Report to Faculty Policy Committee

Drivers of IS Change

• increasing interest in understanding and applying IT to enhance/transform teaching and learning (content and clientele, methods and management)
• pedagogical directions
  • greater coupling of workplace and education: tools and processes
  • increased proximity of research-teaching
• technology developments and options presenting opportunities to exploit and diversity
  • virtuality, multimedia, networks, OSes,WWW
• several agencies involved in IT/IR services
• innovation driven staff

Likely impacts

• more IS involvement in technology/application exploration
• greater engagement in academic forums
• demand for more 3rd party software.
• specialised facilities (advanced visualization, supercomputing)
• expectation of specialized support
• collaborative projects with other agencies( internal and external)
• engagement with wider segment of vendors
  
• lack of resources to meet needs of projects and specialized support
• uneducated demand and unplanned supply ( fragmented)
• centrally managing distributed diversity with reliability, efficiently
• equitable access for extended community
• ilgs; distant
• network capability/management
• increased communication with customers
• systematic processes for efficient management of software
  
• multiple service configurations (public ws; docking;quickstations)

IS-AC Strategies

• Conspicuous Collaboration to identify strategic educational initiatives
  • Education Technology Council; School/Department Committees
  • Academic_IS Committee to prioritize and plan initiatives and resource application
  • Crosstalk ( Academic Forums)
• Conspicuous Collaboration to partner in in delivering solutions and services
  • Classrooms(AV+Registrar)
  • Digital Resources development (Library)
• Infrastructure renewal and construction (hardware, software, services)
  • Ongoing incremental technology explorations and modernization
  • Quickstations
  • Special initiatives (Advanced Visiualization facility, New Media Center)
  • Ed Tech Council projects

Principles

• Serve many students rather than few.
• Serve the Core of the MIT currivulum rather than the periphery
• Seek innovation and creativity rather than simple automation
• Increase technological equity amongst departments.