What do Newer Generation Faculty
Want from IT Services?
Presentation Author, 2006
Bruce Maas, CIO
Michael Zimmer, Assistant Professor
UWM At a Glance
Enrollment
30,400
Undergraduate 25,400
Masters/Doctoral 5,000
Faculty/Staff
3,455
Central IT staff
140
IT student staff
175
Schools & Colleges
14
Programs:
Undergraduate
Masters
Doctoral
Maas & Zimmer
84
48
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2
A Need for Beginning Dialogue?
• Question: Multiple generations have
always been represented in higher
education, so why the focus on newer
generations now?
• Answer: We are at the nexus of
multiple transformative changes in
higher education. Poor communication
creates much greater risks during
periods of transformative change.
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And They are not Waiting for us
• They are finding tools that respond to their
needs.
• Sometimes this is good, and sometimes
this is bad. Depends…
• They do not ask permission
• They have little patience
• They are zeroed in on learning outcomes
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Why we need to pay attention to
recent generation faculty
• Legacy strategies based on “boomer”
preferences may not work
• Mismatch in communication styles
• “Official” campus tools lag behind
cloud and consumer services
• This also applies to “boomer” and
“early gen-x” innovators
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Why we need to pay attention to
recent generation faculty-Part 2
• Opinion leaders are different
• Bi-modal distribution for awhile
• Tighter connection in general to
learning styles/needs of students
• They do not presently have power, yet
that time is coming…
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Learning from our mis-steps
• Example of automated twitter status
feed not updating
• #FAIL not exactly like getting limited
distribution feedback.
• Audience is wider given social media
expression: Twitter, blog posts.
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We’ll soon be outnumbered
• Instructors at UW–Milwaukee:
• ~ 61% Baby Boomers and older
• ~ 38% Generation X
• ~ 1% Generation Y
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Michael Zimmer
Wordpress
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Delicious
Assistant Professor
School of Information Studies
University of Wisconsin–
Milwaukee
Librarything
RSS feed
Campus email
Campus website
http://michaelzimmer.org
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• Instructional Technology
• General Productivity & Communication
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Instructional Technology
• Learning Management Systems can
help meet faculty (and student)
expectations for IT in the classroom
– Digital content delivery
– Supplemental links
– Online grades, discussions
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Instructional Technology
• Desire2Learn @ UWM
– Learning Technology Center
provides excellent tutorials/support
– System is stable, competent
– Provides some flexibility, basic
analytics, archiving, etc
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Instructional Technology
• But tech-savvy faculty (and students)
also want
– Flexibility (customizable, modular,
widget-driven)
– Open platforms; browser neutral
– User experience (Ajax, CSS)
– Integration (PantherLink, external
chat, social media, etc)
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Instructional Technology
• Compelled to integrate other
technologies into the classroom to
supplement D2L:
– Tumblr
– Skype
– Camtasia
• Unavoidable?
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General Productivity &
Communication
• Expectations include
– Stability, with prompt, frequent and
informative communication during
downtime
– Flexibility
– Usability
– Openness
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General Productivity &
Communication
• Email/Calendar
• File Storage
• Web Publishing/Presence
• Collaborative Platforms
• Video Conferencing / Chat
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General Productivity &
Communication
• Email/Calendar
– PantherLink is good, but many
prefer access via native apps
– Need to ensure compatibility,
portability
• File Storage
– PantherFile is good, but prefer to
load as local drive
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General Productivity &
Communication
• File Storage
– PantherFile/Xythos is acceptable,
but clunky
– Need integration with OS, email,
D2L, etc
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General Productivity &
Communication
• Web Publishing/Presence
– I don’t even know if we get official
web space as faculty; Most keep
outside websites
– Need easy, plug-n-play solutions to
create research-based websites
– Current CMS appears limited
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General Productivity &
Communication
• Collaborative Platforms
– Need native services to foster
research (and student) collaboration
– PantherList provides good service
– Wiki within PantherFile is clunky
(and almost no one knows its there)
– Most resort to GoogleDocs
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General Productivity &
Communication
• Video Conferencing / Chat
– For research collaboration, online
instruction, etc
– At SOIS we invested in video
conferencing infrastructure
– PantherLink-native chat is coming
(?), but will it be based on open
standards and accessible from
other clients?
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General Productivity &
Communication
• Expected communication channels
– Students
– Faculty Colleagues
– IT Department
– Campus Administration
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