Why IT Matters to Higher Education
EDUCAUSMARCH/APRIL 2017 E
Transforming Our Libraries from Analog to Digital: A 2020 Vision Brewster Kahle THE Back to the Future of BLOCKCHAIN Edtech: A Meditation John O’Brien REVOLUTION & HIGHER EDUCATION Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott
PLUS: Out of the Black Box Safiya U. Noble and Sarah T. Roberts Making higher ed amazing
Personalized software and services for your unique institution. Learn why Jenzabar is chosen more often than any other student information system.* jenzabar.com/educause
©2017 Jenzabar, Inc. All rights reserved. Jenzabar® is a registered trademark of Jenzabar, Inc. The Jenzabar logo is a trademark of Jenzabar, Inc. *Based on total new institution sales of higher education student information systems during the 2009 – 2015 period. Why IT Matters to Higher Education ▲ Finding the Future in the Past EDUCAUSr e vıeEw ▼ MARCH/APRIL 2017 VOLUME 52, NUMBER 2 FEATURES 10 10 The Blockchain Revolution and Higher Education Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott The blockchain provides a rich, secure, and transparent platform on which to create a global network for higher learning. This Internet of value can help to reinvent higher education in a way the Internet of information alone could not.
26 Transforming Our Libraries from Analog to Digital: A 2020 Vision Brewster Kahle By 2020, we can build a collaborative digital library collection and circulation system in which thousands of libraries unlock their analog collections for a new generation of learners, enabling free, long-term, public access to knowledge. 26
38 Back to the Future of Edtech: A Meditation John O’Brien Fascinating “paleofuture” edtech artifacts illuminate both the past and the present—and offer insights into how we might think about the future of educational technology as well. 38
er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 1 Why IT Matters to Higher Education
EDUCAUSr e vıewE MARCH/APRIL 2017 VOLUME 52, NUMBER 2 PUBLISHER/EDITOR COLUMNS D. Teddy Diggs
ADVERTISING 04 Homepage The Townsend Group [From the President] DESIGN AND PRODUCTION The Future of EDUCAUSE: Expanded IMAGINATION Jeff Kibler, Art Director Partnerships and Collaboration Connie Otto, Project Manager John O’Brien
COLUMN EDITORS Connections: Community College Insights Bret Ingerman, Vice President for Information Technology 08 Leadership Tallahassee Community College [Views from the Top] E-Content: All Things Digital The Human Element: 8 Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Professor, Coordinator for Information Literacy Services and Instruction, Faculty Collaboration in an University Library University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Increasingly Digital World Trenda Boyum-Breen New Horizons: The Technologies Ahead Michael Caulfield, Director of Blended and Networked Learning Washington State University Connections Viewpoints: Today’s Hot Topics 54 Klara Jelinkova, Vice President for IT [Community College Insights] and Chief Information Officer Rice University Mission Driven, Common Challenges EDUCAUSE EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Sasha Thackaberry John O’Brien, President and CEO Joanne Dehoney, Vice President, Planning 54 and Partnerships Susan Grajek, Vice President, Communities and Research 56 E-Content Thad Lurie, Chief Operating Officer 56 Stacy Ruwe, Vice President of Business Services [All Things Digital] and CFO Out of the Black Box Safiya U. Noble and Sarah T. Roberts
EDUCAUSE Review is the general-interest, bimonthly magazine published by EDUCAUSE. With a print publication base of 22,000, EDUCAUSE Review is sent to EDUCAUSE member representatives as well as to presidents/chancellors, senior academic and administrative leaders, non-IT staff, faculty in all disciplines, librarians, and 58 New Horizons corporations. It takes a broad look at current developments and trends in information technology, what these mean for higher [The Technologies Ahead] education, and how they may affect the college/university as a whole. Teaching Students to Marshal EDUCAUSE and EDUCAUSE Review are registered trademarks. Copyright © 2017 by EDUCAUSE. Materials may be photocopied for Evidence and Evaluate Claims noncommercial use without written permission provided appropriate Jon Udell credit is given to both EDUCAUSE Review and the author(s). Permission to republish must be sought in writing (contact editor@ educause.edu). Statements of fact or opinion are made on the responsibility of the authors alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors, staff, or members. For more information about copyright, see
2 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 Better lecture capture? Or better video management?
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TM The leading video platform 855.726.6786 for higher education panopto.com/educause HOMEPAGE [From the President]
By JOHN O’BRIEN
The Future of EDUCAUSE: Expanded Partnerships and Collaboration
an we find our future in the past? The March/April 2017 issue of EDUCAUSE Review occupies the intersection between the past and the future. Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, the authors of Blockchain Revolution, consider the much discussed but less understood topic of blockchain technology, particularly its potential to deliver real value for higher education as it gives us the opportunity to build on the past and look Cto the future. Likewise Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, grounds his discussion in broad historical understanding as he proposes a plan to transform physical libraries into digital libraries and unlock analog collections, making them available to millions around the world. Finally, I offer a meditation that blurs seemingly simple terms like past, present, and future, concentrating on current insights to be gleaned from past imaginings of our edtech future. EDUCAUSE itself sets off into the future focused on our three strategic priorities: (1) personalized member experience; (2) reimagined professional Over the five-year learning; and (3) expanded partnerships and collaboration. In this Homepage period covered in column, I’d like to suggest some ideas behind the third priority—expanded partnerships and collaboration—noting that internal EDUCAUSE working our strategic plan, groups are doing the same and preparing to report to the EDUCAUSE Board EDUCAUSE will in March. work to promote Over the five-year period covered in our strategic plan, EDUCAUSE will work to promote stronger, more collaborative relationships between IT leaders stronger, more and other senior campus leaders. As technology solutions extend across collaborative campus and IT risks intensify, it’s crucial to make connections and elevate relationships the strategic role of information technology and also of IT leaders. With this in mind, EDUCAUSE will work at two levels. On the ground, we will expand between IT access to resources that help our members connect the dots on campus and leaders and other tell the IT story effectively. Beginning in July, we will be able to do that even senior campus better when our new membership model opens up ELI and ECAR resources to all members. We also will begin to offer even more practical, action-oriented leaders. resources like the toolkits that have proved so effective for our information security and iPASS (Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success) initiatives, where success depends on reaching beyond IT circles.1 I also imagine more concrete tools like EDUCAUSE infographics to help explain complex technologies and technology concepts to leaders with other areas of expertise. We’ll know that we have succeeded when senior campus leaders, not just CIOs, have better frameworks for evaluating IT opportunities, understand how their institutions can improve efficiency and effectiveness through technology, and see the IT organization as a strategic partner, not a utility. Conversely, success here also means that IT leaders will have a better understanding of other stakeholders and the realities of their strategic domains. Hand-in-hand with the important ground-level efforts on campus, we will also reenergize our efforts to make and expand connections with academic leaders, business officers, and others at the association level. Without a doubt, there are many current best practices on which we can build. For example, for the past three years we’ve brought IT leaders and chief finance and business officers together at our Enterprise IT Summit, cosponsored by EDUCAUSE and NACUBO, the (continued on page 6)
4 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 INSTALLATION HIGHLIGHTS
Pictured is the Active Learning Classroom in the brand new wing of the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. CCI worked closely with the architect and on-site University staff in providing the exact Collaborative Table arrangement that fit the department’s needs.
Rutgers University-New Brunswick introduced three new active learning classrooms in 2016 – two 90 seat classrooms in their new Academic Building on the College Avenue Campus and one 54 seat classroom in Tillett Hall on their Livingston Campus. All three classrooms have utilized our 9 seat Active Learning Cluster design which have been integrated with the University’s latest technology allowing students to work together in groups.
An “Introductory Physics” classroom at Miami University – Oxford, Ohio utilizing the SCALE-UP model for an interactive environment. One of two new 99 seat classrooms.
(281) 535-2288 | www.computercomforts.com HOMEPAGE [From the President]
(continued from page 4)
national association for business officers. And for over ten years, EDUCAUSE has partnered with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the University of Central Florida to deliver a summer leadership program that has helped hundreds of campus leaders innovate for student success. In the same vein, we’ve worked with the American Council on Education (ACE) for many years, closely collaborating on various policy matters. We will continue to develop, expand, and replicate these efforts. We have already begun to meet with other national and international associations and organizations to share our plans and get ideas for future partnerships. For my part, I will be actively seeking opportunities to tell the story of information technology to non-IT audiences. In the next two months, for example, I’ll be speaking (twice) to presidents and trustees at the annual conference of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, the League for Innovation in the Community College’s national conference, and several other national At a broader and international conferences that bring together IT professionals and other campus leaders. level, we will On yet a third level, partnerships and collaborations can also arise from seek these within our community, such as with our corporate members. In 2016 we opportunities created the Corporate Membership Advisory Committee to explore creative approaches to collaboration, convinced that traditional activities like because we corporate sponsorships are not the only way of working together for the know that our benefit of our community. At the EDUCAUSE annual conference in October future depends 2016, we enjoyed the first fruits of this effort at the Pitch IT! Challenge, where campus leaders pitched corporate partners with ideas for products they would on staying fresh like to see, in marked contrast to the traditional approach in which vendors and open to new build products that they hope higher education leaders will buy. ideas that reflect Certainly EDUCAUSE will explore partnerships and collaborations that advance the specific work we do, and at a broader level we will seek the rich diversity opportunities such as those I’ve mentioned because we know that our future of our community. depends on staying fresh and open to new ideas that reflect the rich diversity of our community. Embedded within our three strategic priorities is a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with considerable work planned for 2017. With the help of a grant from the Hewlett Foundation and our own funding, we are investing in our ability to promote DEI, engaging the association in a self-study of its own culture of DEI and helping the larger community do the same. One high-priority example is gender diversity, with the recent study from Accenture and Girls Who Code predicting that representation of women in computing will decline from 24 percent today (already unacceptable) to 22 percent by 2025.2 When it comes to diversity of all kinds, equity, and inclusiveness, we will work hard in 2017 and beyond to make a positive difference. EDUCAUSE is on the move. I’d love to hear your ideas, reactions, concerns, stories, and insights as we work to expand partnerships and collaboration within and beyond our community.
Notes 1. The Higher Education Information Security Council (HEISC) produces the Information Security Guide: Effective Practices and Solutions for Higher Education, a community-created resource of toolkits and other practical resources to assist campuses in implementing effective information security programs. The EDUCAUSE iPASS hub aggregates practical resources for those getting started with this highly effective approach to promoting student success. 2. Accenture and Girls Who Code, “Cracking the Gender Code” (website), accessed January 27, 2017.
John O’Brien ([email protected]) is President and CEO of EDUCAUSE.
© 2017 John O’Brien. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
6 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 Smarter campuses. Orchestrated by CDW. Technology connects students. IT Orchestration by CDW™ brings the right technology, experts and partners together to create a unique learning environment that makes education more collaborative than ever. Whether it’s planning for success, building seamless solutions, or managing printers, networks and devices, learn how we’re helping educational institutions all over the country build world-class learning experiences. CDWG.com/HiEd
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5718 Educause MKT17401_HPE.indd 1 2/10/17 3:05 PM LEADERSHIP [Views from the Top]
The Human Element: Faculty Collaboration in an Increasingly Digital World
ike most technologies, Web 2.0 learning tools can munity of learners irrespective of the space in which they teach? connect or divide us. The path we choose depends How do we foster the human presence that makes all of this pos- on how we understand and use the tools. Since sible? How do we use our technology to connect everyone—not ancient times, technological advances have stoked just students to educators? And in the context of digital fluency, fears (among some) that our humanism will erode how do we ensure that faculty are prepared for today’s learners? Lwhen new technologies grab hold of how we interact. No less Most of Rasmussen College’s courses, programs, and fac- a scholar than Socrates warned us that writing words down on ulty are online. Many of our students are first-generation adult parchment would kill our memories. Conversely, technologi- learners who belong to the “digital native” generation, though cal advances have also been seen as life-giving and nourishing, not all grew up with full digital access. Since 2013, Rasmussen particularly by early indigenous populations who innovated to College, which has a number of campuses across several states, advance agriculture and irrigation. This fundamental separa- has brought together our faculty for an annual symposium that tion—whether technology is bringing us together or pulling us explores major themes facing our classrooms. Themes have apart—is alive in the 21st century, including within U.S. higher included the digital divide, prioritizing the human element in education. Students and faculty are the most impacted. online classrooms, wonderment and creativity, and design think- Here are the challenges that face our faculty today: ing. These symposia were initially held in person but now use campus-based telepresence technology to n Students who have access to smartphones College and allow faculty participants, generally number- and high-speed Internet may be distracted university leaders ing from 400 to 500 each year, to collaborate by a bombardment of quick and often shal- and learn synchronously despite the distance. low information. must invest in Our first symposium explored the digital n Students who do not have access could fall and use Web 2.0 divide. In my opening remarks, I urged all behind through no fault of their ability to technologies to academic affairs professionals at the college learn. introduce the to commit to ensuring that our students have n Faculty expectations and practices are access to the tools and infrastructure needed changing at many institutions because human element in to flourish in a 21st-century knowledge Web 2.0 learning technologies are con- order to benefit economy—an era in which the most fortunate tinuously evolving. both students and of us walk around with much of the planet’s faculty. information in our pockets. It is our obligation With too little technology, we risk losing to help students gain access to digital learning our edge. With too much technology, faculty resources and to help them learn the skills to be can feel like Sisyphus with a boulder in one hand and a tablet digitally fluent. If our students don’t have this access at home, we in the other. But the technology in which colleges and universi- can and must provide these resources at our various campuses. ties invest, usually with an eye on the student experience, need Faculty embraced this goal with an enthusiasm beyond what I not be limited to improving classroom learning. This gets at the expected. Today, most Rasmussen College students have at least crux of what is next for many faculty as well. Adult learners are one online course within their academic schedules, and most adapting to an increasingly digital world. Generation Z and Mil- of those courses utilize digital content and weekly synchronous lennial students were born into it. Digital content, open-source web collaboration. Rasmussen College even adopted “Digital Flu- materials, and online and blended learning are opening doors ency” as one of our institutional learning outcomes.1 to exciting and sometimes daunting spaces in higher education. Throughout the subsequent years, I learned that faculty But they also leave many wondering about the role of the human embrace high-tech learning tools such as campus telepresence element and our needs for authentic interaction, a sense of and webinar platforms not only to connect with students but also belonging, and being cared for on a personal level. to connect with each other. An example is Carly Hearn, a writing In light of all of this, how can those of us who are leaders in and communications faculty member for Rasmussen College. higher education show our students and faculty we care about At the 2015 symposium and using telepresence, she presented them as people? How do we make them feel they belong to a com- a session to faculty on the importance of having in-field and
8 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 By TRENDA BOYUM-BREEN
ties, and as our footprints move beyond brick-and-mortar campuses, can our tech- nology also connect faculty to each other in ways that form rich relationships? And how can we expose our faculty to technol- ogy and support them in developing digital expertise? Colleagues who have suffered through meetings with me know that I often start by asking about family, hobbies, or a recent vacation before we get to the work at hand. In turn, I build trust by sharing those parts of myself that are relatable. I try my best to be intentional about living out loud and sharing stories that reveal my authentic self. I do this because I care about my colleagues as individuals and I want to give them permission to enter into a deeper conversation with me and those around us. I am also aware that this level of inquiry and caring is much easier when we’re standing right next to each other. But as Hearn taught us, technology can help us foster meaningful long-distance relation- ships across our systems—even across states and countries. It is essential that our faculty remain connected and able to consistently engage in rich academic exploration both with their Steve McCracken © 2017 students and with their faculty peers. Technol- ogy must facilitate that connection, not general education coursework coexist within the curriculum. hinder it. To that end, I offer a call to action: college and uni- She said that technology has been effective in creating long- versity leaders must invest in and use Web 2.0 technologies to distance, meaningful relationships: “I can say I have friends and benefit both students and faculty. Effective training must be part colleagues across the country—from Florida to Minnesota—that of this equation, so that faculty are not left alone to determine I truly care about. It started out with phone calls. Now we can see the value these tools may offer. These steps will allow our educa- each other.” This sentiment, which I heard repeatedly from other tors to collaborate with purpose, meaning, and inquiry. We are faculty, led me to realize that Rasmussen College’s emphasis on obligated beyond email, online forums, and other asynchronous “the human element” in a world of online learning must apply platforms. Let us see faces, share anecdotes, joke and laugh, both to student learning and to faculty collaboration. ask big questions aloud, listen to the answers, and embrace the We know the benefits that a human presence in the classroom human element. Even when we connect online. n can have on student learning and long-term success. A poll from Notes Gallup and Purdue University found that college graduates are 1. See the Rasmussen College “Digital Fluency” web page, July 29, 2016. nearly two times more likely to be engaged at work—and to be 2. Julie Ray and Stephanie Kafka, “Life in College Matters for Life after College,” thriving in all areas of well-being after graduating—if they recalled Gallup website, May 6, 2014. 2 3. See Ortrun Dorothea Zuber-Skerritt, “Action Learning and Action Research: having a college instructor who cared about them as a person. Paradigm, Praxis and Programs,” in Shankar Sankaran, Bob Dick, Ronn This data suggests that caring counts when it comes to helping Passfield, and Pam Swepson, eds., Effective Change Management Using Action our students have meaningful lives and careers. Learning and Action Research: Concepts, Frameworks, Processes, Applications (Lismore, We also know the benefits that faculty collaboration can have Australia: Southern Cross University Press, 2001). 3 on online course development, learning, and teaching. The Trenda Boyum-Breen ([email protected]) is President of amount of research done specifically around online collabora- Rasmussen College. tion, however, is limited. It begs the question: As online learning © 2017 Trenda Boyum-Breen. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative and Web 2.0 tools are employed by more colleges and universi- Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 9 & Higher Education
ILLUSTRATION BY ANN CUTTING, © 2017 ▲ Finding the Future in the Past ▼ THE BLOCKCHAIN REVOLUTION & Higher Education
Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott
hat will be the most important technology to change higher education? In our view, it’s not big data, the social web, MOOCs, virtual reality,W or even artificial intelligence. We see these as components of something new, all enabled and transformed by an emerging technology called the blockchain. OK, it’s not the most sonorous word ever, sounding more like a college football strategy than a transformative technology. Yet, sonorous or not, the blockchain represents nothing less than the second generation of the Internet, and it holds the potential to disrupt money, business, government, and yes, higher education.
er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 11 The Blockchain Revolution and Higher Education
The opportunities for innovators in Overall, they do a pretty good job—but peer-to-peer platform for identity, trust, higher education fall into four categories: there are limitations. They use central- reputation, and transactions, we will be ized servers, which can be hacked. They able to reengineer deep structures of the n Identity and Student Records: How we take a piece of the value for performing firm, for innovation and shared value identify students; protect their pri- this service—say, 10 percent to send some creation. We’re talking about building vacy; measure, record, and credential money internationally. They capture our 21st-century companies that look more their accomplishments; and keep data, not just preventing us from using like networks than the vertically inte- these records secure it for our own benefit but often under- grated hierarchies of the Industrial Age. n New Pedagogy: How we customize mining our privacy. These intermediar- The whole financial services industry is teaching to each student and create ies are sometimes unreliable and often already being reinvented by the block- new models of learning slow. They exclude two billion people chain, and others will soon follow. How n Costs (Student Debt): How we value and who don’t have enough money to justify well does today’s college or university fund education and reward students a bank account, let alone an education. prepare students for such a future? for the quality of their work Most problematic, they are capturing the How about the Internet of Things? n The Meta-University: How we design benefits of the digital age asymmetrically. In the not-too-distant future, billions of entirely new models of higher edu- What if there was an Internet of smart things in the physical world will cation so that former MIT President value—a global, distributed, highly secure be sensing, responding, communicating, Chuck Vest’s dream can become a platform, ledger, or database where we sharing important data, and generating, reality1 could store and exchange things of value buying, and selling their own electricity, and where we could trust each other The blockchain may help us change without powerful intermediaries? That the relationships among colleges and is the blockchain. Collective self-interest, universities and, in turn, their relation- hard-coded into this new native digital ship to society. medium for value, would ensure Let us explain. the safety, security, and reliability of our exchanges online. Trust is What Is the programmed into the technology, Blockchain Revolution? which is why we call blockchain The Internet today connects billions of the Trust Protocol. people around the world, and certainly Why should you care? Maybe it’s great for communicating and collab- you’re a music professor who orating online. But because it’s built for wants artists to make a living off moving and storing information rather their art. Perhaps you’re an immi- than value, it has done little to change grant who is sick of paying big fees to how we do business. When professors send money home so that your children send their students information such as can go to college in your ancestral land. an e-mail, lecture notes, a PowerPoint Or maybe you’re a parent fed up with the presentation, or an audio recording of lack of transparency and accountability doing everything from protecting our a lecture, they’re really sending a copy, of the politicians and political appoin- environment to managing our health. It not the original. It’s OK (and indeed tees responsible for higher education turns out that this Internet of Everything advantageous) for people to print a copy in your state. Or perhaps you’re a social will need a Ledger of Everything. of their PowerPoint file, but it’s not OK media user who thinks all the data you One of the biggest opportunities of to print, say, money or diplomas. So generate might be worth something—to the blockchain is to free us from the grip with the Internet of information, we you—and that your privacy matters. of a troubling prosperity paradox. The have to rely on powerful intermediaries Even as we write, innovators are building economy is growing, but fewer people to exchange things of value. Govern- blockchain-based applications that serve are benefiting. Rather than trying to solve ments, banks, digital platforms (e.g., these ends. And these apps are just the the problem of growing social inequal- Amazon, eBay, and AirBnB), and col- beginning. ity through redistribution alone, we can leges and universities do the work of It turns out that every business, change how wealth—and opportunity—is establishing our identity, vouching for institution, government, and individual predistributed in the first place, as people our trustworthiness, and helping us to can benefit in profound ways. How everywhere, from farmers to musicians, acquire and transfer assets and settle the about the corporation, a pillar of mod- can use this technology to share more transactions. ern capitalism? With the rise of a global fully in the wealth they create.
12 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 SECURITY CHALLENGES ARE GROWING!
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Blockchain, Identity, PKI is an advanced form of asymmetric tives such as OpenBadges (https://open and Student Records cryptography, where users get two keys badges.org/), Blockchain Certificates “Today you need an organization with that don’t perform the same function: (http://www.blockcerts.org/), and Learn- endowed rights to provide you with one is for encryption and the other for ing Is Earning 2026 (http://www.learning an identity,” said Carlos Moreira of decryption. Hence, they are asymmetric. isearning2026.org/) are exploring ways WISeKey.2 This process of identification The Bitcoin blockchain is now the largest to reward students with credentials for usually begins with a birth certificate civilian deployment of PKI in the world, everything they learn, no matter the set- issued by a state-licensed medical profes- second overall to the U.S. Department ting. If a parent teaches his or her child sional. From that day forward, the baby of Defense common access system.5 how to change the oil in a car, that counts begins to accumulate personal data, Sony Global Education has adapted this (and the parent gets teaching credit). If a which will include academic achieve- technology into what it is calling an open student learns a new skill at work, or ments in analog form. data exchange protocol, through which has to collaborate to finish a task, or is The first challenge is to maintain two parties anywhere in the world can managing others, that goes on the learn- the privacy and security of data stored securely share official academic records.6 ing transcript too. The MIT Media Lab digitally by those academically accred- But without the exact two keys, a hacker started hashing digital certificates onto ited institutions. In 2013, the Education cannot access the data. the blockchain to permanently denote Advisory Board (EAB) published a list of A second challenge to address is membership and to reward community 157 strategies for collecting data about validity. At a time when information is members for their valuable contribu- students and alumni abundant, fleeting, tions to the lab’s work.10 Students are for colleges and uni- As long as society values and mutable, being not getting just a grade; they are getting versities to exploit in able to verify a job a credential, which they can put to use fundraising efforts, existing credentials, prospect’s claims is immediately on the job market. and institutions have and students will pay becoming increas- become good at doing to get those credentials ingly important to Blockchain and the New Pedagogy so.3 When it comes employers. According As long as society—or at least today’s to protecting these at recognized institutions to CareerBuilder, 57 employers, including governments—val- data, however, col- of higher education, percent of job appli- ues existing credentials, and students leges and universi- then the college/university cants have embel- will pay to get those credentials at rec- ties are no less vul- lished their skill set, ognized institutions of higher education nerable than other will remain a gatekeeper and 33 percent have rather than pursue alternatives, then large organizations. to opportunity. lied about their aca- the college/university will remain a gate- The University of demic degree.7 Not keeper to opportunity. California–Berkeley, Ohio State surprising, employers are wanting to But the credential and even the pres- University, the University of Wisconsin– see official college transcripts. However, tige of a higher education institution are Milwaukee, and Kirkwood Community when it comes to processing requests, rooted in its effectiveness as a learning College were among those hacked in universities often charge transaction institution. If colleges and universities recent years. Yale University acciden- fees. At MIT, for example, “the base cost become seen as places where learning tally published confidential information for a transcript is $8.00” with a $2.00 is inferior to other models or, worse, online, and Indiana University hosted handling charge for each transcript as places where learning is restricted such data on an unprotected site. The ordered online.8 Sony’s solution could and stifled, then the role of the campus University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics, make the transfer of such information experience and the credential itself will Stanford University, and the University quick and comparatively cost-free. be undermined. Attending a college or of Miami stored data on laptops or data Imagine how such a system could university is too costly to be simply an tapes that were later stolen.4 benefit, say, refugees who were seeking extended summer camp. The blockchain can be programmed to continue their education or find a job Campuses that embrace the new to record virtually everything of value in a new country. models become more effective learning and importance to humankind, starting A third issue is time. In the United environments and more desirable places. with birth certificates and moving on to States, only 25 percent of students attend Computer-based learning, for instance, educational transcripts, social security college full-time at residential campuses. can free up intellectual capital—on the cards, student loans, and anything else The rest are juggling work and family. part of both professors and students—to that can be expressed in code. The block- These part-time students take twice as spend their on-campus time thinking, chain uses public key infrastructure long to graduate, and only 25 percent inquiring, and challenging each other, (PKI) for establishing a secure platform. of them actually earn a degree.9 Initia- rather than just absorbing information.
14 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 Connect & Protect Helping secure education networks
Education has become the second leading target in cyber security attacks*— and it’s not hard to understand why: Education serves a diverse and highly susceptible population who connect to the network from a mix of devices.
AT&T offers a variety of network security solutions that are carrier-agnostic. Schools can take advantage of these services regardless of their network or Internet service provider.
Contact an AT&T Education Specialist to find out more. att.com/edu
*Gamer, Noah. “The most prominent cyber threats faced by high-target industries.” Trend Micro blog, Jan. 25, 2016.
©2017 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the Globe logo and Mobilizing Your World are trademarks and service marks of AT&T Intellectual Property. The Blockchain Revolution and Higher Education
If there is one thing that’s due for We also need to be clear on the pur- I spent half of them on a T-shirt. Going innovation in higher education, it’s the pose of higher education. It’s not about through that whole process, it felt almost model of pedagogy. To start with, big skills, and to a certain extent, it’s not even like working with the fundamental universities are still offering the broad- about knowledge. What counts these building blocks of society.” How many cast model of learning, in which the days is the capacity to learn throughout students have that experience in college? teacher is the broadcaster and the stu- life; to research, analyze, synthesize, By the end of that year, Buterin was dent is the supposedly willing recipient contextualize, and critically evaluate spending ten to twenty hours a week of the one-way message. It goes like this: information; to apply research in solv- writing for another publication, Bitcoin “I’m a professor, and I have knowledge. ing problems; and to collaborate and Magazine. “When I was about eight Get ready; here it comes. Your goal is communicate. months into university, I realized that to take this data into your short-term So how can blockchains help? Con- it had taken over my entire life, and I memory so that you can recall it to me sider the case, noted above, of Vitalik might as well let it take over my entire when I test you.” Buterin, the founder of the Ethereum life. Waterloo was a really good university The definition of a lecture has become blockchain. Like many teenagers, Buterin and I really liked the program. My drop- the process in which the notes of the “spent ridiculous amounts of time on the ping out was definitely not a case of the teacher go to the notes of the student Internet,” reading about different ideas university sucking. It was more a matter without going through the brains of that were heterodox, out of the main- of, ‘That was fun, and this is more fun.’ either. This is no longer appropriate for stream.11 Ask him which economists he It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the digital age and for a new generation likes, and he rattles off Tyler Cowen, Alex and I just basically couldn’t let it go.” He of students who represent the future of Tabarrok, Robin Hanson, and Bryan was only seventeen years old. learning. Young people want to converse Caplan. He can speak on the works of the Buterin is a natural-born leader, in when they learn. They like to share. game theorist Thomas Schelling and the that he pulls people along with his ideas Immersed in digital technology, they are behavioral economists Daniel Kahne- and his vision. Shouldn’t the university keen to try new things, often at high man and Dan Ariely. “It’s actually experience cultivate these assets rather speed. They want their edu- surprisingly useful how than get in the way of them? cation to be fun and inter- much you can learn for In 2011, the technology entrepreneur esting. So they should yourself by debating and investor Peter Thiel launched his enjoy the delight of ideas like politics two-year fellowship program for “young discovering things with other people people who want to build new things” for themselves. on forums. It’s a (http://thielfellowship.org/about/). It’s true that col- surprising educa- Thiel’s target audience consists of stu- leges and universi- tional experience dents who “skip or [drop] out of college ties are trying to all by itself,” he to receive a $100,000 grant and support update this broad- said. The topic of from the Thiel Foundation’s network of cast model—through bitcoin, he noted, founders, investors, and scientists.” The essays, hands-on labs, kept coming up. approach is similar to Buterin’s: students and even seminar discus- “I had all these differ- learn by working on something they sions. And of course, many ent interests, and somehow care about, such as clean water. Thus far, professors are working hard to bitcoin seemed like a perfect Thiel Fellows have started more than 60 move beyond this model. However, it convergence. It has this math. It has its companies with a combined value of $1.1 remains dominant overall. The profes- computer science. It has its cryptography. billion. Blockchains provide a platform sors who remain relevant will have to It has its economics. It has its political and for such collaboration, not just tracking abandon the traditional lecture and start social philosophy. It was this community people’s individual contributions but listening and conversing with the stu- that I was immediately drawn into,” he also rewarding them for results. dents. To begin, students could achieve said. “I found it really empowering.” He A good model for classroom col- the mastery of knowledge (anything went through the online forums, looked laboration is Consensus Systems where there is a right or wrong answer) for ways to own some bitcoin, and discov- (ConsenSys), one of the first Ethereum by working with interactive, self-paced ered a guy who was starting up a bitcoin software-development companies. It is computer learning programs outside the blog. “It was called Bitcoin Weekly, and he breaking new ground in management classroom, freeing students and faculty was offering people five bitcoins to write science along the lines of holacracy, a alike to spend class time on the things articles for him. That was around four collaborative rather than hierarchical that matter: discussion, debate, and col- dollars at the time,” Buterin said. “I wrote process for defining and aligning the laboration around projects. a few articles. I earned twenty bitcoins. work to be done. Among those holacratic
16 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 tenets are “dynamic roles rather than traditional job descriptions; distributed, not delegated authority; transparent How Blockchains Establish Trust rules rather than office politics; and rapid Digital assets—everything from money, stocks, bonds, and intellectual property to music, reiterations rather than big reorganiza- art, loyalty points, and student records—are not all stored in a central place: they’re tions,” all of which describe how block- distributed across a global ledger, using the highest level of cryptography. When a chain technologies work.12 How Consen- transaction is conducted, it’s posted globally, across millions of computers. Around the Sys is structured, how it creates value, world is a group of people called miners who have massive computing power at their and how it manages itself differs not only fingertips—10 to 100 times bigger than all of Google worldwide. Every 10 minutes, kind from the typical classroom but also from of like the heartbeat of a network, these miners assemble all the transactions from the the typical online course. previous 10 minutes into a block. Then the miners compete to solve a tough problem; For the most part, members of whoever solves the problem gets to validate the block and receives some digital ConsenSys choose two to five projects currency as a reward. In the case of the Bitcoin blockchain, the winner gets Bitcoin. to work on. No top-down assignments. Then that block is linked to the previous block and to the block before that to create There is no boss. Everyone owns a piece a chain of blocks. Every block is time-stamped, kind of like with a digital waxed seal. So of every project directly or indirectly: the if you wanted to hack a block and, say, send the same Bitcoin to several people, you’d Ethereum platform issues tokens that have to hack that block, plus all the preceding blocks, through the entire history of that members can exchange for Ether and Bitcoin on the blockchain—not just on one computer but across millions of computers, then convert into any other currency. simultaneously, all using the highest levels of encryption, in broad daylight. Tough to do. The goal is to achieve a balance between This is infinitely more secure than the computer systems that we use today. independence and interdependence. For The Bitcoin blockchain is just one of many. For example, the Ethereum blockchain the classroom, the watchwords are agil- was developed by a twenty-two-year-old Canadian named Vitalik Buterin. Ethereum has ity, openness, and consensus: identify what some extraordinary capabilities and tools. For example, it enables programmers to build needs to be learned, distribute the load smart contracts, agreements translated into lines of computer code that handle the among the students eager and able to do enforcement, management, performance, and payments of contracts between people. On it, agree on their roles, responsibilities, the Ethereum blockchain, there are projects to create a replacement for the stock market and rewards, and then codify these rights and a new model of democracy, where politicians are accountable to citizens. in smart contracts. Teachers and students alike would need training to participate in such a system. in-state tuition and fees ballooned by skills. “Why don’t we target financial aid 296 percent.13 Approximately 44 mil- toward personal development?” Swan Blockchain and Costs lion Americans owe a grand total of $1.3 said.15 It works like the microfunding (Student Debt) trillion in student loans. A member of organization Kiva, but Kiva for coding Many educators have a problem with the the Class of 2016 racked up, on average, classes rather than for entrepreneurial idea of education as big business, and yet $37,172 in debt.14 It’s no wonder that startups; everything would be super companies like Pearson and McGraw- cost of a college education was such a transparent, and students would be Hill make their fortunes by provid- hot issue in the 2016 U.S. presidential accountable for their progress. Donors— ing the classroom content, additional election. such as companies that need specific teacher training, classroom and school Melanie Swan is looking to the block- skills—could sponsor individual stu- administration systems, and the testing chain to tackle student debt head-on. dents, put money toward learning goals, content and platforms—the results of She is the founder of the Institute for and pay out according to achievement. which lead to credentials, not just of high Blockchain Studies. She has been work- Let’s say you wanted to support a female school diplomas and college entrance ing on MOOC accreditation and “pay student who lives in Nigeria and is going but of individual licensures and profes- for success” models on the blockchain. through Google’s Training for Android sional certifications. These companies The blockchain provides three elements developers (https://developer.android have considerable budgets for lobbying toward this goal: (1) a trustable proof-of- .com/training/). Every week this student federal and state legislators. truth mechanism to confirm that the stu- would need to provide proof of comple- Let’s look at the numbers. From dents who signed up for Coursera classes tion of a development module. Perhaps 1995 to 2015, the average tuition and actually completed them, took the tests, this is all automated through an online fees at private colleges and universi- and mastered the material; (2) a payment test where the blockchain confirms the ties increased 179 percent. Tuition and mechanism; and (3) smart contracts that student’s identity and records progress16 fees for out-of-state students at public could constitute learning plans. before disbursing the next week’s fund- universities jumped 226 percent, and Consider smart contracts for coding ing—into what we could call the student’s er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 17 The Blockchain Revolution and Higher Education
“smart wallet for higher education”—so connected from the practical concerns the communication infrastructure, and that the student could continue paying of everyday life. For cynics, it connotes a global open-access library of course for college courses without interference. a willful separation from the everyday materials would provide much of the This could all be accomplished without world; esoteric, overspecialized, or even knowledge and information infrastruc- a not-for-profit or government agency useless research; and academic elitism, ture. Dr. Vest argued that a noble and with administrative costs and the power if not outright condescension. If we set global endeavour of this scale would to change funding. “Money toward a aside some of these more negative asso- speed the propagation of high-quality girl’s education couldn’t be diverted to ciations, the ivory tower metaphor still education and give teachers and students her brother’s schooling,” Swan said. captures one of the key flaws in today’s everywhere the ability to access and The visionaries behind the Learn- system of higher learning: in a world of share teaching materials, scholarly pub- ing Is Earning initiative, such as Jane unprecedented connectivity, especially lications, and scientific works in progress McGonigal, in partnership with the among today’s youth, colleges and uni- and to participate in real-time science Institute for the Future (http://www.iftf versities continue to operate as largely experiments. .org) and the ACT Foundation (http:// autonomous islands of scholarship and However, without a means of asso- actfdn.org/), envision “teach it forward” learning and have thus far ciating students’ identities schemes in which students can pay down failed to use the Internet with their achievements, their student loans by teaching other stu- to break down the recording and cre- dents what they just learned or by apply- walls that divide dentialing these ing this new knowledge immediately in institutions, pro- achievements over the job market.17 They needn’t wait for a fessors, parents, time, rewarding degree to begin earning money. Employ- and students. constructive and ers—or other students or professors— The block- collaborative will be able to query the blockchain for chain will behavior in the people with the particular combination enable the community, and of skills and knowledge needed imme- 21st-century otherwise hold- diately on the job or in the classroom. institution of ing participants In other words, the blockchain will higher educa- accountable for help employers match projects with the tion to disaggre- deliverables, this proven capabilities of students available gate into a network Internet-only meta- for project work. Students will be able and an ecosystem—not university would still fall to link these earnings with a particular a tower. Indeed, innovators short of traditional educa- lecture or skill so that they can calculate have an enormous opportunity to tion. An average of only 15 percent the precise value of each element of their create an unparalleled educational expe- of students who sign up for MOOCs training and development. Likewise, rience for students globally by assem- complete them; free MOOCs are still human resources personnel will be able bling the world’s best learning materials considered supplemental to tuition- to calculate the return on their training online and enabling students to custom- based online courses from traditional and development investments. Employ- ize their learning path with support from colleges and universities.20 ers may even be willing to pay for a stu- a network of instructors and educational The blockchain provides a rich, dent’s entire education in exchange for a facilitators, some of whom may be local secure, and transparent platform on cut of the student’s future earnings. Aca- and some halfway around the globe. To which to create such a global network demic publishers may be willing to pay make this work for students, colleges for higher learning.21 We envision three for some of this tracking data to improve and universities will require deep struc- stages. The first is content exchange. their learning modules for all types of tural changes, and educators will need Professors share ideas and upload their learners, since they won’t have access to to embrace the partnerships. In 2006, teaching materials to the Internet for oth- it otherwise on the blockchain.18 MIT President Emeritus Vest offered a ers to use freely. The second is content tantalizing vision of what he called the co-innovation, where teachers collabo- The Blockchain and meta-university. In the open-access move- rate across institutional and disciplinary the Meta-University ment, he saw “a transcendent, accessible, boundaries to co-create new teaching The phrase ivory tower usually carries empowering, dynamic, communally con- materials using wikis and other tools. By pejorative connotations. From the 19th structed framework of open materials stage three, the college or university has century, it has been used to designate and platforms on which much of higher become a node in the global network of a world or atmosphere in which intel- education worldwide can be constructed faculty, students, and institutions learn- lectuals engage in pursuits that are dis- or enhanced.”19 The web would provide ing collaboratively. It still maintains its
18 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 duce m Pro ore.
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identity, campus, and brand. The global their own reputations and even to receive generally agreed-upon modules, and network for higher learning is not a material or financial benefit. Newcomers then subnetworks of like-minded teach- pipe dream. Leading scholars know that will be able to see not only the most used ers could develop ancillary elements. For higher education institutions and their content relevant to their studies but also the ultimate course, the teachers would faculties cannot continue to operate the most valued contributors. For-profit need more than course materials—they as islands, constantly reinventing the academic journal and textbook publish- would need course software allowing lecture. ers can participate in, rather than inter- students to interact with the content, mediate, value creation. supporting small-group discussions, Stage 1: Content Exchange enabling testing and scoring, and issuing The lowest level of collaborative knowl- Stage 2: Content Co-Innovation badges for completion. edge production is simple content The next level in collaborative knowl- If thousands of people can develop exchange: colleges and universities edge creation goes beyond discussing Linux (https://www.linuxfoundation post their educational materials online, and sharing ideas to the actual co-creation .org/), the most sophisticated computer putting into the public domain what of content. Just as Wikipedia’s distributed operating system in the world, they would have traditionally been consid- editors collaborate to create, update, and can certainly develop the tools for a ered a proprietary asset and part of the expand the online encyclopedia’s entries, psychology course. Indeed, many well- institution’s competitive advantage in so too could professors co-innovate new known open-source software projects the global market teaching material, are already under way in the academic for students. MIT The digital world publish this newly community. One of the most popular pioneered the con- synthesized content, is Sakai (https://sakaiproject.org/). cept, and today more is challenging and share in the rec- Built by educators for educators, Sakai than 200 institutions not only the ognition and rewards. facilitates collaboration in and across of higher learning lecture-driven classroom A case in point is courses, research, projects, administra- have followed suit as Wikiversity (https:// tive processes, and multidisciplinary part of MIT’s Open- but the very notion en.wikiversity.org/), and multi-institution efforts. Creation of CourseWare initia- of a walled-in institution a project of the Wiki- the software itself is a product of content tive (https://ocw.mit that excludes large media Foundation. co-innovation. In turn, the product helps .edu/). OpenCourse- Rather than offer a set users co-innovate content that educators Ware solves the prob- numbers of people. menu of courses and can teach to students. We need more lem of isolation and materials, Wikiversity projects like this. provides a wealth of materials that others participants set out what they want to Used properly, blockchain platforms can use and even build on, regardless of learn, and the Wikiversity community could support such collaboration their institutional affiliation. collaborates, in multiple languages, to directly with students too. Rather than We’re talking about not only text- develop learning activities and projects simply receiving the professor’s knowl- books and digital books but also lecture to accommodate those goals. Imagine edge, the students could co-create knowl- notes, assignments, exams, videos, pod- what a platform like Wikiversity could do edge with light supervision—one of the casts, and so on. Professors and students with a token system to reward collabora- most effective methods of learning—and will need better tools for gauging the tive behavior! That’s what the blockchain get credit for their co-creation. quality and suitability of various assets, supports. It enables the community and students will want some evidence of to identify valuable projects, assemble Stage 3: Global Network effort to carry forward. Using capabilities teams of collaborators, and fund each The upshot could be a disaggregation like smart contracts, blockchains provide phase of development, rewarding collab- of institutions of higher learning. The a means of tracking and rewarding each orators according to their contributions. digital world, which has trained young party’s contributions. Users can do more In this scenario, psychology profes- minds to inquire and collaborate, is chal- than “like,” “upvote,” or share a piece of sors would work together to design the lenging not only the lecture-driven class- content; they can send its creator some “perfect course” that pools the collective room but the very notion of a walled-in tokens of value that might be used, say, to knowledge of the world’s leading think- institution that excludes large numbers support research assistance or grant writ- ers in the field. Of course, participants of people. Why not allow a brilliant ing. Members of the worldwide academic would not agree totally on course con- ninth-grader to take first-year college community will have incentive to con- tents, since there are various perspec- math, without abandoning the social life tribute their intellectual property, know- tives, schools of thought, and teaching of his or her high school? Why use the how, and insights not just to improve techniques. But as in Wikipedia, the pro- concept of grades and grade matricula- higher education but also to enhance fessors could work globally to create core, tion at all? Why not encourage a foreign
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student majoring in math to take a high lems. The blockchain harmonizes and lishing industry provides much of the school English course? Why is the college aggregates the records of various insti- classroom curriculum, the administra- or university the unit of measurement tutions for each skill learned and each tive and engagement platforms, and the when it comes to branding a degree? In module completed, steadily building an testing programs for credentialing at all fact, in a networked world, why should individual student’s list of achievements. levels of academic achievement. So if students have to assign their “enroll- Of course, such open platforms could you’re an academic or an administrator, ment” to a given institution, akin to provide a means to address the needs of you might say: “Let the publishers rethink declaring loyalty to some feudal fiefdom? all learners, not just traditional college- the student experience. Why should I In this vision of a global network for age students. For today’s knowledge bother? I have enough on my plate.” higher learning, a student receives a cus- workers, remaining truly competitive Indeed, there are few incentives to tom learning experience from a dozen in fast-moving fields of research and change—except that the new model of institutions, while the blockchain serves innovation means constantly retraining higher education is in the best interest to track the student’s path and progress. and retooling to begin or continue their of learners. Faculty and administrators The student enrolls in his or her primary working lives in a modern, dynamic, alike should consider what has hap- college and is assigned a knowledge and technology-focused environment. pened to other cultural institutions that facilitator, who works with the student The cost of building new continuing have resisted change. Encyclopedias, to customize a learning experience, the education programs from scratch could newspapers, record labels, and colleges/
journey, and outcomes. The student be prohibitively high, but innovative universities have a lot in common. They might enroll in the primary college in models of collaborative education could are all in the business of producing con- Oregon and register to take a behavioral bring greater efficiency, creativity, and tent. They all recruit, manage, and com- psychology course from Stanford Uni- credentialing to lifelong learning initia- pensate capable producers. They all offer versity and a medieval history course tives.22 Indeed, why not allow companies proprietary products, and they take legal from Cambridge. For these students, and governments to participate in this action against those who infringe their the collective syllabi of the world form global network for higher learning? Plat- intellectual property. Because they create their menu for higher education. Yet the form developers could use fees collected unique value, their customers pay them, opportunity goes beyond simply mixing from commercial users to subsidize and they have revenue. All of these busi- and matching courses. Next-generation ongoing development. nesses are possible because of scarcity—in faculty will create a context whereby quality news, information, knowledge, students from around the world can par- Incentives to Change learning, art. ticipate in online discussions, forums, If all this innovation is a good idea, Today, the businesses of encyclope- and wikis to discover, learn, and produce what are the incentives to change? Why dias, newspapers, and record labels are in knowledge as a community of learners should professors adopt a new model various stages of collapse. Because of the who are engaged directly in addressing of pedagogy? Tenure continues to prop Internet, they’ve lost their monopolies some of the world’s most pressing prob- up the lecture model. The U.S. pub- on the creation and curation of quality
22 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 content. The digital age brought abun- tuition or whose cognitive or social abili- of higher education for the future genera- dance, mass participation, new delivery ties don’t “fit” traditional pedagogy, then tion of lifelong learners. n channels, and new business models. The rest assured: students will demand more Internet erased their allegedly unassail- for their money than what they are receiv- Notes able attributes faster than you can transfer ing from traditional institutions of higher 1. Charles M. Vest, “Open Content and the bitcoin from one phone to another. In education. Emerging Global Meta-University,” EDUCAUSE each sector, only two or three global behe- Why not be leaders for a new para- Review 41, no. 3 (May/June 2006). 2. Carlos Creus Moreira, interview with the moths remain. digm? The blockchain provides a rich, authors, September 3, 2015. Moreira is founder, Colleges and universities have not secure, and transparent platform on chair, and CEO of WISeKey. yet lost their monopoly on academic which to create a global network for 3. EAB, “Strategies for Alumni and Student Data Collection,” September 5, 2013. credentialing and educational brands. higher learning. We believe that higher 4. “World’s Biggest Data Breaches,” Information Is But again we have a case of an irresist- education works best when it works for Beautiful (updated January 5, 2017). ible force (i.e., the reinvention of higher all types of teaching and learning, and 5. Andreas M. Antonopoulos, interview with the authors, July 20, 2015. Antonopoulos is the learning) meeting an immovable object we believe that this new platform is an author of Mastering Bitcoin (2014), The Internet of (i.e., the old paradigm). As soon as one of engine of inclusion. Let’s use the emerg- Money (2016), and with co-author Gavin Wood, the blockchain-based innovators demon- ing Internet of value and the blockchain Mastering Ethereum (2017). 6. “Sony Global Education Develops Technology strates that its approach to learning will revolution to recapture our identities and Using Blockchain for Open Sharing of Academic pay off more quickly, that employers value endow them with our detailed and real- Proficiency and Progress Records,” news release, its credentials as much if not more, and time records of learning. Perhaps then February 22, 2016. 7. “Fifty-Eight Percent of Employers Have that it can deliver real value to the great we can finally reinvent the past model of Caught a Lie on a Resume, According to a New many students who cannot afford college pedagogy and transform the architecture CareerBuilder Survey,” news release, August 7,
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er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 23 The Blockchain Revolution and Higher Education
2014. See also Charles Purdy, “The Biggest Lies 16. Sony is working on this test-taking technology © 2017 Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott Job Seekers Tell on Their Resumes—and How on the blockchain. See “Sony Global Education They Get Caught,” Monster, accessed January Develops Technology Using Blockchain,” news 24, 2017, and “Resume Falsification Statistics,” release, February 22, 2016. Statistic Brain, October 1, 2015. 17. See Jane McGonigal, “How to Think (and Learn) 8. MIT Registrar’s Office, Transcripts, accessed Like a Futurist,” SXSWedu keynote address, January 8, 2017. March 9, 2016. Don Tapscott and 9. Complete College America, “Time Is the Enemy,” 18. See the Institute for the Future’s Learning Is Alex Tapscott are the authors September 2011. Earning 2026. of Blockchain Revolution: How 10. Philipp Schmidt, “Certificates, Reputation, 19. Vest, “Open Content and the Emerging Global and the Blockchain,” MIT Media Lab, Medium, Meta-University.” the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is October 27, 2015. 20. Katy Jordan, “MOOC Completion Rates: The Changing Money, Business and the 11. These and the following quotes are from Vitalik Data,” last updated June 12, 2015; “State of the World (2016). Don is the author Buterin, interview with the authors, September MOOC 2016: A Year of Massive Landscape of fifteen widely read books 30, 2015. Change for Massive Open Online Courses,” 12. Joseph Lubin, interview with the authors, July Online Course Report, accessed January 24, 2017. about technology in business 13, 2015. Lubin is the founder and CEO of 21. The term global network for higher learning was and society (including Growing ConsenSys , an Ethereum development studio. first developed by Don Tapscott and Anthony Up Digital and Wikinomics) and is 13. Travis Mitchell, “See 20 Years of Tuition Growth D. Williams in their book Macrowikinomics: at National Universities,” U.S. News & World New Solutions for a Connected Planet (New York: ranked as the #4 living business Report, July 29, 2015. Portfolio Penguin, 2010). See also Don Tapscott thinker by Thinkers50. His 14. “A Look at the Shocking Student Loan Debt and Anthony D. Williams, “Innovating the 21st- co-author, Alex Tapscott, is Statistics for 2017,” Student Loan Hero, accessed Century University: It’s Time!” EDUCAUSE January 8, 2017. Review 45, no. 1 (January/February 2010). the CEO and founder of Northwest Passage 15. This and the following quotes are from Melanie 22. Paul Hofheinz, “EU 2020: Why Skills Are Key Ventures, an advisory firm building industry- Swan, interview with the authors, September 14, for Europe’s Future,” Lisbon Council Policy Brief 4, leading blockchain businesses. 2015. no. 1 (2009).
24 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 Strengthening Higher Education Together
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To learn more about these partners, visit educause.edu/Corporate-Partners. Transforming Our fromLibraries Analog to Digital: Vision oday, people get their information online—often filtered through for-profit platforms. If a book isn’t online, it’s as if it doesn’t exist. Yet much of modern knowledge still exists only on the printed page, stored in libraries. Libraries haven’t met this digital demand, stymied by costs, e-book restrictions, policy risks, and missing infrastructure. We now have the technology and legal frameworks to transform our library system by 2020. The Internet Archive, working with library partners, proposes bringing millions of books online, through purchase or digitization, starting with the books most widely Theld and used in libraries and classrooms. Our vision includes at-scale circulation of these e-books, enabling libraries owning the physical works to substitute them with lendable digital ▲ copies. By 2020, we can build a collaborative digital library Finding collection and circulation system in which thousands of the Future in the libraries unlock their analog collections for a new generation of Past learners, enabling free, long-term, public access to knowledge. ▼
26 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 A 2020 Vision Brewster Kahle
ILLUSTRATION BY DUNG HOANG, © 2017 Transforming Our Libraries from Analog to Digital: A 2020 Vision
The Problem We all want to see the modern-day Library of Alexandria, a digital library where the published works of human- kind—all the books, music, video, webpages, and software—are available to anyone curious enough to want to access them. I believe now is the time to build it. The technology and costs to achieve this vision are now understood, and in fact, various projects are proving that it can be done. Three major enti- ties have digitized modern materials at scale: Google, Amazon, and the Inter- net Archive, probably in that order of magnitude. Google’s goal was to digitize texts to aid user search and its own arti- ficial intelligence projects. Amazon’s book-digitization program helps cus- tomers browse books before purchas- ing them; Amazon is quiet about the number of books it has scanned and any future plans for them. The Internet Archive has digitized more than 2.5 mil- lion public domain (pre-1923) books a healthy system that engages authors, to millions and eventually billions of and made them fully downloadable and publishers, libraries, and most impor- people. 500,000+ modern (post-1923) books tantly, the readers and future readers. Mike Lesk, considered by many to and made them available to the blind I suggest that by working together, be the father of digital libraries, once and dyslexic and through its lending we can efficiently achieve our goal. This said that he was worried about the system on its Open Library site. will require the library community books of the 20th century and noted Yet bringing universal access to all working with philanthropists, booksell- that we haven’t figured out “institutional books has not been achieved. Why? ers, and publishers to unleash the full responsibility” in our digital world.1 He There are the commonly understood value of our existing and future collec- believed that the materials up to the 19th challenges: money, technology, and tions by offering them digitally. century would be digitized and avail- legal clarity. Our community has been For the books we cannot buy in elec- able and that the 21st-century materials, fractured by disagreement about the tronic form, I am proposing a collabora- since they were born-digital, were going path forward, with ongoing resistance tive effort to select and digitize the most to be circulated effectively. But the 20th- to some approaches that strike many widely held and used books of the 20th century materials, he thought, would as monopolistic. Indeed, the library and 21st centuries, and to build a robust be caught in machinations of copyright community seems to be holding out for system to circulate the resulting e-books law—most remaining out-of-print, and all seemingly locked up by late-20th- By working together, we can efficiently century laws that appeared to make digi- tization risky. achieve our goal. This will require As we shift from the analog to the digital era, Lesk’s comment about “insti- the library community working with tutional responsibility” is also apt. Today, philanthropists, booksellers, and public, university, and national library leaders are not clear how best to perform publishers to unleash the full value of their preservation and access roles, at a our existing and future collections by time when subscribing to remote data- bases is increasingly common and when offering them digitally. publishers are trying to adapt to a world
28 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017
Transforming Our Libraries from Analog to Digital: A 2020 Vision
in which distribution is increasingly FIGURE 1. THE INTERNET ARCHIVE’S OPEN LIBRARY consolidated among a few powerhouses. If we are to have healthy publishing and library ecosystems, we need many win- ners and not just a few dominant players. But how do we achieve that? A step forward would be for libraries to buy e-books when they can, but also to transform efficiently the books cur- rently on our physical shelves to sit on our digital shelves as well. Patrons could then easily borrow either the physical books or the electronic versions.
Open Library: Building on a Six-Year Pilot Since 2010, the Internet Archive’s Open Library has been piloting col- laborative collection and lending of 20th-century books contributed by dozens of libraries (see figure 1).2 For six years, we have been buying e-books or digitizing physical books to lend. We now lend more than 500,000 post-1923 digital volumes to one reader at a time via the Open Library website (https:// lishers use for their in-print e-books books.google.com/). Watching Open openlibrary.org/borrow). This digital distributed by commercial operations Library being used by millions over the circulation mechanism employs the such as OverDrive (https://www.over years, we have found this approach to same protection technologies that pub- drive.com/) and Google Books (https:// work. The time is ripe to go much further!
30 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 Using the Open Library approach as a foundation, we can expand to bring all interested libraries digital by 2020. By building upon the collection of 2.5 mil- lion public domain e-books that so many libraries have collaboratively digitized with the Internet Archive, we can bring the full breadth of books, both past and present, to millions of readers on por- table devices, at websites, and through online library catalogs. With its exten- sive collections and strong public service mission, the library community can be central to this endeavor. For instance, in each library’s online card catalog, when a digital version of a book exists, we can include a web link on the record for the physical book, giving readers the ability to browse the book on screen or to borrow it from the convenience of their homes. In this way, we can smoothly enhance a library’s col- lection, from analog to digital, at scale, A System with Many Winners and some books published today? For by coordinating through the library I believe this time we can pursue a decen- these texts, libraries can work together catalog cloud-based vendors. We would tralized approach, one that leads to many to digitize the materials efficiently while also collectively work with publishers to publishers and many libraries interacting minimizing duplication and can lend purchase as many books as possible for through the market rather than having a the digital texts with the same limitations library lending. single controlling entity. While libraries placed on physical books. To build this future, we will need today often license e-books with restrictive In this way, patrons could read past the participation of multiple sectors to terms, libraries are better served if they and present books on the screens of their bring thousands of libraries digital. That purchase e-books with the same rights to choice; librarians would perform their is one of the essential differences from lend and preserve that they are entitled to traditional roles of purchasing, organizing, the 2004 Google Book Search project, when they purchase physical books today. presenting, and preserving the great works an attempt by Google and several large Hopefully, going forward, all books would of humankind; publishers would sell research libraries to bring 20th-century be available to libraries in this way—pro- e-books at market-based rates; and authors books online in a centralized way. viding revenue to ensure healthy author could choose how to distribute their That path yielded, in 2008, the Google and publisher sectors that would garner works, including through publishers for Books settlement proposing a central their support. But what about books that payment. This may sound old-fashioned controlling authority, which the courts are not available in this form—including and not particularly “disruptive,” but it halted in 2011 as monopolistic.3 most of the existing library collections bears the advantage that each institution plays a role structurally similar to the role While libraries today often license it has played historically. Different Eras of e-books with restrictive terms, Books: Different Solutions libraries are better served if they To bring our libraries digital, let’s first discuss ways that groups are digitizing purchase e-books with the same books at scale and then address how they can be made maximally available. rights to lend and preserve that they The historical core of a great library, are entitled to when they purchase often pre-1923 books, resides in the public domain and thus does not have physical books today. rights issues to hamper distribution. er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 31 Transforming Our Libraries from Analog to Digital: A 2020 Vision
Libraries with their rich special col- lections and government documents, the Library, the Yale University Library, or lections must still catalog and digitize pre-1923 corpus of published books is the Boston Public Library would require their books, and we continue to work largely online and available, albeit often institutions to offer access to a curated with hundreds of libraries to bring with restrictions. digital collection of 10 million books, their special collections digital. But the The 20th-century books, the era that most of which are post-1923. Collabora- large swath of public domain works has worried Lesk, are also the books librar- tors can prioritize subsets of books, such largely been digitized twice in the last ians fret about due to rights issues. In as the 1.2 million books most widely held ten years: once by the libraries working most of the developed world, an orga- by libraries according to OCLC or the with Google and once by the libraries nization can digitize books for the blind almost 1 million books that appear on collaborating with the Internet Archive. and dyslexic, and through the Marrakesh one or more syllabi as determined by the Google’s project has been much more Treaty (2013), signatory countries can Open Syllabus Project.5 A team of col- thorough in its scope, scanning an esti- share these books with other signatories laborators could volunteer to ensure full mated 25 million books thus far, but at scale in a way that is explicitly legal.4 coverage in the major subject areas while unfortunately, access to these works In practice, this means Canada can now building on the core collection. But for is limited. Institutional subscribers digitize and lend a book from any era for the purposes of argument, let’s stipulate can gain limited access to the Google the reading disabled and can share those that 10 million books is the number we books through HathiTrust (https://www digital copies with libraries in Australia would need to support a broadly useful .hathitrust.org/), and the public can or more than two dozen other countries. public digital library system. download some public domain books, Furthermore, the U.S. court’s ruling in one at a time, through the Google Books Authors Guild v. Google found the basic Collaborating to Build website. The Internet Archive’s digitized act of mass digitization of books, even a Digital Collection 2.5 million older books, on the other by commercial entities, to be legal under Building a collaborative digital collec- hand, are available in bulk and for free the “fair use” doctrine in the United tion of 10 million books will require our public access. Indeed, content specialists States. So the right to digitize has been libraries and our partners to efficiently from genealogy to biodiversity research- settled in many countries. A remaining perform three functions: ers actively download public domain legal question is what access is allowed; materials from the Internet Archive, this proposal will allow different librar- n Coordinate collection development fueling innovation, dissemination, and ies to make their own decisions. to avoid duplicating effort broad public good. While we still need to I believe that building a major library n Offer local and cloud access complete the digitization of special col- at the scale of the Princeton University n Provide distributed preservation
32 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 In very broad strokes, to build the col- of University Libraries (OCUL) and the and digitized books available through lections, we need curators or curatorial Accessible Content E-Portal (http:// its own infrastructure to California resi- approaches for selecting the most use- guides.scholarsportal.info/aceportal). dents. We understand the Department ful books, then a process to determine Others, such as the University of Califor- of Education in China also loans books which books we already have digitized. nia, might want to create a preservation it owns to one reader at a time at a major We need institutions or vendors able to copy. Some, such as HathiTrust, might Chinese university. We all learn and source the missing physical books to be prepare datasets for nonconsumptive benefit when different organizations digitized. The participating organiza- researcher access. And many others, in different countries test a range of tions would need to have the funding including the Internet Archive, may approaches to access, balancing conve- to staff these functions, based either on choose to lend their copies while keep- nience and rights issues. their internal budgets or on funds raised ing the physical copy on the shelf. This How would we circulate the digital from philanthropic sources. Maybe we flexibility in access models could be e-books? Some libraries are integrat- could start with some already funded one of the great strengths of this over- ing links into their library catalogs, so projects, since they might help shape the all approach to bringing 20th-century information about the digital versions rest of the system. books online—different libraries in dif- and physical copies are side by side in ferent countries can play varying roles as the same record. Libraries can always Curating a Collaborative Collection their environment permits. link to the copy in the Internet Archive’s Prioritizing the books is still an open Libraries can take a giant step forward Open Library, but if this is a modern question. One approach might be to in the digital era by lending purchased book, there may be only one copy avail- break the collection into a widely-used and digitized e-books. The Internet able for the whole world. Libraries can core of books for K-16 learners and Archive digital e-book lending program also store their own digital copies and into important topical collections. mirrors traditional library practices: administer their own lending system, as The Internet Archive could focus on one reader at a time can borrow a book, Califa has done. Another alternative is obtaining and scanning the core collec- and others must wait for that one to be that the Internet Archive could create a tion of perhaps 1–2 million volumes, returned manually; alternatively, after circulation system that would administer and then partner libraries with strong two weeks the book is automatically the lending for libraries. In effect, then, specialties could develop and scan the returned and is offered to any waiting each library can choose from a variety subject-based collections. An engineer- patrons. The technical protection mech- of methods to lend digital versions of ing school might take on engineering anisms used to ensure access to only one the physical books in its collection. This books, and a law school could focus on reader at a time are the same technolo- would keep the local libraries in control law books. gies used by publishers to protect their but leverage the convenience of a cloud- We must continue to work with in-print e-books. In this way, the Open based system that others maintain and Google Books, HathiTrust, and Amazon Library site is respectful of rights issues update. to explore areas of alignment. No one in and can leverage some of the learning Turning on the e-book links in a cata- the library world wants to waste precious and tools used by the publishers. The log might be very easy now that many resources by digitizing a text more than California library consortium Califa libraries have their catalogs on cloud ser- once. It would be a public benefit if these (http://califa.org/) has set up its own vices from major catalog vendors. Per- large-scale digitizers would be willing lending server, and it makes purchased suading those providers to collaborate to contribute to this collaborative effort. We will also need to research which books are emerging from copyright Each library can choose from a protection and create a comprehensive list of all digitized works. These will be variety of methods to lend digital important areas of research to support. versions of the physical books in its Various Levels of Access collection. This would keep the local Once we have established the core col- lections, each library can determine its libraries in control but leverage the own approach to providing access to modern works. Some might want to start convenience of a cloud-based system by giving full access to the blind and that others maintain and update. dyslexic, as the University of Toronto is doing through the Ontario Council er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 33 Transforming Our Libraries from Analog to Digital: A 2020 Vision
If we are striving to build the modern- ters” for the mass digitization of millions of books per year, at a significant cost sav- day Library of Alexandria, we should ings. With the first funded super scanning avoid the fate of the first Library of center in Asia that we are now certifying for production, we anticipate being able Alexandria. Our community should to scan books for about one-third of the normal in-library rates achieved by the preserve multiple copies of the books Internet Archive’s twenty-eight Regional that are bought and digitized. Scanning Centers. Through the Asian super scanning center, the Internet Archive can offer partners a cost savings with this community could help deliver and encourage a number of libraries to of 50–60 percent for those willing to scan e-books to millions of patrons with a flip store local digital copies of their books. large quantities of books and have them of a digital switch. Fortunately, digitized books are com- out of circulation for several months. We pact enough to be affordable for libraries are now talking with a large university Distributed Preservation to store. Digital books, even with high- research library about a plan to digitize If we are striving to build the modern- resolution images and all the derivative 500,000 modern books using an Inter- day Library of Alexandria, we should formats, are often 500 megabytes in size, net Archive super scanning center. This avoid the fate of the first Library of so 1 million books would be 500 tera- project offers the library new options in Alexandria: burning. If the library had bytes, which is increasingly affordable. collection management, allowing it to made another copy of each work and Distributed preservation of both the provide digital access to books that are put them in India or China, we would purchased e-books and the digitized moving to an offsite repository. Librar- have the complete works of Aristotle books can help ensure the longevity of ians may find mass digitization at reduced and the lost plays of Euripides. Our the precious materials in our libraries. cost to be a powerful tool for collection community should preserve multiple management. copies of the books that are bought and The Internet Archive’s In the past year, the Internet Archive digitized. While many libraries may be Funding and Technology has developed an in-library book- content with access to the collection on The Internet Archive has secured new scanning system that integrates duplica- a cloud-based server, we can empower funding to develop “super scanning cen- tion detection, catalog lookup, digitization,
34 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 FIGURE 2. THE INTERNET ARCHIVE’S TABLE TOP SCRIBE, A PORTABLE, LOW-COST SCANNER
Photo Credit: David Rinehart and integrated delivery. This can be from the Table Top Scribe (see figure 2), Current in-print books are often useful for organizations that want to where institutions purchase the hardware available in e-book form, but there are move through their collections, discover and supply their own staffing, to our few publishers willing to allow libraries what has not been digitized either by regional centers in institutions such as to buy e-books with similar rights to the themselves or by others, and digitize just the Boston Public Library, the University physical books they purchase. There is these texts—while gaining access to the of Toronto, the Princeton Theological hope that if we coordinate our buying Internet Archive’s digitized versions of Seminary, and the Library of Congress. power, the book publishers will embrace all of their books, digitized from a large We offer lower costs for mass digitization selling e-books to libraries, much as the variety of source libraries. at our Asian super scanning center and music publishers have come to embrace, Also, we now have a funding commit- free digitization for appropriate materi- or were forced to embrace, the selling ment to digitize millions of books and als donated to the Internet Archive. Our of MP3s to services that provide broad other materials that are donated to the goal in offering this plethora of scanning access.6 When available, the purchase Internet Archive. Through this initiative, options is to encourage all libraries to price for these e-books tends to be the Internet Archive will seek to acquire participate in the collaborative collection approximately the same as the cost of the and then digitize a core collection of building in a paradigm that works for physical book. books based on the recommendations of them. a curatorial team, while considering lists Financial Stability such as those compiled by OCLC and the Costs of Digitization So far there has been little discussion Open Syllabus Project. This funding gives At the Internet Archive, the cost of digi- of money changing hands or of any other organizations the option to donate tization varies between $10 and $30 per financial model to support maintaining appropriate physical books to the Inter- book, depending on where the scanning and growing this system. If the libraries net Archive and receive a digital copy in occurs—offshore or in a library. Addi- share the burden of the digitization and return, at no cost to their institution. tional costs include acquisition, storage, share the results, there would then be an In these ways, libraries can choose the and lifetime digital file management, incentive for some to “freeload” and wait most appropriate means of scanning their which may come to be the predominant until other libraries digitize the books holdings. We now offer options ranging cost in the future. and provide the services. If we want to er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 35 Transforming Our Libraries from Analog to Digital: A 2020 Vision
counter this, those libraries that did help circulate digital copies, and for 1. Mike Lesk, personal conversation with the not contribute digitization or backend leaders who are bold enough to push author. 2. Geoffrey A. Fowler, “Libraries Have a Novel Idea,” services could be charged for access to into new territory. Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2010. digitized books. And we could charge Because today’s learners seek knowl- 3. James Grimmelmann, “The Orphan Wars,” a one-time transfer fee to libraries that edge online, we must enable all library EDUCAUSE Review 47, no. 1 (January/February 2012). 4. “Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to want to store their own local copies. But patrons to borrow e-books via their por- Published Works,” World Intellectual Property we should think carefully about finan- table devices, by searching the web or Organization (WIPO), accessed February 4, 2017. cial models and avoid incentives lead- by browsing online library catalogs. By 5. “OCLC Provides Downloadable Linked Data File for the 1 Million Most Widely Held Works in ing to dominant systems that will limit working together, thousands of librar- WorldCat,” OCLC, news release, August 14, 2012; innovation. ies can unlock analog collections for a Open Syllabus lists 933,635 texts as of February new generation of learners, enabling 2017: http://explorer.opensyllabusproject.org/. 6. Steve Jobs, “Thoughts on Music,” Apple (via Internet Conclusion digital access to millions of books now Archive Wayback Machine), February 6, 2007. Each of our organizations has a role beyond their reach. The central goal— to play in building this collaborative for future learners to have access to all © 2017 Brewster Kahle. The text of this article is digital library collection and circulation books without physical constraints— licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. system. The Internet Archive is ready to could be realized for millions of people contribute scanning technology, back- worldwide by the year 2020. n Brewster Kahle (brewster@ end infrastructure, and philanthropic archive.org) is Founder funding to digitize a core set of books Notes and Digital Librarian of the that will serve K-16 learners. We are An earlier version of this article was published as the white paper “Transforming Our Libraries into Digital Internet Archive (https:// calling for partners who will help curate Libraries: A Digital Book for Every Physical Book archive.org/). and source the best collections beyond in Our Libraries,” Library Leaders Forum, Internet what we can do, for vendors who will Archive, San Francisco, October 2016.
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36 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017
Back to the Future of Edtech:
▲ Finding the Future in the Past ▼
38 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 ILLUSTRATIONA BY JEAN-MARC CÔTÉ, 1899 Meditation y relationship with technology has been a lifelong love affair, one that probably Mstarted when I took apart appliances in the basement or when my brother and I invented our own radio shows on a cassette recorder in the early 1970s. Being a digital immigrant is usually understood to be a deficit, a lack of fluency borne of growing up in the dark time before computers became ubiquitous. And yet. Never knowing a time without computers or the Internet also means missing out on the powerful wave of excitement and optimism as we experienced the dawning of the computer age. The sense of wonder we felt as we looked to the future was powerful and palpable. Instead of taking for granted a world that was “always on,” we painstakingly learned DOS commands, deciphered the mysteries of motherboard DIP switches, and lived these early years with our operating system on one 5¼-inch floppy disk drive and the entire archive of our digital lives on the other.
Back to the Future of Edtech: John O’Brien
ILLUSTRATIONA BY JEAN-MARC CÔTÉ, 1899 Meditationer.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 39 Back to the Future of Edtech: A Meditation
Even though science fiction writers Remarkable Paleofuture Artifacts had provided several decades’ worth There is an emerging field of academic inquiry related to this line of thinking. Self- of cautionary tales of robot overlords proclaimed “time capsule nerd” Matt Novak calls it paleofuture, while “ed-tech’s and dystopian possibilities, it was their Cassandra” Audrey Watters calls it the history of the future.2 Instead of focusing exclu- optimism that most captured our imagi- sively on representations of the past (the work of historians) or on those of the future nation. Among other things, we imag- (the work of futurists), paleofuturists concentrate on representations of the future in ined that technology would solve world the past. Since the 19th century, technology permeates so many images of the future hunger, and thanks to the Jetsons, we that in many ways, paleofuture often amounts to representations of a tech-rich were pretty sure that wristwatch video future in a relatively tech-poor past. phones, jetpacks, and robot servants Paleofuture artifacts are amazing in many respects. For nostalgic reasons, I’m fond were in our future. While we played of predictions from the 1950s and 1960s about life in the 21st century, such as Philco- Pong on our state-of-the-art Atari con- Ford Corporation’s remarkable 1967 film Home of the Future: Year 1999 A.D. (world fairs soles, we marveled at trips to the moon, repeatedly turned to Home of the Future exhibits). Other films from this time reveal Skylab, and the exciting new space as much about the decades they were conceived in as the one they imagine. The Mon- shuttle program. santo House of the Future, for example, loudly sings the praises of “man-made fibers” Growing up as an immigrant to this world of technology-enabled possibility FIGURE 1. THE NEW-FANGLED BARBER filled me with a sense of endless wonder that may come less easily to natives. The tectonic technology changes of the 1960s and 1970s have left me always looking forward, glancing back—excited about the march toward the future but deeply aware of the historical journey that has brought us this far. This crossroads where the past and future meet can be jarringly beautiful, as the digitally colorized photos of Sanna Dullaway vividly dramatize.1 Using the lens of the past to understand the future gives us the hope that we need not repeat our mistakes. It illuminates the past and opens our eyes to a deeper understand- ing of the present. Lewis Hine’s photos of Illustration by Jean-Marc Côté, 1899 child labor from a century ago are pow- erful in their own right, but Dullaway FIGURE 2. A VERY BUSY FARMER amplifies their power for the 21st cen- tury. When we look at Hine’s century-old images, our impression is colored by current belief in our own advancement. But somehow a splash of literal color reminds us that the 21st century may not be that advanced and that we have our own collection of shameful images of child labor happening right now. Understanding the past is important, and thinking about the future is funda- mentally human, but more fascinating still is the combination, the history of the future: the road pointing back to where you were, the road pointing ahead to where you’re going, and the moment at the crossroads contemplating both. Illustration by Jean-Marc Côté, 1899
40 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 FIGURE 3. AT SCHOOL flag, such as when Shakespeare has Cassius declare “the clock has stricken three” centuries before mechanical clocks were even invented. A reverse anachronism involves futuristic repre- sentations that fail to fully escape their own non-futuristic thinking, like the En L’An 2000 card showing a futuristic train composed of what appears to be old- fashioned bricks and mortar. There are additional ways in which the At School illustration demonstrates this concept. For example, the students still use tra- ditional desks (for what?) that are lined up in rows (why?), and the students, still wearing the clothes of the 19th century, remain no more visibly diverse than in Illustration by Jean-Marc Côté, 1899 the artist’s time. Let’s return to the fascinating (for FIGURE 4. STUDENTS TODAY me, at least) hand crank, which is and plastics, at one point rhe- about to chew up a copy of a book on torically asking “Is everything the history of France. A century ago, it of plastic?” and breathlessly would have been nearly impossible to answering: “Almost! . . . a dream imagine a process of digitization, and of the future brought to reality so gears would be the closest metaphor by Monsanto.”3 available for engineering magic follow- However, much older ing the explosive growth in the use of paleofuture artifacts are gears during the Industrial Revolution. uniquely captivating. One of According to this interpretation, the the best-known history-of-the- crank reveals the artist’s rudimentary future collections is a series understanding of the process that of fin de siècle cards created for ©2013 Maryland Coast Dispatch. Reprinted with permission. would convert paper books into audible cigar boxes by the illustrator format. In the illustration, the wires Jean-Marc Côté to depict advances imagined to be ubiquitous “in the year 2000” end near the students’ ears with some (En L’An 2000).4 In 1986, Isaac Asimov discovered and published them with his kind of listening device (headphones commentary in the book Futuredays: A Nineteenth-Century Vision of the Year 2000. The or “electrophones” were known as early images typically feature a technology-rich future, with technology “improving” as 1895). everything, from barbering to farming (see figure 1 and figure 2). On the other hand, it may be that the artist imag- Educational Technology Artifacts ined something well It’s clear that the century that conceived of the Industrial Rev- beyond the idea of olution imagined a future world in which technology would converting paper ease the burden of work. But what about the “burden” of to audio. Maybe education? My fascination with the paleofuture of educa- this is an example tional technology began when I first saw the well-known not of a reverse 1899 Jean-Marc Côté illustration At School (see figure 3). anachronism but If you focus on the students in their desks and set aside of something far the boy with the hand crank, the image from over a hun- more futuristic. dred years ago is in many ways an uncannily accurate depic- Perhaps the artist tion of students today (see figure 4). imagined that the The hand crank, however, is a wonderful example of what wires carried digi- I think of as a reverse anachronism. When representations of the tized ideas, not sound. past include things that came only later, we waive the anachronism With this interpretation, the er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 41 Back to the Future of Edtech: A Meditation
cranking mechanism goes from a precious understanding of FIGURE 5. MAN’S INTELLIGENCE IN 2016 digitization to a prescient picture of technology that—still not available in 2017—was predicted by Athelstan F. Spilhaus, dean of the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Technology, in the December 1965 strip Our New Age (see figure 5). This technology may yet be coming. Memories have been mechanically planted in mice, and in recent developments in neuroprosthetics (brain implants), researchers at UC Berkeley are working to create thousands of wireless brain interfaces called “neural dust.” EMOTIV’s “brain wearable” products allow wearers to complete rudimentary tasks by thinking them. Although 2016 may have been an ambitious prediction by Spil- haus, “One Laptop Per Child” founder Nicholas Negroponte predicted a couple of years ago that in thirty years, knowledge will be chemically created so that someone could take a pill to learn English or to comprehend the entire works of Shake- speare. So the hand crank may not be as laughable as it seems, 5 and we may be far closer to learning Matrix-style than we think. Our New Age (cartoon strip), December 26, 1965
Why Study the History of the Future? Ask a historian “why study history?” and you will get any number of answers, including we learn from them? Past predictions that the perennial axiom: “to avoid repeating past mistakes.” Peter N. Stearns has summarized did not come true can be as instructive the importance of studying history by noting that history helps us understand people as predictions that unfolded exactly as and societies, contributes to moral understanding, provides identity, lays the foundation anticipated. for good citizenship, and provides crucial skills and habits of mind to students. It is a If there is one takeaway I would hope compelling case for a compelling field of academic study.6 we can learn from the study of the his- Understanding the past also helps us recalibrate our thinking about the future, and tory of the future, it is a sense of humility studying failed and nailed predictions gives us a framework to better understand both. and caution. We are too quick to forget While Stearns says that “the past causes the present, and so the future,” Peter Bishop our own insignificance relative to the phrases the interconnectedness as an equation that contains the constituent parts of vast scope of human history. We are not paleofuture studies: what was + what is + what if.7 the first generation to feel we are striding In the narrower universe of educational technology, Audrey Watters likewise insists: forward with unprecedented technology “We always tell stories of our past in order to situate ourselves in the present and guide advances. A sense of perspective on that ourselves into the future. But that means these stories about education and education score would be a good thing. Lacking this technology—past, present, future—really matter.” Writing about the annual Horizon reports, she argues for the importance of studying the history of the future: “I’m less interested in the accuracy of the predictions about the future of education tech- nology that the Horizon Report has made over the last decade than I am in what those predictions now might tell us about the f there is one takeaway I history of ed-tech. I’m interested in the history of our imagination would hope we can learn about education’s future and the role technology—and influen- tial ed-tech storytelling—is assigned in shaping that.”8 from the study of the I would add, first of all, that understanding the history of our hopes and dreams gives us a deeper and more compre- history of the future, it is a hensive understanding of our current time, as we see “now” as I sense of humility and caution. part of a trajectory that began long before (and continues into the future). I’m convinced that we have as much to learn from We are too quick to forget our the visions that have been realized as from those that have not come to pass. And perhaps there is even more to learn from own insignificance relative the misses. Why don’t we have robot teachers? Why aren’t so to the vast scope of human many more students these days math and science geniuses like Elroy Jetson? What do these disconnections mean? What can history.
42 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017
Back to the Future of Edtech: A Meditation
ne imagined glimpse of the 19th century’s hopes and dreams about technology, critiques that very optimism and accurately predicts tech- the future captures the nology-enabled social problems from sexting to online gambling. What seems to be sheer tech-utopianism 19th century’s hopes simultaneously contains a seed of doubt and caution. and dreams about A Skeptical Turn: O “The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be” technology, critiques that very When it comes to the history of the future of edu- optimism, and accurately cational technology, various scholars have made a predicts technology-enabled compelling case for skepticism about what they con- sider technological utopianism. According to Kentaro social problems. What seems Toyama, for example, technology has more of a ten- dency to intensify humanity’s fault lines than to correct to be sheer tech-utopianism them. In his book Geek Heresy, Toyama uses the Daeda- simultaneously contains a seed lus story as a high-tech parable to make this point. Dae- dalus invents advanced technology to enable humans of doubt and caution. to fly, but when he shares it with his son, he warns the youngster not to fly too close to the sun. Children being children, Icarus ignores his father’s warning and “soars exuberantly.” As a result of his life-or-death user error, he plummets to his death. The moral of the story, sense of proportionality, we easily inflate aside from hubris and listen-to-your-parents, is that “brilliant technology is not our own specialness and assume that tech- enough to save us from ourselves.” Later in the book, Toyama observes about edu- nology really will solve all our problems cational technology: “If you provide an all-purpose technology that can be used for (and create no new ones!), contrary to the learning and entertainment, children choose entertainment. Technology by itself prescience of some paleo FIGURE 6. FORECASTS FOR 1907 future visionaries. Take, for example, the Punch magazine cartoon “Forecasts for 1907,” which predicts mobile commu- nication technology with remarkable precision (see figure 6). Even more extraor- dinary, it anticipates the now fully realized down- side of today’s cellphone connectivity, what MIT’s Sherry Turkle calls the “alone together” phenome- non in her book of the same name.9 The text beneath the cartoon points out that the man and woman “are not communicating with one another.” Rather, “the lady is receiving an amatory message, and the gentleman some racing results.” In one imagined glimpse of the future, this paleo future artifact captures Source: Punch magazine, December 26, 1906
44 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 FIGURE 7. CHAUFFAGE AU RADIUM
Illustration by Jean-Marc Côté, 1899 FIGURE 8. 1969 VIEW OF THE JAPANESE CLASSROOM OF THE FUTURE doesn’t undo that inclina- tion—it amplifies it.”10 Sometimes the skepti- cism can be seen only from the 20/20 hindsight of the future. Who, for example, could argue that there is anything dark about the rosy vision of the future seen in figure 7, from the Jean-Marc Côté collection? We have leisurely salon conversation among friends basking in the radiance of what looks to be a lovely fireplace—except when we note, with 21st-century horror, that those gathered are illuminated by the glow of a single piece of deadly radium. Other times the skepticism seems to be an intentional part of the artifact itself. A Japanese paleofuture arti- Source: Sh¯onen Sunday (1969) fact from 1969 (see figure 8) shows a classroom of the future, again Lord of the Flies, with students who get the answer correct smiling or barely suppress- with paperless desks lined up in a row. ing their glee as less-correct students are bludgeoned by vigilant “robot proctor.”11 However, a closer look reveals that this While the darker side of this image of the future is hard to miss, there are more classroom is less tech-utopia and more subtle seeds of doubt even in some of the most breathless utopian visions of the er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 45 Back to the Future of Edtech: A Meditation
future. A 1958 drawing by Arthur Rade- in the language and image, this 1958 artifact summarizes key ideas frequently articu- baugh (see figure 9) imagines a teacher- lated in the discussion of personalized learning today. Yet those looking for a skepti- less classroom of the future (again with cal turn might point to the distracted student, waving to his unicopter-flying friend desks in a row) in which automated outside the window. teaching would be accomplished by This image is similar to the distracted student in another Radebaugh prediction; in “special machines” that were “‘geared’ this case, a student learning from home does not find his technology or his “TV instruc- for each individual student so he can tor” as engrossing as baseball with his friends (see figure 10). advance as rapidly as his abilities war- Radebaugh is not the only source of paleofuture mixed messages regarding ranted.” The student’s work would be educational technology. For example, the 1967 film Home of the Future: Year 1999 “kept by machine” but “would be peri- A.D. (mentioned earlier) enthusiastically explains how technology improves the odically reviewed by skilled teachers, lives of each member of the Shore family, including third-grader James Shore. and personal help would be available We see him learning from home with the help of 1960s-imagined adaptive learn- when necessary.” With cosmetic updates ing technology, “teaching machines which allow him to progress as rapidly as his awakening mind can FIGURE 9. PUSH-BUTTON EDUCATION absorb the audio-visual lesson.” When his awak- ening mind falls short of the expected competency, his robot proctor, lacking pedagogical patience, lets him know (“you flunk”) and points him to another video lecture. James dutifully listens to the push-button lecture on Galileo for a while, gets bored, and then looks around mischievously before switching to a cartoon he enjoys, it turns out, far more.12 Another favorite of mine is a 1982 drawing con- Illustration by Arthur Radebaugh. ©1958 Chicago Tribune. Reprinted by permission. ceived for Atari by Robert Stein as part of his work FIGURE 10. LEARNING FROM HOME on the idea of an “Intelli- gent Encyclopedia.” In this super-engaged third-grade classroom of the future, one group of students is simu- lating a Mars landing, and the other group is design- ing a spacecraft. A single student in the foreground is doing neither, focused instead on drawing a less- than-flattering picture of his teacher (see figure 11). Returning to Côté’s 1899 illustration At School, Wat- ters sees it as the ultimate expression of “our worst suspicions” about the future Illustration by Arthur Radebaugh. ©1958 Chicago Tribune. Reprinted by permission. of education: “mechanized
46 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 FIGURE 11. A FUTURE THIRD-GRADE CLASSROOM In fact, Watters’s observation of the entire Côté set of illustrations is that they consistently depict technol- ogy automating manual labor (e.g., farmers, barbers), so when she con- siders the image of the classroom of the future, she wonders whether the profession of teaching (and the voca- tion of learning) is being represented as just another form of menial labor. The question is decidedly timely today as we contemplate personal- ized learning and as we imagine the role of faculty in such a future. Is this turn-of-the-century illustration the ultimate “unbundling”? Is the faculty role to be nothing more than feeding the digital book-chipper? Watters links this illustration with the historical obsession with automation, which is linked in turn Illustration by Glenn Keane. ©1982 Robert Stein. Reprinted by permission. with the idea of efficiency that can and automated.” She urges caution, and be traced back to 1913 and Thomas Edison, who believed that books would “soon” be instead of focusing on the significance of obsolete, replaced by the technology that was topping the “peak of inflated expecta- the magic digitization crank, she looks to tions” at that time: motion pictures. A decade later Edison would proclaim that school- the role of the teacher in this brave new books of the age achieved “about two percent efficiency” while motion pictures should classroom. Far from a “sage on stage,” this make “one hundred percent efficiency” possible. Watters response is immediate: “100% teacher is reduced to the equivalent of efficiency. Efficiency. What does that even mean? Because unexamined, this prediction, factory work, feeding the digital book- this goal for education, has become an undercurrent of so many predictions about the chipper. Watters argues that this paleo- future of teaching and learning as enhanced by technology. Efficiency.”14 future artifact confirms her worst fears These dual concerns about efficiency and automation (the teacher-less classroom) about the future of education, “that it’s come together in many illustrations, including a comic strip from 1965, where the class- destined to become mechanized, auto- room of the future not only features a robot-teacher but comes with a prediction that mated and that it’s designed based on a students of the future will adapt to understand robot language, which is twice as fast (see belief that knowledge—educational con- figure 12). Efficiency. tent—is something to be delivered. Stu- Since 1913, there have been many more examples of high expectations about the dents’ heads are something to be filled.”13 efficiency or effectiveness of technology applied to learning. My favorite is one
FIGURE 12. THE ROBOT-TEACHER
Our New Age (cartoon strip), December 5, 1965 er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 47 Back to the Future of Edtech: A Meditation
from 1958, which suggests a 38 percent expectations for t’s true that the border increase in measurable outcomes from educational tech- one piece of technology (see figure 13). nology, it serves between audacity and hype Robot tutors in the sky? No, a Royal as a critical check- Portable typewriter. and-balance. I sug- may be in the eyes of a I’ve been suggesting that a healthy dose gested earlier that beholder, but as frustrating of skepticism about our technology future one of the values of is warranted, and I’ve pointed to seeds studying paleofu- I as unquestioned hype can of skepticism that are embedded in even ture artifacts may the sunniest paleofuture artifacts. None- be to help us reca- be, it’s impossible to ignore theless, I’m not particularly interested librate our con- the tremendous promise of in abandoning optimism. Cautionary temporary assess- impulses aside, I believe that many of the ments. Perhaps the education technology tools. most recklessly optimistic imaginings of study of the history our future can be inspiring. I am genuinely of the future cau- excited about this particular time in the tions us to avoid history of educational technology. the hype that so frequently animates technology-fueled visions of the future. It’s impossible to scan An Optimistic Turn the dozens of “in the year 2000” illustrations and miss the unrelenting rosiness of Skepticism is, I believe, a sign of thriv- it all, and it’s equally impossible to avoid wondering if we are guilty of the same ing health, and given the long-standing enthusiasms now. tradition of overselling and inflated And yet there is something decidedly infectious about the ebullient opti- mism evident in predictions of the future. In “Arthur FIGURE 13. THE ROYAL PORTABLE TYPEWRITER Radebaugh’s Shiny Happy Future,” Novak calls the con- viction that technology will create “a leisurely utopian world” of jetpacks, flying cars, and robot butlers a sort of “Technological Manifest Destiny.” Arthur C. Clarke’s 1974 predictions about desktop computing were spectacularly accurate, and even earlier, in 1960, he said with confidence: “The only thing we can be sure of about the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic.”15 Who wants to be the cur- mudgeon to deflate the hope that humanity is striding from one success to the next, always improving—often exponen- tially—even beyond our imagination? My own optimistic inclinations are what led me, two decades ago, to teach myself Authorware so I could develop software that would improve my teaching. And yes, it was about efficiency, but it was about my own effi- ciency as a teacher trying to manage limited time to help my students most, not wigitized efficiency imposed on me. I spent an entire “summer off” creating software to allow me to give my Composition 1101 students more detailed feedback on their composition drafts than I ever could have accomplished by scrawling comments like “unclear” or “awkward” in the margins. Perhaps because my experi- ence with technology was so early in my career and so posi- tive, my practical, positive sensibility has persisted. Moving from the individual to the institutional level, IT leaders like James Hilton have been a consistent voice for technology transformation and optimism about what higher education can accomplish. When Hilton, dean of libraries and vice provost for digital education and innovation at the ©1958 Royal Typewriter. Reprinted by permission. University of Michigan, received the 2015 EDUCAUSE Lead-
48 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 ership Award, his visionary leadership a powerful vision at this time based on the notion that “schools should be incred- was singled out as core to his contribu- ibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like tion to the community. His featured pre- national defense.”17 sentation at our annual conference and Hilton’s enthusiasm can be found in many paleofuture artifacts. For example, the his EDUCAUSE Review interview made December 1901 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal published predictions from John Elfreth the case for “reclaiming audacity” in the Watkins Jr. for the year 2000. Watkins exhibits a similarly irrepressible optimism: face of powerful constraints and a con- text of dynamic and sometimes menac- A university education will be free to every man and woman. . . . Poor students ing change. He pointed to space travel as will be given free board, free clothing and free books if ambitious and actually one inspiring point of audacity, no doubt unable to meet their school and college expenses. Medical inspectors regularly intentionally recalling the moonshot visiting the public schools will furnish poor children free eyeglasses, free den- optimism of the early 1960s.16 tistry and free medical attention of every kind. . . . In vacation time, poor chil- Hilton sees Elon Musk as one inno- dren will be taken on trips to various parts of the world.18 vator pointing the way to audacious progress, and Hilton is quick to point In this example and elsewhere, optimism often singles out higher education out that Musk has staked out ambitious when showing the way toward a brighter future, even in an Arthur Radebaugh pic- plans in several domains known for ture from 1959 imagining the technology-rich home library of the future (see figure struggling with low budgets and high 14). Though this illustration seems to have nothing to do with higher education, regulation (transportation, energy, and the library technology makes it possible to read books that are projected onto, of all space travel). For Hilton, what should things, the ceiling. In this case, the text on the ceiling says: “College training can be be reclaimed is not just the optimism had by anybody who truly wants it and can qualify academically. Money need not be that new technologies naturally bring a problem if a spirit of sacrifice is accepted. Other obstacles too can be overcome by forward but also the compelling ideal- real determination.” Given the depressing quality of many contemporary character- ism about access to higher education. izations of the value of higher education, this level of unabashed enthusiasm and Looking to the past for inspiration, confidence in the value of a college education is energizing. he recalls a postwar period when the What Hilton encourages these days is audacity in our willingness to work together biologist Norman Borlaug and others and think big about technology. It’s true that the border between audacity and hype were “academic heroes.” Hilton recalls may be in the eyes of a beholder, but as frustrating as unquestioned hype can be, it’s
FIGURE 14. THE ELECTRONIC HOME LIBRARY
Illustration by Arthur Radebaugh. ©1959 Chicago Tribune. Reprinted by permission. er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 49 Back to the Future of Edtech: A Meditation
impossible to ignore the tremendous I have always believed that we learn 6. Peter N. Stearns, “Why Study History?” (1998), promise of education technology tools the most by asking questions. Under- American Historical Association, accessed February 4, 2017. when it comes to advancing critical standing our current world by 7. Peter Bishop, “Can We Teach the Future?” areas like student success. In exploring how it was imag- (video), accessed February 4, 2017. fact, the 2017 EDUCAUSE ined in the past is a thor- 8. Watters, “The History of the Future of Education”; Audrey Watters, “The Horizon Top 10 IT Issues list under- oughly insightful endeavor Report: A History of Ed-Tech Predictions,” Hack scores the critical traction because we find ourselves Education, February 17, 2015. that technology offers in thinking about questions 9. Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (New this high-priority area. we typically would never York: Basic Books, 2011). Integrated planning and ask. Paleofuture artifacts 10. Kentaro Toyama, Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social advising tools, adaptive yield up volumes of infor- Change from the Cult of Technology (New York: Public Affairs, 2015), 31. Illustrating his words, learning, and other ele- mation about the age that when the Los Angeles Unified School District ments of personalization may created them and also about bought iPads for students in 2013, students fall short of the hype they tend to the age that interprets them—offer- hacked them for entertainment purposes in less than a week. (Sam Sanders, “Students Find Ways generate, but at the same time they offer ing insights that span decades, genera- to Hack School-Issued iPads within a Week,” All unprecedented promise when it comes to tions, and even centuries, deepening our Tech Considered, NPR blog, September 27, 2013.) moving hard-to-move needles like gradu- understanding of the past, present, and 11. This futuristic picture is itself an homage to the distant past. A Western historian looking at this 19 n ation and retention rates. future. image might instantly recognize that the staves used on these children recall 17th-century A Meditation “tithing men” in Puritan New England who enforced order with a “church stick” that had a I don’t intend this collection of reflec- knob at one end for children and a feather on the tions and ideas to be either a withering A longer version of this article will other end for adults. critique or a rousing call to action. I be available online in April. The 12. Another interesting and comprehensive view online version contains many more is “L.A. 2013: Techno-Comforts and Urban mean instead simply to offer a medita- Stresses—Fast-Forward to One Day in the Life tion during turbulent times of dynamic examples, images, videos, and links of a Future Family,” published on April 3, 1988. change. Pressed on the subject, I would to sources discussed. See “L.A. 2013,” Los Angeles Times Magazine, March 8, 2013. admit that, in the end, I want to have it 13. Watters, “The History of the Future of both ways. I want to acknowledge and Education.” encourage a healthy skepticism when Notes 14. Ibid. 1. See Dullaway’s website: http://sannadullaway 15. Clarke, “1960: A Vision of the Future” (video). our edtech reach exceeds our grasp and .com/. 16. “Embracing Differentiation and Reclaiming when our excitement about the future 2. Matt Novak, “The 10 Coolest Time Capsules Audacity: An Interview with James Hilton,” gets out of control. But I also want us to Opened in 2015,” Paleofuture, December 21, 2015; EDUCAUSE Review 50, no. 6 (November/ Audrey Watters, “The History of the Future of December 2015). think big—and dream even bigger. Education,” Hack Education, February 19, 2015. 17. Ibid. Ultimately, as I position myself at the See also Watters’s website: http://audreywatters 18. Hannah Keyser, “Fact Check: 26 Ladies’ Home crossroads between the past and the .com/. Journal Predictions for 2001 (from 1901),” Mental 3. Philco-Ford Corporation, The Home Of The Future: Floss, September 17, 2014. future, reflecting on how the future has Year 1999 A.D. (1967); Monsanto Chemical 19. Susan Grajek and the 2016–2017 EDUCAUSE been imagined in the past, I can’t help but Company, Plastics Division, The Monsanto House IT Issues Panel, “Top 10 IT Issues, 2017: hope for some kind of middle way. I imag- of the Future (1957). Foundations for Student Success,” EDUCAUSE Review 52, no. 1 (January/February 2017). ine that it is possible that artificial intel- 4. “A 19th-Century Vision of the Year 2000,” Public Domain Review, accessed February 4, 2017. 20. John West, “Microsoft’s Disastrous Tay ligence developments in the years ahead 5. Paul T. Corrigan, “What Did the Future of Experiment Shows the Hidden Dangers of AI,” might well improve learning without Learning Look Like 100 Years Ago?” Teaching Quartz, April 2, 2016. turning the keys to the kingdom over to and Learning in Higher Ed, September 12, 2003; Anya Kamenetz, “Knowledge Pills, Robo- © 2017 John O’Brien. The text of this article is Tay, the Microsoft chatbot who went from Graders, Brain Implants and Other Dystopian licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- “humans are super cool” to holocaust- Edtech,” Digital/Edu, March 20, 2014; “Watch NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. denying racist in a day.20 I imagine it is Fortune’s Alan Murray Demo a Mind Control Device” (video), Fortune, July 12, 2016; Nicholas possible that personalized and adaptive Negroponte, “A 30-Year History of the Future” learning could well preserve that which is (video), July 8, 2014; Steven Kotler, “Matrix John O’Brien (jobrien@ sacred in the faculty-student relationship, Learning,” Discover, February 18, 2013. Note that in 1960, Arthur C. Clarke also predicted: educause.edu) is President freeing faculty of transactional matters “We may develop a machine for recording and CEO of EDUCAUSE. to focus on what matters most. After all, information directly onto the brain as today we what I cherish most about the colleges can record a symphony on tape. So we may one day be able to become instant experts learning and universities I have attended are the Chinese overnight, for example.” See Clarke, human connections. “1960: A Vision of the Future” (video).
50 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017
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Mission Driven, Common Challenges
fter working for Cuyahoga Community College tional content in a variety of locations, which provides little in in Ohio for over six years, in February 2016 terms of actionable information for how to improve student I moved to a new position (and state) to take learning. Data collection in such environments is a challenge. on a new challenge, at Southern New Hamp- What is needed is a true Learning Object Repository or robust shire University. Surprisingly, the move from Content Management System, where information on student Athe community college environment to the College of Online interactions with which versions of what content can be tracked and Continuing Education at a private, liberal arts university and used to revise the learning design for students. revealed far more similarities than differences in how to sup- Transitioning legacy systems to more modern environments port students as effective online learners. can be as much about how to utilize the system as it is about the system functionality itself. Limitations that existed in legacy A Common Mission of Access systems years ago necessitated many layers of workarounds to One of the primary things that drew me to both institutions— help mitigate the challenges, and as technology develops, many and overall the beauty and the challenge of both environ- of those workarounds persist. Disassembling the existing busi- ments—is that access to higher education is part of their mis- ness process to take advantage of newer functionality can be sion. Students who otherwise might not be able to go to college disruptive but is often necessary. and obtain a degree have an opportunity because of institutions like these. The mission of Southern New Hampshire University Moving to Interoperability First (SNHU) is to transform the lives of our students by “relentlessly Both institutional environments—the community college and challenging the status quo” and creating “high quality, afford- the private university—face the challenge of transitioning to a able and innovative pathways to meet the unique needs of Next Generation Digital Learning Environment where interop- each and every student.”1 The mission statement of Cuyahoga erability is front and center.3 At Cuyahoga Community College, Community College (Tri-C) similarly focuses on its purpose online and hybrid course design and development was driven to “provide high quality, accessible and affordable educational by individual faculty members, and as a result, what is inte- opportunities and services.”2 grated into the system is both limited and limiting. When there This mission—though institutionally unique—presents are publishers’ materials that are preferred for instructional common challenges for how to design online learning to effec- value, those materials have longer staying power in the system tively support students who are largely nontraditional students than is necessarily advisable. Copying courses can result in balancing many priorities, often including family and work. multiple versions of the same dense content that may not be integrated—or that perhaps should not be integrated. Fighting with Legacy Systems Integrating building blocks into Blackboard, or utilizing LTI In both environments, a common challenge is wrestling with (Learning Tools Interoperability), requires functional testing legacy technology systems. Often, business processes grew and then implementation in approved upgrade windows in alongside the systems to mitigate the technology challenges. both environments. Empowering institutions to ask for—and Engagement with content, with fellow students, and with fac- then effectively integrate—standards-based resources and ulty is often limited by the constraints of technical systems. experiences requires a different type of partnership with both The management of content—from files to videos to interactive content-based and technology-based vendors. The IMS Global materials—can be difficult. Content is hosted in multiple places, Learning Consortium (https://www.imsglobal.org/) is rapidly and the technology systems necessary to effectively manage making progress with open standards, and it is up to the institu- content (and measure the effectiveness of such materials) are tions that serve students to require adherence to standards. not yet operationalized at most institutions. Even among colleges and universities with large online Both the community college and the private university enrollments, Southern New Hampshire University is unique need content management. Hosting files is one step, but ensur- in the way in which it partners with publishers. This relation- ing that content has appropriate management—with version ship is enabled by the master course model, wherein faculty control, responsiveness for mobile delivery, and tracking for and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) work with instructional student usage—goes a step beyond. Most colleges host instruc- designers, academic leaders, and content architects to centrally
54 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 Connections Editor: Bret Ingerman By SASHA THACKABERRY
needs for learning and support. Though institutions vary in their place on the spectrum between legacy systems and new innovative systems, all have gaps in functionality and tools. Beyond the LMS, core learning technology need areas include the following:
n Learning Object Repository or Content Management System n Video streaming n Mobile-first ability for institutionally or faculty-designed resources and interactions n Synchronous interaction (video, chat) n Contemporary asynchronous interaction (video, discussion boards, audio and video feedback) Ryan McVay/Thinkstock © 2017 Ryan McVay/Thinkstock n Systemic communication tools (texting, apps, alerts) n Effective data dashboards and data warehouses with effec- develop courses that are then consistently utilized by faculty. tive data flow When learning resources are selected in a holistic manner, the n Automatic notifications for students, faculty, and advisors institution has the opportunity to work more closely with pub- n Curriculum management system lishers over time. n Adaptive learning (engine, publisher system, or other) By contrast, in the community college environment that I n Competency-based education (tools, systems) experienced, adoption of learning resources would occur at n Tutoring, writing, and other support systems the departmental or campus level. When individual publisher n Student-to-student social engagement and support outside reps work with a single faculty member or a department, often- of courses times the coordination for integrating resources in order to n Placement tools, remediation, and just-in-time resources get good data on student performance with those materials is n Proctoring for assessments, and multifactored authentica- lacking or not even considered. Discovering the effectiveness of tion for academic integrity learning resources for large numbers of students becomes even n Library and research resources integrated into the LMS more challenging in this disaggregated environment. A Common Challenge Effective Online Student Support To support the new majority of students—often older, working, Online support structures vary between environments as well. and with families—community colleges and private universi- Whereas both types of institutions utilize online tutoring and ties face a common challenge: the need to find ways to evolve both have writing support for students, how that support is their learning technology systems. Students expect a more deployed differs. SNHU has an innovative advising model. Data consumer-grade experience with technology, and colleges and is regularly drawn from the LMS: if students miss an assign- universities will need to meet those expectations. More learn- ment or fall behind in class, their advisor and faculty intervene ers have access to higher education than ever before, but that early and often. Few campus-based community colleges are access is meaningful only when all tools available to them are well-positioned to scale intervention support for online stu- deployed to support their success. Learning technologies are dents in this way. the tools that can provide our students with that best chance Some colleges and universities—even those dedicated to at success. And student success is the business we are in— open access—expect that students will reach out when they together. n need help; institutional leaders assume that students under- stand internal college or university structures. Though this is Notes 1. “About Us,” Southern New Hampshire University website, accessed February beginning to change with intrusive advising and outreach to 16, 2017. students at many community colleges, sometimes the ability 2. “Mission, Vision, and Values,” Cuyahoga Community College website, of students to utilize support services depends on students accessed February 16, 2017. 3. See Malcolm Brown, Joanne Dehoney, and Nancy Millichap, “What’s Next for finding and coordinating that support themselves. Sometimes, the LMS?” EDUCAUSE Review 50, no. 4 (July/August 2015). students even self-advise on courses and program selection—a mediocre idea at best. Sasha Thackaberry (sashatberr@gmail.com) is Assistant Vice President, Academic Technology and New Course Models, College of Online and Core Ecosystem Functionality Needs Continuing Education, at Southern New Hampshire University. Another commonality between the community college and private university environments is that there are some standard © 2017 Sasha Thackaberry er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 55 E-CONTENT [All Things Digital]
Out of the Black Box
ach quarter, we ask our new undergraduate and past thirty years in higher education have contributed to another graduate students how they form their basis of kind of constrained sphere of knowledge, in very specific ways knowledge, a question that inevitably leads to con- that have gone largely unchallenged by those of us entrusted versations referencing the information technology with creating and maintaining our students’ informational envi- that informs their daily educational lives. While ronment. Black-boxed technologies that amass and commercial- Etheir interaction with their own learning environments both ize data on students, often without their knowledge, and that on and off campus, and with scholarly knowledge itself, is now often serve as privatized aggregators of their intellectual work almost always in digital form, it is also almost wholly embedded (e.g., Turnitin) are uncritically embraced as learning technologies within an IT context that operates largely invisibly to most of our that will foster intellectual honesty and accountability. While on students—that is, through black-boxed technologies. Not only are stu- one hand, the need to detect plagiarism may be a widely accepted dents embedded in the array of systems and networks, databases, rationale, it is also true that these technologies surveil students and digital tools provided to them by the vast IT infrastructure of and put the onus on technologies to police students—rather than our university, but they frequently traverse those local networks our fostering trust and accountability through a framework of to venture out into other information worlds, often through the ethics and expertise developed in a teacher-student relationship. gateways of Google Search, and into the realm Another unintended consequence of our of large-scale commercial information provid- hyper-investment in digital technologies ers. Their digital travels are via invisible, seam- Working together is the unimaginable amount of energy and less, high-speed, and ubiquitous connectivity strategically, environmental impact that the ubiquitous, over a multitude of devices. academics and always-on nature of data storage and transfer Search engines and algorithmically driven IT professionals has necessitated. Far from the immaterial and platforms are a staple of the present, and ethereal “cloud” as often described, these need to step out of future information seeking without them mass storage and data networks require great seems unimaginable. As students move the black box and amounts of power, space, and other environ- through a variety of digital information consider the many mental resources and vast infrastructure.1 sources, they generally do not notice the dimensions of IT Our comfort with these technologies, as if changing contexts and nature of the infor- platforms and our there is no human or environmental impact, mation providers, and they do not see the digital environment. remains intact when we are unaware—when infrastructure and labor involved in the cre- we divorce research from implementation. ation and maintenance of those sources. The Indeed, the majority of our students have results obtained from quick keyword searches on Google, Bing, never stopped to think through the many social and economic or other search portals are typically unquestioned in terms of dimensions of knowledge creation and dissemination and the their validity, value, and persistence. Indeed, many students role played by information technology. This begs the question: report that they could never write a paper without Google or Will the future of knowledge reside with powerful informa- the Internet and cannot imagine the not-so-distant past when tion systems, unknowable algorithms, and privatized islands of we did just that: working with paper-based information sources data? If so, at what cost? Further, what role do we, as information through the intermediary of campus research librarians. Ask technologists and educators, play in identifying and discuss- any group of undergraduate students what it would be like if all ing these nuances with our students, staff, faculty, and campus of their information services became unavailable at the close of administrators? the library at midnight. The anguished gasps of horror would It’s time to think critically about how technology creates the permeate far beyond the confines of the campus. information environment of higher education. In the past, our The IT services that higher education institutions and librar- goal has been to find a seamless, flawless IT implementation ies now provide have been liberating for students and research- that delivers the best return on investment, but as we look to ers alike, allowing academic inquiry to be undertaken without the future, deepening engagements among campus central- geographic, physical, or time constraints. Yet so many of these ized IT organizations and technology researchers, whose information technologies that we have rapidly embraced over the work is interrogating the relationship between information
56 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 E-Content Editor: Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe By SAFIYA U. NOBLE and SARAH T. ROBERTS
rated and problematic results when students and research- ers navigate the open web via Google, Bing, or some other search engine—is revealing the social consequences of biased platforms. Equally, Roberts’s research has shown that human decision-making is often obscured while at the same time it serves as an integral part of the digital information and social media production processes, as evinced in practices like com- mercial content moderation. Far from being a global platform of unfettered free expression and democratic engagement, the Internet is more akin to a series of privatized islands where rules and norms may differ drastically from site to site and platform to platform. These norms are further dictated by juris- diction and geographic location in the physical world, where major platforms often must negotiate the terms under which its users will be allowed to participate. Invariably, such deals change the user experience, user access to information, and policy—which then must be enforced, typically and most effec- tively by human beings, who bring their own values, norms and cultural predispositions to the table. Another example hits closer to home. In a rush to econo- mize resources and provide a suite of learning technologies and services, many campuses have adopted Google’s Gmail, offloading the labor and investment in campus-based secure servers, training, and service for students, staff, and faculty. Granted, the previous iterations of IT management have been labor- and resource-intensive, but these have also come with certain affordances. The use of Google’s services opens up the entire campus community to a level of data mining and surveil- lance that goes beyond our public mandates for transparency. With each decision like this, either we can put our knowledge and information into strengthening a private commercial com- pany, or we can strengthen the public sphere of information and our institutions’ infrastructures.
Steve McCracken © 2017 We know there is little time to think about the many dimen- sions of IT platforms and our digital environment. But we see systems and their broader social consequences, will lead to incredible possibilities if academics and IT professionals work more intentional and thoughtful applications of technology together, strategically. The future of knowledge should not be to information problems. The framing of IT services through relinquished to precarious, black-boxed technologies. Let’s the former models of “return” may push the ethical decision step out of the box. n making—and the time needed to think through all of the atten- Note dant affordances and consequences of these investments—to 1. Mél Hogan and Nicole Starosielski are two of a growing number of scholars the bottom of a priority list. Indeed, information workers are who have put these issues at the fore of their research. Safiya U. Noble has often tacitly or even directly discouraged from engaging in the written about the way that the environmental and human damage is out of view, sequestered to the Global South, where everything from mineral intellectual work of thinking through the ethical and environ- extraction to e-waste is made invisible. See Noble, “A Future for Intersectional mental dimensions of the platforms they implement. Rather Black Feminist Technology Studies,” S&F Online, no. 13.3-14.1 (2016). than obscuring the role and impact of technology, and the IT workers who implement it, we need to foreground the choices Safiya U. Noble ([email protected]; Twitter: @safiyanoble) is an and consequences of our hyper-digital campus environments. assistant professor at UCLA and holds appointments in the Departments of Information Studies, African American Studies, Gender Studies, Policy-making around information technology has broad and Education. Sarah T. Roberts ([email protected]; Twitter: consequences. For example, in our research, we have identified @ubiquity75) is an assistant professor at UCLA in the Department of the importance of human engagement in digital technology Information Studies. systems. Noble’s interrogation of the commercial values that © 2017 Safiya U. Noble and Sarah T. Roberts. The text of this article is licensed under the undergird Internet search technologies—along with the uncu- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 57 NEWHORIZONS [The Technologies Ahead]
Teaching Students to Marshal Evidence and Evaluate Claims
month before the 2016 U.S. presidential elec- n To mark and explain rhetorical strategies tion, President Barack Obama spoke at the n To teach students to check facts, trace provenance, and White House Frontiers Conference and said: evaluate sources4 “We’re going to have to rebuild, within this Wild Wild West of information flow, some sort of In 2017 the need to teach fact-checking and source analysis Acurating function that people agree to.”1 In the 1960s and 1970s, looms larger than ever. Among the responses to that need, Walter Cronkite’s nightly newscast sign-off (“That’s the way it Mike Caulfield, 2017 editor of this New Horizons series of is”) reached tens of millions of viewers and defined a broad con- columns in EDUCAUSE Review, has launched the Digital Polar- sensus. How can we rebuild such a consensus? Here’s one way ization Initiative (http://digipo.io). It’s a template for a cross- higher education can help: teach critical thinking modes that institutional course in which students learn how to evaluate bring scholarly best practices to the modern web. claims in news stories. Here’s a sample claim: “Minnesota To evaluate literary, scientific, or historical evidence, scholars Affordable Care Act insurance premiums increased by up to and researchers must first marshal that evidence. Footnotes 66% last year.” A student begins by citing the claim itself, using identify sources. Links to web pages and PDFs grant access to an annotation tool to select the statement as it appears in the those sources. And now online annotations can identify and link story and to create an annotation that anchors to the claim. The to claims in those web pages and PDFs. Web annotation marries annotation is represented by a link that points not just to the an ancient tradition—underlining passages in books, writing page but, more precisely, to the highlighted statement within glosses in their margins—to modern publishing that’s online and the page. This direct link5 captures context, and because each social.2 My company, Hypothes.is (https://hypothes.is), is among annotation can grow a discussion thread, it enables students to those enterprises that are developing web annotation software work together in that context. used to highlight online evidence, attach notes to the highlights, From there, the investigation moves upstream to discover and discuss the cited passages in groups or on the open web. and cite the sources on which the story relies and laterally to Unlike comments at the bottom of online news stories, or in gather the background information needed to evaluate the Twitter replies, or in Facebook posts, such annotations appear in claim and its sources. A single investigation may require stu- overlays that are separate from—but precisely connected to—the dents to find, organize, and present evidence found online evidence to which they refer. in dozens of HTML or PDF documents. For each document, The creator of one such overlay is Climate Feedback (http:// the student may need to cite several statements, ideally using climatefeedback.org/), a group of scientists who vet mainstream annotations to point to them directly. Once all this evidence has reporting on climate change. When a Climate Feedback scientist been gathered and organized, the student draws on it to write evaluates a climate-related claim in the Wall Street Journal, for exam- an analysis, which may conclude that the claim is true, false, or ple, readers using annotation-aware browsers see that expert indeterminate. gloss directly on the WSJ web page. Sites may or may not choose The Digital Polarization Initiative aims to inculcate both to invite this kind of intimate analysis. But the web’s open archi- traditional and modern literacies. Footnotes and bibliographies tecture guarantees that one way or another, it’s possible to create belong to a tradition that we must preserve and adapt for the and share authoritative overlays. Annotation tools and services are web. Evaluating the sources noted and listed, though, requires converging on open standards that will enable them to work with some genuinely new skills. To help students master them, we one another,3 just as different kinds of web browser and email cli- at Hypothes.is have created the DigiPo toolkit.6 It’s a Chrome ents are able to work with different kinds of web and email servers. extension that embodies best practices for fact-checkers This movement toward open and interoperable web annotation and works closely with the DigiPo wiki widgets that display sets the stage for a democratization of the scholarly arts of close annotation-based evidence. reading, line-by-line analysis, and accurate citation. To evaluate the reputation of an unfamiliar website, for exam- Here are some of the ways teachers use web annotation: ple, students are taught to use an advanced search that excludes that site’s own pages from search results. The toolkit keeps that n To prepopulate an online text with questions for students to Google query handy, just a right-click away. Another right-click answer option sends a selected statement to a set of fact-checking web-
58 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 New Horizons Editor: Michael Caulfield By JON UDELL
sites. Because not all sources are available evidence to collections. It also teaches online, yet another right-click option controlled naming, a form of digital sends a book title to the Online Computer literacy that, like the advanced Google EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association and the foremost community of IT leaders and professionals committed to Library Center’s WorldCat service, which queries mentioned earlier, won’t always advancing higher education. may report that a copy is available in the be so helpfully supported with training student’s local library. Fact-checking is wheels. EDUCAUSE Board of Directors hard work! When there’s a lot of evidence Other best practices are emerging as to process, these affordances help stream- web annotation matures: Tracy Schroeder, Chair line the process. Vice President of Information Services and These helpers also build an awareness n Cite evidence using links that resolve Technology Boston University of capabilities that can make students to quotes in context more competent web citizens and thus n Work with others in annotation John (Jack) Suess, Vice Chair better critical thinkers. “Many assume layers that gather and enhance dis- Vice President of Information Technology and CIO that because young people are fluent in persed web resources University of Maryland, Baltimore County social media they are equally savvy about n Use annotation tools that are open, Kay Rhodes, Secretary what they find there,” the Stanford His- standard, and interoperable Associate Vice Chancellor and CIO tory Education Group wrote in a recent Texas Tech University System report. “Our work shows the opposite.”7 What the Digital Polarization Ini- Bill Hogue, Treasurer So we need to teach students how to tiative aims to teach, above all, is a set Vice President for Information Technology debunk fake news, know when they are of strategies for evaluating claims: go and CIO reading sponsored content, and separate upstream, read laterally, check sources, University of South Carolina national newspapers of record from marshal evidence. If higher education Mark Askren fringe publications. can build consensus around those strate- CIO More broadly, we need to lay a foun- gies and the digital literacies that support University of Nebraska–Lincoln dation for evidence-based reasoning in them, it will help us establish “some sort Eric Denna social, professional, and civic realms. of curating function that people can Vice President and CIO University of Maryland Students must know how to marshal and agree to.” n manage growing bodies of evidence dis- Diane Graves tributed around the web. To that end, the Assistant Vice President for Information Notes Resources and University Librarian DigiPo toolkit also provides right-click 1. “White House Frontiers Conference” (video), Trinity University options that embody best practices for Pittsburgh, PA, October 13, 2016; “Remarks web information management. by the President in Opening Remarks and Reginald (Reggie) Henry Panel Discussion at White House Frontiers Chief Information Officer Here’s an underappreciated best Conference” (transcript), Office of the Press American Society of Association Executives practice: if you tag a set of documents Secretary, The White House, October 13, 2016. (ASAE) consistently, you create a collection that 2. For more on web annotation, see the W3C Web Annotation Working Group web page. Ron Kraemer can be cited with a URL that queries 3. See “Web Annotation Data Model,” W3C Vice President for Information Technology and for the tag. In the Digital Polarization Proposed Recommendation, January 17, 2017. Chief Information & Digital Officer University of Notre Dame Initiative projects, every investigation 4. Jeremy Dean, “Back to School with Annotation: 10 Ways to Annotate with Students,” Hypothes.is happens on its own wiki page. When blog, August 25, 2015. Edward Leach Executive Director annotations are tagged with the name 5. Bob Salera, “Huge Obamacare Premium National Institute for Staff and Organizational of the wiki page, they appear in several Increases in Minnesota: Where are Rick Nolan Development (NISOD) and Angie Craig?” NRCC blog, September 1, collections included in the page. One 2016 (Hypothes.is annotated version). collection gathers all of the evidence Joseph Moreau 6. Jon Udell, “A Hypothesis-Powered Toolkit for Vice Chancellor of Technology and CTO that supports the investigation. Another Fact Checkers,” Hypothes.is blog, January 17, Foothill-De Anza Community College District arranges a subset of the evidence on a 2017. 7. Stanford History Education Group, “Evaluating Michele Norin timeline so that investigators (and read- Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Senior Vice President and Chief Information ers) can reason about the history of the Reasoning,” November 22, 2016, p. 7 (Hypothes Officer topic. Students could assign those tags .is annotated version). Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey manually, but that’s awkward and error- Jon Udell ([email protected]) is Director, Inte- Ex Officio Member prone. So right-click options to tag a grations, for Hypothes.is. John O’ Brien source page (or a selected claim) offer President and CEO EDUCAUSE a list of current investigations. Select- © 2017 Jon Udell. The text of this article is licensed under ing from the list is an easy way to add the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 59 VIEWPOINTS [Today’s Hot Topics]
Is It Déjà Vu All Over Again?
n 2002, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research der, then, that in a recent discussion Vicki Tambellini, a widely (ECAR) published “The Promise and Performance of Enter- regarded expert in the higher education software market, noted prise Systems for Higher Education,” by Robert Kvavik, that a number of institutions seem to be deliberately waiting to Richard Katz, and others. In it the authors estimated that replace or upgrade these systems. As she has tried to under- more than $5 billion had been spent on administrative and stand why, she has learned that most of them anticipate making IERP (enterprise resource planning) systems.1 One can only significant investments in administrative systems in the coming imagine what has been spent since then—and what is being three to five years and are waiting to see what shakes out in the spent this year and what will be spent in the coming years. software (tool) marketplace. Specifically, many are watching the Whatever the amount, it is likely to be very substantial. emergence of cloud-based software vendors, otherwise known When the Kvavik and Katz data gets resurrected at a discus- as Software as a Service (SaaS).3 What is troubling, however, is sion around the water cooler or at conferences these days, the that most appear to be preparing to make another “silver bul- reactions range from “so what, that’s the cost of let” bet, thinking all they need to worry about doing business” to “hmmm, I didn’t know that, is picking the right software tool to be suc- I wonder what we spent” to “you have got to be Higher education cessful. In other words, they are concerned kidding me, that can’t be right.” What seems with external forces, which Kvavik and Katz the most striking is that we don’t know if the must avoid the found to be “less influential.” There appears money spent was too much, too little, or just déjà vu of to be little happening in terms of dealing right. We have a hard time showing, in a verifi- repeating with internal forces—the “major obstacles” to able way, that the benefits exceeded the cost of which Kvavik and Katz refer. implementing the new systems. Regardless of the system Given that many of us had the “good for- the reaction, we seem poised to do it all over implementation tune” of being involved in the first round of again. mistakes from investing in large enterprise systems, it seems Even more troubling than the amount wise to reflect on what we learned (or should spent, Kvavik and Katz reported that many years past. have learned) and what we plan to do differ- of the projects that contributed to the $5 bil- ently going forward as a result of our reflect- lion price tag failed in that they came in ing on past system implementations. My over budget, took longer than planned, or did not deliver the reflections have resulted in reminding myself of the following expected value. Why? Kvavik and Katz explain: well-tested rules for successful system implementations:
External forces such as quality of software or consulting were n System = well-aligned process, data, people, and tools. Too often found to be less influential than internal forces. When asked, when we see the word system, our partners think software these institutions revealed that the major obstacles to comple- tool and we as CIOs seem to just shrug our shoulders and tion were mostly internal to the institution. They include data go along, not wanting to rock the boat. Remember what issues, cultural resistance to change, and lack of understand- Kvavik and Katz noted: that the major obstacles to the suc- ing of software capabilities. The realization that the greatest cessful completion of implementing an enterprise system implementation challenges are the result of internal insti- were mostly internal to the institution. In other words, the tutional issues—not external forces—contradicts a popular obstacles are process, data, and people. Resetting the definition message prevalent in the industry for the past few years. It’s of system in higher education has become a bit of a mission interesting to discover that the institutions themselves—their for me. As I have tried to make my point to my colleagues, cultures, their people, and their historical decisions—are the I have printed (on a 3D printer) tetrahedrons with process primary hurdle to clear for a successful implementation, not printed on one side, data on another side, people on another, the technology, the consultants, or the vendors.2 and tool on the fourth side.4 Handing these out allows me to talk about the need to align these four components of a sys- In other words, the project aspects over which we had abso- tem. It seems to help people get the message, and it creates lute control were the most frequent causes of failure. No won- the opportunity for me to make the next point.
60 EDUCAUSEreview MARCH/APRIL 2017 Viewpoints Editor: Klara Jelinkova By ERIC DENNA
to data and tools. Why, you may ask? Processes span organiza- tional boundaries. For example, think of all the different organi- zations that play a part in admit- ting a student. Certainly the admissions department has a major role. However, many other organizations are often involved as well: financial aid, inter- national studies, the bursar/ controller function, housing, food services, parking, legal, and don’t forget athletics if the prospective student is an athlete. Whether procure-to-pay, hiring, planning, or virtually any other process, the challenge is inte- grating all the design require- ments across organizational boundaries. If someone does not help integrate the process require-
Dung Hoang © 2017 ments across all the various organizations and functions, the n Process and data first, then people, then tools. Industry has learned institution will face significant challenges (e.g., cost overruns, that we focus first on process and data, then we clarify peo- time overruns, or undelivered functionality) when implement- ple’s roles in the new process, and then we design/configure ing a new tool as part of implementing a new system. Few orga- the tool for people to use in implementing the process and nizations have the breadth and depth of exposure to the entire data. Too often organizations think that they can simply institution as does the IT organization. This is a tremendous install a new tool and then the process, data, and people issues opportunity that should be seized. will resolve themselves. For decades we have known that pro- I fear that if CIOs do not step up and lead in the design of cess and data need to come first, yet we keep breaking picks enterprise processes, we will be one step closer to the CIO on this principle etched in stone. becoming more a director of infrastructure than a critical part- n Automate, don’t just augment. If there is one thing I have seen ner in the president’s cabinet. This is the primary reason that a too often in higher education it is that we use technology growing number of CIOs are sponsoring a process innovation to simply augment people’s administrative work instead of team that helps the college or university rethink the nature of rethinking the process, data, and people’s roles and striving its processes. Doing so will keep the CIO in the middle of any to automate work whenever possible. When we augment transformation effort rather than being relegated to the “tech instead of automate, we often add cost to the current process person.” And doing so will help higher education avoid the déjà and actually make the process harder to change. We should vu of repeating the mistakes from years past. n be ambitious partners with administrative leadership to bend the cost curve of administration and not just apply Notes technology for technology’s sake. 1. Robert B. Kvavik, Richard N. Katz, et al., “The Promise and Performance of Enterprise Systems for Higher Education,” ECAR Research Study, vol. 4, 2002, 17. Some may wonder whether it is the domain of the CIO to be 2. Ibid., 16. fiddling with process and people issues in system design and 3. Vicki Tambellini, conversation with the author, November 8, 2016. 4. If you want the file for printing these on your own, email me and I will send implementation. Aren’t we technologists? Let me conclude you a copy. with a thought about this issue. For me, the title Chief Information Officer is a misnomer. I Eric Denna ([email protected]) is Vice President and CIO at the would argue that our title should be Chief Integration Officer. University of Maryland.
We have a fundamental responsibility to see that an institution © 2017 Eric Denna. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons pays careful attention to the processes and people roles, not just Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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AT&T, Bronze Partner 1-800-331-0500 www.att.com/edu/ 15
CDW-G, Gold Partner 1-800-808-4239 www.CDWG.com/HiEd Outsert, 7
Computer Comforts, Silver Partner 1-281-535-2288 www.computercomforts.com 5
Jenzabar, Platinum Partner 1-800-593-0028 www.jenzabar.com inside front cover
Laserfiche, Silver Partner 1-800-985-8533 www.laserfiche.com inside back cover
Moran Technology Consulting, Gold Partner 1-888-699-4440 www.MoranTechnology.com 13
Nelnet Business Solutions 1-800-609-8056 www.campuscommerce.com/SmarterCampus 21
Panopto 1-855-726-6786 www.panopto.com/educause Insert, 3
rSmart 1-866-874-4338 www.rsmart.com 24
Softdocs, Inc. 1-888-457-8879 www.softdocs.com 19
Spectrum Industries, Inc., Bronze Partner 1-800-235-1262 www.spectrumfurniture.com 23
Steelcase, Gold Partner 1-888-783-3522 www.steelcase.com/node back cover
Unicon 1-480-558-2400 www.unicon.net 63
er.educause.edu MARCH/APRIL 2017 EDUCAUSEreview 63 Online in March/April »
Video: Students of the Future A portrait of the tools and technology that students of the future might encounter.
educause.edu/ERO Search
From Accommodation to Microlearning with Social Media
Accessibility: Creating a The researchers investigated the best tools and Culture of Inclusivity pedagogy for creating and delivering microlearning, which is a way to provide both content and interaction Colleges and universities tend to do well providing on a smaller scale with the goal not only of educating accommodations in response to individual students students but also of engaging them to the point where with disabilities, but the proactive approach is to they effectively retain what they’ve learned. design all IT resources to be accessible, which benefits all users. Increasing Student Retention Using Encrypted Blockchain in MOOCs to Support Certificates Why don’t “regular” MOOCs work well for students in developing countries, who have high non-completion Certificates, also known as digital badges, require rates? In this podcast, learn how MOOC designers can a technical infrastructure that lets users reliably address the problem of low retention among students store and manage them. Blockchain can serve this from developing countries and simultaneously support purpose. Blockchain encryption further verifies all students taking the MOOC. trustworthiness and accuracy of the credentials— and the owner’s reputation.
Upcoming issues will focus on student success, next-generation digital learning environments, diversity and inclusion, and community college perspectives.
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Trusted Enterprise Document Management for Higher Education
• Automate critical, paper-intensive business processes • Secure institutional records in compliance with state and federal regulations • Support business continuity planning • Reduce administrative costs campus-wide
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© 2017 Laserfiche. Laserfiche®, Run Smarter®, and Compulink® are registered trademarks of Compulink Management Center, Inc. All rights reserved. AD p. c4 ©2017 Steelcase©2017 Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks used herein are the property of Steelcase Inc. or of their respective owners.
Node. Seating designed for learning.
The chair that started a classroom revolution.
There are many modes of learning. Which is why Node® transitions quickly and easily from one classroom configuration to the next. If you’re ready to create an active learning environment for your students, discover the chair that started it all.
See Node in action at steelcase.com/node