Track Descriptions

"Embracing the Changing Learning Environment"
October 28-31, 1997
Minneapolis, MN
Hosted by the University of Minnesota

Track Descriptions

The EDUCOM'97 Program Committee has designed a program consisting of concurrent, discussion, and poster sessions, organized in the following tracks:

Track 1. Living In An Electronic Society

Lifestyles have become more dependent upon electronic communication. These changes affect the world at large, bringing to society new methods of interaction, and challenging established social etiquettes worldwide. Individual actions using electronic media have challenged higher education's traditional support for freedom of expression and information. How do government laws and regulations and institutional policies cope with these societal changes? How can educators lead the new electronic society to promote open communications, support the rights of individuals, and encourage civility?

Track 2. Understanding The Evolving Institution

Technological changes confront colleges and universities with a loss of geographic monopoly, increasing competition among themselves and with commercial interests, and an environment in which students shop for courses and curricula. These technologies also create opportunities for collaboration and for higher education to be more effective in community service and outreach efforts -- from K-12 initiatives through lifelong-learning. How can technologies help higher education deal with increasing financial constraints and society's expectations for ongoing learning? Can schools afford to take advantage of these opportunities -- or can they afford not to?

Track 3. Organizing For Information Service

Evolving learning environments and learner expectations are causing a number of changes within our information technology organizations, while advances in technology are facilitating changes in learning. What do we do about the chaos that these cycles of change present for planning, organizational structure, staff development, demand for and marketing of services? As technologies converge, how do we transform our information technology organizations into true learning organizations? As technology is integrated into institutional life, how does the information technology organization scale its service delivery to meet the institution's needs within a constrained budget?

Track 4. Focusing On Student-Centered Learning

Today's students should expect to spend a lifetime learning. To prepare them for success in a society driven by continual change, today's institutions must shape a responsive learning environment. As physical and virtual learning environments converge, how are instructors rethinking teaching and learning? In what ways can students work in teams, search the Internet for information, collaborate with learners around the world and construct multimedia products?

Track 5. Delivering Content In Context

A world-wide infrastructure for delivery of information is largely in place. Now, the academic community's diverse needs challenge us to provide content within specific contexts. How do we decide what to deliver? To whom is it being delivered and for what purpose? What new relationships are we having to forge to deliver this information? What new policies need to be considered? Who should determine standards? How does the design and presentation affect the usefulness of the information? How do we evaluate the success of our efforts?

Track 6. Foraging For Economic Solutions

Technology has enabled global economic changes, which in turn have created challenges for the information technology industry. These changing economies and demographics are forcing institutions in higher education to re-examine their purposes and methodologies. How do information technology organizations meet the demands of changed institutional missions, products and methods? What strategies can we employ to develop new or alternative revenue streams and to continue to obtain institutional funding when the academy's resources are strained? How can institutional, state and national policies be affected to support the information technology directions for educational purposes?

Track 7. Developing Strategies For Change

The distributed-computing environment has expanded the number of stakeholders in information technology. Faculty and students are key to changing the learning environment. How do institutions and information technology organizations embrace the need for change and what processes are effective for planning and implementing change? How do information technology organizations build alliances with faculty, students, administrators, service providers, and other institutions and consortia to plan and provide services and infrastructure?

Track 8. Hot Topics

The environments in which we live and work are changing rapidly and sometimes profoundly. Other concurrent sessions of this program focus on structured attention to major forces and issues faced by institutions in higher education. This track will focus on topics that do not necessarily fit into the other tracks plus those whose importance is emerging only as the conference approaches. Details on these sessions will be available at the conference.

Track 9. Updates

Updates on Educom's projects and programs will be provided.