EDUCAUSE Award Winners for 2008
EDUCAUSE has announced the recipients of its three 2008 awards. Winners will be honored during the annual conference, October 28–31, in Orlando. The award program is sponsored by SunGard Higher Education, An EDUCAUSE Platinum Partner.
Leadership
The highest recognition that EDUCAUSE gives to individuals is its Leadership Award. This year the association is presenting this award to Joel L. Hartman, vice provost of information technologies and resources at the University of Central Florida.
Hartman has not only played a critical role in advancing the University of Central Florida's (UCF) innovative uses of technology, he has helped shape the impact of key technology organizations and been a mentor to many aspiring IT leaders. He has been a consultant to both public and private sector organizations, and has been active in the development of statewide education and research networks in Illinois and Florida. He has served on numerous state, regional, and national IT committees in areas including public broadcasting, distributed learning, and networking.
As CIO at UCF, Hartman's division—comprising Computer Services & Telecommunications, the Library, the Office of Instructional Resources, the Center for Distributed Learning, Course Development and Web Services, and the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness—successfully supports campus-wide technology, technology-enhanced learning, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Over the past decade, UCF's distributed learning program, Online@UCF, has been internationally recognized as one of the premier initiatives of its kind, with models and lessons learned being disseminated through extensive presentations, publications, and site visits, both nationally and internationally.
Hartman has published and spoken extensively, most notably on bridging technology, teaching, and learning. The ECAR research bulletin Blended Learning that he co-authored is one of the most extensively accessed online resources in ECAR history.
During Hartman's term as CIO, UCF has been recognized by many organizations for its integration of technology into the learning enterprise, having received, among other recognitions, the American Productivity and Quality Center award, the American Distance Learning Association award for Distance Learning Program Excellence, the Sloan-C Outstanding Individual in Distance Learning award, the Sloan-C award for Online Teaching and Learning Faculty Development, and the EDUCAUSE Teaching and Learning Award.
2008 EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award
The EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award recognizes innovations and initiatives centered on information technologies that provide groundbreaking solutions to major challenges in higher education, or that change prevailing conditions in remarkable ways so as to allow new solutions to be developed and deployed. This year's Catalyst Award recipient is the Regional Networks, an essential part of the collaborative dynamics that created the Internet.
Evolving from and supporting higher education consortia with roots in supercomputing research centers, the Regional Networks were able to solve formidable technical problems and create critical interoperability standards, develop and share organizational models, evangelize for new applications, and bring together diverse academic and corporate entities in a trusted network environment that had not existed before.
The Regional Networks formed an essential link in an unprecedented partnership that included the federal government's National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET), emerging campus networks, supercomputing centers at research institutions, and commercial network providers that were created to manage a nascent national backbone. These organizational players, in turn, followed the lead of the predecessor Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) of the U.S. Department of Defense. A project that had its roots in basic science and military research blossomed into a world-wide knowledge tool and economic engine.
The Regional Networks and their visionary pioneers shaped a concept into reality with government and corporate entities that ultimately benefited institutions of all types, sizes, and missions. Few enterprises in history have depended on such broad, deep, and sustained collaboration. Without the direct and catalytic impact of the Regional Networks, neither higher education nor the global information web could have been transformed as quickly and from the forms they were just two decades ago.
2008 EQ Contribution of the Year Award
This year's EDUCAUSE Quarterly Contribution of the Year Award goes to an article by Michael J. Albright, associate professor and director of online learning at Dakota Wesleyan University, and John Nworie, lead educational technology designer at Kent State University. Their winning article, "Rethinking Academic Technology Leadership in an Era of Change," points out that the senior academic technology officer (SATO) is integral to leading efforts in directing instructional technology adoption, organization of service and support, administration of the support unit, management of resources, and integration of the teaching and learning process in higher education—yet few campuses have an SATO in place. The article appeared in EQ, Volume 31, Number 1, 2008, pp. 14–23, http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/RethinkingAcademicTechnologyLe/162512.
Also in the News
Oblinger Stresses Need for National Broadband Policy
EDUCAUSE President Diana G. Oblinger recently spoke in Washington, D.C., at the New America Foundation–hosted event, Broadband Revolution, about the pressing need for a national broadband policy. Read more about the event and Oblinger's speech at http://www.educause.edu/blog/agould/OblingerDiscussesNeedforNation/167722 and access a related press release at http://www.educause.edu/AboutEDUCAUSE/PressReleases/EDUCAUSEProposes/17290 regarding EDUCAUSE's proposed new approach to making high-speed Internet services available across the country.
New Research Study on Cyberinfrastructure
EDUCAUSE announces a new research study from the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR): Higher Education IT and Cyberinfrastructure: Integrating Technologies for Scholarship. Written by Mark C. Sheehan, the study explores higher education's involvement in five areas of research-related information technologies: high-performance computing resources, cyberinfrastructure applications and tools, data storage and management resources, advanced network infrastructure resources, and resources for collaboration within virtual communities. Because of the critical importance of this topic, the study report is available without charge at http://www.educause.edu/ECAR/HigherEducationITandCyberinfra/162866.
Oblinger Article Published by Becta
EDUCAUSE President Diana G. Oblinger's article, "Growing Up with Google," has been published in Becta's Emerging Technologies for Learning, vol. 3. Becta is a leading government agency for information and communications technology in education, covering the United Kingdom. Download the article at http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Emergingtechnologiesforlearnin/162825.
EDUCAUSE Website Upgrade
In early June, EDUCAUSE completed a website infrastructure upgrade that will provide and maintain better content delivery services for its members. Learn more at http://www.educause.edu/AboutEDUCAUSE/EDUCAUSEwebsiteupgradeJune2008/121481.
ELI Releases Three New 7 Things Briefs
The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) has released three new briefs in the 7 Things You Should Know About… series. The 7 Things You Should Know About Second Life examines how Second Life lets educators easily build and modify learning spaces to test how different strategies for a physical space affect learning, and how a similar approach can be taken toward educational activities in those spaces. The 7 Things You Should Know About Multi-Touch Interfaces addresses how multi-touch interfaces and supporting applications offer diverse ways of visualizing information to improve understanding, as well as facilitating new ways to foster collaborative creation, permitting several users to work simultaneously on a single screen. Finally, The 7 Things You Should Know About Ning examines how Ning allows instructors to use social networks in a neutral setting to help facilitate a strong sense of community among students and encourage personal interactions that can lead to the creation of new knowledge. Access these three briefs on the web at http://www.educause.edu/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSeries/7495.
Ryland Fellowship Application Deadline
The application deadline for Jane N. Ryland Fellowships is November 3, 2008. This EDUCAUSE grant program was established to recognize a combination of past achievement, personal and institutional commitment, potential benefit, and financial need. Applicants may serve their institutions in any information technology management area: central IT organizations, academic units, or administrative departments. Recipients receive grants supporting attendance at a 2009 EDUCAUSE event. View more information and access the application form at http://www.educause.edu/fellow/.