Latest EDUCAUSE Quarterly Now Available Online

cluckett — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:49:59 -0500

The latest EDUCAUSE Quarterly is now available, with feature articles about an institutional survey assessing learning and scholarly techniques, a faculty development survey for teaching online, collaborative development at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and lessons learned from adopting an open source learning management system at Royal Roads University.

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.

2008 EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Closing Session: Leading Ahead of the Curves by Brad Wheeler

llarsen — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:50:27 -0500

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.

The Curves we must lead ahead of and balance are:

Technical possibility is where coolness is the key factor. Investors for innovations keep the frontier moving forward. However, for a CIO, technical possibility is not the question but rather technical maturity. When charted against time you end up with a set of steps up rather than a smooth curve.
Social desirability is where “Gotta have it” is the key factor. Social expectation is now a flat line at the top of the chart. Millennials want new technologies immediately. When academic organizations say that you can only upgrade and make changes every few years there are questions to answer for when you can test and when you can deploy - we can’t always wait those few years before implementing. The curve is really a set of steps again. The CIO needs to decide where and when it’s right to buy-in to the new technology.
Economic Feasibility is a matter of dollars where, over time, a product becomes less expensive so you do have a downward curve.

Wheeler has a box where he keeps prognostications and quoted an article in Campus Technology (Oct 23 2007) about five factors they said will have a synergistic effect. There are many who provide these predictions but because of the fog factor we begin to dismiss them. He described how CIOs feel as Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting The Scream.

Wheeler said the main question is:

“Can our actions substantively affect the shape of the curves or do we just adapt as they are revealed?” and asked are we only an industry that reacts to the curves or do we have the wisdom and ability to shape the curves?

His Curve bending examples were

open educational resources/scholarship
search of certitude
community source
licensing terms

Leading ahead of the curve loops us back to Scholarship 2.0 and the rise of IT, digital repositories, and electronic collaboration in achieving and improving the quality of the scholarly endeavors of research, teaching, learning, and service.

He closed by saying that we need to come together and collectively be the miracle to lead ahead of the curve.

In the Q&A, Wheeler answered questions on

supporting those who still want face-to-face
how to leverage across campuses (higher education) so everyone benefits including less wealthy institutions
outsourcing email and integration of applications
open vs commercialization of courses.

=======================

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

The podcast is available at http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcastleadingaheadofthec/46500

EDUCAUSE | Collaboration and Open Source

Latest EDUCAUSE Quarterly Now Available Online

2008 EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Closing Session: Leading Ahead of the Curves by Brad Wheeler