Dr. Tom Seymour and Dr. Deanna Klein in Today's Minot Daily News

Dr. Tom Seymour and Dr. Deanna Klein in Today's Minot Daily News
http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/542058.html?nav=5005

Learn how to be technologically advanced
Minot State offers class to learn about up-to-date tech advantages

By ANDREA JOHNSON Staff Writer ajohnson@minotdailynews.com
POSTED: August 17, 2010 Save | Print | Email | Read comments | Post a comment Email: "Learn how to be technologically advanced"
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Andrea Johnson/MDN --
Tom Seymour and Deanna Klein teach Technology for Personal Development classes at Minot State University.

Advertisement Students can learn about the latest technological advances in a general education class offered this semester at Minot State University.

Tom Seymour, who teaches the class, Technology for Personal Development, said it is offered in a traditional face-to-face format on campus and online. The on-campus class is already filled for the fall semester but there were still some open slots in the online class as of last week. Seymour said his students from last year are still keeping up with his postings on Facebook and Twitter, even after the class has ended.

The class covers how students can make use of technology to achieve their personal goals and improve their quality of life, both in their personal lives and in the office.

Seymour and Deanna Klein, who teaches the classes in the spring semester, said their students range from those who are already making wide use of the newest technology to those who are intimidated by using it.

Some students post nothing on Facebook while others are on it constantly and follow other social media. Klein said by the end of the semester her students felt more knowledgeable and comfortable with technology.

Technology is constantly changing, said Seymour, so it is important for Minot State to prepare students to keep up with advances. Knowledge about how to use social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter and comfort with new computer technology such as the Apple iPad and text-messaging cell phones will be useful for students starting a new job, he said.

Seymour said students will be able to suggest things that will help improve business.

In some cases, business owners might not be familiar with the latest technological advances or how they can be used to increase business. Seymour said he's constantly learning something new himself when he works with a new cell phone or his iPad. Text messaging is so common now that students are more likely to text a friend than to call him on the cell phone, he said.

Seymour said some recent studies show that using social networking in classes will help with student retention rates. More MSU professors are working on incorporating Facebook or text messaging in other classes, not just this general education business class that Seymour is teaching for the second year.

Seymour said the class is offered in the business and information technology department but is open to all majors. It will give students a good exposure to the concepts and the technology that is available, he said, and some students may decide to take other business classes.

The class covers how to protect computers and ensure better security while conducting business online in the age of computer hackers, piracy, identity theft and other types of fraud.

Students will also get a good overview of the history of the computer age over the past 100 years and discuss the future uses of technology. The class also covers how technology is used across the world and issues such as underground computing and censorship in China, the cultural changes caused by outsourcing jobs to other countries. Technology can also be a great benefit and continues to provide more opportunities to people with disabilities, said Seymour..

Klein said she assigns students to research how technology will be used in the future and they invariably come across new innovations they haven't heard of.

The only certain thing is that technology will keep changing and students must learn to adapt to it and how to use changing technology.

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