DSU Blog

I just read of a 23 year old student at another of South Dakota’s universities (USD) that was paralyzed from the shoulders down after breaking his neck while diving into a pool. If I had just one lesson to teach college kids, it would be to realize how one ill-advised choice can affect the rest of your life. Sadly, this young man realizes it now.

Programmers have a sense of humor. Follow the instructions in the following paragraph and check out the driving directions.

Go to Google, type in “Chicago to London”, and then click the Maps link above the textbox. A map and driving directions should appear. Scroll down to #20 in the left frame.

If I continue to model my behavior after my idol Michael Scott, I’d consider myself a friend first, and an instructor second. Probably an entertainer third.

There has been a lot of discussion at DSU lately about what can be done to improve retention rates. How can we keep students here? After having the campus closed for two days due to a raging blizzard, I think the answer is simple. South Dakota needs a better climate. Surely our lawmakers will agree and pass some sort of law to make that happen.

How to Keep America Competitive

By Bill Gates
Sunday, February 25, 2007; Page B07 of the Washington Post

“This issue has reached a crisis point. Computer science employment is growing by nearly 100,000 jobs annually. But at the same time studies show that there is a dramatic decline in the number of students graduating with computer science degrees.”

Source

I learned of this through another faculty member in the College of BIS (Business & Information Systems), but things are looking good for grads in the following fields, many of which are degrees offered by BIS:

• Chemical engineering: Up 7.4 percent to $60,054
• Electrical engineering: Up 3.2 percent to $54,599
• Mechanical engineering: Up 7.7 percent to $54,587
• Economics: $51,631
• Computer science: Up 2 percent to $51,070
• Finance: $47,905
• Civil engineering: Up 4.8 percent to $47,145
• Management information systems: Up 5.5 percent to $46,568
• Accounting: Up 1.7 percent to $46,508
• Business Administration: Up 9.2 percent to $43,523
• Marketing: Up 14 percent to $41,323
• Liberal arts (psych, poli-science, history, English): Down 1.1 percent to $30,502

Source

That cliche was often used in the past when people tried to explain that everybody in the world can be reached through a short chain of social acquaintances. Now, with technology that DSU utililizes, education can take place in the new “small world” where we live in a global digital ecosystem.

I think this way because of my Internet students this semester. Who would have thought 15 years ago that a little university in Madison, South Dakota would have students from China, India, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates and Iraq depending on them for their education? The world does seem smaller with the rise of technology.

I’m a HUGE fan of The Office and think that if Michael ever left Dunder Mifflin to become a teacher, he might say something like:

“I don’t want students sucking up to me because they think I’m going to give them a good grade. I want them sucking up to me because they genuinely love me. “

Instead of my trying to explain my history with Dakota State, I’ll use somebody else’s words. This article - reprinted with permission - ran in the Madison Daily Leader.

Olson Adjusts to University Teaching with Positive Focus
by CHUCK CLEMENT

Chris Olson says it’s important for him to focus on what he can accomplish rather than worry about the things that are currently beyond his reach.

Olson, a rural Madison resident, stuck with that attitude as he recovered from a car accident that occurred 5 1/2 years ago - an accident which left him a quadriplegic.

His injuries meant that Olson had to readjust his life in major ways. However, with some assistance from family and friends, he’s made a new place in the community as an instructor at Dakota State University.

“After the accident, I had to work on what I could do and not dwell on what I couldn’t do,” Olson said.

Olson, 29, has taught computer courses in DSU’s College of Business and Information Systems since August 2005 and currently instructs five classes - two in visual basic programming and single classes in introduction to computers, operating environments and C++ programming.

Most of his instructional work is based on the Internet, so Olson can perform much of his work at home. But his operating environments class meets on campus, and Olson also holds office hours on Wednesday afternoons for his students, so he’s on campus about three to four afternoons each week.

He enjoys working with people and the fact that teaching gives him the opportunity to help others.

“As a quadriplegic, I depend on many people, and I enjoy doing something where students can depend on me,” Olson said. “It’s nice to be the person who’s depended on, for a change.”

Olson was injured in an automobile accident on April 13, 2001, when he was thrown from the back seat of a vehicle. The accident broke three vertebrae in his neck, and Olson’s body was paralyzed below his shoulders and upper chest. The deltoid muscles in his shoulders and his biceps are the lowest muscles in Olson’s body that are fully functional.

He is capable of slight movement in his wrists, but Olson has no movement in his hands and fingers.

Olson did graduate with a bachelor’s degree from DSU after his accident, but he returned to the campus eight months after the accident to earn a master’s degree in information systems. Olson received his master of science degree with concentrations in electronic commerce and data management during the spring of 2004.

As a DSU instructor, he currently teaches about 70 students on the Internet and 13 students on campus. When Olson uses the Internet as a classroom, he teaches mostly South Dakota residents, but he has instructed some students on the East and West coasts. Olson also had one student last spring who was a serviceman in the U.S. Army stationed in Guam.

After the accident, Olson spent six weeks at Sioux Valley Hospital and was later transferred to Craig Hospital in Denver for three months of treatment and rehabilitation.

When he returned to Madison, Olson lived with his parents. With help from his family and volunteers in the community, their two-car garage was renovated into a new apartment for him with wider doorways to accommodate his electric wheelchair and countertops and appliances set where they were easy for him to use. He described the renovation project as “a community effort.”

Olson said that the most difficult challenge after the accident was recovering from the death of his fiancee, Tana Thompson, who was also in the car when the accident occurred.

“That was definitely the hardest part of everything that happened from the accident,” he said.

Olson created a memorial for Thompson at his Web site, www.chris-olson.com.

According to Olson, he stayed at home for about 3 1/2 years after the accident, but he started attending softball games, concerts and other events — activities that brought him out in public more often. Olson credits part of his recovery to friends he had before the accident and other friends he made afterward.

Olson is considering earning another degree from DSU’s new doctorate program in information systems, but he believes that his classes currently keep him too busy. Teaching wasn’t a career that he considered before his accident, but Olson said becoming an educator was an avenue that was open for him.

“Now with my physical limitations, it’s something that I can do,” he said.

As an instructor - would I rather be loved or feared? Both. I want students to be afraid of how much they love me.