EDUCAUSE | Planning

Tune In September 4--Emergency Preparedness: Leveraging IT for Safety and Security

pkurkowski — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:50:33 -0500

September is National Emergency Preparedness Month, an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of emergency preparedness in homes, workplaces, colleges and universities, and communities. Institutions of higher education across the country are fine-tuning and test-driving their emergency preparedness plans, testing their emergency notification systems, and conducting awareness sessions for students, faculty, and staff.

In this free September 4 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, Emergency Preparedness: Leveraging IT for Safety and Security, presenter Major Jay Gruber, department of public safety, will explore how the University of Maryland is taking a comprehensive approach to protecting its human, physical, and cyber assets and is exploring the use of social networking to enhance communication with stakeholders.

Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event or browse related EDUCAUSE resources on Emergency Notification Systems, Emergency Preparedness, and Emergency Preparedness Plans.

Tune In April 11 for a Free Web Seminar on Knowledge Sharing

pkurkowski — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:41:34 -0500

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.

Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event or browse related EDUCAUSE resources on Knowledge Management, Information Technology Management and Leadership, Institutional Management, and Planning.

The Value of Feedback

smiltenb — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:50:15 -0600

Last week I attended a meeting with a group of young MICA alums. Nearly two dozen recent graduates offered insights about alumni programming and ways MICA can engage recent graduates. Incorporating feedback like this in our technology planning processes is a big challenge and often many decisions are made based on assumptions of what we think people want or need. So it was really valuable to be part of dialog where alumni shared their ideas and expectations about institutional communication.

As an institution that is getting ready to jump on the bandwagon and offer email-for-life to our 2008 graduating class, the comments from our recent graduates was timely. Our young alumni want to keep in touch with the college but they do not view a campus email account as a tool for making that happen. The group commented that it would be more valuable if the college provided web services and tools that allowed them to update contact information (email and mailing addresses), connect with one another and share news with MICA and their peers.

Perhaps MICA is unique and perhaps this small group of alumni does not accurately represent the views of all recent graduates, but I'm very curious about what the experiences of other colleges who have already been offering email-for-life. Do alumni see email-for-life as a way to stay connected to the institution?

E07 Podcast: The 2007 Campus Computing Survey

kellywalker — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:17:42 -0600

This 36-minute podcast recorded during the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference features Kenneth C. Green, Founding Director, The Campus Computing Project speaking on "The 2007 Campus Computing Survey."

The session abstract:

Begun in 1990, the Campus Computing Project is the largest continuing study of the role of computing, e-learning, and information technology in American higher education. The session will present the results of the 2007 Campus Computing Survey, including new data on P2P policies, open source deployment, IT security issues, strategic and financial planning for IT, instructional integration of IT, campus IT standards, course management systems, and Web site services.

EDUCAUSE2006 Podcast: Multicampus Planning to Enhance Teaching

Carie417 — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:27:01 -0600

In this 44-minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, we'll hear from David Gray, Robert Green, and Mark Schlesinger in a session entitled Multicampus Planning to Enhance Teaching with Technology: The University of Massachusetts Initiative. They will share background and early assessments from a 10-year planning initiative aimed at the most effective use of technology to improve teaching and learning.

EDUCAUSE2006 Podcast: The New Imperative in IT

Carie417 — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:39:56 -0600

In this 45-minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, we'll hear from Michael Zastrocky in a session entitled The New Imperative for IT: Strategy, Management, and Institutional Change. He will share how strategy-aligned change can offer an approach to advancing the university mission, as well as frameworks and tools, to link technology investments and decisions to process changes that achieve enterprise and educational results.

EDUCAUSE2006 Podcast: Start With an Information Security Plan

Carie417 — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:47:57 -0600

In this 32-minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, we'll hear from Tammy Clark and William Monahan in a session entitled Start With a Great Information Security Plan! They discuss how to design a plan that takes a risk-based approach and provides you with a prioritized action plan.

A Pattern Language for Technology

smiltenb — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 10:05:45 -0600

In 2007, I’m determined to put the finishing touches on the fixer upper house that I bought ten years ago. The good part about never actually finishing the work (like replacing the missing molding around a bathroom window) is that I have a more flexibility to make improvements that match my current needs. I’m no longer attached to my original notion of restoring the 1926 row home to as close-to-original as possible. Instead, I’m all about demolition – for starters breaking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Sure a 7x15 galley kitchen might have been all the rage in 1926; but once you add a fridge, sink and range to a space this size you’re virtually out of counter space…and I really like counter space.

This past Fall a friend lent me a copy of “A Pattern Language” (Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein) to help inspire my upcoming renovations. The book blew me away and as I continue to re-read it, I’ve been percolating on ideas about “a pattern language of technology”. Some really smart people have written about pattern languages in design and in software development and I did start reading “Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software” but didn’t get too far as it did not rank very high on my readability scale.

There is such a shift happening in technology right now – particularly how it weaves into our physical lives and intermingles with (and replaces) our social interactions; and this shift has inspired me to come up with a new language and new models for how we manage technology at MICA. I'm looking for new patterns for how we evaluate solutions and design our technology presence across the institution. Each day departments across campus (including mine) are finding that the old standards and methods that we used for providing services don’t work very well. A few years ago facing challenges like this would get lumped under the heading of “business process redesign” and we would try to bring in some talented experts who could help tell us about better business models.

But we need new patterns and new designs for facing these challenges today. Something that is not specific to coding but that takes on the whole big thing – staffing, systems management, procurement, services, training, etc. And a significant challenge beyond articulating this pattern language is making it timeless – particularly when it comes to technology. How do we construct a pattern language that embodies the interconnectedness of technology, society and business but that also recognizes the distinctions between good code and productive workspaces?

One of the less-abstract applications for Christopher Alexander’s work and projects at MICA is the issue of space design. As we rev up for 18 months of PeopleSoft/Oracle upgrades, we’ll be bringing on some project help and we have absolutely no space for them to work.

We had an epic meeting yesterday that started off with the review of our organizational chart. The entire time that I’ve been creating the org charts, I’ve been bumping up against the logical grouping of staff based on function vs. the hierarchical reporting structure. In thinking about ways to create space for staff and constantly improve services it is so obvious that we simply cannot move forward if we continue to hang on to our old notions about private offices for everyone and keeping separations between staff based on reporting structure. Ted “master of the whiteboard” Simpson drew a great diagram that has helped to open up the discussion to one where we’re now thinking about communities within our department based on functions and services. [An article on the pattern language website captures some of the concepts Ryan, Ted and I have been trying to shape into our staffing model.]

This new approach will certainly require plenty of demolition (not just the walls in our offices, but the old concepts about how we work together). Good thing I have a sledgehammer and safety glasses.

“The more living patterns there are in a place-a room, a building, or a town-the more it comes to life as an entity, the more it glows, the more it glows, the more it has that self maintaining fire which is the quality without a name." -- Christopher Alexander