Download the Fall 2004 PDF - Augsburg College

core curriculumA LESSON IN COMPUTERS AND CULTUREBusiness/MIS professor Lee Clarketeaches a first-year course, MIS 175Principles of Computing for Business.It’s an introductory course formanagement information systems (MIS)students to learn Microsoft Officeprograms and how they are used inbusiness to reach goals and solvebusiness problems.The course is designed to include anEngaging Minneapolis component. Thatpart of the course, which Clarke callsthe experience “text,” involves apartnership with the Cedar-RiversidePlaza Residents Resource Center. There,Augsburg students work 15 hours persemester as assistants in the computerclass or open lab. The residents aremostly Somali refugees; many havelimited English skills and some have nevertouched a computer.Clarke requires three assignments thatconnect the subject matter with theservice experience. In one, students reflecton the digital divide with its issues oftechnology “haves” and “have-nots” andtalk about how the Resource Center helpsthe residents overcome these barriers. Thelast assignment asks the students to reflectpersonally—what they learned at thecenter and how it relates to their course.Freshman business student Jerrad Honstad helps a Somali womanat Riverside Plaza learn computer skills.One student wrote, “This experiencehelped me to meet [new immigrants], andI can look at the world and America in awhole new light. … I feel that you canlearn more in the short 15 hours I workedthere than you can in some classes you goto daily for a whole semester.”Another student talked about anunforgettable moment after helping anolder man learn to use Microsoft Word.“Then one day he came in quite as usualbut with a huge smile on his face,” thestudent wrote. “He handed mea piece of paper that said,‘Thanks for helping me.’ Itwas typed in real big, boldletters. He then looked at meand said, ‘Look, I learned howto use Word.’ ”A disabled studentthought he would not be ableto help, but later wrote,“Little did I know that I wasabout to prove myself wrong,very wrong.” The computerinstructor told him that sincehe was not able to actually dothe computing for theresidents, it was morebeneficial for them, sincethey had to listen to the student’sexplanation and do the work themselves.For the young business students inhis class who have always had computersin their lives, Clarke knows they are nowmore aware of the disparities of wealthand technology in the world. Theexperience of working with newimmigrants, many of them close to thestudents’ grandparents’ ages, also gavethem a greater appreciation of cultureand citizenship.KeystonePUTTING ITTOGETHERIf Engaging Minneapolis is the bookendon the front end of an Augsburgeducation, the keystone experience isthe final bookend. During the years inbetween, students delve into a major,build professional as well as life skills,apply their classroom learning, explorefaith, and experience the city. Thekeystone course usually occurs in thesenior year, close to graduation.The keystone in the Augsburg Core,as in architecture, provides the shapeand support to the structural elementsof the arch. It connects the broad liberalarts foundation with the professionalskills and the in-depth study in themajor. It helps students begin thetransition to their after-college life.Learning goals include a revisiting ofthe critical conversations about vocationthat were begun in the first Search forMeaning course. Attention is paid toreflection on vocation, leadership, andservice in a diverse world.The value of the keystone, says MISprofessor Nora Braun, who piloted anMIS keystone course, is that it’s timefocused on thinking about all the piecesin an Augsburg education and what thestudent has done with them. “It’s areflection and a pulling together of thetotal experience in and out of theclassroom.” Braun asks her students towrite an “education autobiography” thatreflects on the identified outcomes oftheir Augsburg education.Fall 200423