Alan Kay, conceiver of the laptop computer and the architect of the modern windowing GUI, once said that "the best way to predict the future is to invent it." The 2003 ECAR Symposium was designed to bring together those who have crafted many of higher education's recent changes with those who have studied these changes. Sessions encouraged interaction at the nexus of theory, analysis, and practice. The 2003 program reflected the diversity of ECAR's research agenda, including IT and the future of higher education, faculty use of course management systems, assessment in an IT-enabled instructional environment, IT academic productivity, IT leadership, IT security, and other topics.