Top 10 IT Issues, 2015: Inflection Point — from educause.edu by Susan Grajek and the 2014–2015 EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel
EDUCAUSE presents the top 10 IT issues facing higher education institutions this year. What is new about 2015? Nothing has changed. And everything has changed. Information technology has reached an inflection point.  Visit the EDUCAUSE top 10 IT issues web page for additional resources.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Change continues to characterize the EDUCAUSE Top 10 IT Issues in 2015. The pace of change seems not to be slowing but, rather, is increasing and is happening on many fronts. There is reason to believe that higher education information technology has reached an inflection point—the point at which the trends that have dominated thought leadership and have motivated early adopters are now cascading into the mainstream. This inflection point is the biggest of three themes of change characterizing the 2015 EDUCAUSE Top 10 IT Issues.. A second dimension of change is the shifting focus of IT leaders and professionals from technical problems to business problems, along with the ensuing interdependence between the IT organization and business units. Underlying all this strategic change, the day-to-day work of the IT organization goes on. But change dominates even the day-to-day, where challenges are in some ways more complex than ever. This “new normal” is the third theme of change.

 

 

Top10ITIssues2015-Educause

 

 

Andy Grove, Intel’s former CEO, described a strategic inflection point as “that which causes you to make a fundamental change in business strategy.”

 

Using Design Thinking in Higher Education — from educause.com b

 

Design thinking focuses on users and their needs, encourages brainstorming and prototyping, and rewards out-of-the-box thinking that takes “wild ideas” and transforms them into real-world solutions.

 

Excerpt:

Albert Einstein famously said, “No problem can be solved by the same kind of thinking that created it.” So, assuming we agree, what exactly are our alternatives? How can we go beyond our standard approach to problems in higher education and entertain new possibilities? One promising alternative is to engage in design thinking.

Design thinking offers a creative yet structured approach for addressing large-scale challenges. In September 2014, we conducted an EDUCAUSE webinar, Design Thinking: Education Edition, and offered examples from our Breakthrough Models Incubator (BMI).

Here, we offer a summary of that webinar, discussing design thinking principles and process, describing real-world examples of design thinking in action, and offering possibilities for how you might introduce the approach into your own organization.

 

Bias: Why Higher Education is Mired in Inaction — from insidetrack.com by Marcel Dumestre

This contribution can be accessed from insidetrack.com’s Leadership Series, but the actual PDF is here.

Excerpts:

He identifies four biases that short-circuit this process, which he terms as generalized empirical method. All of these biases are not only at play in our individual lives, they also can determine how well organizations operate, even universities.

The first bias is dramatic bias—a flight from the drama of everyday living, an inability or unwillingness to pay attention to experience.

The second bias is individual bias—egoism. Making intelligent decisions requires moving beyond the worldview created by oneself for oneself.

The third bias is group bias. This predisposition is particularly rampant in organizational life.

The fourth bias is general bias—the bias of common sense. This bias views common sense uncritically.


The deleterious effect of bias explains why very smart people don’t understand what seems obvious in hindsight. The disappearance of entire industries gives testimony to the destructive power of institutional blindness.

There is no magic formula, no uniform model to follow. Universities must do the hard work of analyzing the needs of whom they serve and recreate themselves as viable, exciting institutions suited for a new age.

The universities left standing decades from now will have gone through this enlightening, but painful, process and look in hindsight at the insight they achieved.

 

 

 

Addendum on 1/13/15:

 
 

Predictions for 2015: Redesigning the organization for a rapidly changing world — from by Josh Bersin
This year our Predictions for 2015 has some hard-hitting new ideas to consider – in this article I will give you some highlights, and you can download the report here.

Excerpts:
As we look at 2015, we see five fundamental shifts which dramatically impact corporate talent, leadership, and HR strategies.

1. Technology has removed the barrier between work and life.

2. Employee engagement, culture, and leadership are lifeline issues.
…ultimately employee engagement is all a business has.

3. Learning, capabilities, and skills are the currency of success.
and once you attract these people you must give them a compelling learning environment to stay current, as technology advances at an accelerating rate. L&D organizations and strategies have not kept up, and we are in an era where corporate learning is going through as much change is we witnessed in the early 2000s when e-learning hit the scene.

4.  HR as a function is at a crossroads and must reinvent itself.

5.  Data is now integral to all decisions HR must make.

 

 

 

 

Post #1:  How to keep your university’s doors open — from linkedin.com by Amrit Ahluwalia

Excerpt:

Over the course of this three-part series, I will address three foundational questions that lay the groundwork for any discussion around improving operational efficiency in higher ed:

  1. Why is efficiency critical for today’s colleges and universities?
  2. What is efficiency and what are its impacts?
  3. How can institutions become more efficient?

So, first things first: why should postsecondary administrators even be thinking about efficiency?

 

Post #2

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The benefits to making these kinds of changes are innumerable. As a starting point, improving operational efficiency helps colleges and universities transform into nimble and responsive organizations, facilitating their expansion into new marketplaces.

 

Post #3

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Despite the tendency for higher education to be slow-moving, today’s market realities demand action, change and transformation.

Creating a roadmap to improving efficiency can be a challenge, though. From my perspective, what’s needed is a culture change that permeates every level of the institution.

 

TheTrimtabInHigherEducation-DanielChristian

 

 

 

Addendum on 1/12/15:

From DSC:
We/you don’t want to be looking like this!

Thomas Browning Rose captures a bleak, abandoned college

.

108994-8547471-untitled-1224
Thomas Browning Rose: Rolle College

.

 

108994-8547308-untitled-1149-2

 

108994-8547426-untitled-1194-2

 

From DSC:
We continue to see more articles and innovations that involve the Internet of Things (IoT) or the Internet of Everything (IoE). This trend has made me reflect upon what I think will be a future, required subset of needed expertise within the fields of Instructional Design, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Product Development, Programming, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and likely other fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality(VR) as well.

And that is, we will need people who can craft learning experiences from the presence of beacons/sensors and that integrate such concepts as found in “If This Then That” (ifttt.com) whereby one is putting the Internet and cloud/mobile-based applications to work for you. Certainly, those involved in retail are already busy working on these types of projects. But those of us involved with learning, human computer interaction (HCI), and interface design need to get involved as well.

 

 

IfThisThenThat-Combined-With-iBeacons

 

For example, this potential scenario of a K-12 field trip might be fodder for such a learning experience.

So for those individuals who are involved with the aforementioned disciplines…we need to pulse check what new affordances are coming from the rollout and further development of the IoT/IoE.

 

 

 

 

 

DanielChristian-Beacons-n-educ-2015

A potential scenario

A teacher takes a group of students on a field trip to their city’s recycling center.

The city has installed sensors/beacons next to their bins. They’ve also made Wi-Fi available (but only during normal hours of operation).

Upon arriving, the city’s beacons sense that mobile devices are in its proximity — including one that’s been pre-registered as a K-12 teacher — and thus take the following steps:

  • A request for permission to display content is received by each mobile device
  • If approved, a video of the city’s mayor is sent to each of the students’ mobile devices, explaining what the city is trying to achieve with their recycling operations
  • This video is followed up with a graphic that relays how many tons of recycling are processed each week/month/year — as well as other relevant information
  • After that, a brief quiz hits the students’ devices, asking them a series of questions about what was hopefully learned from the trip
  • Upon submission of the quiz, the National Audubon Society has arranged with the city to transmit gift certificates worth $5.00 to each device — with an option to accept the certificate or not — and sends an interesting item to the devices from one of their sites

Meanwhile, upon returning to school:

  • Another quiz is sent to each student’s device, using the concept of spaced practice/repetition to again assess whether the learning objectives were reached re: that days’ field trip
  • Once the student clicks on the submit button for the quiz:
    • their score is registered in the system and an answer key appears
    • simultaneously, a notification is sent to the child’s parent/guardian that says that Billy has completed the field trip to XYZ recycling center, and encouraging the parent/guardian to ask Billy some open ended questions (in fact, 2-3 are provided to help with the conversation later on). That email could also let the parents know when the center is open and if they have any special programs going on (like Christmas tree disposal and recycling for Christmas tree lights)

 

 

 

Ten Trends in Data Science 2015 — from linkedin.com by Kurt Cagle

Excerpt:

Data Science Teams
I see the emergence within organizations of data science teams. Typically, such teams will be made up of a number of different specialties:

  • Integrator. A programmer or DBA that specializes in data ingestion and ETL from multiple different sources. Their domain will tend to be services and databases, and as databases become data application platforms, their role primarily shifts from being responsible for schemas to being responsible for building APIs. Primary focus: Data Acquisition
  • Data Translation Specialist. This will typically be a person focused on Hadoop, Map/Reduce and similar intermediate processing necessary to take raw data and clean it, transform it, and simplify it. They will work with both integrators and ontologists, Primary Focus: Data Acquiisition
  • Ontologist. The ontologist is a data architect specializing in building canonical models, working with different models, and establishing relationships between data sets. They will often have semantics or UML backgrounds. Primary focus: Data Awareness.
  • Curators. These people are responsible for the long term management, sourcing and provenance of data. This role is often held by librarians or archivists. They will often work closely with the ontologists. Primary Focus: Data Awareness.
  • Stochastic Analyst (Data Scientist?). This role is becoming a specialist one, in which people versed with increasingly sophisticated stochastic and semantic analysis tools take the contextual data and extraction trends, patterns and anti-patterns from this. They usually have a strong mathematical or statistical background, and will typically work with domain experts. Primary Focus: Data Analysis
  • Domain Expert. Typically these are analysts who know their particular domain, but aren’t necessarily expert on informatics. These may be financial specialists, business analysts, researchers, and so forth, depending upon the specific enterprise focus. Primary Focus: Data Analysis
  • Visualizers. These are typically going to be web interface developers with skills in areas such as SVG or Canvas and the suites of visualization tools that are emerging in this area. Their role is typically to take the data at hand and turn it into usable, meaningful information. They will work closely with both domain experts and stochastic analysts, as well as with the ontologist to better coerce the information coming from the data systems into meaningful patterns. Primary Focus:Data Analysis
  • Data Science Manager. This person is responsible for managing the team, understanding all of the domains reasonably well enough to interface with the client, and coordinating efforts. This person also is frequently the point person for establishing governance. Primary Focus: All.

 

 

Infographic: What’s Hot in Data Science in 2015 — from data-informed.com; with thanks to Michael Caveretta’s tweet on this

 

 

Michigan State Wants a Big Data Professor on Campus — from edtechmagazine.com by D. Frank Smith; back from Nov 2014
Explosive growth in the data science field is pushing higher education to extend its analytics expertise.

Excerpt:

There is a torrent of information flooding today’s higher education institutions. Michigan State University is hoping to find Big Data experts to turn it into results.

Putting Big Data to use in an educational setting takes a special set of skills. MSU’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences recently held a search for an assistant professor of Big Data and health, a position that will lead courses on data analytics and IT in the Department of Media and Information.

“We seek a scholar conducting cutting-edge social and/or technical research utilizing big data approaches — including theory-building, analytics, applications, and effects,” according to MSU’s job listing, which has expired, but is still available on LinkedIn.

 

 

 

Is Data Science a buzzword? Modern Data Scientist defined — from marketingdistillery.com by Krzysztof Zawadzki

 

.       

 

From DSC: Those working in higher ed – take note of this 12 week bootcamp:  

.

..   12week-boot-camp-data-scientist   .          

 .

 

Should Big Data Skills Be Taught in K–12 Classrooms? — from by D. Frank Smith
A new report recommends that schools begin preparing students to think like data scientists at an earlier age.

Excerpt:

The skills necessary for the data analytics jobs of tomorrow aren’t being taught in K–12 schools today, according to a new report released by the Education Development Center, Inc.’s (EDC) Oceans of Data Institute. The Profile of the Big-Data Enabled Specialist projects a workforce shortage for data-driven positions. Based on a 2011 McKinsey & Co. report cited by the Oceans of Data Institute, ”By 2018, the United States alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5 million managers and analysts with the know-how to use the analysis of big data to make effective decisions.”              

 

Difference between Data Scientist and Data Analyst — from edureka.co; again, with thanks to Michael Caveretta’s tweet on this

Excerpt: .

Qualifications of Data Scientist and Data Analyst

    .

 

 

The Data Scientist’s Toolbox — course from coursera.org

 

TheDataScientistToolbox-Coursera-Dec2014

 

 

The 25 Hottest Skills That Got People Hired in 2014 — from linkedin.com

Excerpts:

  • Statistical analysis and data mining
  • Business intelligence
  • Data engineering and data warehousing

 

 

 

16 analytic disciplines compared to data science — from datasciencecentral.com by Vincent Granville

Excerpt:

What are the differences between data science, data mining, machine learning, statistics, operations research, and so on?

Here I compare several analytic disciplines that overlap, to explain the differences and common denominators. Sometimes differences exist for nothing else other than historical reasons. Sometimes the differences are real and subtle. I also provide typical job titles, types of analyses, and industries traditionally attached to each discipline. Underlined domains are main sub-domains. It would be great if someone can add an historical perspective to my article.

 

 

Tech 2015: Deep Learning And Machine Intelligence Will Eat The World — from forbes.com by Anthony Wing Kosner; with thanks to Pedro for his tweet on this

Excerpt:

Despite what Stephen Hawking or Elon Musk say, hostile Artificial Intelligence is not going to destroy the world anytime soon. What is certain to happen, however, is the continued ascent of the practical applications of AI, namely deep learning and machine intelligence. The word is spreading in all corners of the tech industry that the biggest part of big data, the unstructured part, possesses learnable patterns that we now have the computing power and algorithmic leverage to discern—and in short order.

The effects of this technology will change the economics of virtually every industry.

 

 

The rise of machines that learn — from infoworld.com by Eric Knorr; with thanks to Oliver Hansen for his tweet on this
A new big data analytics startup, Adatao, reminds us that we’re just at the beginning of a new phase of computing when systems become much, much smarter

 

 

 

Shivon Zilis, Machine Intelligence Landscape

 

 

Data Science Dojo@DataScienceDojo
Stanford startup focused on all things data science.

 

 

The 2 Types Of Data Scientists Everyone Should Know About — from datasciencecentroal.com by Bernard Marr

Excerpt:

It depends entirely on how broadly you categorize them. In reality, of course – there are as many “types” of data scientist as there are people working in data science. I’ve worked with a lot, and have yet to meet two who are identical.

But what I have done here is separate data scientists into groups, containing individuals who share similar skills, methods, outlooks and responsibilities. Then I grouped those groups together, again and again, until I was left with just two quite distinctly different groups.

I’ve decided to call these two types strategic data scientists and operational data scientists.

 

 

Deep learning Reading List — from jmozah.github.io

 

 

 

YouTube’s Chief, Hitting a New ‘Play’ Button — from nytimes.com by Jonathan Mahler

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

At one point, the moderator asked Ms. Wojcicki if she thought cable television would still be around in 10 years. She paused for a moment before answering, with a bit of a sly smile, “Maybe.” The crowd laughed, even though just about everyone in the packed auditorium knew she was only half-joking.

If cable TV is gone in a decade, Ms. Wojcicki and the global digital video empire over which she presides will be one of the main causes. YouTube, founded in 2005 as a do-it-yourself platform for video hobbyists — its original motto was “Broadcast Yourself” — now produces more hit programming than any Hollywood studio.

Smosh, a pair of 20-something lip-syncing comedians, have roughly 30 million subscribers to their various YouTube channels. PewDiePie, a 24-year-old Swede who provides humorous commentary while he plays video games, has a following of similar size. The list goes on and on. For the sake of perspective, successful network television shows like “NCIS: New Orleans” or “The Big Bang Theory” average a little more than half that in weekly viewership. The 46-year-old Ms. Wojcicki — who will soon give birth to her fifth child — has quietly become one of the most powerful media executives in the world.

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

 

 

 

Also see:

  • Smart TV Alliance serves 58 million TV sets — from broadbandtvnews.com by The Smart TV Alliance development platform is now compatible with one-third of the global smart TV market. App developers who use the Alliance’s common developer portal can reach 58 million smart TVs in a single, integrated process. The brands served include LG Electronics, Panasonic, TP Vision and Toshiba
  • Roku-Connected Televisions And The Future Of The Smart TV Wars — from fastcompany.com by Chris Gayomali
    At CES, Roku announced new partnerships that will cram its platform inside more televisions. Built-in is the new box.
    .
  • Netflix Launches Smart TV Seal of Approval Program — from variety.com by Todd Spangler
    Sony, LG, Sharp, Vizo and makers of Roku TVs are expected to be first certified under ‘Netflix Recommended TV’ program
    Excerpt:
    Netflix — in a smart bid to get its brand affixed onto smart TVs — has announced the “Netflix Recommended TV” certification program under which it will give the thumbs up to Internet-connected television sets that deliver the best possible video-streaming experience for its service.

 

From DSC:
As you can see, BBBBBIIIIIGGGGG players are getting into this game.  And there will be BBBBBIIIIIGGGGG opportunities that open up via what occurs in our living rooms. Such affordances won’t be limited to the future of entertainment only.

 

Trying to solve for the problem of education in 2015 — by Dave Cormier; with thanks to Maree Conway for her posting this on her University Futures Update

Excerpt:

The story of the rhizome
The rhizome has been the story i have used, frankly without thinking about it, to address this issue. There are lots of other ways to talk about it – a complex problem does not get solved by one solution. In a rhizomatic approach (super short version) each participant is responsible for creating their own map within a particular learning context. The journey never ‘starts’ and hopefully never ends. There is no beginning, no first step. Who you are will prescribe where you start and then you grow and reach out given your needs, happenstance, and the people in your context. That context, in my view, is a collection of people. Those people may be paying participants in a course, they may be people who wrote things, it could be people known to the facilitator. The curriculum of the course is the community of people pulled together by the facilitator and all those others that join, are contacted or interacted with. The interwebs… you know.

The point here is that i attempt to replace the ‘certainty of the prepared classroom’ with the ‘uncertainty of knowing’. In doing so I’m hoping to encourage students to engage in the learning process in their own right. I want them to make connections that make sense to them, so that when the course is over, they will simply keep making connections with the communities of knowing they have met during the class. The community is both the place where they learn from other people, but, more importantly, learning how to be in the community is a big part of the curriculum. Customs, mores, common perspectives, taboos… that sort of thing.

 

A vision for radically personalized learning | Katherine Prince | TEDxColumbus

Description:

Could we transform today’s outmoded education system to a vibrant learning ecosystem that puts learners at the center and enables many right combinations of learning resources, experiences, and supports to help each child succeed? Creating personalized learning for all young people will require a paradigm shift in education and a deep commitment to providing each student with the right experiences at the right time.

As Senior Director of Strategic Foresight at KnowledgeWorks, Katherine Prince leads the organization’s work on the future of learning. Since 2007, she has helped a wide range of education stakeholders translate KnowledgeWorks’ future forecasts into forward-looking visions and develop strategies for bringing those visions to life. She also writes about what trends shaping the future of learning could mean for the learning ecosystem.

 

Learning Ecosystems mentioned again2

 

Excerpt from Lynda Weinman’s 12/29/14 email:

We published over 1,000 courses this year, and I would never be one to pick favorites, but I did personally oversee the creation of two documentaries that share my passion and support for in-person, project-based learning. If you have a moment, learn about an innovative STEAM high-school program that’s teaching engineering to girls and boys in a way that makes it so fun, the students don’t want to go home at night. Then discover what happens when young minds are encouraged to observe and reflect on school subjects—rather than merely listen and regurgitate facts.

————————

In 2002, a school district in Goleta, California, attempted an experiment. They introduced DPEA, the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy, a program designed to teach twenty-first-century skills via project-based learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Once “art” was added to the program (STEAM) they attracted 50% more girls, and got better adoption from parents, mentors, the outside community, and students. The Academy has now been running for over ten years and is recognized as a pioneer in education reform, prizing independent thought and modern skills over standardized testing and book-based lectures. Here the students, teachers, and administrators tell us why it works. Learn about their cutting-edge robotics program, multidisciplinary approach, and the unique collaborations that happen between students, teachers, and parents.

 

Watch the Online Video Course Visual Thinking Strategies
What if teachers taught with questions rather than lectures? What if students were asked to reflect instead of regurgitate? Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) challenges the standard model of teaching by encouraging a reflection-and-response style of learning. Designed by art educator Philip Yenawine and developmental psychologist Abigail Housen, VTS relies on children’s natural ability to observe, using imagery as the starting point for learning. The teacher asks open-ended questions; students reflect and respond. The process has been proven to strengthen critical thinking skills, language development, confidence, and collaboration. Watch VTS at work in three Louisiana schools and find out what alternative teaching methods like these might have in store for America’s classrooms.
 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian