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ALSO
IN THIS ISSUE Life Down Under Word Power Doggone Helpful Greetings from Costa Rica Taking Technology into Account(ing) Lucky Fall CurricuNet Chancellor's Column Development News Factoids Newsmakers Accomplishments
by faculty and staff… |
He Takes Technology into Account(ing) Technology
has changed the way Roger Gee teaches accounting and finance, and Gee
has helped changed the way technology is used in the district. Gee has watched as the financial world has led the technology revolution, and believes it practical for students to hone technology skills early. Now completing his 16th year as an accounting and finance professor at Mesa College, is also a charter member of SDCCD Online and has seen that online instruction project flourish. “Many teachers are staying with the manual approach, but technology has changed the way I teach,” Gee said. “There are still pencils, journals and ledgers involved, but not as much as 40 and 50 years ago. Now students need to understand how corporations compile and use reports.” While majoring in accounting at Ithaca College in New York, Gee also studied journalism and served as editor of the college newspaper. This dual world gave him insight into both numbers and words, and his creative side tempted him toward a career in photojournalism. Practicality settled in, especially in an era when newsmagazines such as Look and Life were folding, and Gee knew accounting was his calling, though he still takes photos as a hobby. Gee served in the Navy for three years, then worked as an accountant for a private firm for three years, auditing computer-prepared records, and getting an early feel for the ways technology and accounting mixed. “Accounting has become a discipline that is vital knowledge in many different fields,” Gee said. He is intent on making his class relevant to real-world practices and also makes current accounting issues part of class discussions, especially during the Enron scandal. “The students didn’t realize that outside auditors were often paid by companies to issue the financial opinions they come up with,” Gee said. “It creates a moral dilemma from the very beginning, and we saw what happened when auditors don’t follow the moral path. It virtually destroys the auditors’ companies because of the credibility issues.” Gee also learns from his students, as when he recently collaborated with quadriplegic student Mike Hastings. The student had ideas on how the online program could be used by someone with his particular needs, and Gee listened to Hastings during a house visit. Gee has since re-examined the user-friendliness of some programs and made changes. The
professor would like to see accounting became a required aspect of every
liberal arts college program.
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