The ITS annual report is just about done. It’s a snapshot in time, a bit of bragging and directions on where we’re going. But so far, it’s a relatively safe document.
I dislike safe. It needs a section on Bold & Audacious. What are the questions that no one wants to ask? What are the sacred cows? What might a naïve outsider ask if s/he was new to our environment?
To seed ideas, here are some questions posed by others at other institutions.
- Should we continue to provide email to students when they come to campus with free (and preferred) email accounts?
- Should we get out of the phone business?
- Should we discontinue using Microsoft Office in favor of Google applications that are free and Webiquous?
- Why are we providing computers all over campus if students are bringing their own?
- Why do we not share more hardware and resources with sister campuses in USNH?
- Why don’t we move our Help Desk into the Library (ooops, that’s a hangover from last year)
I’m asking for your help again. Send me bold and audacious ideas. Send them electronically or written on a piece of paper in an envelope addressed to me. I’ll pick the ten best and get them into the report. Think about things we might start doing, and others we should stop doing.
Maybe they’ll prompt a few more people to read it.
June 13, 2006
Dear Dwight,
A comment about students bring their own computers:
When I started college, in 1958, the student brought a slide rule and a typewriter
to campus. The Institution was not expected to provide such items. You bought
your own paper, erasers, and ink ribbons. No electricity was needed for the
slide rule nor the typewriter.
The point: The day will soon arrive when there will be no need for computer
clusters. Each student will have a portable "broadcasting system" --a big \(\)$$
savings to the University. Just in the past two years I have seen students setting
up their notebook computers in the classroom and typing in notes directly from
the blackboard. How times have changed--the paperless classroom.
C. Brown