Category Archives: MIS 204

Penn State e-Portfolio Site – Gallery

PSU students are encouraged to supplement resume efforts with a website. Glenn Johnson (photo below) is instructional designer in the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute where he serves as project manager for Penn State’s e-Portfolio Initiative. In this role, Glenn gathers examples of student sites into galleries to provide design and content ideas.

To get started, create a plan for your site by reviewing the student sites in the galleries. Look for examples of evidence (academic or co-curricular) that students have made part of their site. As you do this, consider your personal evidence that you might use. What is it that makes you unique? What is it that would make you “attractive” to a recruiter (i.e. communication skills, team experience, problem solving, etc.)?

Next, consider how you will “present” your strengths. This is where students can get very creative on websites. Words are good, but so are images and other multi-media content. Lastly, look for opportunities to “reflect” on your evidence. Reflection is a powerful way to add value to your experiences. Reflection goes beyond describing “what” you did – this is where you explain the “why” and share what you have learned.

After creating the plan and gathering content, putting the site together is pretty straightforward. Microsoft Office products (such as Word) allow you to save files as HTML. Specific web-authoring packages are also available, such as Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage (or Sharepoint and Publisher). Some (for Linux, PC and Mac) can be downloaded for free, such as NVU. The Mac also comes with iWeb, for example. Currently, PSU hosted websites can be used for six months after graduating from Penn State.

Last is finding a place to host your site. Other free site besides PSU include Google Pages and Weebly.com (note that Weebly was founded by PSU alumni!). However, there is a benefit to using the branded site provided by PSU to students. Penn State provides photos and PSU logos for students to use when configuring a web-page.

Note that general copyright free images can be found at office.microsoft.com/clipart/.

Student Spotlight: Phuree “Will” Smittinet – Finance Grad

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Will Smittinet recently graduated from Smeal with degrees in Finance and Economics, with a Minor in International Business. Will is currently completing an executive internship in the oil, gas, and petrochemical business in his native Thailand. He will complete this internship in a few months, after which he will return to the U.S. to complete an M.S./ Ph.D. at a top school.

I first met Will as an MIS 204 student, and came to know him much better when he returned to complete independent study as a Teaching Intern. I would describe Will as very unique. He is quite gracious, and able to carry a tremendous intellect without a trace of pretension. Below are his thoughts on “MIS 204 in Practice.”

Our company encompasses the entire petrochemical value chain from upstream (oil research and drilling) to downstream (retail sales and service). As such, all information – from the price and quantity of raw materials to the final products – play a crucial role in our short and long-term investments. This is true whether it is gasoline, polypropylene, or even the type of plastic we plan to make today. We use IS to support our use of both physical goods and also financial derivatives to maximize profits and minimize effects from oil and gas price fluctuations.

Management Information Systems (MIS) plays a crucial role as a supportive system for information processing and management roles. As I travel around the world, I rely heavily on speed, accuracy and up-to-date information from our MIS and IT departments. The bottom-line of my company investment portfolio, as well as my short and long-term strategies, always depends on access to quality information.

In the oil, natural gas, and petrochemical business, the margins along the value chain are quite slim, highly competitive and regulated. As a result, the profit and loss on middle to downstream processes are less than a point of a percentage basis. Even upstream projects only yield a relatively modest margin, despite requiring massive amounts of research, cutting edge technology and investment. As a result, access to information can yield modest, but important, upstream gains that can be used to offset middle or downstream losses.

Increasingly, we rely on IT, MIS and more recently Knowledge Management (KM). KM enables the instant transfer of knowledge between experienced employees and executives, even after some have left or retired. KM guarantees that our company will not suffer a shortage of either technical or personal expertise, allowing us to maintain a good relationship with our partners, suppliers and customers.

MIS 204 offers a wide and critical perspective on how to use and even request additional services. These services could support split-second investment decisions. In fact, I believe that our trading team (who purchase a billion barrels of crude oil and gas daily) requires even more IS support today.

Thanks, Will S.

Wicked IS – Skype’s ‘Make-or-Break Year’

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Photo 8.jpg We have talked about Skype in MIS 204 for several years as an example of “distributed computing” (1 user accessing many computers). Initially it seemed that mostly international students used Skype to make overseas telephone calls using the Internet – “Voice over Internet Protocol” or VoIP. However, additional features supporting video calls seems to have increased the popularity of Skype among all students. So, I finally decided to try Skype.

My daughter Kirsten and I tried the service this past weekend (see photo). First we called some friends in Germany followed by a high school friend now living in Australia. We were very impressed. Using the “SkypOut” feature, we called telephones in the other countries. This means we had to pay for the calls. Our calls totaled around 45 minutes, and the cost was around $1.40. This is the close to the rate we would have paid had we been in the other country calling from a pay phone. My high school friend (Marty) is looking into a microphone and video camera for his computer, so he can make free calls to family and friends in the U.S.

I do not know how successful Skype itself will be over the long term (see Businessweek link). However, the ability to place calls over the Internet seems to be reaching a point where personal callers can benefit. Meeting the higher standards of businesses, however, is another matter.

Undergraduates Teach HTML Skills to MIS204 Students

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Students who have successfully completed MIS 204 are invited to return to complete independent study as “Teaching Interns” (TIs). Dr. Glantz implemented this program at Smeal around 2002 based on ideas

from Dr. David DiBiase (PSU’s Earth and Mineral Sciences). The TI program provides important educational benefits to students teaching others about technology in business. In the photo above, TIs Jennifer O’Neill and Kristina Kolaronda present an HTML writing lesson to current MIS 204 students. The HTML exercise helps “demystify” a technology for business students, while providing insight into benefits from developing personal ePortfolios.

How to upload a file to PSU webspace

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Students that want to upload a file from a personal computer to the PSU webspace in the computer building may use this tutorial.

First, open a browser and login to portal.psu.edu.

Second, click VIDEO and follow the demonstration of uploading a file (~4 min.)

Finally, check your work by browsing to the uploaded file (filename) at your personal webspace at www.personal.psu.edu/xyz123/filename
(replacing xyz123 with your personal email ID).

Filename could be index.html, mis204.html, 204picture.JPG, resume.doc (or any other filename that you upload). Note that the spelling of the filename in the browser must match exactly the filename in the WWW folder. For example, 204picture.JPG is not the same as 204picture.jpg.