More on Education and Technology

I mentioned in my last post that I like to follow what some other innovative institutions are doing.  That post I focused in on Cornell’s IT Strategic Plan.  Another university that I see as a leader in innovation is Indiana University.  Recently Bradley Wheeler, the CIO for Indiana University, gave a fantastic keynote address at their Statewide IT Conference.  I want to highlight a few things that came up in that keynote presentation, but first I want to talk about the conference itself.

Every year the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU) system has its own statewide MSNSCU IT Conference.  I’ve been fortunate enough to attend many of those conferences over the past few years.  I believe that they bring tremendous value back to the institutions and ultimately to our students.  That said, I think we should always be looking for ways to improve.  Here are a few things that I like about the Indiana University Statewide IT Conference that I think we should consider at our next MSNSCU IT Conference.

  • Openness. The Indiana Daily Student reported that “about 700 students and professionals from across Indiana” attended the conference.  We’ve always focused our conference on IT professionals.  But why not expand a section of our conference to the broader community – students, staff, faculty?  Maybe take it one step further and bring in CIO’s from the commercial sector?  How about K-12 technology professionals?
  • Thought leaders.  During my last post I linked to Shel Waggener’s keynote video.  He made another appearance at Indiana’s conference as a part of “Great Cloud Debate” event.  Brining in thought leaders from the industry like Shel Waggener or Diana Oblinger is a great way to challenge our community to rethink how we approach technology in education.
  • Communication.  I love that both Cornell and Indiana have made the topics and content from their conferences available to everyone.  The community was invited to attend or participate via Twitter, watch their keynote speakers on demand, they have great websites full of active information.
  • Post conference events.  There are many engaging conversations that happen at these conferences.  But continuing those conversations and keeping the connections alive isn’t as well thought through.  Let’s organize touch points throughout the year so that the excitement doesn’t fizzle out!

Okay.  Now let me highlight a few things that I found to be key takeaways for myself from the keynote at Indiana University’s Statewide IT Conference.  First, watch the keynote for yourself here: Indiana University Statewide IT Conference Keynote.

  • I like that they are taking a nimble approach to technology.  They are experimenting.  They know there will be mistakes and bumps along the way.  That is not a trivial statement for CIO to make. But making the statement to a large public audience says a lot, and sets a tone for their culture.
  • I like that they are truly embracing the cloud.  More than that they are actively working with partners (Internet2, textbook companies, etc.) to shape the future of cloud technologies.  They aren’t sitting on the sidelines waiting for others to pave the path, they are charting their own course and deciding their own destiny.  I’m also a fan of their strong push to leverage Citrix and Box.com for their IU Anywhere service.
  • I like that they are open an honest.  They admit that they’ve made mistakes.  Just says yeah we’ve made mistakes is a step, but they go one step further and cite those mistakes, in their case citing their online learning strategy.  That approach is definitely an exception to the rule, and one that I believe will bolster trust in their community and have a profound positive impact on their culture.
  • I like that the CIO spent time to advocate for a healthy workforce.  Encouraging the staff to take a break from emails, run a 5k, and participate in healthy activites shows that they care about their people, and it’s not all about producing IT widgets.
  • I like that they value training, professional development, and career advancement.  A workforce where your employees are valued and feel like they have an advocate as opposed to an environment where you’re always worried about who’s going to step on you or what your numbers are for the quarter is one that should attract the best of the best.
  • Lastly, and probably the biggest takeaway for me, I like their strategy to work as a system and offer a single centralized online offering for general “intro” classes.  Why have each regional institution try to develop their own brand for commodity classes?  Why not work together leveraging the best minds from across the system to build the best offering possible.  Let your regional institution shine in specialized areas with more advanced coursework.  This is a strategy MNSCU needs to consider.

Image courtesy http://thegoldguys.blogspot.com

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