Technology - Tool or Tempest

(When geeks go bad)

Leo BursteinResearch and Technology Architect

Boston University

Agenda

• Current State Analysis• Technology Architecture• Designing Services and Pilots• Example

1. Educational Technologies LandscapeTechnology landscape is crowded, how to find the perfect technology (and do they exist?)

LMS

• Blackboard• Vista• Course Info• Angel• Moodle• Sakai• Learning Gateway…

Multimedia

• Video• Flash• Animations• Voiceovers• Podcasting• iTunesU…

Collaboration• Discussions• Blogs• Wikis• Webinars• Social Networking…

Authoring

• MS Office• Dreamweaver• Google• Respondus• Camtasia•…

How do we know when st

udents should

“constr

uct a w

iki entry

rather th

an

to have

a virtual d

iscussi

on

or a

face-to

-face

d

ialog?” [1]

2. Navigating the MazeUse the classic change management approach: determine (1) where you are, (2) where you want to be, and (3) how do you get from 1 to 2.

1

23

3. Education and Business Reality

There is a real gap between higher education and today’s business realities

Harvard Business Review: "Business schools are on the wrong track. Some of the research produced is excellent, but because so little of it is grounded in actual business Practice, the focus of graduate business Education has become increasingly Circumscribed -- and less and less relevant to practitioners".[2]

And leading universities are accepting the challenge:

“We should aim to be the premier

University in the United States where specialization is not an end

in itself, but always part of a program that aims explicitly at higher goals and broader horizons.”

Boston University, Report of the Task Force on Changing Landscape

4. What Companies are Looking For?

Core Enterprise Competencies, The Gillette Company:Adaptability Drive for ResultsInnovation Customer FocusBuilding Successful Teams CoachingBuilding Strategic Relationships

Facilitating Change

Communication Identify and Develop TalentStrategic Leadership andDecision Making

Technical and Professional Knowledge and Skills

5. Two Birds, One Stone

Companies are asking for core competencies of the 21st century. With time pressures we all experience, we need to develop core competencies in our students at the same time we teach academic skills.

Support Academic Learning

Develop Core

Competencies

Ensure Student Success+ =

6. Breakthrough MethodologyHowever, we are not exactly know how to develop these skills e.g. how to teach innovation. We have what I call a “breakthrough” situation – come up with new approaches when we do not know specific requirements.

1. Establish breakthrough vision2. Define projected outcomes3. Develop milestones and use

cases4. Identify building blocks and

interfaces5. Pilot and determine best

practices6. Re-use ‘building-blocks’ with

minimum modifications for scalability

BreakthroughVision

AssumedMilestones

ProjectedBreakthroughOutcome

2008 20092007

7. The Appliance ConceptUse architectural approach – create a standardized framework of building blocks

that:

1. Expose well defined and user-friendly interfaces

Important: Faculty resources are always in short supply; students have various change tolerance levels.

2. Are generic enough to survive frequent changes. Finding the proper abstraction level often is not trivial; too much abstraction might lead to irrelevance. For example, you want to create assignments that can be used in online and F2F courses, but you might not need an assignment that can be used in both database security and financial concepts courses.

We do not need to know the internal design of a toaster, and if toaster is properly designed, we do not need to read the user manual to make a toast. Standardize on interfaces, not on tools!

8. “The Academic Freedom”

The academic environment presents challenges to standardization. It looks like almost intentionally everybody tries to come up with their own approaches to accomplish similar tasks. I guess this is what they call the “academic freedom”.

A

B

9. The Service Ladder?Over-standardization can kill the breakthrough thinking. Instead, we should develop standardized services with multiple entry points, so people can join the mainstream processes where they prefer.

A

Service

Service

B

Example: html editing in LMS vs. using Dreamweaver vs. maintaining content in Word – the most important thing is that faculty has full control over content, the tools are almost irrelevant. The interfaces are important!

Service Interfaces

10. Managing the Greenhouse Costs

Cost is usually a challenge when designing standardized services for emerging technologies. But can be managed by conducting limited pilots.

Pilots can vary by the number of participants, but you can lose the

baby if you do not provide sufficient support services. As mentioned – two important factors are students’ satisfaction and faculty resources.

11. Wait for the Future?

You can ask - why not wait for technologies to mature? The answer is – it’s not about technologies, it’s about how to use the technologies to advance education.

Hands-on pilot experience is extremely important. To lead, we need to be ahead, we need to learn together with faculty and technology partners how to effectively use technologies when they enter the mainstream.

12. Example: Using e-Live Video Collaboration

References

• [1] Chris Dale, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

• [2] Warren G. Bennis and James O’Toole, How Business Schools Lost Their Way