Below are some highlights from the 2017 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference. These highlights include video recordings of a few of the general and featured sessions, as well as links to social media recaps and venue information.
GENERAL SESSIONS:
Decision Biases: Improving the Quality of Our Everyday Decisions
Presenter: Katherine Milkman, Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions, University of Pennsylvania
Katherine Milkman discusses the most common errors we make, with particularly important implications for managerial and workplace settings. Using evidence-based examples, she introduces a number of common decision biases that influence managers, employees and consumers alike. With her guidance, we can improve our awareness of situations where business biases are likely to arise, and thereby improve the quality of the decisions we make.
Developing Students Who Have Different Kinds of Minds
Presenter: Temple Grandin, Professor, Consultant, Best-Selling Author and Speaker
What would happen to some of the greatest innovators in history in today's educational system? Today, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein would probably be diagnosed with either autism or ADHD. People think in different ways when they solve problems. Some are photorealistic visual thinkers, others are pattern mathematical thinkers, and yet others think in words. In the workplace, different kinds of minds complement more conventional minds. Temple Grandin will discuss the importance of developing and supporting different ways of thinking in education and the workplace.
FEATURED SESSIONS:
The EDUCAUSE 2018 Top 10 IT Issues
Presenters: Ahmed El-Haggan, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO, Coppin State University; Susan Grajek, Vice President, Communities and Research, EDUCAUSE; Richard Sluder, Vice Provost for Student Success and Dean of University College, Middle Tennessee State University; Patricia A. Schoknecht, CIO, Rollins College; Mark Roman, Chief Information Officer, Simon Fraser University; Justin Sipher, Vice President, Libraries and IT, St. Lawrence University; Vanessa Kenon, Assistant Vice Provost, Information Technology, University of Texas at San Antonio
Get an exclusive preview of 2018's Top 10 IT Issues, which won't be published until January. IT Issues panel members will describe the issues and their importance. Session attendees will have considerable time to contribute viewpoints and reactions to the list. Listen, reflect, and opine—be ready to learn and participate!
The Importance of Cybersecurity Governance: Perspectives from Presidents, Trustees, and IT Leaders
Presenters: Cornelius M. Kerwin, President, and David Swartz, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, American University; Cole Clark, Executive Director, Higher Education, Deloitte; Mark P. Becker, President, Georgia State University; Phillip Ventimiglia, Chief Innovation Officer, Georgia State University; Michael Gower, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, and Michele Norin, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Across the higher education landscape, cyber risk is slowly becoming a prominent issue in executive leadership and board-level circles. This session, moderated by EDUCAUSE and the Deloitte Center for Higher Education Excellence, will share the results of joint research on executive engagement in higher education information security governance issues. The session will feature pairs of institutional executive and IT leaders to showcase strategies for integrating information security issues into the institution's senior leadership and board-level agenda.
Leadership Segues: From Wet Behind my Ears to Wise Beyond my Years
Presenter: Susan Metros, Founder and Principal at Metros Consulting. Retired Deputy CIO & Assoc. Vice Provost - Technology Enhanced Learning , University of Southern California
With over three decades of working at five different higher ed institutions, initially as a member of the professoriate, then in a variety of information and educational technology executive roles, and finally as an academic leader, I have been led and I have led. As I look back at my career, I wish I had known early on what I know now: that leadership is not just an attribute to rank on a performance review, but a way of perceiving and relating to others within the shifting contexts in which we all function. Leadership is experiential. We are called on to be leaders in all facets of our lives, whether it be the simple, sometimes offhand decisions we make every day or the major choices we commit to concerning our loved ones, our communities, and humanity. In this presentation, I will align various stages of career growth with exemplars for discovering how to be led and how to lead. Participants will be challenged to look beyond title and ambition and delve deep within themselves to identify, define, and realize their own leadership ideologies.
Rethinking the User Experience of Higher Ed
Presenter: Richard Culatta, CEO, International Society for Technology in Education
User experience (UX) design is an approach widely used by the tech industry to make sure apps are designed around the needs of the users. We will look at how university leaders can learn from UX design to make the college experience more relevant to student needs.
Who's Doing Our Data Laundry? …and Why?
Presenter: Brad Wheeler, Vice President for IT and CIO , Indiana University
Dirty data and dirty clothes have a lot in common. As institutions increasingly rely on data and insight to inform decisions, we are seeing a rapid acceleration in outsourced services to clean, organize, enrich, repackage, and present our data. There are many steps in doing the data laundry, and this session will use audience engagement to assess the merits, risks, and life-cycle efficacy of varied approaches for doing our data laundry.
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
Presenter: Safiya Noble, Assistant Professor , University of Southern California
The landscape of information is rapidly shifting as new imperatives and demands push to the fore increasing investment in digital technologies. Yet, critical-information scholars continue to demonstrate how digital technology and its narratives are shaped by and infused with values that are not impartial, disembodied, or lacking positionality. Technologies consist of a set of social practices, situated within the dynamics of race, gender, class, and politics, and in the service of something—a position, a profit motive, a means to an end. In this talk, Safiya Umoja Noble will examine the power struggles over representation on the web, and the consequences of marginalization and misrepresentation in commercial information platforms like Google search.
Postsecondary Institution Data-Security Overview and Requirements
Presenter: Tiina Rodrigue, Senior Advisor for Cybersecurity, Office of the Chief Operating Officer, Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education
As postsecondary institutions (PSIs) move from the information age to the virtual age, cyberthreats are a certainty. It is no longer a question of if, but when and how often. This presentation will define data security, requirements, and available tools. Poor knowledge could leave your PSI vulnerable and unfunded.