From the mind of the CIO

I have been with a group of higher education CIO's in New York City for the past two days discussing all issues technology in higher education. Love this city.....

An early topic at the meeting was consumerization of the market place, it is clear the student is leading technology transformation at many universities. The CIO's were evenly divided on IT's ability to influence consumerization and I doubt university CIO's will influence what students bring to campus. The next discussion was IT's role to ensure all enterprise systems work with mobile devices, students are used to systems like Google & Facebook and expect the same from all our campus systems. The Amazon Fire could raise the bar on expected services on a mobile device.

The CIO's discussed their responsibility with teaching and learning. All the universities are making significant investments in mobility, learning management systems and classrooms. It was frustrating CIO's did not understand the importance of making larger investments to enable faculty to integrate new tools into the curriculum. The Chief Academic Officer and the Chief Information Officer must work with Deans to understand what is needed to encourage faculty adoption.

The final discussion was on disruptive technologies in higher education. The CIO's acknowledged the iPad was disruptive and all were surprised by its success. The discussion centered on information technology's role in the future of higher education. It was clear if technology disruption accelerates many universities will not meet the expectations of the university communities and IT will not remain relevant in the eyes of the students and faculty.