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Effective Examples of Educational Technology and Priorities for Future Investment

Moderator: James J. Duderstadt
Andrew A. Chien '84, SM '87, SCD '90 Chris J. Mackie Irving Wladawsky-Berger Ashok S. Kolaskar: December 2, 2006; Running Time: 1:21:36

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

James Duderstadt believes recent efforts to digitize scholarly journals, along with Google’s massive digital library enterprise, “could be as important as the Internet in changing the scaffolding for learning and scholarship in the world.” In this final panel of the iCampus series, Duderstadt asks his colleagues to take up the question of how to propagate or scale up successful initiatives in educational technology, so that they have a transformative impact on higher education.

Andrew Chien points to the evolution of retail e-commerce, with many merchants following trailblazers like Amazon, and some ultimately serving as “portals to enable small players to accelerate their reach and innovation.” Chien suggests that over time, “collaboration and competition will allow us to choose from a variety of interesting things.”

The Mellon Foundation believes that for technology to succeed, it must be developed collaboratively in the first place, says Chris Mackie. In an effort to “reduce the predilections of institutions to build silos and a balkanized world,” Mellon is talking to different institutions “about the concept of building an academic services bus environment to match enterprise services bus environments.”

Technology can be counted successful only if it “resonates in the marketplace,” says Irving Wladawsky-Berger. “What’s an example of exciting technology that people like?” he asks. “Highly visual interfaces—there are millions of people playing games.” Wladawsky-Berger says he’s “convinced that embracing highly interactive approaches in cyberinfrastructure and the Internet will revolutionize the way people interact with machines at all levels.” He also endorses engaging learners and teaching problem-solving skills through story-telling techniques.

In India and other developing nations, says Ashok S. Kolaskar, there are “many people living in the 17th century, with infrastructure very behind.” For large numbers of Indians who have no access to a decent education, technology is critical. Building an extensive broadband network, and providing something like OpenCourseWare could “bring up the bar,” and make the difference between a community college education and advanced higher education. Kolaskar also emphasizes teacher training, since the new “plug and play generation” knows more about technology than their elders.

Initiating a freewheeling exchange between panelists and such distinguished audience members as Chuck Vest and John Seely Brown, Duderstadt discusses lifelong secondary learning opportunities for all adults (assuming that increasing life spans will mean people lead productive careers into their 80s and 90s). Vest urges that with an aging workforce, “Somehow we must find ways of intelligently mixing generations on a large scale, so we’re learning from each other in a new and different way.” Chris Mackie says technologies could play a crucial role in establishing “cross generational models” of higher ed, supporting students from the earliest age, and helping mentor them via alumni networks when out of college.

Lecture Details

Location: Wong Auditorium

“If people develop good tools for learning that are appealing, we should be able to sell them. I wonder if this is not an incredible opportunity for leveraging 3D internet, the virtual world, properly done for learning purposes.”

Irving Wladawsky-Berger

About the Speakers

Moderator: James J. Duderstadt

President Emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan

James J. Duderstadt received his baccalaureate degree in Electrical Engineering from Yale University in 1964 and his doctorate in Engineering Science and Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1967. After a year as an Atomic Energy Commission Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech, he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1968 in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Duderstadt became Dean of the College of Engineering in 1981 and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs in 1986. He was appointed as President of the University of Michigan in 1988, and served in this role until July, 1996.

Duderstadt has received numerous national awards for his research, teaching, and service activities, including the E. O. Lawrence Award for excellence in nuclear research, the Arthur Holly Compton Prize for outstanding teaching, the Reginald Wilson Award for national leadership in achieving diversity, and the National Medal of Technology for exemplary service to the nation. He has been elected to numerous honorific societies including the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Science.

Duderstadt has served on and/or chaired numerous public and private boards. These include the National Science Board; the Executive Council of the National Academy of Engineering, the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy of the National Academy of Sciences; and the Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee of the Department of Energy.

Andrew A. Chien '84, SM '87, SCD '90

Vice President, Director of Intel Research

Chris J. Mackie

Associate Program Officer, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Irving Wladawsky-Berger

Visiting Professor, Engineering Systems Division Vice President, Technical Strategy and Innovation, IBM

Irving Wladawsky-Berger is responsible for identifying emerging technologies and marketplace developments critical to the future of the IT industry, and organizing appropriate activities in and outside IBM in order to capitalize on them.

He began his IBM career in 1970 at the Company’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. After joining IBM’s product development organization in 1985, he continued his efforts to bring advanced technologies to the marketplace, leading IBM’s initiatives in supercomputing and parallel computing. He has managed a number of IBM’s businesses, including the large systems software and the UNIX systems divisions.

He is a member of the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratories and of the Technology Advisory Council for BP International. He was co-chair of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, as well as a founding member of the Computer Sciences and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A native of Cuba, he was named the 2001 Hispanic Engineer of the Year.

Wladawsky-Berger received an M.S. and a Ph. D. in Physics from the University of Chicago.