By Trent Batson, Campus Technology
As Mely Tynan, the first speaker and moderator for the day said, “You’ve held it together, or you’d like to think so.” Tynan’s comments opened the morning session, dedicated to a scan of the IT environment in higher education; the afternoon would focus participants’ attention on leadership issues. Tynan also pointed to alarming statistics that should concern technology leadership on campuses: The U.S. is only 23rd in the world in broadband. The U.S. can boast of only a 30 percent graduation rate after two or four years of college, which places us 15th in the world in graduation rate. There is a U.S. Department of Education “National Technology Plan 2010,” and Tynan “assigned” all those in the room to read at least the executive summary. Another assignment: Pay attention to the New Media Consortium’s annual Horizon Report. In it, IT leaders can see the trends in technology–more mobility, more visualization, more immersive environments–that can inform IT planning on campus.
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