The CTO Project

This morning I read the January 2008 SCUP report on Trends in Higher Education. Over the next two decades, levels of literacy and numeracy are predicted to decline in the US. Indirect cost recovery from research grants (which has been a major revenue source for research universities) is likely to be reduced from 50-60% to 35%, where it will be capped. Energy concerns are likely to limit the amount of travel people are willing to suffer for college. Meanwhile, European countries are working together to create a system to account for student learning, to actually … Continue Reading

Check it out. I feel so dirty. Maybe we can threaten kids who download other college’s course info? That’d be cool. But let’s note that the demise of higher ed has been predicted before.

Meanwhile, today our call accounting software puked and then died. Nice. I asked why we didn’t have a service contract for it and was told that was because the vendor went out of business a couple of years ago. It runs on Windows 98 just to complete the picture. The good news is that long distance has gotten so cheap, … Continue Reading

Let’s face it: higher ed is on its way down the long slide to obsolescence. It’s too expensive and you can get all the info you’ve ever wanted for free on the internet, so what’s worth the $50K/year price tag? Because I’ve decided I will live forever, I hope to turn my current employer into the one school that will still be relevant after Armageddon.

Why get the degree? For the degree. The credential. That’s why the future for IT is all about identity management/roles and relationship management, connections w/ elearning systems, and assessment, which I ranted about … Continue Reading