Ms. Sankar said her biggest challenge is convincing professors that they can use a technology tool that is not officially endorsed by their colleges. She intentionally does not seek out deals with campus technology offices because she feels that what type of tool to use should be left up to individual faculty members. That’s a shift that could change the way technology is supported on campuses.
Students Endlessly E-Mail Professors for Help. A New Service Hopes to Organize the Answers.
Temple University has just been ranked one of the top 100 places to work in IT. This year we were ranked number 72 on the list. The full list of companies can be viewed at Computerworld’s report on Best Places to Work in IT. This is the second consecutive year that Temple University has been ranked.
Here’s the brief snapshot of Temple University as obtained from Computerworld:
Total employees: 5,433
Total IT employees: 242
IT employee turnover in 2005: 4.5%
IT employee promotions in 2005: 5.0%
Training days offered per IT employee in 2005: 5
Training budget per IT employee in 2005: $1,500
Percentage of IT managers who are women: 33%
Percentage of IT managers who are minorities: 29%
Percentage of IT staff who are women: 29%
Percentage of IT staff who are minorities: 39%
What’s special
This Philadelphia university enrolls more than 34,000 students and has 17 schools and colleges. Recent technology initiatives include the development of identity management, data warehousing and disaster recovery systems as well as a tool for tracking research projects. IT workers also received enhanced training in Oracle, Linux and Microsoft software. Temple offers family tuition benefits, including full undergraduate tuition for dependent children, access to health club facilities and participation in a full range of university programs. The IT group has its own internal training department that provides courses to help individuals develop in their chosen areas of expertise. Recently, 14 IT staffers completed TCP/IP training and 40 completed project management training.
I’ve been meaning to blog about ‘The Clueless Manifesto‘ but have been putting it off for a while. If you haven’t read the article I highly recommend it, not only for more tips on creating passionate users but also because of the humility you’ll experience. In one of my marketing classes I had written a paper about how an educational institution could create passionate alumni by changing the way students were treated while they were at the instituion. My paper highlighted elements such as customer satisfaction and customer relationship manament as key foundations for a more passionate alumni body. However, after reading The Clueless Manifesto I think I missed one of the most important elements. How do you identify the most passionate alums while he or she is still a student? Can every single student become a passionate alum?
The Clueless Manifesto talks about creating passionate users by encouraging the people who see things differently, the same people who are not fond of established rules and yet because of their power to change, their presence cannot be ignored. Kathy Sierra says, ‘Do not underestimate the clueless ones’, yet can this same thinking be applied in an educational environment to create passionate alumni?
Â
Laura Turner has written an excellent article on technology skills that people should now have if they plan on working in the education industry. The article, 20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have, is a great read but realistically can you imagine the amount of resistance an educational institution would face when trying to implement a process to standardize or review technology skill sets? Furthermore, aside from technology skills, most people would probably argue that interpersonal and administrative skills should also be benchmarked and evaluated. One argument that supports the article is that most higher education institutions are graduating students with the same skills listed below, and so it makes logical sense to ensure that the people with whom the students interact with are at least exposed to the skills. Nevertheless, do you think that the 20 basic technology skills listed below are a good collection of what an educator should have?
- Word Processing Skills
- Spreadsheets Skills
- Database Skills
- Electronic Presentation Skills
- Web Navigation Skills
- Web Site Design Skills
- E-Mail Management Skills
- Digital Cameras
- Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to your School System
- File Management & Windows Explorer Skills
- Downloading Software From the Web (Knowledge including eBooks)
- Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System
- WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills
- Videoconferencing skills
- Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)
- Scanner Knowledge
- Knowledge of PDAs
- Deep Web Knowledge
- Educational Copyright Knowledge
- Computer Security Knowledge
Related Links:
T.H.E Journal (Technology Horizons in Education Journal)
Ever been in a situation where you’ve wanted to undo or cancel a message from being sent? According to the Crimson White, a newspaper serving the University of Alabama, a recent email was sent out to more than 21,000 students indicating that they were not eligible to take certain courses this semester. The message however was only meant to go out to 208 students. Can you imagine how many calls or emails the support staff at the University would have received regarding this errant message?
Related Links: