I have a friend/colleague from the business world who recently said to me, “So you teach three times a week. What else are you doing to keep busy?”
I’m writing this post as his answer. Tonight I teach my “Ethics, Policy & Law in Information Management” course for three hours, and in order to do that I spent from 10am to 2:30pm putting my slide presentation together as well as other components of the class. Yes, I have taught the course since 2013, but all my examples against theoretical models and frameworks that I introduce come from what is going on in the world today, or with presenting a topic from multiple perspectives. For this class a few weeks ago, I asked small groups to respond to what questions they would have if their employer asked them to come back to work in the office shortly. This week, I’m asking those same small groups to discuss and then provide reasons when they recommend whether or not Congress should provide a liability shield protection for businesses so they can’t be sued as a result of the coronavirus.
Please note that the question small groups discuss and answer and then discuss in the larger group is only one hour of the three hour class. I will also have spent time recruiting a guest speaker with special topic expertise for each week of the course. The actual readings that I provide and the lecture/discussion that I offer focus on weekly topics: ethics, technology and the foundations of American government; privacy; professional ethics; the Fourth Amendment and surveillance; ethical frameworks; the Digital Divide (tonight); freedom of expression and the First Amendment; intellectual property; and the two faces of artificial intelligence. In addition to creating and leading the course, I also grade a final long paper and the weekly reflections that students write. I supervise a teaching assistant who also grades the long paper and weekly small group reports. Finally, I meet with students regularly outside of class.
That’s one course, and the other course (“Emerging Topics in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance”) is a four credit course that I teach twice a week and perform much the same type of work as described above for my graduate level course.
I also supervise a range of independent studies or internships during the year, and my office door (digital now) is always open to current and former students. I spend about a day each week this way, working with or talking to students.
My course load for any academic year (9 months) is six courses, usually two per each of three quarters. I also have service work that I perform both in the iSchool, as the cyber liaison to the Jackson School of International Studies, and under the UW Dean of Student Life. That service work often ends up being more than half the load I carried as a senior executive.
Because the world is all pandemic and operational risk these days, I suppose I should also count the hours I spend reading newspapers, research papers and other articles focused on such topics. I also keep my foot in the rest of the world by volunteering my expertise, writing books and papers and speaking at industry conferences.
So, in answer to the question, that’s what I do with my time.