July, 2006

The Edutech Report - July, 2006 - Full Issue
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Organizing Support for Teaching and Learning
By Thomas Warger
Most college and university information technology organizations have a subunit designated to support teaching and learning. Their names, composition, and division of responsibility with the other components of IT support differ widely—more so than networks/servers or administrative database groups. Their size varies widely, even among institutions with comparable financial resources and overall staff size. On many campuses, the mission and makeup of this group are undergoing reassessment. Most of these organizations currently fall short of embracing actual teaching and learning as their goal. Instead, they are focused on services for a particular clientele (usually faculty) and stop short of participation in the primary work of the institution.

Quotes of the Month
Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, wikis in the classroom

Mentoring: The CIO’s Responsibility and Reward
By Linda Fleit
As a CIO, one of your most important responsibilities is to mentor the promising folks on your staff. This is important not just for succession planning—a topic on its own—but also to make sure that the profession itself continues to move forward with the right kind of leaders. Chances are that if you are in a high-level CIO position in higher education, you have the right (and still relatively rare) combination of skills, attitudes, and values to be a good IT leader; these need to be passed on to others. Having a formal, or even an informal, mentoring relationship can ensure that this happens. And it can be good for you too—as so many have learned, there is much to be gained by giving.

Edutech Responds
printer replacement, supporting technology in the classroom, assessing the effectiveness of an administrative system

Newsbriefs
Mellon Foundation Announces Awards for Open-Source Software; Assessment of Higher Ed IT