Hand-Writing

I work with the Total Life Project, a cutting edge research project where 3 adults with disabilities live in a house (355 S. College). My title is a Life Coach, and I will be responsible for helping these students to learn to live on their own. Please do not mistake this project with a group home, as residents of group homes will always need to live with other people and often require outside assistance. Our goal is for our students to live on their own after they leave the Total Life dorm. Because this is a new project, we do not have any students living in the house, but we have several applications, and the paperwork required before move in is crazy! When these students come, we will be using a Person-Center approach to develop Personal Plans for them. It has taken a great deal of money and time to train the Life Coaches and other members of the team to learn to create these plans, but there is still a problem.

You guessed it... technology. When we were first introduced to the technique, everything was on paper. I mean binders of information on each student, hand written. Their every action and response needs to be documented if research is to be cutting-edge, but is it truly cutting-edge if all the documentation is hand-written? The Total Life team believed that it would be more valuable to spend a few extra minutes to type the information than it would be to leave a legacy of hand-written information. This was not the opinion of all of the staff, and many well-respected professionals felt that computerized information was not suitable for the social services field.

Since when is the social services field required to obtain callouses and blisters from writing all of their information? At a recent training with the man who created the Person-Centered approach, the team addressed the issue. The trainer replied that he encourages an electronic data set, but the reality is that most service providers do not have enough computers for to allow for a project to be completely computerized, so he teaches the hand-written approach.

I wonder if the goal of completely electronic record-keeping for social service agencies will ever be met? Will an electronic approach to teaching Person-Centered Planning ever become standard? Certainly not in the near future.

Professional

This blog entry is not exactly what Professor Sine was looking for us to write about when she asked for a professional blog, but I think I am going to do it anyway!

I am a first year MPA student coming straight from undergrad, meaning that I am required to complete an Internship Seminar course, which will be followed by a summer-long internship that I am required to find. For this seminar course, we are required to conduct two informational interviews with professionals in fields of our choosing. These interviews are not as easy to accumulate as one may think. Most places tell me it's their "busy season" or they simply don't return my call. I can't say that I totally blame them. As many of you know, or could conclude from class, my specialization is Nonprofit Leadership, and I hope to run a nonprofit in the future.

On the first day of IT class, I was fortunate enough to sit next to Mr. Doug Lowman who is a master in the craft of finances for nonprofits such as the Salvation Army. For real though, Doug really does balance it all: a full-time job, a long commute, a wife, kids, and school, and he has a heart.

I will tie this into IT... if IT was not so easily available, it would have taken a lot longer to contact Doug, have Doug contact his contact, and for me to contact her. The entire process was done in a few hours, when it could have taken a few days! Maybe this blog can be professional, as networking is a key aspect in obtaining a job!

Cheers to Doug & IT

Spector-cle on MySpace

MySpace has made its way into the courtroom. Judge Larry Paul Fidler saw his life flash in front of him when someone made any observation that there was a threat on his life, posted on MySpace. Phil Spector, 67, is on trial for second degree murder for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. Spector married his 27 year-old wife, Rachelle before he went on trial, and it is thought that she is responsible for the posting. The posting read, "I love Phil Spector---!!! The Evil Judge should Die!!! xoxo Chelle" The post has been removed. Spector faces 15 years to life if he is found guilty.

Maybe someone in the class appreciates Phil Spector. I didn't know who he was before the article.

Creative Commons is a form of copyrighting your work in a less formal matter. The non-profit organization describes themselves as, "providing free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved." The entire organization is free, and they promote the slogan, "Share, reuse and remix- legally." A richer, more vibrant culture through the simple idea of sharing work is a priority of the group. When formal copyrights are too restrictive, artists and authors use Creative Commons to copyright sections of their work that they choose. This prevents the timely process of requesting permission to use particular parts of creative work. In addition creators can choose whether their work can be used for commercial use, or can be altered.

The site features six major divisions of copyrighting material, Science Commons, iCommons, ccInternational, ccLearn, ccLabs, and ccMixter. The Science Commons is run by MIT, and encourages the sharing of factual data to make progress towards a common intellectual goal. iCommons encourages united global commons through global education, software and open access publishing. This organization is highlighted by a yearly summit. ccInternational works to transcribe copyrights attained through Creative Commons into other legislations and jurisdictions around the world. 40 countries have completed licenses and 11 more countries are considered, "Current Projects". ccLearn's mission is to learn more about copyright laws and support open learning and open education resources (OER). They work to minimize legal, technical and social barriers for Creative Common users. ccLabs features current projects from every component of the Creative Commons program. Finally, ccMixter allows users to remix, sample and interact with music.

Creative Commons is backed by renowned academics across the world. Nobel Peace Prize winners are in support of the site, as are brilliant academics from prestigious Universities worldwide. At the bottom of this web page, apparently before I am supposed to submit this writing is an advisement against copyrighted work. Creative Commons helps to support creative work through their revolutionary copyright techniques!

Teenagers...

Sex. Well, I hope I got your attention. Sex is what I have been researching for the last week and a half. More specifically, I am learning about adults with disabilities and sex. I have discovered that this category branches into other important subjects, including Internet harassment. Students with disabilities are four times as likely to be sexually assaulted, more specifically, by someone they know, or trust. Recently, there has been a trend of young adults with disabilities forming relationships with people without disabilities. These young adults begin to trust their Internet friend, who has motives beyond friendship. The same scenarios can be reflected onto a young adult without disabilities, but these individuals are better able to understand the potential danger of their Internet matchmaking.

Pewinternet addresses valid arguments regarding the dangers of the Internet. Amanda Lenhart's article, Cyberbulling and Online Teens notes that one in eight girls between 15-17 have sent an aggressive or threatening message online. A male in the same age group is quoted as saying that the best pranks are scaring girls, and he even goes as far as saying that it is funny to threaten their lives. Although every category of respondents agreed that bullying offline is more severe than bullying online, I believe that most of the kids surveyed do not think of bullying offline as a result of online information. Bullying offline includes physical actions, which are almost always considered more drastic than words on a screen, but those words can lead to discrimination and misconceptions about others.

Many students with disabilities find the Internet an outlet to the "normal" world. I am nervous that the students I work with become incorrectly involved with the Internet. We can only do our best to enable them to make the correct choices to protect their health and safety.

Affordable?

This morning I was packing my bag for school and I wanted to make sure that I had all of my IT-Enhanced Project assignments with me. Naturally, I went to my labeled notebook to look at the class syllabus. I could have looked all day. There is no printed syllabus, everything is online. We have come to an era where every action, business or personal must be recorded through the use of a computer. Nicholar Carr notes that a mere twenty years ago, (although that is almost my entire life) top-level executives would not consider touching a keyboard, and today every thought is processed within the machine. Two trillion dollars per year is spent on IT, and while IT is extremely helpful, I question society's addiction to information technology.

Nicholas Carr's, IT doesn't matter states that IT has become affordable to all. I question this author's logic. He should re-work his schedule and spend more time volunteering in low-income areas. He would find that most non-profits are generally behind in the IT world. Most non-profit directors know about IT options and their benefits, but they do not have the means to supply their workplace with cutting-edge technology. Non-profits do have computers and are teaching their clients how to use technology, but computers are limited, just like money. This blog also an argues for non-profits to invest in computers. These machines are the basis of American society and clients will be more qualified for a job with every application they learn to use.

Mr. Carr should donate my $7 to a local non-profit, who should use the money to train their clients for a thriving career.

Does this work?

This is a test, can I really learn how to blog? How much will Professor Sine need to teach me for me to learn?