Computers and Information Systems

Did You Know?

Before enrolling in this class, I had very limited knowledge on computers and Information Technology (IT) in general. I knew how to use a computer for the Internet, how to type up papers on Microsoft Word, how to hurdle my way through an Excel spreadsheet, and I even dabbled a little in Microsoft Forefront (courtesy of my Comp105 teacher). However, I never thought much further than this, and felt slightly ignorant when I first opened the textbook (MIS- Management Information Systems by Bidgoli) and began really learning about what "Computers" and "Information Systems" really were.

How do Computers and Information Systems Help Us?

When you think about it, computers and information systems are all around us, yet most of us know very little about them. Those of us currently enrolled in this class are utilizing our computers in order to advance our college education: who would have ever imagined being able to attend college completely online and earn a degree! Computers are also used by our teachers to grade our exams, generate perfomance reports, calculate grades, calculate GPAs, and so much more. Computers and information systems are used in grocery and retail stores in their POS systems, they are used by banks in order to generate monthly statements and run ATM machines, they are used by accounants to perform taxes and other duties; I think you get the point.


In Chapter 1 of the textbook, the author states that

In the 21st century, knowledge workers need two types of knowledge to be competitive in the workplace: computer literacy and information literacy." Computer literacy is defined as having skills in using productivity software (word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software, etc.) and having a basic knowledge of hardware and software, the Internet, and collaboration tools and technologies. Most of us can easily say that we are computer literate. However, Information literacy is another story. Information literacy is defined as understanding the role of information in generating and using business intelligence. But what is business intelligence to someone such as myself that had never heard the word before taking this course? Business Intelligence provides historical, current, and predictive views of business operations and environments and gives organizations a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Broken down, this means that a knowledge worker should know:

1) Internal and External sources of data
2) How data is collected
3) Why data is collected
4) What type of data should be collected
5) How data is converted to information and eventually to business intelligence
6) How data should be indexed and updated
7) How data and information should be used to gain a competitive advantage.


If I were asked today if I was "information literate" as well as "computer literate" my honest answer would have to be no. I do not yet understand information systems or business intelligence yet I hope by the end of the course I will be able to understand such an important aspect of the business world today.