Future Scenario - Student Services via Mobile Web

My Future Scenario was the idea of creating a Mobile Web application that allows college students not only to look up information, but actually perform student services transactions.  By creating mobile web applications, students could complete transactions on their phone or other mobile device. This means they could be at work, home, or even on a break from class. Students of today need and expect the ability to complete transactions on their smart devices.  Providing this ability will

For the purposes of my future scenario, student services areas are:

• Registration – Ability to search and register for classes
• Financial Aid – Ability to view and accept awards.
• Finances – Ability to view and pay student fees.
• Advising – Ability to determine what classes a student needs to take, and in what order they should be taken to graduate.
• Admissions – Ability to view admissions status, accept admission to the university, and complete intent process to officially commit.

Mobile applications that are currently available usually only allow students to look-up specific information about the college.

While there are many mobile applications that have bee created in private industry there are not many in the area of Higher Education.  It would seem that providing these services would be a very straight forward, the technical and organizational challenges.  From a technical perspective the infrastructure needed and the staff resources, and expertise can be a challenge to acquire.  Also, in the case of my University there are limitations on what can be done technically at our data center.  The data center rules would definitely be considered behind the times.  In addition, the ability to work with the newer technology HTML5 tool set needs to be acquired by staff.

From an organizational perspective, gaining the support of executive leadership will be key to the success of such a large project.  Also, explaining the need and vision of the project to key stakeholders will be required.  Many will not want to take on an additional project and not feel that it is needed.

Leading this type of disruption, takes patience and commitment.  Proper planning will also by key.

Walking through this future scenario provided an opportunity to think through the needs of the students, what challenges would be encountered, and the resources needed to complete this project.

Our Futures class has been a pleasure, and also exposed me to tools that I was not aware.  Great tools for use in the future.

Cognitive Surplus: Can it Change the World?

Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world

Clay discusses the generosity of a group of programmers that created Ushahidi, a crisis mapping system after a woman posted on her blog there was too much information for one person to go through manually.  The programmers understood what the problem was and how to fix it.  They did not 
charge for this program and provided it to others through an open source model.

There are people that have intrinsic motivation to create things for others to use and share.  We see these today in applications like Moodle and in the creation of free learning tools on-line.  

Free cultures and people in those cultures have many choices and in those choices we must figure out what we celebrate and pass on to those we influence.  We can celebrate television and make it more important then education.  On the other hand we can celebrate science, technology, and education.

Leadership is complicated, in our current environment, and many external factors influence one’s ability fully celebrate what should be celebrated and rewarded. 

The Filter Bubble - Eli Pariser

In the TED talk, Beware online "filter bubbles" Eli Pariser discusses the new trend of web site tailoring results to the user.  The companies discussed specifically were Google and Yahoo news.  The problem with this filtering is that a person does not get all of the results on a topic, or the results are sorted much differently.  This could create an unbalanced information that a person gets on a specific topic.  People need balanced information on topics to better understand the world and issues around them.

As Eli points out, before the Internet we relied on humans to filter in newspapers and in the news broadcasted on TV with journalism ethics be used as a set of standards.  The guidelines and principles are these companies using?

Invictus – Exploring the Leadership of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was able to show, through his actions, that leadership is more than just talk.  His presidency was truly a disruption to his country.  He had a decision to make when he took office. He could make sweeping changes and alienate people or do things differently and bring people together. He showed his desire to bring the country together through his daily actions.  He kept as many of the Presidential Office staff that wanted to stay, kept white body guards, and worked tirelessly to support his country.

His move to use rugby, to bring the country together, was very calculated and could have failed. But he was successful and stayed the course even when people doubted his approach.  The country was so divided, there was not a way to use politics or other means to bring people together.

As Stengal points out in his 2008, Time Magazine article, Mandela had studied the Afrikaans and their beloved rugby as far back as the 1960s.  He studied the game, players, and was able to discuss rugby with his prison guards.  He also knew that the blacks and Afrikaners believed them selves to both be Africans.  This was a major factor in rallying the country and bringing them together around the Springboks.

To make things work, he also had to support and encourage a so-so rugby team.  Mandela cultivated a relationship with team captain Francois Pienaar.  This relationship provided encouragement and helped Francois think about things differently.  He then encouraged the team to think about themselves and the country in a new way.  

Invictus, Nelson Mandela's time as president, and his legacy provide a portrait of a truly talented leader that could determine the best approach for whatever problem was set in front of him to find the right solution.

Daniel Pink's Drive

Carrots and Sticks

Working in higher education for over twenty years, I have witnessed the seven deadly flaws of carrots and sticks in action on many occasions.  According to Daniel Pink, Carrots and Sticks: The Seven Deadly Flaws (p. 57) are:

1. They can extinguish intrinsic motivation
2. They can diminish performance
3. They can crush creativity
4. They can crowd out good behavior
5. They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior
6. They can become addictive
7. They can foster short-term thinking

One example that comes to mind relates to IT projects. Working in IT, some times it is necessary to create custom applications for specific department needs.  The carrot is used to entice programmers to work on a new project.  They become very excited about the opportunity.  But the carrot usually always comes with a stick of an incredibly short deadline.  Instead of managing the customer’s expectations and letting them know it will take more time to provide them a quality product the pressure is put on the programmer.  This can crush creativity and fosters short-term thinking.  I don’t believe that I have ever seen carrots and sticks work on a long-term basis.  You could provide someone a raise to do a job and increase his or her performance but it only works on a short-term basis or not at all. 

Autonomy

In my current position I have a great deal of autonomy.  I am able to determine my work time, tasks, and technique.  I am tuned in to the needs of those on campus and the University as a whole. I believe my past performance and work production have provided me the ability to have autonomy in my position. I am able to work on many projects at once and move between them as I see the priorities changing in my organization.  My current autonomy level is well balanced. 

Moving is Not Fun...

Although nothing could be compared to war, it seems moving could be close. No matter how prepared you are nothing ever goes as planned.  My move on October 5th was an exhausting day.  Preparing for the move and the post move-in have not been a picnic either.  It also does not help that my new house is not completely done.  I thought not having flooring in a few places would not be a big deal, wrong.... You never know how much stuff you have until it can't go where it is suppose to.  I hope my flooring does actually come in on October 18th like it is suppose to.  Now if I could only find my shoes and work clothes....

Learning in New Media Environments

The Learning in New Media Environments is a short video by Dr. Michael Wesch. His video and ideas raise a lot of ideas and thoughts.  The ideas that something as simple as a book and maps can change a village in New Guinea so quickly show you the power of media and other forms of knowledge.  When you look at all of the media that we have access to on a daily basis it is no wonder that our world is changing so quickly.  The question is how do you translate that to the classroom and make it more accepted by college faculty, and K-12 teachers.  I have found in my educational journey as a student that not many faculty want to incorporate new ideas into the classroom.  Dr. Wesch gave some great examples of how he engages a large college class by having them all contribute to a wiki and learn about a specific part of the world.  The collaboration and the process of learning the information seems like a valuable exercise that transcends his class and would be applicable to many classes and the real world.  Collaboration and facilitation are where we need to go to in the college classroom.