Assignment 6

If you were hired by the university president as an IT consultant, what would you suggest (technology, infrastructure, innovations, steps, processes, etc) in order for the internet connectivity be improved? (3000words)

If the University of Southeastern Philippines president would hire me as an IT consultant, I would suggest technology, infrastructure, and innovations. But for me I will be focusing more on infrastructure.

TECHNOLOGY

First I will define each of the following. What is technology? According to Wikipedia.com, technology is a broad concept that deals with human as well as other animal species usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species ability to control and adapt to its environment. However, a strict definition is elusive; "technology" can refer to material objects of use to humanity, such as machines, hardware or utensils, but can also encompass broader themes, including systems, methods of organization, and techniques. The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include "construction technology", "medical technology", or "state-of-the-art technology". Technically speaking, technology is the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants. Most people, however, think of technology in terms of its artifacts: computers and software, aircraft, pesticides, water-treatment plants, birth-control pills, and microwave ovens, to name a few. But technology is more than these tangible products. Technology includes the entire infrastructure necessary for the design, manufacture, operation, and repair of technological artifacts, from corporate headquarters and engineering schools to manufacturing plants and maintenance facilities. The knowledge and processes used to create and to operate technological artifacts -- engineering know-how, manufacturing expertise, and various technical skills -- are equally important part of technology.

Technology is essential to improve the connectivity of internet in our university. Without a proper and good technology we can’t boost the use of the internet connectivity. Without good computers even if you have a good internet connection still you can’t use it to its maximum usage. Internet connection is dependable on your computer capability. You have a good connectivity but you have a slow computer still your loading time is slow making it slow. So a good computer unit can have a give an edge on your internet connectivity.

INFRASTRUCTURE
Second what is an infrastructure? According to Wikipedia.com, infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. The term typically refers to the technical structures that support a society, such as roads, water supply, sewers, power grids, telecommunications, and so forth. In information technology and on the Internet, infrastructure is the physical hardware used to interconnect computers and users. Infrastructure includes the transmission media, including telephone lines, cable television lines, and satellites and antennas, and also the routers, aggregators, repeaters, and other devices that control transmission paths. Infrastructure also includes the software used to send, receive, and manage the signals that is transmitted. In some usages, infrastructure refers to interconnecting hardware and software and not to computers and other devices that are interconnected. However, to some information technology users, infrastructure is viewed as everything that supports the flow and processing of information.
Infrastructure companies play a significant part in evolving the Internet, both in terms of where the interconnections are placed and made accessible and in terms of how much information can be carried how quickly.
In the present world, which is dynamic and knowledge based, universities have a much wider role to play in creating, preserving, organizing, transmitting and applying knowledge. Modern educational technologies developed from information technology will certainly change in terms of access, interaction, curriculum and instruction etc. The physical locations and facilities will be less important in defining a college or a university due to the easy on-line access of the educational resources of a higher educational institution to the urban as well as rural public. This will provide opportunities to our high school graduated youths from rural areas as well as urban youths to access higher education without a need to forgo their working and earning opportunities to physically attend a college or a university. So universities need to adopt modern education technologies to provide increase access to knowledge resources.
Online technologies are going to make traditional class room teaching less important in many subjects except where it is absolutely necessary. Therefore interaction between teachers and students will have to play a vital role in imparting higher quality education. This means that more frequent and effective internal mechanism of interaction between university faculty and students need to be developed. This, in turn, causes an external relationship between universities and non-university communities. Such external relationship will necessitate universities to respond quickly to the changes in the outside world. Therefore a mechanism to increase both the internal and external interaction efficiencies has to be developed.

The curriculum and instruction are going to be changed greatly. Because the new technologies make the learning and teaching easier, the contents of some courses will be expanded, a considerable number of new courses will be generated, interdisciplinary courses and studies will be more possible. Students and faculties will contribute together to the development of curriculum.
Modern higher education technologies will also change present instructional methods to a more effective one. The faculties will have to adopt an instructional method best suited to the class of students whom they target or to develop new methods best suited for them based on their feedback. Video conferencing techniques, simulators and on-line access too many practical training kits will revolutionize instructional methods.

So in order to have good internet connectivity, we should have if not the best at least a good and efficient network infrastructure. In order to attain good infrastructure there should be a proper planning to it, analyze the plan with all the necessary data collection in order to attain the best infrastructure that we need to have better internet connectivity. From hardware, software, server, topology, and let’s include the people managing. All these points are essential in a creating a very good infrastructure.

INNOVATION

And lastly, what is innovation? According to Wikipedia.com, innovation refers to a new way of doing something. It may refer to incremental and emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations. A distinction is typically made between invention, an idea made manifest, and innovation, ideas applied successfully. (Mckeown 2008) In many fields, something new must be substantially different to be innovative, not an insignificant change, e.g., in the arts, economics, business and government policy. In economics the change must increase value, customer value, or producer value. The goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. Innovation leading to increased productivity is the fundamental source of increasing wealth in an economy.
Innovation is an important topic in the study of economics, business, design, technology, sociology, and engineering. Colloquially, the word "innovation" is often synonymous with the output of the process. However, economists tend to focus on the process itself, from the origination of an idea to its transformation into something useful, to its implementation; and on the system within which the process of innovation unfolds. Since innovation is also considered a major driver of the economy, especially when it leads to increasing productivity, the factors that lead to innovation are also considered to be critical to policy makers. In particular, followers of innovation economics stress using public policy to spur innovation and growth.
Those who are directly responsible for application of the innovation are often called pioneers in their field, whether they are individuals or organizations.

What is innovation in an organization? A convenient definition of innovation from an organizational perspective is given by Luecke and Katz (2003), who wrote:
"Innovation . . . is generally understood as the successful introduction of a new thing or method . . . Innovation is the embodiment, combination, or synthesis of knowledge in original, relevant, valued new products, processes, or services.
Innovation typically involves creativity, but is not identical to it: innovation involves acting on the creative ideas to make some specific and tangible difference in the domain in which the innovation occurs. For example, Amabile et al. (1996) propose:
"All innovation begins with creative ideas . . . We define innovation as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization. In this view, creativity by individuals and teams is a starting point for innovation; the first is necessary but not sufficient condition for the second".
For innovation to occur, something more than the generation of a creative idea or insight is required: the insight must be put into action to make a genuine difference, resulting for example in new or altered business processes within the organization, or changes in the products and services provided. A further characterization of innovation is as an organizational or management process. For example, Davila et al. (2006), write:
"Innovation, like many business functions, is a management process that requires specific tools, rules, and discipline."
From this point of view the emphasis is moved from the introduction of specific novel and useful ideas to the general organizational processes and procedures for generating, considering, and acting on such insights leading to significant organizational improvements in terms of improved or new business products, services, or internal processes.
Through these varieties of viewpoints, creativity is typically seen as the basis for innovation, and innovation as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization (c.f. Amabile et al. 1996 p.1155). From this point of view, creativity may be displayed by individuals, but innovation occurs in the organizational context only.
It should be noted, however, that the term 'innovation' is used by many authors rather interchangeably with the term 'creativity' when discussing individual and organizational creative activity. As Davila et al. (2006) comment,
"Often, in common parlance, the words creativity and innovation are used interchangeably. They shouldn't be, because while creativity implies coming up with ideas, it's the "bringing ideas to life" . . . that makes innovation the distinct undertaking it is."
The distinctions between creativity and innovation discussed above are by no means fixed or universal in the innovation literature. They are however observed by a considerable number of scholars in innovation studies.

So y I also recommend innovations? For me it is really important to include innovations, looking for new ways to solve current problems and issues, finding new ways/new techniques for better internet connectivity. As technology is on arising, we should also be innovative in order to be progressive. Having a good technology, plus a stable infrastructure with innovative mind can lead to a very good change for the better. So as an IT consultant these are my suggestions for better internet connectivity.

References:
mlsu.org/cc/itinf.htm
nae.edu/nae/techlithome.nsf/weblinks/KGRG-55A3ER
searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid80_gci212346,00.html
wikipedia.org