As a Computer Science undergrad at Boston College, I regretfully admit that I only took one business class. But the one class I took was more than worth it.
Professor John Gallaugher taught me how to think about the Internet and web strategically. His eCommerce class in some ways put me on the career path I’m now walking. After the conclusion of my senior year, I pursued my grad studies at Penn and did my best to take as many Internet and web strategy courses I could. And that was largely motivated by Professor Gallaugher.
Since graduating in 2002, I’ve been able to keep up with Professor Gallaugher’s research through his Week in Geek website. It’s the place he puts the syllabi for students and posts interesting Information System readings. I think many of you will really enjoy the Week in Geek.
Recently, he added a new feature, a podcast of his eCommerce lectures. I listened to a lecture yesterday and the only thing that disappointed me (besides less than perfect audio quality) was that I couldn’t respond to his questions.
I actually spoke to Professor Gallaugher over the summer, in seeking his advice about my start-up. He was just catching up on Web 2.0 but had some valuable pointers. WiG would indicate that he is now very much up to speed.
What is turning out to be an incredibly long project due to tremendous time and resource constraints, is working with him and some of his students to transform WiG to a blog. Professor Gallaugher is both blessed and cursed with technical abilities. He currently codes WiG in HTML by hand. It is a blessing because many professors lack the ability to get stuff up on the web. It is a curse because he does it so much that it becomes a bottleneck and inefficient time waster. Writing this entry, however, gives me new inspiration to try to put life back into this effort.
University 2.0 or perhaps Education 2.0 is the ultimate way that we can ensure learning really never stops. I’d love to read the blogs or listen to the podcasts of some of the professors and teachers I had throughout high school and college (ok, I don’t want to read anything about Advanced Calculus or Abstract Mathematics). Professor Gallaugher is a pioneer for University 2.0, like my fellow Corante Network colleagues Mark Hamilton and Bud Gibson are. Stanford definitely is too, offering a large number of lectures via iTunes. These are just a couple of examples but good ones at that.
And if you think that this sort of education has to occur while you are sitting at home in front of your computer, you’ll definitely want to read about what Robin Good calls MLearning. In the famous words of John Gallaugher, that gives me Geek Goosebumps (on a lighter and unrelated note, you’ll definitely want to check out this page Professor Gallaugher created for his second child, Maggie – very funny).
This entry is part of my week long series attempting to empower and educate people about Web 2.0 and its uses outside tech circles.
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Ken Yarmosh is a consultant who helps organizations get the most out of their technology investments. He works with technology users and creators across various industries, focusing on technology education and strategy. With over 7 years IT experience, Ken has worked with small businesses, non-profits, federal agencies, and multi-million dollar companies.
His online efforts include acting as the Editor for the Corante Technology Hub and authoring the TECHNOSIGHT blog.
