Instructional Technology Conference
Middle Tennessee State University
Transforming the Learning Environment
April 4-6, 2004
2004 Featured Speakers
- Brian Hawkins, President, EDUCAUSE
- Gary Robert Brown, Director Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, Washington State University
- Diana G. Oblinger, Executive Director of Higher Education for Microsoft Corporation and past Senior Fellow for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research
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The Transformed Academy
Brian L. Hawkins
This presentation will examine trends in higher education that are either being seen or are anticipated as a function of information technology. The combined effects of technology, demography and economics will be explored as they affect the roles within higher education. IT trends will be examined, as well as their impact on organizational structures on campus, the marketplace for higher education, the culture of our institutions and the business practices that we employ, all leading to both a turbulent and transformed enterprise.
Brian L. Hawkins is president of EDUCAUSE, a professional association of more than 1,850 colleges and universities dedicated to transforming higher education through information technologies. This organization was formed in 1998 as a result of the consolidation of Educom and CAUSE, the two premier technology associations in higher education.
Prior to accepting this position, he was senior vice president for academic planning and administrative affairs at Brown University. Before going to Brown, Hawkins was associate vice president for academic affairs at Drexel University.
He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Michigan State University and his doctorate degree from Purdue University.
Hawkins has served as a consultant to more than 350 organizations, combining his academic and business experience. Hawkins has written extensively, including three books, many articles, book chapters and monographs in the area of information resources, academic planning, and the use of technology in higher education. His most recent book, which he co-authored with Patrician Battin, is titled "The Mirage of Continuity: Reconfiguring Academic Information Resources in the 21st Century."
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Technology & Assessing for Teaching & Learning Transformation: Lessons Learned
Gary Brown, Ph.D.
In his presentation, "Technology & Assessing for Teaching & Learning Transformation: Lessons Learned", Gary Brown will describe a variety of technology and assessment efforts that have failed, failed spectacularly, and that have succeeded and continue to succeed in transforming teaching and learning and communicating those efforts with various constituencies. Drawing from those experiences, principles have been drawn and implemented in a larger effort to create a method for assessing (and guiding) innovation implementation and assessment as well as revisiting faculty rewards.
Gary Brown, director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology at Washington State University, has written and presented extensively on undergraduate learning, assessment, and technology.
He pioneered the Funds for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education funded critical thinking project, and, in collaboration with the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, Coalition for Networked Institutions, and the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group, the Transformative Assessment Project. He has worked with a variety of professional associations on the assessment of the costs and outcomes of educational technologies, and was the recipient in 2002 and 2003 of the National University Telecommunications Network award for best research on course design and faculty motivation for using technology to enhance instruction.
He is a National Learning Communities fellow and the assessment section editor for the "Technology Source." He is on the advisory board for the TLT Group and the Higher Education Knowledge and Technology Exchange (HEKATE). Dr. Brown directs the CTLT Silhouette Project, which serves Flashlight Online for the TLT-Group, and is currently a leader on the EDUCAUSE New Academy project. He also served on the Washington State Governor’s Task Force presaging the establishment of a statewide digital learning commons.
His current work includes the assessment of projects and activities to reflect institutional priorities, the impact and costs of course design, and students’ perceptions of the efficacy of various assessment strategies.
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Blending Stability and Agility
Diana Oblinger
Higher education faces a constant challenge to maintain
its historic stability while changing to meet current needs. This is particularly
true for teaching and learning. Not only has information technology provided
a range of new tools, but the current generation of learners bring different
attitudes and aptitudes to the learning environment.
This presentation looks at research about learning and learners and examines how today’s learners are different. Also explored is the role of information technology. Emerging models that might be relevant to educational institutions are described along with a set of steps institutions can take to improve their ability to sense and respond to change.
Diana Oblinger is the Executive Director of Higher Education for Microsoft Corporation. She provides strategic direction for higher education programs at Microsoft and works closely with customers on a variety of instructional technology issues. As a spokesperson for higher educational concerns, Oblinger speaks and writes on a range of higher education issues.
For the previous two years, Oblinger was a consultant and Senior Fellow for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research where she directed the development of Research Bulletins, a bi-weekly publication which synthesized current issues for college and university executives. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Adult and Community College Education at North Carolina State University.
Diana Oblinger also has served as the Vice President for Information Resources and the Chief Information Officer for the 16-campus University of North Carolina system. Oblinger was responsible for strategic planning and policy development for information technology as well as for collaborative programs in teaching and learning with technology, student services and IT procurement.
Over a 10 year period, Oblinger held a variety of management positions within IBM including academic programs and strategy executive, academic consulting, and was the IBM Director of the Institute for Academic Technology. Before joining IBM, Oblinger was on the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia and at Michigan State University. At the University of Missouri, she served as an academic dean and was recognized for her work in student recruitment, retention, faculty development and student computing.
Known for her leadership in teaching and learning with technology and distributed learning, she serves on boards such as the University of Texas TeleCampus and is on the Editorial Board of Open Learning. She is a member of the Board of Visitors for the Air University, the educational arm of the Air Force. Oblinger chairs the National Visiting Committee for the National Science Digital Library project for National Science Foundation. Diana Oblinger also has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Technology.
A frequent keynote speaker, Oblinger is the co-author of What Business Wants from Higher Education, which received the 1999 Frandson Award for best literature in continuing education. She is co-editor of five books, The Learning Revolution, The Future Compatible Campus, Renewing Administration, E is for Everything and Best Practices in Student Services as well as the author or co-author of more than two dozen monographs and articles on higher education and technology topics.
Diana Oblinger has received outstanding teaching and research awards and was named Young Alumnus of the Year by Iowa State University. She holds three degrees from Iowa State University: a B.S. in Botany, an M.S. in Plant Breeding and a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Cytogenetics. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Xi.