Use of Technology
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- Arthur C. Clarke
Social Media Communication
As a millennial, social media communication is almost second nature to me. The Masters of Global Community Development (MGCD) program helped me take these social media skills to the next level.
I participated in forum discussion posts with cohorts from all around the world. I also learned to coordinate Skype calls with team members who were dispersed all around the world. I was a part of cohort 5 in the MGCD program and one way we stayed in touch with each other is through Facebook. I collaborated with other members of cohort 5 in a closed Facebook group where we shared files, information and received updates about upcoming events (like upcoming masters defense sessions). I also learned how to stay in touch internationally with smartphone applications like Whatsapp. I also promote various causes I believe in on Facebook and Twitter - especially the SDGs.
When I arrived at Walla Walla University for my internship, I was put in charge of marketing efforts, including social media marketing, for the Global Humanitarian Engineering Emphasis Program (GHEE). I was also asked to come up with a social media strategy for the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) club. I met with the University’s marketing director and social media director to develop a social media strategy for both EWB and GHEE. Here are the minutes from that meeting:
At the end of my internship at Walla Walla University, I was asked to submit a resume and cover letter for a part-time staff position to extend my work at Walla Walla University (I got the job). I took this opportunity to update my resume including my LinkedIn account.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) fascinate me. I love the idea of being able to track statistics in such a precise way. I believe that GIS systems are a key tool in helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were set forth in 2015.
Dr. Oberholsters informative Power Point presentation about GIS broadened my perspective of what is possible with such a powerful statistical tool – especially when compared to how difficult it was to track progress before. I learned to use Southern Adventist Universities's GIS system to begin building my own GIS Map to track my MGCD progress.
I also undertook the ArcGIS training program assigned in Dr. Oberholster’s class and successfully completed the program. Here is my certificate of completion:
During my internship at Walla Walla University (WWU), I helped the University’s Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter update project information within EWB’s online GIS system. Here’s a link to EWB’s GIS map, which features all of the official EWB projects around the world (including WWU-EWB).
Note: If you zoom in on the EWB Project Map to southern Peru and Honduras, you can find all of the WWU-EWB projects – past and present.
Data Processing of Statistics
Processing data and statistics are two areas I’m quite familiar with as a math and engineering student (and now teacher).
During my work with World Vision Kenya (WVK) in 2015, I was shown how the workers gather data about community needs and convert it into statistics to produce in-depth progress reports. Here’s an example of one of the meetings I was involved with in helping to prepare one of these long detailed implementation plan (DIP) reports.
In writing my research paper, I had to do a lot of data processing and statistical analysis of the survey data that was collected about former and current EWB students.
Part of my job as a Math-105 (finite) math professor at Walla Walla University was to teach data processing of statistics. Here are 2 videos of class sessions in which I taught students about statistics and data processing.
ePortfolio
Building my ePortfolio, as required by the Masters in Global Community Development (MGCD) program through Southern Adventist University, has been a major undertaking for me. I started out by making sure everything was well organized in my Google drive account (cloud-based storage) so that it would be easy to collect all the evidences necessary in each competency area. Then I compiled everything into my Program Evidence Matrix (PEM). Finally, I used all of this material to build the website you are now viewing.
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Link: ePortfolio Website