The Art of Knowledge

 

#99 Transcends the Ice

Here is an article called "Following the Puck". It opens with the Great on talking about why he was so successful.

Legend has it that when Wayne Gretsky was asked why he was so successful as a hockey player he responded by saying that he always tried to skate to where the puck was going to be, not to where it was.

By this rationale we can plan our success, not only financially, but what is becoming even more blurred with money accruement, that is education and information. How do people get their information these days? What loops do they inherently develop to pass through rigorous constructs prohibiting them from their sought after goal? Whether that goal be the desire for mp3's or the need to increase mobility via wireless devices as their lives become more tied to information than to the brick and mortar.

The article goes on to say:

As in the past years, survey respondents across all sectors of higher education continue to identify "assisting faculty integrate technology into instruction" as the single most important IT issue confronting their campuses "over the next two or three years." However, the numbers have dropped dramatically since 1998, falling by half across almost all sectors.These declines reflect not so much a declining importance of instructional integration as the rising priority of other issues; financing, ERP upgrade/ replacement, and wireless, that now compete for the time and attention of the survey respondents, typically CIOs, and also compete for increasingly restricted institutional resources (people and money).

I think these numbers have dropped because they have no idea how to follow these initiatives effectively. They would rather invest in something safe and wideley supported rather than take a shot at developing something off the wall. Or they took a shot, then failed, and now quit back to the relegation of funds for toys and ease of use. There is nothing wrong with this matriculation of funds away from what should be the goal, i.e. systems developed around integrating teachers and studetns repositories that autonomously give answers. There is nothing wrong because that's what has always happened. People like ease of use. The key is to take what people are comfortable with, and this next generation will be focused around a new medium, wireless. From on-line to any-line.

The article finisheses up with:

Taken together, these data and other information from the 2003 Campus Computing Survey reflect the movements of a digital puck that is going, concurrently, in many directions: a continuing campus concern for instruction and the instructional infrastructure, a new focus on administrative systems, and real, long-term pressures on technology budgets and resources.

Unfortunately, the inherent (and now continuing) tension between rising expectations for IT-enhanced instructional resources and administrative services and reduced funding for IT budgets ultimately affects students who come to campus to learn about and also to learn with technology. The recession manta, again heard on many college campuses do more with less, and do it better makes for an interesting sound bite but fails to provide a clear path or a strategic plan for IT resources, services, and operations.

We'll get it right one day. It can't all come at once. But, I agree with hardline IT budgets. This reminds me of what Tim said yesterday on IM. He said it really without thinking I guess, but it becasme poignant to me as the night went on. "Who works without computers?" (paraphrased) And my internal response later was, "Man, eventually no one will" Follow the puck people. Follow it to what people are comfortable with and what they will be using in 5 years.

Link posted by JVMM : 5:18 PM