Presentation on making academic computing a strategic differentiator - given at the 2009 Tennessee IT Symposium.

1. Making Academic Computing A
Strategic Differentiator
Tennessee IT Symposium
April 21, 2009
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Thomas Danford
Chief Information Officer
Tennessee Board of Regents

2. Students – Continue to Evolve!
• “Net.Generation” – Current
population of students
• “Digital Natives” – Start college
in 2014
• Highly Connected – Lifelong
use of communications &
media technologies
• K-12 Exposure – Second-hand
interactive learning techniques
… heavy stimuli
• DIY Learners - EDUPUNKS EDUPUNK – Term coined by Jim Groom, Instructional Technology
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Specialist at the University of Mary Washington.

3. Devices – Continue to Evolve!
• PCs & Laptops
• Netbooks
• Cell Phones
• Entertainment
(Game) Stations
• Media Players
• TV & Cable
• What’s Next?

4. Internet Content – Continues to Evolve!
• Social Sites
• News/Info Sites
• Research Sites
• Learning Sites
• Employment Sites
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• Application Sites
• Content Sharing Sites
• Portfolio Sites
• …

5. Academic Computing … Not So Much?
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• Laptop & PC end user support
• Training for “generic” IT
generic
• Multimedia & classroom support
• LMS/CMS (campus resource) support & training
• Remote access to resources
• Limited courseware integration
• Server administration (E-mail, LMS/CMS, etc.)
• Reactive … maintainers of systems & programs

6. A Digital, Networked World – Changes
the Game for Academic Computing
• Expectations of Digital
Natives?
• Expectation of Employers
and Employees in a Digital
Global Economy?
• Digital Information
Doubles E
D bl Every 11 H Hours? ?

7. Wait a Minute … Digital content will
double every 11 hours by 2010?
• The “Toxic Terabyte Problem
Toxic Terabyte”
“data is accumulating at an increasing rate in servers,
desktops, laptops, phones, RFID sensors, cameras and other
devices
devices”
• Digital Content Management (CM)
“Create, Update, Publish, Translate, Archive, Retrieve”
Institutions will have to look beyond the campus for
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relevant, up-to-date content, apps, and services

8. Expectation of Employers and
Employees
• Changing “loyalty relationship” between employer
and employee
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• Employees are embracing a “free agent” mindset
• Internet creates new category of job seeker called
“actively passive”
“acti el passi e”
• Emergent, relationship-based model of candidate
sourcing for Employees.
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Institutions will have to embrace and integrate cloud
resources and collaborations to attract & retain high
quality faculty and staff …

9. Expectations of Digital Natives
“Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was
designed t teach” Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants By Marc Prensky
d ig d to t h”
• Receiving information really fast “Twitch Speed”
• The ability to parallel process and multi-task
multi task
• Graphics over text
• Prefer random access (e.g. hypertext like Wikis).
• Networked, multiple sources
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• Instant gratification and frequent rewards
• Games over “serious” work.
serious work
Institutions will have to compete in the Internet cloud
to attract & retain hi h quality students …
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10. Challenges Faced by Faculty
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• Time Constraints …
▫ Research and staying current in their field
▫ Publication
▫ Community service
• Dealing with Digital Natives
▫ Yesterday’s tactics for today’s wars
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▫ Integrating “Legacy” and “Future” content
▫ Overcoming years of history and tradition

11. How Can Academic Computing “Ramp
UP
UP” in Order to Help?
• Understand and contribute to the “business” we’re
in … education and student enrichment
• Concentrate on that which “adds value”
• “Leverage” cloud resources … build only as a last resort
• D l & collaborate on “f
Develop ll b t “force multipliers” …
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specialization vs. generalization
• “Re-tool” for APIs & SDKs for “Mashups” in a Web
2.0 world
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• Understand how Digital Natives learn
• Research & evaluate new cloud and other digital
resources for their application in education

12. 5 Principles Going Forward?
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• We’re in the “education” business not the e-mail,
Linux administration or other “task” business.
• We should promote and leverage resources in the
cloud over buying and building whenever possible.
• We need to position ourselves and our “profession”
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as “consultants” to the faculty.
• We should move our focus toward a model of
content management, courseware development and
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integration in a Web 2.0 world.
• Our mission is to overcome rationalization and lack
of imagination as to “can’t work” to one of “will
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work.”

15. Mobil Learning and iTunes U
Thinking “Outside the Box/Classroom”

17. Open Source?
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• Software – (Linux, Open Office, etc.) … of Course
But what about …
• Open Courseware?
• Open Textbooks?

18. Collaboration – Through Bookmarks?

19. Collaboration – Through Presentations?

20. I would welcome your comments and suggestions as to how I
may improve this presentation. Please send your ideas to
Thomas.Danford@gmail.com tdanford@tbr.edu
Thomas Danford@gmail com or tdanford@tbr edu
Presentation available at: http://www.slideshare.net/tsdanford