Information Technology Management and Leadership

This 56 minute podcast features the opening keynote address from the EDUCAUSE 2008 Southeast Regional Conference. The speech, "Information Technology Challenges at NASA," is by Michael J. Bolger, CIO at NASA.

This keynote presentation discusses the current IT environment at NASA and the IT challenges that the agency faces as it moves into a new era of space exploration. The CIO from the Kennedy Space Center talks about new strategic directions and supporting initiatives being implemented across the agency to enable future mission success.

Just sat through another painful sales webinar...  Why is looking at web-based software in a sales review so very, very painful?  It is like an unfamiliar roller-coaster ride.  Someone else is at the controls in a remote place.  They know where they want to go, but you don't know the path.  So the viewer is left to sit and watch as someone unknown points and clicks - and you never know when they are going to point and click and jump to something else.  You get focused on something on the screen, and you suddenly startled to someplace else.  All the while the vendor-speaker is coming across the speaker phone, and if they've gone to a cell phone, Skype or VOIP, the connection may echo or cut out.  We strain to listen to the vendor talk about the product, trying to get important details, and the vendor is talking about the product in a casual, unscripted way that just is intended to "walk you through" something that requires your attention.  At the end, I'm left with a series of disjointed perceptions about the product.  Many times my functional community is left with a bad product view, when I really think it was the bad

Leading Ahead of the Curves

Brad Wheeler, Vice President for IT and CIO, Dean, & Professor, Indiana University

[EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference Closing General Session, March 19, 2008]

The slides for this keynote are available at http://www.educause.edu/upload/presentations/MWRC08/GS02/Leading-Ahead-of-the-Curves-Wheeler20080319_inked.ppt

A podcast of the session is available at http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcastleadingaheadofthec/46500

NOTES

Brad Wheeler began his talk on technology leadership with reminisces beginning in 1993 when he was an associate professor at the University of Maryland and Mosaic was the hot new tool and the Web took off.

Adapting the well-known “and then a miracle occurs” cartoon,  he changed the text on the blackboard to show a sketch of “Campus Cyberinfrastructure” -> “then a miracle occurs” -> ”Cloud Computing Nirvana” and said that we can be the miracle in leading ahead of the curves but we need more explicit information in the miraculous step 2. 

Today in many circles the mention of knowledge management conjures up fears of complex IT systems (often equated with failure) or a new initiative (often associated with vague requirements). How do you develop a knowledge management program that incorporates the essence of organizational learning and knowledge sharing without new tools or systems? The Johnson Space Center has embarked on such a quest to define a program that leverages the wealth of knowledge of 50 years of human space flight not only for today's workforce but also for generations to come.

In this free April 11 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, Knowledge Sharing: Some Myths and Ideas, and a Little IT, presenter Jean E. Engle, Chief Knowledge Officer, NASA/Johnson Space Center, will share her thoughts on the effective development of knowledge management programs.

In this 16 minute podcast we feature a conversation from the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting. The topic is digital fluency and innovation at the academy from an administrative perspective. Our conversation participants are Louise Thorpe, Head of Academic Innovation at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK; and Holly Morris-Kuentz, Director of Instructional and Research Technology for Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Both of the them also co-presented sessions at the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting. Holly Morris-Kuentz co-presented a session entitled, "Prioritizing Technology-Rich Classroom Space: Strategies for Success". Louise Thorpe co-presented a session entitled, "The Digitally Fluent University: A Recipe for Success?".

The latest EDUCAUSE Quarterly is now available, featuring articles on rethinking academic technology leadership in an era of change, the key issues involved in choosing a university Course Management System in Ghana, research describing lessons learned in implementing electronic portfolios, and an exploration of faculty-student e-mail communication at UNC Chapel Hill.

EDUCAUSE Quarterly is also available via RSS feed. Click the orange RSS icon on the EDUCAUSE Quarterly home page to access the XML required to subscribe.

In this 7 minute podcast, we feature an interview with Michael Zastrocky, Vice President and Research Director of Academic Strategies for Gartner, Incorporated. He presented a session at the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference entitled, "IT Leadership and the Role of the CIO: The Annual Gartner/EDUCAUSE Update".

In this 35 minute podcast, we feature a speech by Greg Jackson, Vice President and CIO for the University of Chicago. This speech was recorded at the EDUCAUSE 2007 Conference in Seattle, Washington and is entitled, "Things I’ve Screwed Up—and How!".

The abstract:

Recognitions, awards, best practices, best of breed: so engaging, so uplifting, so motivating, so prominently covered. Failures, frustrations, firings, misdirection: so off-putting, so depressing, so demoralizing, so rarely covered. The literature on quality improvement and economist Paul Ormerod’s Why Most Things Fail contend that progress and quality improvement require that we not only seek success but also avoid failure, and therefore that we understand both. In this session, Jackson will offer a different perspective by reflecting on some mishaps and why they occurred.
WINNER: 2007 EDUCAUSE Leadership Award. Award sponsored by SunGard Higher Education, An EDUCAUSE Platinum Partner.

In this 10-minute podcast, we feature an interview with Harley Lingerfelt, VP for Information Management & Technology, Savannah College of Art and Design . He discusses the challenges of matching leading-edge technology to a diverse and creative campus community.