I posed a question to my class today: Can you think of any career/industry that does not make use of computers on some level?

In today's world, that answer would have to be no. Of course, there are some jobs (landscaping, framing to name a couple) where some of the production workers aren't using computers as a part of their daily job. However, there is not a job or industry that doesn't involve computers and technology on some level. The landscaping company probably uses computers for financial records, tracking customers and employees and probably advertising purposes. I told a story in class today of a professional baseball player I knew who used a computer to track what pitches pitchers were throwing him as a way of gaining a competitive edge on them (and this was over 15 years ago).

So, not only are computers a part of everyday life, but they will continue to be a major part of the business world. The jobs that are being created as a part of the new economy in this country are skilled jobs, often service-oriented jobs. Knowledge and value are keys to these jobs and as a result, so are computers and information systems. Products and jobs based upon commodities don't hold much future- they're all going overseas to the lowest-cost producer.

This is one of my major objectives in teaching 2223- helping students to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in today's knowledge and information based economy. So whether someone comes in at a high skill level or knowing very little, my goal is to have them leave with what they need in computer skills for their career.

-JRO

As I'm preparing some of my first lectures for 2223, I'm struck with one big underlying theme: there's no escaping computers in today's world. For example, just today, I drove to work in a car with embedded computers (as most all cars today have), I've texted back and forth with my cell phone, made calls on my IP phone, sent and received e-mails, visited web sites, etc. Later, I'll go to the gym where they'll use a bar code to scan me in and I may stop by get a smoothie beforehand, where they'll use a computerized cash register to take my money. If I pay with a card, they'll use an information system to take my credit card information and process that payment.

So, computers are all around us and are here to stay. This is why being computer literate is vital in the workplace and in our everyday lives. It's my job to help college students become computer literate and acquire the necessary computer knowledge and skills that they'll need in their time here at ECU and in their careers.

Just think of how different today would have been so far without computers...

-JRO