Customer Reviews

Succeeding With Technology

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My roommate used this book in her class and asked if I wanted it when I take the class. I looked it over and I am sure it's fine for some, but if you managed to turn your computer on, find the Internet, find amazon, and search for these reviews, then you no longer need this book. I wasn't impressed that the author rated his own book, but at least he gave it 5 stars. I would hate to think of an author giving less than that to his own book.

I had to read this book for a class. If you are using a computer to read this review then you will be bored to tears by the first 200 pages of this book. That being said I did learn a few things I didn't already know and I am currently succeeding with technology so mission accomplished for this book. I passed it on to my father who knows nothing about technology and he has learned a lot from it so far.
The only mistake I found in this book is a picture on page 278 that lists a cable as twisted pair but is actually an electrical wire.

I am teaching a graduate level survey class on information systems using this as one of two required textbooks. My students range from first year graduate students in Information Science with bachelors in accounting, english, history, philosophy, and psychology to those near the end of their masters studies with bachelors in computer science or information science, so finding a survey-type text that might
be useful and interesting to all was a challenge.

So far, so good. The less savvy students say that the text is not too technical and the more savvy students say it provides a good reminder of concepts they already knew and filled in a few that they didn't know.

I chose this text over Stairs' "Principles of Information Systems' because I felt the latter covered the same scope but with more cases, concepts, and depth than I could effectively cover in a one semester class. Instead of business cases,
this text introduces a scenario that the students are likely to encounter at the beginning of each chapter, teaches concepts and skills they need to know to address the scenario, and then includes an "Action Plan" at the end that describes a methodology for solving it. Throughout the text, there are many boxes describing real world situations or novel ways the technology under consideration has been used. This text is also about half the price of "Principles...".

In the Instructors edition, I like the summary spreadsheet at the end of each chapter that relates learning objectives to specific concepts to questions to excercises.

I like the way the "2005 Update" edition is formatted. The basic chapters appear to be the same (I didn't compare word for word though) but at the end of each chapter, there is a "What's New" section that seems to cover up to approximately May 2005.
In this way, instructors should not have to do much translation from newer to older editions of the texts.

There are already prepared Powerpoint presentations for each chapter that come on a CD with the Instructors' edition. They have been very helpful in providing starting point for identifying key concepts from the chapters and then adapting or adding my own slides to them.

Overall I think this is a very good textbook for a survey course in information systems and technology for not only undergraduates but also graduate students who do not have a computer science background.

Roger D. Gifford, Adjunct Lecturer
University at Albany

This book was written to be relevant for students who have grown up with technology. It provides the important IT information that college students will need in their professional life, relevant information on new communications and media technologies, and poignant information on information security, social and global trends and concerns. Tons of examples have been included to reinforce the relevance of the content. Audio study guides for the iPod and high-quality PPT presentations are provided at the author's own Web site.