Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Laying Bare the Questions

When it comes to aliens, close encounters of the fourth kindare said to leave humans with a transformed sense of reality.Maybe that explains some of what I've experienced over mydecades in academia. If only I'd known at the outset I was inthe presence of aliens, how different life might have been!The writer James Baldwin tells us, “The purpose of art isto lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.”That's precisely the sort of thing an alien might sayto all of us who imagine, create, lead: Our purpose is to laybare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.Find out what Eric Holder, B.F. Skinner, Steve Jobs, and VintCerf have in common. Join me for a love letter to highereducation—an irreverent celebration of aliens in academia,beings who have transformed my sense of reality over andover by laying bare the questions.

WINNER: 2013 EDUCAUSE Community Leadership Award. Award sponsored by Moran Technology Consulting, a Silver Partner.