Future of Higher Education, Collaboration, and Resource Sharing

Recent blog entries tagged with Future of Higher Education, Collaboration, and Resource Sharing.

EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional Conference 2007. Summary: Collaboration and the Academy of the Future

Created by Lida L. Larsen (EDUCAUSE) on March 15, 2007

Summary:

Opening General Session

2007 Southwest Regional Conference

February 21, 2007

Austin, TX

Collaboration and the Academy of the Future

Brian Hawkins, President, EDUCAUSE

Abstract

This session will discuss the essential need to collaborate in the new models of higher education. Collaboration is no longer an alternative strategy—it is the only means of competitive survival. The session will identify reasons why we must collaborate, obstacles to collaboration, and new business models to facilitate this much-needed approach in the current and future higher education environment.

Summary

Quoting from “The Mirage of Continuity: Reconfiguring Academic Information Resources for the 21st Century,” (http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=PUB6004) Brian Hawkins made the point that the things that have made US Higher Education strong in the past are now the barriers to the maintaining that strength in the future.

A short walk-through of history looked at the 1960-1980 as a period when we had fewer users and specialized uses of computing on college campuses. Computing was done with mainframes. People had limited use. Networking was not in the picture.

The 1980’s brought an explosion of computing with microcomputers which expanded the order of magnitude of use but still were somewhat limited. Networking was in the picture but still not a major player.

Today IT is ubiquitous and the increase in users is by two orders of magnitude. Support staff and financials have gone up 2-3 times but in comparison the user bases have grown astronomically.