Problem
Case Study
Ashley Hyatt attends university, where she is majoring in business administration. The following is a typical day in the life of Ashley. 7:00 A.M. Ashley awakens to new music videos by her favourite artists playing on her computer. These files have been automatically downloaded overnight in compressed format and charged to her credit card. After five minutes, the flat-screen monitor switches from the music videos to a web page displaying news customized to Ashley's interests, including scores from the latest university sporting events. 8:00 A.M.-9:15 A.M. Ashley's first class is Globalization, Regionalism, and Information Technology Systems (commonly known as GRITS), an elective course examining how nations' leaders can use IT to solve global problems. Today the class features speakers from the School of Business Leadership at the University of South Africa, as well as Page 2 of 4 speakers from Botswana and Kenya. The live broadcast is seen by students in Canada, Singapore, Norway, Brazil, and South Africa. 9:15 A.M.-10:30 A.M. After class, Ashley heads off to the combination computer lab- coffee shop where she purchases a bottle of fruit juice and a muffin. As she leaves the food area, she checks the wall-mounted LCD panel to verify that the correct amount was deducted from her account. The mobile device in her backpack communicates automatically with the checkout device. Since her university now uses contact-less smart cards that do not require swiping, all she needs to do is walk through the food area exit. Her mobile device handles all these transactions in addition to other chores. In fact, she can program her mobile device to display selected information on a regular basis; wireless access is continuous throughout the university. For example, for her Finance class, Ashley's team is managing a portfolio of mature Internet stocks, and she has programmed her mobile device to display the portfolio's latest value every 15 minutes. The bottom line of the LCD window shows that the portfolio is down 1.5 percent for the day, based on a number of stock exchanges around the world. Choosing a seat at a table with an available flat-screen display device, Ashley uses the school's wireless-access capabilities to log on to her network account. Her Web-based to-do list reminds her that she has a quiz to take for her Networked Economy class and a report to finish on Toronto.com for the Strategic Management course.
The quiz takes about 20 minutes, and she is relieved to immediately find out that she scored 92 on it. Next, to finish her Toronto.com assignment, Ashley consults an online collection of databases and checks a few websites. When she finishes the report, she emails it to the professor. Even though the professor is working with an MBA team on a consulting assignment in New Zealand, she knows that he will grade the report within a couple of days and return it with attached audio and text comments. She thinks this mix of classroom lectures and independent learning is good preparation for her business career because she is learning how to learn by herself. She could have done all of this on her mobile device using audio output, but she likes to see the graphics available on the flatscreen display. 10:30 A.M.-11:45 A.M. Ashley attends her Networked Economy class and, via the Web, participates in an interesting class discussion that includes the use of voice over the Internet. Whereas some of her fellow students are in her classroom, others are at home or in offices as many as five time zones away. However, all work from the same web page and wear a special headset-microphone combination that allows them to hear and respond to other class members' comments. 1:00 P.M.-2:30 P.M. After lunch, Ashley's Data Management class team members (Ashley, Eduardo from Brazil, and Tore from Norway) meet to review their design for a data model. They participate in an audio conference with a shared screen, so the team members all see the same high-fidelity model of the timetable for the Sao Paulo subway. They take turns changing it until they agree.
The Data Management class is simultaneously taught with partner business schools in Brazil and Norway, and students learn how to design and query databases as they hone their skills in working in crosscultural teams. After completing the project, Ashley catches a bus to the recreation centre Page 3 of 4 to play racquetball. During the bus ride, Ashley listens to a podcast of her Strategic Management professor's latest lecture to conirm her understanding of the class material. 5:00 P.M.-6:00 P.M. Ashley's Strategic Management class team meets at the video booth in a school lab. Jennifer, an alumna working in Vancouver, has agreed to review the team's presentation. As she watches the presentation on her computer in Vancouver, Jennifer's software tags her comments so that the team knows the portions of the presentation that need more work. 6:30 P.M.-7:30 P.M. During dinner, Ashley's sound system stops playing the latest U2 music downloads stored on her computer and announces the receipt of a priority voice mail. Ashley uses the remote to instruct the system to play it for her; it is from the alumna who viewed her team's presentation that afternoon. Impressed by Ashley's role in the presentation, the alumna asks Ashley to cut and paste her section of the presentation and mail it to the company's recruiter. It takes Ashley about five minutes to locate the video on the university server, edit it, and email it to the recruiter. 11:00 P.M. Before going to bed, Ashley adds comments about her day to the blog she is keeping for the GRITS class.
Task
I. How many of the innovations in Ashley's home or school life are available to you? How many are you actually using?
II. This case mentions many acronyms and technical terms. Research and write a short paragraph about each of the following terms:
i. Blog
ii. Wireless access
iii. LCD display panel
iv. Podcast
III. Do you believe that any of the information systems involved in Ashley's daily life create only limited value for her?