Presented at the Technology Knowledge and Society Conference, 2012, UCLA. We engaged in a year long campus conversation on emerging technologies and their impact on the University. Throughout higher education, there is a growing recognition that new technologies have the potential to usher in dramatic change. The UWM's Digital Future planning initiative presented an opportunity for us to proactively plan for this future as opposed to being in a reactive position with respect to coming changes.

1. Planning for a Digital Future
January 16, 2012
Presentation to the
Technology, Knowledge and Society 8th
International Conference
Laura Pedrick
Special Assistant to the Provost
for Strategic Initiatives
Tanya Joosten
Interim Director
Learning Technology Center

2. Impetus for Planning
EDUCAUSE Emeritus VP Richard Katz:
“Information technology has truly
revolutionized the mission of higher education
and is a prime enabler of the knowledge-driven
era….[T]hose forces that have doomed the
current form of the newspaper, music,
television, and book-publishing industries will
soon be unleashed in education — particularly
higher education….

3. Impetus for Planning
“Higher education will be disrupted by new —
and in some cases breathtaking—-technological
capacities. We have entered the next, torrential
phase of the Digital Age, when consumer
expectations and technological innovations not
only make new possibilities evident and
desirable but also put old capabilities and
investments at a competitive disadvantage.”

4. An old Dutch saying
“If the wind comes up over the sea
you can do two things:
- go inside and close the windows
- or take your sail boat and go out”

5. Background
• How will digitization influence every aspect of
university operations?
• A yearlong campus conversation on emerging
technologies
• Intention: to ‘sail with the wind’
• 3 Working Groups
– Teaching & Learning
– Research
– University Operations & Services

6. The Process

7. Identify challenges and
opportunities

8. Develop action plan and seek
campus input

9. Campus input
T&L - 5 strategic goals | 18 action items | 46
sub-action items, n=171, focus groups
Research - 5 strategic goals | 16 action items |
25 sub-action items, n=82, focus groups
UOS - 6 strategic goals | 23 action items, n= 85,
focus groups

10. Priorities

11. Next steps

12. Next Steps: Process

13. Next Steps: Resources
• Resources Working Group to broadly identify
costs of DF recommendations that have the
most support
• Will develop implementation plan for a subset
of supported items
– Actionable, measurable, fundable (cost/ROI),
and positively impacting student learning,
research productivity or university operations

14. Resources Working Group
• Explore pricing options for pilot-medium
implementation-full implementation
• Define assumptions/data informing estimates
• Identify ways to use existing resources to fully
or partially meet goals
• Identify any cross-cutting infrastructure that
could result in cost savings on implementation
of goals

15. Questions?
Laura Pedrick
Special Assistant to the
Provost for Strategic
Initiatives
lpedrick@uwm.edu
Tanya Joosten
Interim Director
Learning Technology
Center
tjoosten@uwm.edu
Website:
www.digitalfuture.uwm.edu