Organizations

#1.

This Assignment asks you to analyze professional organizations to find the best fit for you as an IT leader. During this Assignment, you might find professional organizations that you would like to join. Now is an excellent time to join because most professional organizations offer a lower-cost student membership and have a large number of resources that you might find useful throughout your DIT program. (Note: You are not required to join an organization for this Assignment.)

Write and submit a 4-page paper in which you address the following:

• Describe any professional organizations to which you currently belong or with which you are associated. If you do not belong to any organizations, select two that are appropriate for your current role.

o Explain how these organizations can benefit you.

o Explain elements or attributes of these organizations that appeal to you most and you find the most useful.

• For one of your chosen organizations, explain which elements or attributes are geared toward IT leaders.

• Identify other professional organizations that are geared toward IT leaders that you should begin considering now to help you reach the next level in your career.

Be sure to also post the link to your favorite professional organization's website in the Webliography for your colleagues to consider. This part of the Assignment is not assessed, but will assist your colleagues in expanding their professional networks. You may find additional links for your own purposes there as well.

#2.

You may have already found yourself in this situation: you are at a family gathering and your relatives keep asking you questions about your decision to enter the DIT program so they can understand your decision better. Do you have a quick speech prepared for such occasions? How do you respond, especially if you may not be entirely clear on your motivations and goals?

An IT leader needs to be able to speak at a moment's notice on a topic to a variety of audiences who may or may not have a technical background. To that end, in this Assignment, you analyze your motivations for pursuing a DIT degree and prepare a brief speech appropriate for family members about your goals and choice of degree.

This speech is the first of several that you will write and present in this course about your program and your personal and professional goals.

Analyze your motivations for obtaining a DIT degree, and write and submit a brief speech in which you answer the following questions:

1) Why are you pursuing a degree in IT as opposed to another subject area, such as Management of Information Systems or Educational Technology?

2) Why are you seeking an applied, professional doctorate instead of a PhD?

3) What do you hope to gain with this degree?

4) How will you and your life be different by the time you finish your degree?

5) What impact do you anticipate this degree will have on your family, your career, and your larger community?

Your speech should be about 350-500 words.

3.Discussion 1, and 2.

Discussion 1: Water Cooler-IT Disaster

Personal information hacked! Customer data loss! Data center on fire! An IT disaster of any form affects organizations, equipment, employees, and customers. Organizations may have plans for detecting and responding to system threats and mitigating the effects. Unfortunately, having a plan does not mean every disaster can be anticipated or avoided. Anything can happen at any time-usually when you least expect it.
In this Water Cooler Discussion, you continue to get to know your colleagues and establish your personal and professional network by sharing a memorable IT disaster. Take this opportunity to learn from each other's experiences by asking probing questions so that you can add your colleagues' post-mortem insights to your personal knowledge base.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Select the biggest IT disaster that you have experienced or been involved with as a member of an IT team or that has affected you as an employee or customer.

• If you have not been involved with an IT disaster personally, please use a reported example from the media or the Internet

Discussion 2: Hot Topics-Technological Implications

Laptop computers, cell phones, tablets, and wireless networks are examples of technologies that have changed people's lives and the way they do business. Whether that change is for the better or worse can be argued. A new technology has both intended and unintended consequences, and IT professionals need to understand the ramifications of any technology.

This Hot Topics Discussion serves more than one purpose. First, it gives you the opportunity to analyze a contemporary technology and the implications it has on the IT industry and society. Second, it generates ideas that will be used for a mini-project in Weeks 3 and 4. And finally, this topic-generation exercise may help you think about potential Doctoral Study topics, which you will explore further in Week 5.

For this Discussion, select a contemporary technology that has emerged in the past 12 months. You may use the same topic you selected in the Week 1 Hot Topics Discussion. If you do, then in this Discussion you need to provide more details regarding its effects on the IT industry and on society.

• post a response of approximately 350-500 words in which you identify and briefly describe a contemporary technology with societal implications. Then, elaborate briefly on the positive and/or negative effects that this technology has on the IT industry and on society. Finally, summarize any arguments or concerns being raised about it as well as any controversies.