Scholastic Wind-Down

Wow what a semester both at UT Arlington and at Dakota State University. At the beginning of the semester I took and passed the CISSP exam. All in all it was not an easy exam in that almost every question of the 250 was situational in nature. I received notification a few weeks ago that I passed endorsement as well. This is excellent as I was using this as an opportunity to begin preparing for my comprehensive exams in Fall 2013.

In addition I learned a great deal about design science approaches to research, specifically artifact creation. I will be working on this more in the Spring of 2013 while trying to get an article out the door. We will see how it goes. I would like to have some basic things completed before comprehensives in 2013, mainly publish an article in a conference or journal, finish my textbook, which at this stage is in outline format, complete the work necessary to get the certificate program for UT Arlington launched, and prepare my dissertation proposal outline by Summer. I am teaching three courses in the Spring and taking two myself, but the coursework and deliverables I'm working on are both security related, so hopefully it will be a recap for me.

I was able to go to my first graduation as a faculty member last Saturday night and it was amazing. I realized my jaw hurt on Sunday morning due to all the smiling I did as our students walked across. I was awesome to get to see these students achieve their degrees. I cannot wait until Spring to get to see more of these people, who I have the honor to get to see almost daily, achieve their academic and professional goals.

DSU Spring 2011 Semester

Well I am registered for this semester and taking System analysis and design as well as Information technology Strategy and Policy. It looks like it is going to be a great semester although a very busy one. After this semester I will be in specialization coursework only (Yay for core completion)!

I am going to throw my spring project ideas out to my FB friends and see what comes up as a possible spring project. I will post here what the results of that will be. 

Christmas Break

Wow what a semester. My first one at DSU has gone well and I learned quite a bit. For Xmas I get to sit and learn SQL reporting services in an attempt to save my company some money. I also get to relax a bit and catch up on fun things again, at least for a few weeks.

I am already registered for Spring, Management and Evaluation of Information Systems and Applied Statistics. More stats....sound like fun. Although I did learn a lot more than I anticipated in my project management class. I am quite surprised by how intuitive the Visual Studio Express editions were to use and work with.

In the meantime I'm gonna be resting at home playing my old fav. Fallout 2, catching up on my large pile of unread Asimov monthly, and watching Avatar.

DSU and all the things I will learn

So I got my student ID number yesterday, and unless something terrible goes wrong with financial aid (which Lord knows is probable), I am officially a doctoral student.

I am looking over all the things I will get to learn and write and do over the next 6-7 years and I am mostly excited and partially frightened. This is the big leagues and I have been waiting a while to take my shot.

I am really looking forward to learning more about these subjects in information systems than what I have previously done in the past, which most commonly was just enough for me to get a project done or familiarize myself with a subject. I am super excited about getting a real fundamental classroom instruction about security (beyond what I know from the security+), network intrusion, data warehousing, decision processes, and most of all, how to do research in this field.

I have always loved being a student and I am really looking forward to the material and to some degree (let me be honest, I'm not masochistic) the challenges I will overcome to accomplish this.