Security Risk Assessment - Example Literacy Event

Based on our discussion from class I wanted to use my profession as an example literacy event.  I look forward to or discussions.

Literacy Event: Information Security Risk Assessment

Text Related Practice:  Risk assessment report highlighting areas of non-compliance

Tensions:  Citations for non-compliance/Marinating Compliance

Professional Development:  Certified Information Security Assessor

Historical Content:  Fines, Major data breaches such as Sony and Target

Policies and Procedures:  Vendor management, Information Security and Compliance policies, Legal Guidance

Personal Content:  Ensuring security controls are adequate to prevent unauthorized data exposure or negative impact to critical services

Power:  Regulators, OCC, HIPPA, GLBA, PCI, Official Contracts

Resistance:  Vendors/Business fails to meet compliance due to personal experience and jeopardize organization security

Identity and Belonging:  Audit is on one side and the auditee is on the other.   

Side note – My goal as auditor is to always help the business succeed.  J

Pete, Prison, Passion...and Bruce

Bruce Jackson is a professor of culture at U. Buffalo. As a doctoral student, I became familiar with his work as a prison folklore anthropologist. Jackson not only perfected a sampling technique called "snowball sampling" (where one respondent provides you access to the next), he was (and is) one of the great chroniclers of what he calls "convict work songs" which, he notes, "seemed to me to be part of an unbroken musical tradition going back to West Africa." Ironically, I just discovered yesterday (on the day of Pete's death) that it was Pete Seeger who encouraged Jackson to record the work songs and even funded a film Jackson made about them. Here's a link to a recording:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0cfIIO3CPQ&feature=youtu.be

Together, they conspired to preserve a uniquely situated American text--with deep roots to West Africa, slavery, resistance and identity. A tapestry of the finest cloth. Thank you Bruce. Rest in Peace, Pete!

B.

 

Technology, first step in acquiring and/or creating literacy?

It was interesting how Belfiore (2004), at the beginning of chapter 1, focused on how she observed that print was taking on a more predominant role at the Triple Z company: printed info, posters, bulletin boards, job postings, notices about holiday and plant closure dates, etc.  A decade later, many companies (and people) are opting for the 'paperless' route, relying mainly on the digital format of those same texts.

In essence, the info, job postings, and notices are still available, just not in hard copy/ printed format.  With technology on an ever-growing trend, it is necessary to be literate in the use of technology in order to access the 'actual' literacy content that is needed to educate the adult learner.

I am hesitant to use the chicken-or-the-egg notion, but in this case, which do we teach first? Technology, so people can access the literacy, or literacy, so people learn how to access the technology?

Today, toddlers are being exposed to technology way before any 'alphabet-type' literacy is unveiled; they are even learning literacy through the technology, and though literacy for a toddler can mean the act of learning to read and write, via technology it is also determining how they create meaning. Therefore, if literacy is a way for people to assimilate to a culture and/or way of life, how different will adult literacy in the workplace be in 15-20 years when these toddlers become adults?

For now, technology is a tool that educators are using to facilitate learning. However, can it also serve to cripple literacy?  Amy Casper, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, in her editorial for this month's issue described how she tried to buy a cup of coffee at a Technology convention in Las Vegas and she was unable to purchase it because the 'system was down'.  She was amazed that not even cash could get her to enjoy her favorite drink. This experience prompted her to write her piece and suggested to me that a similar scenario could disrupt the access to literacy. How many of us want to create meaning in a written format, and then have to post it on a blog, which you had to learn how to make, or be invited to access one via email?  

In essence, though the idea may have already been written some place else (on paper, really? People still use that? Yes, yes they do.), the way of communicating that meaning is now being formatted through technology.  Therefore, in today's world, could technology be a first step in acquiring and/or creating literacy?

Language and Body Language

In the readings this week, I couldn't stop thinking about body language and facial expression as being important to discussions about language and understanding.   Recently, a student came in to our office, and he was visually closed-off:  frowning, furrowed brow, and his speech was short and hard.  He was clearly frustrated.  So part of my job is to make him feel comfortable and safe: I want him to graduate, I want to help, I want to help him navigate VCU’s seemingly endless maze of policies and procedures.

So by being friendly, and by “asking good questions” (from “Conducting Effective Interviews” article), I was able to help this student open up, loosen his hard stance, and we were able to have a good conversation, which I hope will help get him closer to graduation.  

As an added bonus:  He now knows the word “bulletin” which helped him understand how to navigate his path to graduation. (Just because a word is part of our daily vocabulary doesn't mean that all of our constituents share that vocabulary.  Sometimes helping people understand our institutionally specific vocabulary can help them feel more confident navigating a process.)

Triple Z and me

(...And this is why I title my blogs "Adult ___, Reflection ___."')

I really enjoyed the case studies in the text. They were a great introduction to the work and discussions that will surely be a part of this class.

As I read them, I was reminded of one of the struggles that I remember when I worked in HR for a nurse's association.

Shortly before I started, all the nurses, who worked very hard and made less they would have at a hospital, had to switch their documentation from paper to computer. Most of them continually had trouble using laptops--it was a lot more to lug around and the computers seemed to have problems quite frequently. One of the important measures of nurse's work was productivity (I was in charge of the productivity reports so I hadt o hear about this from all sides).  The directors were always concerned about those numbers, especially when they went down, which happened when computers were introduced. There was so much resistance to computer documentation, and the directors perceived it as not understanding 1. How to use a computer correctly 2. the extra time it took to fill out the form and 3. the benefits. This was very similar to the differences between the management of Triple Z and the employees. "If only they understood what this form meant." All of the nurses did understand, and in many cases, their problem with it could be solved with better communication and a reward system. 

Everyone in my office said, "they will learn the system and accept it." This is true. But what is also true is that there were other underlying issues at work here: management issues, the extra burden on staff to train nurses in a new system and the lack of pay equity compared to other jobs in the area. I don't know if these issues were ever addressed, as I was only there 18 months. The people mandating the changes were more concerned with the compliance aspect of everything than the overall people problems that plagued the agency. It seems like at Triple Z, management liked the younger newer employees better because they didn't speak up as much--this paperwork was a part of their job all along. But they never addressed the real issues--Rosa meeting with her supervisor and creating a new checklist, for example--and made the old guard employees feel belittled and out of place.

Photo from here.

Welcome to Your Blog, ADLT 650 Class!

Do you know who this is?


Well, you will!
 I want to take a second to formally thank the creator of this blog, Susan Watson. Susan is in her final year of the MEd in Adult Learning Program. Last spring the ADLT 650 class adopted this blog for our class discussions and it worked so well, we intend to do so this semester! Please scroll down to get a sense of the level of "discourse" your colleagues engaged in last year....

Also want to thank Susan for reminding me of an astonishing resource--Hilary Janks' blog, which you can access at: http://globalconversationsinliteracy.wordpress.com/
I see from Hilary's blog that there are three superb webinars coming up, and, as well, some superb archived ones, including one by Hilary Janks herself.  I have no doubt we will be paying some visits to these "literacy events" as the semester unfurls.

I've decided to make "literacy event" my generative term for the week! We will discuss in class on Tuesday. Hope you enjoy using the blog and find lots of ways to expand our zone of proximal development, multimodally.
Bill