Friday, October 22, 2004

TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE WEBLOG Continuing Coverage From This Week's Educause Conference A daily glance at education-technology headlines from The Chronicle and elsewhere online. Available by  &  By SCOTT CARLSON and DAN CARNEVALE Denver Report on the Work Force of the Future Sounds Alarms OCTOBER 22, 1 P.M. -- Educause attendees -- bushed and bleary-eyed, perhaps from a Wild West-themed party Thursday night -- filed into an auditorium this morning for a final presentation. It did not brighten their day. Diana Natalicio, president of the University of Texas at El Paso, talked about the technology work force of the future. Long-term trends, she said, indicate that science and engineering jobs are increasingly important to the work force, and also that American students are largely uninterested in those disciplines. Women and minorities in particular are underrepresented as science and engineering students and employees. Meanwhile, the United States faces competition from overseas. Foreign-born students are a large and growing portion of those studying science and engineering. The United States, once a leader in granting science and engineering degrees to undergraduates, now lags behind many other developed countries. "This is a picture that suggests a lack of sustainability," Ms. Natalicio said, "and should be a concern to all of us." She said colleges should make degree programs in science and technology more flexible, perhaps by using technology. Higher education should also get involved in reforming the "foundation" of education -- the public schools. Schoolteachers are demoralized, disrespected, and underpaid, she said. "Think about getting involved in schools," she said. "Our kids deserve that." The United States is in a precarious position right now, she said. Immigrants are coming into the country, trying to find places in society, yet they are having trouble finding their place in academe. Meanwhile, the country is rife with divisions: digital divides, political divides, income divides, and so on. "We are not moving quickly enough to ensure that the have-nots can take their place beside us." "This isn't about charity or what's morally right," she said. "This is about survival and thinking about the future of this society." -- S.C. Balancing Security and Privacy Is Still a Headache, Network Administrators Say OCTOBER 22, 10 A.M. -- Among the headaches that campus-technology gurus attending the Educause conference say they face at home is the expectation that they can provide computer security without threatening privacy or causing inconvenience. Thomas Reid, director of communication-network services at Ohio University, says that while his institution's computers rely on the latest technology to protect themselves from viruses and worms, many faculty members and students don't want to let the university offer them the same protections for their personal computers. "Their personal computer, people defend it like it's their home -- their domain," Mr. Reid says. "They don't want to let us in to sweep for bugs." Cedric Bennett, information-security director emeritus at Stanford University, says it wasn't until major security problems occurred that faculty members there relented and let technology officials tackle some security issues. Previously, people would balk when the university offered to scan their computers for viruses and spyware. "Even a word as innocuous as 'scan' is scary," Mr. Bennett says. "It's a knee-jerk privacy reaction -- especially in higher education." When the Blaster worm wreaked havoc in 2003, it compromised about 8,000 computers at Stanford, Mr. Bennett says. "That pretty much brought the place to its knees for awhile." Stanford now shuts down Web ports when officials see that they are connected to computers that are propagating worms, he says. But turning off people's e-mail, even for a short while, can be upsetting. "That's like shutting off people's oxygen," Mr. Bennett says. During a presentation on privacy and cybersecurity, Steven L. Worona, director of policy and networking programs at Educause, came up with a political analogy for the tenuous balance between security and privacy. He asked audience members whether they supported requiring political candidates to disclose the names of everyone from whom they received monetary contributions. Most in the audience raised their hands. Then he asked attendees whether they would be willing to allow anyone to dig through their own political contributions to see which candidates they had supported. Hardly any hands went up. But Mr. Worona noted that people can't have one form of disclosure without the other. The same people who agree that political candidates should disclose all donations aren't always happy when they realize that this means the same records can be searched for information about their own personal contributions. Cybersecurity and privacy also work in tandem, he said. While authentications and passwords provide security for computer networks, they also compromise privacy by leaving a trail that shows what a user was doing on a computer. "We make tradeoffs in privacy all the time," he says. -- D.C. Computers? Software? In the Exhibit Hall, the Focus is on Tchotchkes OCTOBER 21, 2 P.M. -- Gizmos, gadgets, toys -- the exhibit hall at Educause is stocked with desktop junk to take home, all of it branded with corporate logos. A quick tour of the aisles turns up stopwatches, baseballs, golf balls, squeeze balls, mousepads, toy cars, stuffed lions, keyboard brushes, miniature Rubik's cubes, pens that light up, pens that change color from the warmth of your hands, and pens that merely write well. (Photograph by Dan Carnevale) Denver being on edge of the Rocky Mountains, carabiners are popular giveaway items. Warnings on the sides of the handout carabiners make clear that the spring-clip devices should not actually be used for rock climbing, but they're fine for holding keys. And this being a tech conference, with hundreds of middle-age paunches attending, chocolate bars and sweet breath mints are popular. Qwest Communications International's booth has a roulette wheel and a gaggle of technology administrators lined up to spin it for prizes -- a lint brush, a survival kit, a cell-phone charger, and other items. Like gimmicks at other booths, the roulette wheel is just a ruse. "It attracts people and gives you a chance to talk," says Caroline Rinker, Qwest's marketing director. "Sometimes it's visibility. They keep it on their desk and see it" -- and the Qwest logo -- "when a question arrives," she says. At Blackboard's booth, representatives give out lattice-like little Hoberman Spheres that customers can expand and contract. "It's part of our theme about expanding your network," says a sales representative, David Yaskin, slipping into pitch mode. Some items are appealingly mysterious. Computing Options Company is giving out "bendies," malleable pieces of wire coated in rubber -- the perfect gift for the fidgety. Epson America Inc. is offering transparent plastic hands. "It's a massager," says Dave Decker, a regional manager for Epson. "But it could be a business-card holder, or a cigarette holder, or if you balance it right, it will hold your cell phone." The hand falls over a few times before it holds a cell phone steady. There is a sense that vendors are desperate to get rid of these tchotchkes before tomorrow, when the conference ends and the sales teams will have to box up their displays and ship them home. Indeed, Epson's plastic hand has started to acquire additional amazing abilities as the day wears on. Turn it upside down and it could be a candy dish, or a key holder. Says Patty O'Brian, another Epson sales representative: "I use it to whack people over the head." -- S.C. The One Thing You Need to Know? Managers and Leaders Are Different OCTOBER 21, 1 P.M. -- For once, the conversation focused on people, not gear. Educause conference-goers opened the day with a speech by a slick, boyish-looking Briton named Marcus Buckingham, a consultant who specializes in leadership and management. The program promised that he would reveal "The One Thing You Need to Know" about running an organization. But his presentation ran for an hour -- entertainingly -- and covered not only a number of things managers should be aware of, but also sundry supplemental bullet points and asides. His message, boiled down to essentials: Managers and leaders are two different kinds of beast. Mr. Buckingham focused on the qualities of a good manager first. A good manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of subordinates -- and aims to exploit the strengths while working around the weaknesses. A good manager understands the "triggers" that motivate people. But too many managers, he said, focus on their employees' worst qualities and aim to reform them. "With all apologies to Madonna," Mr. Buckingham said in a wry British tone, "it seems we live in a remedial world." Leaders, on the other hand, think big, he said. The notion of humble leaders, so popular nowdays, is an odd one, Mr. Buckingham said. Leaders are ego-driven optimists who provide visions of the future for their people -- clear, well-defined visions. "Leaders turn anxiety into confidence, often through clarity," he said. "It doesn't matter that you are right. It is that you are clear, and the clarity will make you right." -- S.C. At Gateway's Booth, a Vice President Nails 'Proud Mary' OCTOBER 21, 8 A.M. -- Gateway Inc. has come up with an innovative way to attract new customers -- embarrass the bejeezus out of them in front of their colleagues. Phyllis C. Self, of Virginia Commonwealth U. (left), sings "Proud Mary" with Larry Wyatt at the Gateway Booth. (Photograph by Dan Carnevale) With this shrewd strategy in mind, the company is holding a "Campus Idol" competition at its booth in the exhibit hall at the Educause conference. Larry Wyatt, an actor hired by Gateway, pulls people onto a stage and coaxes them to sing karaoke as other conference attendees watch and laugh. In one instance, Mr. Wyatt persuaded Phyllis C. Self, vice provost for academic technology at Virginia Commonwealth University, to sing a version of the Tina Turner song "Proud Mary" -- but with the lyrics changed to peddle Gateway products. Ms. Self said that when she was asked to be a volunteer, she had no idea she was going to be lending her vocal talents. "I didn't know I was going to sing," she said. "After I did, I'm thinking, This really isn't my thing. But then I'm thinking, Why not have some fun?" She was given a trophy for being such a good sport. Apparently the experience did not sour her on Gateway, because she went on to say how much she loves to use the company's tablet PC's. Mr. Wyatt said the performers have fun with their moments of fame, although no recording contracts have been offered yet. "It seems to work really well," he says. "They have a good time." -- D.C. Princeton U. Administrator Leads a Warp-Drive Tour of Higher Education's Future OCTOBER 20, 5:30 P.M. -- A conference on technology wouldn't be right without some wild speculation about the future. Howard Strauss, technology-outreach coordinator for Princeton University, was happy to oblige, predicting that technology will cause colleges to evolve almost beyond recognition. He began with a caveat: Take his predictions with a grain of salt, he said -- "given that I can't figure out what I'm having for dinner tonight." But then he was off at warp speed, covering biometrics, smart classrooms, wireless technology, and the changing role of the professor. Look in your wallets, he told his audience. You see money, credit cards, key cards, and IDs. In the future, he sees each person carrying a cash card with no identification on it. How would people identify themselves? Through biometrics, like retinal scans or a thumbprints. "It would be nice to tell you that research universities are out ahead of this, but they are not," Mr. Strauss said. Look instead to banks, grocery stores, and even the Men's Wearhouse suit store -- it's already way ahead of even research universities in using biometrics. "Why aren't universities doing this? Well, they say it's too expensive," said Mr. Strauss. But, he asked, how much money are colleges wasting on creating, changing, and disabling passwords? He also wondered whether it's a good idea for colleges to stuff their classrooms with technology. "Why are we spending all this money inside the classroom when most of the learning is happening outside the classroom?" he asked. "Most smart classrooms are more difficult to operate than a 747." And faculty members aren't inclined to figure out the controls, he said. Most professors suppose that they won't get assigned to smart classrooms, which are limited in number, so they prepare lessons for traditional, "dumb" classrooms. Colleges should spend more time preparing their professors to teach in any environment, said Mr. Strauss, pointing out that the average professor gets less training in pedagogy than a third-grade teacher. And if teaching is to follow students out of the classroom, Mr. Strauss said, wireless should be truly wireless. So far, colleges have cut the wires, but use their wireless networks in the same old spaces: libraries, classrooms, dormitories. Someday wireless will instead be ubiquitous, and students will be able to take computers or more specialized devices into the field -- literally to a field, or a forest, or out on a pond -- to do their course work. The distributed course will evolve to follow: It might start on the model of the evening news, with an anchorlike professor piping in correspondentlike experts for lectures. Then courses might evolve to the point where they only meet virtually, and only to discuss work students have done independently during the week. Then, Mr. Strauss said, the whole concept of the course might break down altogether, with individual students doing classwork in bits and pieces over a long period of time. Sound exciting? Frightening? Those in academe are the main opponents of change on campuses, Mr. Strauss said, closing with a quote from the cartoonist Walt Kelly: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." -- S.C. 'There's That Buzzer!' Yelps Dr. Lowen Behold OCTOBER 20, 2 P.M. -- For some reason, some people feel most comfortable with technology experts who don white lab coats, grow unruly gray hair, and speak in fake German accents. And the Hewlett-Packard Company has found just that persona in Dr. Lowen Behold, who is pitching the company's latest products and services at its booth at Educause. In Hewlett-Packard's booth at Educause, Burke Lawrence (right) plays a mad scientist being interviewed by a reporter, played by Kelly Fanson. (Photograph by Dan Carnevale) While jumping around on a small stage, Dr. Behold interacts with crowds of college technology officials eager to learn from the mad scientist. "Your campus, plus HP solutions, equals everything is possible," Dr. Behold says, just before a buzzer makes him jump out of his seat. "There's that buzzer! That buzzer makes me jump, and apparently you're still sitting there." Every time the buzzer sounds, Dr. Behold asks the audience another technology question. The role of the mad scientist is performed by Burke Lawrence. He is accompanied by Kelly Fanson, who plays a technology reporter conducting an interview. HP hired David Brady, owner of a Toronto performance company called Let's Hear It, to develop the skit. "The concept is this crazy professor who's been in the HP labs since the '60s," he says. "And he's still there working on tomorrow's solutions." In addition to the antics of Dr. Behold, HP is enticing crowds with drawings for prizes, including calculators and digital cameras. "Plus," Mr. Brady says, "everybody gets a free T-shirt." -- D.C. Former U. of Michigan President Warns of 'Great Change' in Higher Education OCTOBER 20, NOON -- Educause 2004 has attracted more than 7,000 people from 43 different countries, scores of colleges, and hundreds of tech companies. The tech talk is thick, the tech knowledge vast, and the tech obsessions are almost a religion for some. So far, all of the attendees appear to be fully human. And now some of them might be more worried than they were when they stepped off their planes. James J. Duderstadt, the president emeritus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, opened the conference not with a pep talk but with rather unsettling predictions. He said the future of colleges and universities is more than uncertain in the digital age -- it might be downright threatened. He quoted the business guru Peter Drucker as saying that campuses will be "relics" in 30 years. Mr. Duderstadt also cited Frank Rhodes, the former president of Cornell University, as having said that colleges in the digital age are like dinosaurs looking up at the incoming comet. Unless college presidents try to understand technology, Mr. Duderstadt said, extinction is a threat. "This is not an activity that can be dumped on the backs of CIO's," he warned. In Mr. Duderstadt's view, technology has drastically changed the orientation of the classroom already. The faculty member is becoming more of a guide or a coach, he said, while students have gone from being passive learners to active learners and now "synthesizers" of knowledge. Unfortunately, faculty members haven't kept up, he said. While the average student burns up hours of spare time playing video games on an Xbox, he said, "Xbox gaming consoles have more processing power than most faculty have ever seen in their lifetime." Administrators are doing no better, he said. If technology is like a tiger, chasing down institutions in academe, most administrators aren't worried about running faster than the tiger, Mr. Duderstadt said. "They think, We just need to run faster than our competition." He recalled the way that American colleges changed within a single generation after the Civil War. They shed their aristocratic nature and grew from enrolling hundreds to thousands of students. "The sense is that we are at the edge of another great change in higher education, except this time it's global," Mr. Duderstadt said. "Will the university as we know it now exist a generation from now? That's a disturbing question, but a question we have to ask." -- S.C. Competitors of PeopleSoft and Oracle Spin Possible Merger OCTOBER 19, 7 P.M. -- While many colleges that use PeopleSoft Inc. products are wary of the possible merger between PeopleSoft and Oracle Corporation, the two companies' competitors are keeping straight faces when asked about the merger here at this year's Educause Conference. Some put their own spin on the possibility, saying it makes their own companies look better. Many college officials worry that Oracle may not support PeopleSoft products if the merger goes through, despite repeated assurances by Oracle to the contrary. Andy Cooley, senior vice president for marketing at SunGard SCT, said the uncertainty sends more potential customers in the direction of his company. "We're seeing a lot of insecurity out there from people who are considering those solutions, because it's so much in the air," Mr. Cooley said. "We're experiencing higher win rates." "People look to us as a stable island in the stormy sea," he said. Jayne W. Edge, vice president for strategic planning and marketing at Datatel, said that despite the potential Oracle-PeopleSoft merger and the slew of companies that SunGard has acquired, there will still be plenty of competition out there for colleges' business. "If anything, prices have gone down, not up," Ms. Edge said. "It's a very competitive environment." In fact, the possible merger makes Datatel's products more competitive. "It makes us look even better without even doing anything," she said. "People look for stability." SAP, a German technology firm, is considered by many observers to be the only company large enough to compete head-to-head with Oracle and PeopleSoft on a global scale. Malcolm Woodfield, who works in global business development for SAP, said he wasn't concerned about the prospect of his two biggest competitors ganging up against him, although he said he wasn't sure what kind of an effect it would have on his company. "We don't know," he said. "And to some extent we don't care." -- D.C.