![]() ![]() ![]() I’ll confess that it has been several years since I spent a significant portion of my EDUCAUSE conference hours attending panel and plenary sessions. The subsequent creation of a single IT professional association for higher education, based on institutional and not individual memberships, has made the fall EDUCAUSE conference the major annual gathering of higher ed’s IT tribes: attendees of all ranks and assignments come from large and small campuses, rich and less-affluent institutions, community colleges and research universities, and also from many other points in-between and across the terrain that is higher education, including the corporations that provide IT products and services to colleges and universities.Ĭan we agree that there is not much real “research” (or “academic” work) presented at the EDUCAUSE conference? Rather the vast majority of panel sessions are topical discussions or campus case studies: the focus is often on a pragmatic narrative (“how we did X at Acme College”) as opposed presentations that emphasize rigorous methodology, real data, and thoughtful analysis (as opposed to insightful commentary). In 1998, CAUSE and EDUCOM merged to create EDUCAUSE. The “academics” include some faculty as well as the small but growing number of CIOs and senior IT officers, including folks like you, who have come “into IT” positions from academic ranks rather than from the technology side: they are “academics” who have moved over into IT careers rather than “techies” who have moved up the IT ranks. Rather EDUCAUSE hosts a professional conference for technology personnel who work in colleges and universities, including some attendees who were (or still are) academics. With respect to you and others who view the pervasive corporate logos and commercial presence at the recent EDUCAUSE conference as impinging on the organization’s “academic” mission: get over it!ĮDUCAUSE and its precursor organizations, EDUCOM (for “academic” computing) and CAUSE (for “administrative” computing), were never “academic” associations and these organizations (current and past) never convened “academic” conferences. And let's begin by placing the EDUCAUSE conference in proper context. Let’s start with your concerns about commercialization at the recent EDUCAUSE conference. The first, dated November 1st, called for a “ calmer, less commercial EDUCAUSE 2016.” The second, posted the following day (when do you sleep – or have time for your day job at Dartmouth?), was your (faux memo) response to my faux client memo titled “ Partner is Not A Verb,” published by EdSurge prior to the EDUCAUSE conference and intended (primarily) for firms doing business with higher education. This post on Digital Tweed is a response to two of your recent Technology and Learning blog posts.
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