presentation author, 2006 what do newer generation faculty want from it services? bruce maas, cio...
TRANSCRIPT
Presentation Author, 2006
What do Newer Generation Faculty Want from IT Services?
Bruce Maas, CIOMichael Zimmer, Assistant Professor
Maas & Zimmer 2
UWM At a GlanceEnrollment 30,400Undergraduate 25,400Masters/Doctoral 5,000Faculty/Staff 3,455Central IT staff 140IT student staff 175Schools & Colleges 14
Programs: Undergraduate 84 Masters 48 Doctoral 26
Maas & Zimmer
A Need for Beginning Dialogue?• Question: Multiple generations have
always been represented in higher education, so why the focus on newer generations now?
• Answer: We are at the nexus of multiple transformative changes in higher education. Poor communication creates much greater risks during periods of transformative change.
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And They are not Waiting for us• They are finding tools that respond to their
needs.
• Sometimes this is good, and sometimes this is bad. Depends…
• They do not ask permission
• They have little patience
• They are zeroed in on learning outcomes
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Why we need to pay attention to recent generation faculty• Legacy strategies based on “boomer”
preferences may not work
• Mismatch in communication styles
• “Official” campus tools lag behind cloud and consumer services
• This also applies to “boomer” and “early gen-x” innovators
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Why we need to pay attention to recent generation faculty-Part 2• Opinion leaders are different
• Bi-modal distribution for awhile
• Tighter connection in general to learning styles/needs of students
• They do not presently have power, yet that time is coming…
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Learning from our mis-steps
• Example of automated twitter status feed not updating
• #FAIL not exactly like getting limited distribution feedback.
• Audience is wider given social media expression: Twitter, blog posts.
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We’ll soon be outnumbered
• Instructors at UW–Milwaukee:
• ~ 61% Baby Boomers and older
• ~ 38% Generation X
• ~ 1% Generation Y
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Michael Zimmer
Assistant Professor
School of Information Studies
University of Wisconsin–
Milwaukee
http://michaelzimmer.org
Wordpress
Delicious
Librarything
RSS feed
Campus email
Campus website
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Instructional Technology
• Learning Management Systems can help meet faculty (and student) expectations for IT in the classroom
– Digital content delivery
– Supplemental links
– Online grades, discussions
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Instructional Technology
• Desire2Learn @ UWM
– Learning Technology Center provides excellent tutorials/support
– System is stable, competent
– Provides some flexibility, basic analytics, archiving, etc
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Instructional Technology• But tech-savvy faculty (and students)
also want
– Flexibility (customizable, modular, widget-driven)
– Open platforms; browser neutral
– User experience (Ajax, CSS)
– Integration (PantherLink, external chat, social media, etc)
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Instructional Technology
• Compelled to integrate other technologies into the classroom to supplement D2L:
– Tumblr
– Skype
– Camtasia
• Unavoidable?
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General Productivity & Communication• Expectations include
– Stability, with prompt, frequent and informative communication during downtime
– Flexibility
– Usability
– Openness
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General Productivity & Communication• Email/Calendar
• File Storage
• Web Publishing/Presence
• Collaborative Platforms
• Video Conferencing / Chat
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General Productivity & Communication• Email/Calendar
– PantherLink is good, but many prefer access via native apps
– Need to ensure compatibility, portability
• File Storage
– PantherFile is good, but prefer to load as local drive
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General Productivity & Communication• File Storage
– PantherFile/Xythos is acceptable, but clunky
– Need integration with OS, email, D2L, etc
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General Productivity & Communication• Web Publishing/Presence
– I don’t even know if we get official web space as faculty; Most keep outside websites
– Need easy, plug-n-play solutions to create research-based websites
– Current CMS appears limited
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General Productivity & Communication• Collaborative Platforms
– Need native services to foster research (and student) collaboration
– PantherList provides good service
– Wiki within PantherFile is clunky (and almost no one knows its there)
– Most resort to GoogleDocs
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General Productivity & Communication• Video Conferencing / Chat
– For research collaboration, online instruction, etc
– At SOIS we invested in video conferencing infrastructure
– PantherLink-native chat is coming (?), but will it be based on open standards and accessible from other clients?
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