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Who's Out Front with Technology Innovation on Campus?
6/4/2008
What Does Innovation Mean Now?
How can academic computing be in any way innovative when innovation no longer means simply using technology? It can't be just that, since "everyone" is doing it. And, if it's not about simply using the technology, it must be about something more, such as using the technology in educationally valuable and sustainable ways over time. Or about building new capabilities based on Web 2.0 architectures, protocols, languages, definitions, and tools.
At this time in higher education, we need a technology innovation unit. If academic computing on your campus has become locked into production, it may be time to create a new breed of systematic technology innovation unit that consults, selects, pilots, assesses, and hands off to technical operations. This must be a unit that can manage the innovation cycle so that adoption of Web 2.0 technologies on the campus is not willy-nilly.
But, the innovation unit can't continue to support the new technologies once they've been vetted and implemented. That last part of the innovation cycle, the "hand off," allows the unit to continue to innovate. No innovation unit can survive without always "going out of business."
Web 2.0 is pushing us toward a full and deep enculturation of the new default technology in higher education, and it's time for technology units to get out front once again.
Trent Batson, Ph.D. has served as an English professor, director of academic computing, and has been an IT leader since the mid-1980s. He is currently Co-Lead for the Web2ePortfolio Initiatve (W2eP), a Senior Associate with the TLT Group, and Editor of Campus Technology's Web 2.0 e-newsletter. batsontr@mit.edu
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