) Proof: Portfolio, Case Studies, Testimonials 4) Price/Fit 5) Process 6) Personality

Build a portfolio. Start a blog. Set an hourly rate for yourself (how much do you think you deserve for your skills?).
John hosts monthly design meet-ups in Pittsburgh. 2nd Tuesdays at 7pm, I believe?


Lunch with Les Gies, TechShop

Angela and I were being semi-antisocial…mainly my fault…because I still looked like this:

You like that cat meme? That was for my LIS friends 🙂 Anyway! Because I was still cranky, we sat at a table by ourselves. After awhile, Les Gies chose to sit at our table. I made the right decision to finally be social and ask how his presentation went. I wanted to see him talk about TechShop, but it was during John’s session. Basically, there is a shop in Pittsburgh (and other locations around the country) where you can use machinery, like 3D printing…and other stuff (my brain stopped at 3D printing because I was soooo amazed  after a Vice documentary I saw about it). It’s ran like a gym. You pay membership, you use equipment. They also offer classes on how to use the equipment. I loved this for 3 reasons: 1) This idea was built in CA out of a need to easily access tools and wanting to share this opportunity with the public. 2) I’ve been soooo wanting to do woodshop projects again, but I haven’t seen equipment since my HS engineering class in 2005 and I didn’t know where I’d find it again. BUT NOW I KNOW. 3) I can go and ask for a tour of TechShop whenever I want! Bonus) It closes at midnight EVERYDAY. Last minute project? Challenge Accepted.
In summary, this is awesome and I’ll be doing a tour…and possibly learning how to do 3D printing.

Traci Thomas and Becca Serr, MAYA Design

These two amazing ladies told me what it was like to work in human-centered design. I can end it right there by saying: I. Drooled. Traci and Becca work in the human sciences team, so they’re more so focused on going out and researching the user for their design. I’m a people person and I have a psychology degree, so this was right up my alley. But what made it even better was that they have visual design and engineering teams as well. This gives them the opportunity to work and see different viewpoints of a design and watch it come to life. I had NO idea that they even helped design my.pitt.edu! They showed us the suggested design and it was so interesting to see the similarities on the Pitt intranet compared to their presentation. A part of their session was a design activity using a creative matrix. We had to come up with ways to make Pittsburgh a better city. Becca and Traci asked us to individually write ideas on a sticky note and place them in a section (drawings HIGHLY suggested). The sections were categorized by certain aspects of improving  the city and by how we could enhance those aspects (see below for a picture of the matrix). The activity was great because I got to experience a way that MAYA employees design. It also opened my eyes to how much of a necessity design is to the quality of everyday life. For example, they are working on a project dealing with food deserts in the city and how to alleviate the issue. Community enhancing? Changing lives? YES.

Lessons Learned: 1) I need to find a MAYA equivalent in Washington, D.C. 2) I immediately looked for internships and there’s one in Visual Design and another in Human Sciences. 3) I feel like I need a better explanation of their food desert project. It’s called Food Oasis. Check it out.


Josh Sager, Smith Brothers

My day ended how it began, with awesome Josh. Only this time, I was in an HTML 5 and CSS3 workshop. I DESPERATELY needed this because my knowledge is super minimal. All I can really say is that he gave us so many cool resources for editing and learning HTML/CSS  from the basics, to cross-browser issues, to animation.

I was SO unknowledgeable about these things. The pic to the bottom left is totally how I felt by this point. The Pinocchio Paradox is just a bonus. I randomly came across that while I was looking for a “mind blown” gif. And my mind is now blown, again. Talk about ruining my childhood. ANYWAY!

My takeaway/list of resources: SASS, Can I Use, Google Canary, Modernizr, Polyfill, HTML5 Boilerplate, Code School, Code Academy (I knew that one!), Sublime Text, Refresh Pittsburgh, CodePen, and A Book Apart.

Lesson learned:  I need to read more books and code more for fun. Creative tinkering wins again!

At 4:30pm, I felt motivated and rejuvenated. I think THIS is what I’ve been waiting for. I knew I was in the right field, but I didn’t feel excited about it. I went to classes, learned what I needed to learn, felt a little accomplishment. I felt like something was missing. But, by then end of the TEC Conference, and Angela can attest to this, I looked like this:

I finally affirmed what I want to do with my MSIS degree. I finally knew why I am taking class and why I’m doing what I’m doing. I want to be creative; I want to design ways to impact lives for the better.

It feels so good to know! It feels even better to see that there’s successful people out there, happily living the dream that I have for myself! Ahhhhh such an awesome day!

My next moves: Building my personal website and portfolio. Start learning more web development/design languages and techniques. Go to tech meet-ups. Buy more books.

Relating it back to my observations of the iSchool:
Shout out to Angela for finding a relation to her track (Archives) in everything that she learned. While it seemed more of an IS day to me, she asked questions to each of the presenters that broadened my opinion of how LIS plays into design and technical work. I think that goes back to Josh Sager talking about creating your own place if there isn’t one (or if it’s not simple to find). I saw a lot of IS students and I think this conference would’ve influenced and benefited the LIS students as well. Sometimes, you just might find a gem where you least expect it.  Here’s a random Brainy Quote about gems that I think relates:

There are little gems all around us that can hold glimmers of inspiration. – Richelle Mead

Take advantage of everything the iSchool has to offer. Even I’m thinking about using the elective I have next year to take an LIS course! Don’t be afraid to go out and experience things that seem like they aren’t geared toward you.  Who knows what glimmers of inspiration that could catch your eye!

Other awesome workshops/sessions I didn’t get to attend:

  • Terry Clark, Terry Clark Photography: Creativity and Small Business
  • James McGee, MD & William McIvor, MD: Technology-enabled Learning – Simulations in Medical Education
  • Dmitriy Babichenko, University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences: Working with Arduino

If I get more info about these sessions, I’ll be glad to share!

The few pics I got from the day:

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Dean Larsen

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Creative Matrix activity with MAYA Design

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HTML 5 CSS 3 workshop with Josh Sager

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HTML 5 CSS 3 workshop with Josh Sager

What is an iSchool to you?

In preparation for an iSchool graduate information session, I reviewed the definition of iSchools in the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, 3rd ed. As a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh iSchool, I thought I would find a reflection of what I have experienced thus far at the iSchool.

As I near the end of my first semester I find the iSchool and the faculty, staff, and students that make up the iSchool are focused on the study of the intersection between people, information and technology. I recognized this was a fairly basic understanding, however, it was not until I read the iSchool definition that I realized that beyond the basic definition of what the iSchool is right now, the iSchool is a proponent of investigating questions that affect people across disciplines and fields.

The iSchool submission, which happens to be written by the iSchool at Pitt’s own Dean Ronald L. Larsen, progresses from origin, to motivation, positioning, empowerment, and organization, to the iSchool vision. The iSchool concept was developed through informal conversations and meetings, and the insight of visionaries that have recognized the impact of information in structure, content and interconnectedness. Due to its intangibility and continually changing form, iSchools must focus on current, important questions rather than pure educational structure.

So, what are the questions that iSchools are investigating? As of right now, I have been mulling around the concept of  archival materials handling. What are best practices to preserve the intellectual and physical integrity of an archival item? Does it matter if that item is of a different culture/society, and we apply western, US preservation beliefs? To what degree are we affecting the archival materials through description? Is it more beneficial to have in-depth description, or allow each user to make his or her own inferences?

There are no clear answers to these questions, just the opportunity in an iSchool environment to further investigate with peers, faculty and staff from a variety of backgrounds.

Larsen, Ronald L. “iSchools.” In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, Third Edition, 3018-3023. Taylor and Francis: New York, 2009. DOI: 10.1081/E-ELIS3-120043670.

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