University of Michigan.
In 2008 massively decentralised. Had 193 desktop support systems, 125 networks, 44 email systems, 102 helpdesks!! Spending a lot on IT. I'm not really surprised.
So, formed central IT department, appointed a CIO. Had to produce a Campus Wide IT strategy. Had to represent the whole University, including all of their campuses which were relatively independent, all departments and units and all major staff and student roles. It had to provide direction, so chose rolling 5 year window, updated annually. Definitely not a wish list of IT projects. Needed a strategic plan that came with a well thought out and sustainable financial road map. Important that it had buy in.
Original process was to have an IT strategy team, interview people, write a document, take it back and socialise it. So, set off and interviewed the deans and senior staff and distilled notes into themes. But, how to get faculty buy in? So, interviewed and had workshops with 20 senior IT staff. Different needs became apparent. So, central IT senior managers developed the themes into strategies. But that didn't work as academics questioned their authority.
So decided to crowd source it. Faculty staff wrote the strategies, IT people, wrote how they would deliver it. Project team became facilitators and coaches. Used Google docs as the tool. The interviewees became the writers. No need to then socialise it because they had written it.
Took and extra year but was worth it. Process of getting the campus to work together was probably worth as much as the strategy. It was endorsed by Deans, academics, senior managers and students.
Now being reviewed and some parts being rewritten, by the faculty staff. Had become part of the culture.
Lessons learned:
The conversation is at least as important as the strategy. Distribute the ownership.
Get non IT people heavily involved in the process. Central IT need to be in the background.
Get it wrong to get it right. Give the community time to have multiple goes at it. Ask lots of questions. It's all about partnership.
Take advantage of collaboration technology. They used Google docs, and built a culture which accepted commenting on and editing other people's work.
Also used Google hangouts a lot.
You need a really good editor. Mustn't look like it was written by a committee, and be concise. Is a tendency to bloat with crowdsourcing. Need a disinterested third party to edit it. Also brought it into one voice and one writing style.
Have a strong champion at a high level.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, 30 September 2014
From Chief Information Officer to Chief Digital Officer
Speaker 1 from McGraw Hill
How does the CIO shape the future?
Ask ourselves if we are we realising the maximum potential of our technology investment on our campuses.
Over past 15 years we have looked a lot at infrastructure and commodity services. These matter deeply to the organisation, but we we all have limited managerial time and budget. We need to minimise the cost/time on commodity offerings.
Focus on the learning ecosystem. Make it open, accessible and interoperable. How come we can't share identity easily? And we still buy technologies that are walled gardens. What can we do to make open learning ecosystems happen. We need learning content repositories. Open APIs, personalisation.
Become the Chief Digital Learning Evangelist. Influence future pedagogy. Help academic staff engage with TEL. Make sure your governance model takes into account learning outcomes. Moves budgets from administrative computing to teaching and learning. Speak in the language of learning outcomes. Enable disruption.
Speaker 2 from Notre Dame University
We all need to be digital evangelists. The core of everything we're doing is being disrupted by digital:
The classroom. Students bringing devices in, wireless being strengthened. Better collaboration and versatility.
Libraries are collaboration spaces with wireless and power, places to learn socially. Major changes to design.
Creating and managing learning materials. Digital learning materials are being built and delivered.
Enabling digital publishing. Digital publishing needs to carry same weight as traditional ways.
Orchestrating the mobile ecosystem. Students want to do everything on their devices. Not just academic. Whens the next bus, how long is the line in the cafe.
Enhancing campus life for students, whilst the campus is their home, we have to provide the services they want, even if it has detrimental effect on our networks.
Producing and managing video. Being produced at exponential rate, needs storage and curating.
Building new production facilities. Creative media suites for audio, video, editing.
Archiving, curating and preserving digital assets. The digital archive. Opens up data and information for all to use
Supporting research and analytics.
Delivering a demanding fan experience. Build a relationship with community who come to our campuses, no matter who they are. They have to leave with a positive experience.
We need to become evangelists for the next thing in education. We won't be calling it digital for long!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
How does the CIO shape the future?
Ask ourselves if we are we realising the maximum potential of our technology investment on our campuses.
Over past 15 years we have looked a lot at infrastructure and commodity services. These matter deeply to the organisation, but we we all have limited managerial time and budget. We need to minimise the cost/time on commodity offerings.
Focus on the learning ecosystem. Make it open, accessible and interoperable. How come we can't share identity easily? And we still buy technologies that are walled gardens. What can we do to make open learning ecosystems happen. We need learning content repositories. Open APIs, personalisation.
Become the Chief Digital Learning Evangelist. Influence future pedagogy. Help academic staff engage with TEL. Make sure your governance model takes into account learning outcomes. Moves budgets from administrative computing to teaching and learning. Speak in the language of learning outcomes. Enable disruption.
Speaker 2 from Notre Dame University
We all need to be digital evangelists. The core of everything we're doing is being disrupted by digital:
The classroom. Students bringing devices in, wireless being strengthened. Better collaboration and versatility.
Libraries are collaboration spaces with wireless and power, places to learn socially. Major changes to design.
Creating and managing learning materials. Digital learning materials are being built and delivered.
Enabling digital publishing. Digital publishing needs to carry same weight as traditional ways.
Orchestrating the mobile ecosystem. Students want to do everything on their devices. Not just academic. Whens the next bus, how long is the line in the cafe.
Enhancing campus life for students, whilst the campus is their home, we have to provide the services they want, even if it has detrimental effect on our networks.
Producing and managing video. Being produced at exponential rate, needs storage and curating.
Building new production facilities. Creative media suites for audio, video, editing.
Archiving, curating and preserving digital assets. The digital archive. Opens up data and information for all to use
Supporting research and analytics.
Delivering a demanding fan experience. Build a relationship with community who come to our campuses, no matter who they are. They have to leave with a positive experience.
We need to become evangelists for the next thing in education. We won't be calling it digital for long!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Less is More
Next session is about making the best use of analytics form your wireless implementation. Interesting that there's a baseball cap on each seat....
Two Dutch presenters one from Fontys University, one from Parantion. So, the session started with a theory that student are often, lazy, unprepared listeners when they turn up for lectures. To test this out we played a well known Dutch game called cap on, cap off. Suddenly the caps seem significant. How much had we prepared, and how much did we know about the presenters and the presentation. Good game. Most of us were LULs....
Big wireless network, trying to optimise it, but only time users cared was when it didn't work. Inspired by big data movement, so took a look at the data being collected. Realised it was a diamond mine of data.
Presented the data to the students and asked them to look at it.
First thing they built were visualisations. Could see how busy the new outwork was.
Urged students to be creative with it. They built infographics.
Compared OS and devices being used. Looked at trends. Apple going up, windows down.
Android up, iOS down.
Girls more active
Students more active than teachers
Hipsters more than nerds
Students built a where's my device app, and an absent /present app for buildings, ie a who's in board based on devices going in and out.
Killer app was measuring who much you were moving ina building. Points awarded for how much you were moving. Useless but a huge success.
Then used data from other sources eg timetable. Looked at attendance based on wireless activity and compared with schedule.
Also built attendance app for lectures based on wireless data.
Built app to monitor whether a room was in use, so could compare timetable data with whether anyone was actually in a room.
We have lots of data on campus. Added to every day. We can even see how interesting a lecture is by looking at log files to see how much social media is used in it!
Project to look at Student Evaluation, use just in time evaluation, whilst they are in class or on campus. Use wireless data to send it only to students who are in that class.
Teacher gets result immediately, and student can see how their response compares to peers.
First results are good, high response rate.
We have lots of valuable data. What questions do we needed to answer? Tools and apps can be built, but we need the right questions.
Use your golden pick on the diamond mine of data!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Two Dutch presenters one from Fontys University, one from Parantion. So, the session started with a theory that student are often, lazy, unprepared listeners when they turn up for lectures. To test this out we played a well known Dutch game called cap on, cap off. Suddenly the caps seem significant. How much had we prepared, and how much did we know about the presenters and the presentation. Good game. Most of us were LULs....
Big wireless network, trying to optimise it, but only time users cared was when it didn't work. Inspired by big data movement, so took a look at the data being collected. Realised it was a diamond mine of data.
Presented the data to the students and asked them to look at it.
First thing they built were visualisations. Could see how busy the new outwork was.
Urged students to be creative with it. They built infographics.
Compared OS and devices being used. Looked at trends. Apple going up, windows down.
Android up, iOS down.
Girls more active
Students more active than teachers
Hipsters more than nerds
Students built a where's my device app, and an absent /present app for buildings, ie a who's in board based on devices going in and out.
Killer app was measuring who much you were moving ina building. Points awarded for how much you were moving. Useless but a huge success.
Then used data from other sources eg timetable. Looked at attendance based on wireless activity and compared with schedule.
Also built attendance app for lectures based on wireless data.
Built app to monitor whether a room was in use, so could compare timetable data with whether anyone was actually in a room.
We have lots of data on campus. Added to every day. We can even see how interesting a lecture is by looking at log files to see how much social media is used in it!
Project to look at Student Evaluation, use just in time evaluation, whilst they are in class or on campus. Use wireless data to send it only to students who are in that class.
Teacher gets result immediately, and student can see how their response compares to peers.
First results are good, high response rate.
We have lots of valuable data. What questions do we needed to answer? Tools and apps can be built, but we need the right questions.
Use your golden pick on the diamond mine of data!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
EDUCAUSE kicks off with Disruptive Innovation
Well we're off at EDUCAUSE, after various preconference sessions and workshops, the opening keynote is here. Highlights so far for me have been a tropical storm yesterday which drenched us, and a mirror in my bathroom with a TV embedded in it!
Huge aircraft hanger like space for this talk, 7300 attendees is a lot! From over 50 countries, it's becoming a much more international conference.
Opening keynote is on Disruptive Innovation and the Future of Higher Education and is delivered by Clayton Christenen from Harvard Business School. Following post, like most of them from here, will be in note form as I jot down the key messages.
Decentralisation is disruptive and is hard to catch.
Services and products have to improve to stay competitive. The trajectory of innovation and technology improvements is almost always outstrips the customers ability to use the improvements.
Disruptive innovation transforms a complicated expensive product into something affordable and accessible so that large populations have access to use it. Makes things more affordable. Small companies often win with disruptive innovation. Better products are dominated by existing players, disruptive ones by young entrants. Often not seen by people running existing companies.
Good example of rise of personal computers in 90s and effect it had on big mainframe companies. Just thought they could keep making better mainframes.
Successful disruptive innovators compete against non consumption. ie don't go for better products for people already using them, but a product that is better than nothing! Go for product that will get non users using it.
So, for good new services, try to go for non consumers.
Will electric cars disrupt gasoline cars?
Tesla competing head on against big car companies. To make the cars competitive, have to have really good technology, so are really expensive.
Would be better competing at bottom of market. Golf carts, industrial cars, small cars. ie competing against non consumption. Eventually will reach the top.
On line learning. Harvard business school safe from it because need interactive discussions guided by professors on cases which can't be done on line. Or can it? Yes it can with appropriate technology. Remote discussion can be orchestrated by skilled teachers on line. Lovely picture of an iPad on a robot, complete with bow tie running a course remotely.
Higher education historically has acted using the visible hand of managerial capitalism. I was so entranced by the explanation of this I forget to make notes. Google it :-)
In the future, will move to the invisible hand of informed capitalism.
Modularity will make HE less integrated.
Has happened in technology, you can compete on functionality and reliability by using a propriety independent architecture.
To compete on speed, responsiveness and and customisation need a modular, open architecture,
Good examples from smartphone. Eg Palm vs RIM early on, pAlm were modular but RIM won because v closed therefore more reliable. Too early for open.
Then Apple vs RIM, Apple won, half way between propriety and open.
The android, completely modular.
So many tech companies gone, eg Silicon graphics, SUN, DEC, Wang. All made better and better products, that no-one wanted.
The companies that win are the ones that differentiate their products, eg Apple.
In Higher Education, same thing happening.
Historically how courses interact with each other is unfashionable, but little by little standards are starting to emerge for on line course. Accreditations are being established. Moving towards a module architecture.
Outsourcing often sets in motion disruptive business model liquidation.
Example of Dell gradually outsourcing different components to AsusTek until they didn't exist.
Disruption is always a great opportunity before it becomes a threat because it competes with non consumption
Remember modularity. Where you make the money in the future isn't where you make the money in the last.
Higher Education needs to look at different models for delivering teaching. Don't go head to head with traditional models.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Huge aircraft hanger like space for this talk, 7300 attendees is a lot! From over 50 countries, it's becoming a much more international conference.
Opening keynote is on Disruptive Innovation and the Future of Higher Education and is delivered by Clayton Christenen from Harvard Business School. Following post, like most of them from here, will be in note form as I jot down the key messages.
Decentralisation is disruptive and is hard to catch.
Services and products have to improve to stay competitive. The trajectory of innovation and technology improvements is almost always outstrips the customers ability to use the improvements.
Disruptive innovation transforms a complicated expensive product into something affordable and accessible so that large populations have access to use it. Makes things more affordable. Small companies often win with disruptive innovation. Better products are dominated by existing players, disruptive ones by young entrants. Often not seen by people running existing companies.
Good example of rise of personal computers in 90s and effect it had on big mainframe companies. Just thought they could keep making better mainframes.
Successful disruptive innovators compete against non consumption. ie don't go for better products for people already using them, but a product that is better than nothing! Go for product that will get non users using it.
So, for good new services, try to go for non consumers.
Will electric cars disrupt gasoline cars?
Tesla competing head on against big car companies. To make the cars competitive, have to have really good technology, so are really expensive.
Would be better competing at bottom of market. Golf carts, industrial cars, small cars. ie competing against non consumption. Eventually will reach the top.
On line learning. Harvard business school safe from it because need interactive discussions guided by professors on cases which can't be done on line. Or can it? Yes it can with appropriate technology. Remote discussion can be orchestrated by skilled teachers on line. Lovely picture of an iPad on a robot, complete with bow tie running a course remotely.
Higher education historically has acted using the visible hand of managerial capitalism. I was so entranced by the explanation of this I forget to make notes. Google it :-)
In the future, will move to the invisible hand of informed capitalism.
Modularity will make HE less integrated.
Has happened in technology, you can compete on functionality and reliability by using a propriety independent architecture.
To compete on speed, responsiveness and and customisation need a modular, open architecture,
Good examples from smartphone. Eg Palm vs RIM early on, pAlm were modular but RIM won because v closed therefore more reliable. Too early for open.
Then Apple vs RIM, Apple won, half way between propriety and open.
The android, completely modular.
So many tech companies gone, eg Silicon graphics, SUN, DEC, Wang. All made better and better products, that no-one wanted.
The companies that win are the ones that differentiate their products, eg Apple.
In Higher Education, same thing happening.
Historically how courses interact with each other is unfashionable, but little by little standards are starting to emerge for on line course. Accreditations are being established. Moving towards a module architecture.
Outsourcing often sets in motion disruptive business model liquidation.
Example of Dell gradually outsourcing different components to AsusTek until they didn't exist.
Disruption is always a great opportunity before it becomes a threat because it competes with non consumption
Remember modularity. Where you make the money in the future isn't where you make the money in the last.
Higher Education needs to look at different models for delivering teaching. Don't go head to head with traditional models.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, 26 September 2014
Quick round up before EDUCAUSE
Quick round up before going off to EDUCAUSE at the weekend. On Monday myself and the Assistant Directors went on a visit to another University to look at how they organise themselves to deliver services. We talked a lot about service management, service portfolios and IT support structures. Always good to learn from others.
I've also been to Oxford for a conference organising meeting, and we're getting very close to having a full programme. In fact, by biggest worry now is that we'll have too many speakers.
Another meeting was looking at the resources we'll need to run the new Diamond building, which is coming on apace. Great to see the cladding going on it now.
Finally a meeting about our review of our student system, where we spent some time discussing the relative merits of buying a package, or writing our own. Writing our own comes in many flavours, ranging from starting again from scratch, redeveloping the one we've got, working with a consortium such as Kuali, or implementing a hybrid solution where we use modules from suppliers and integrate with in-house modules.
Now I'm off to EDUCAUSE for the annual conference - will try and blog about as many sessions as possible!
I've also been to Oxford for a conference organising meeting, and we're getting very close to having a full programme. In fact, by biggest worry now is that we'll have too many speakers.
Another meeting was looking at the resources we'll need to run the new Diamond building, which is coming on apace. Great to see the cladding going on it now.
Finally a meeting about our review of our student system, where we spent some time discussing the relative merits of buying a package, or writing our own. Writing our own comes in many flavours, ranging from starting again from scratch, redeveloping the one we've got, working with a consortium such as Kuali, or implementing a hybrid solution where we use modules from suppliers and integrate with in-house modules.
Now I'm off to EDUCAUSE for the annual conference - will try and blog about as many sessions as possible!
Thursday, 25 September 2014
Registration and DNA Torpedoes
So our new students have arrived, and so much goes on behind the scenes to make sure they are registered correctly, have everything they need to start their studies, have access to the right services etc. We have a team of people in our sports halls working alongside colleagues from across the University supporting online registration. Module loading, identity checking, fee paying and Ucard distribution. The sports halls are transformed by our voice and data and IT support teams. And everything will be taken down and things made back to normal this weekend. Everything seems to be going very smoothly at the moment, great team work again.
Have managed to get another couple of nights in the Spiegel Tent this week for our X lectures- reseach that we thought might be better presented to a more adult audience! Monday was Tim Birkhead talking about sex in the animal kingdom. Absolutely fascinating. Learned a lot! Last night was my old friend Allan Pacey on the secret life of sperm. Again brilliantly presented, very interesting and very funny. And just a little bit rude....
It was preceded my a short film made by Human Studios especially for Festival of the Mind. Lovely graphics, and worth a watch.
DNA Torpedoes from Humanstudio on Vimeo.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Have managed to get another couple of nights in the Spiegel Tent this week for our X lectures- reseach that we thought might be better presented to a more adult audience! Monday was Tim Birkhead talking about sex in the animal kingdom. Absolutely fascinating. Learned a lot! Last night was my old friend Allan Pacey on the secret life of sperm. Again brilliantly presented, very interesting and very funny. And just a little bit rude....
It was preceded my a short film made by Human Studios especially for Festival of the Mind. Lovely graphics, and worth a watch.
DNA Torpedoes from Humanstudio on Vimeo.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, 22 September 2014
You put your left leg in....
A quick post about today - another day for the CiCS team welcoming new students. It's much quieter than it used to be for us as we create student accounts before they arrive, fewer students have problems connecting and our networks are much more resilient. All good stuff. Interesting to note that on the wireless network, we have twice as many devices connected as students, So, most people have two devices, some will have more, some only one. Going up year on year.
Festival of the Mind is still going on, and this afternoon I spent some more time in the Spiegel Tent watching The Great Sheffield Mash Up with Ida Barr. Not quite sure how to describe this music hall/hiphop/rap crossover, apart to say it was great fun. Lots of community singing, a gospel choir, hankie waving. Not forgetting 150 people doing a Conga/Lambeth Walk through John Lewis, which I suspect wasn't in the original risk assessment....
And a community Hokey Cokey. Fab.
What the team are doing is great, and a huge collaborative effort between many departments. And although it's great fun, it's really bringing the University into the City and engaging with local people. As it should do. Another week to go, and still some great events lined up. Full programme here.
Festival of the Mind is still going on, and this afternoon I spent some more time in the Spiegel Tent watching The Great Sheffield Mash Up with Ida Barr. Not quite sure how to describe this music hall/hiphop/rap crossover, apart to say it was great fun. Lots of community singing, a gospel choir, hankie waving. Not forgetting 150 people doing a Conga/Lambeth Walk through John Lewis, which I suspect wasn't in the original risk assessment....And a community Hokey Cokey. Fab.
What the team are doing is great, and a huge collaborative effort between many departments. And although it's great fun, it's really bringing the University into the City and engaging with local people. As it should do. Another week to go, and still some great events lined up. Full programme here.
Saturday, 20 September 2014
A great day in Sheffield
Those of you who know me well will know that I'm very proud of both the City I live in, and the University at which I work. Today has been a wonderful day, celebrating both. So, a bit of a different blog post - what I did today, in pictures.
Started off up at the Student village where our new students are arriving, and we put on a great event to welcome them and their parents and families. The sun didn't actually shine, but it did stop raining, and the helpful staff even mind the students' suitcases so they don't have to carry them upstairs to get their keys.
Our team were out in force helping students connect to our network, and with any other IT problem they might have. Here's them at the start, waiting for the students to arrive.
As we make our systems easier to use and more resilient, the less we have to deal with problems, and the more we can help them get the best out of our services.
After spending soe time at both villages, I walked into the City Centre, mainly to see what was going on with the Festival of the Mind. Saw the pop up gardens:
and went into the Spiegel Tent to see the CiCS team who are handling all of the technical support, including the AV and filming the talks.
Then went to the Cathedral where there was another pop up garden
and I got a chance to see the remodelling of some of the interior, including a new lantern in the ceiling
I really went in to see the Loomery Scrolls which is an exhibition of drawings by the artist Chris Wallbank documenting life in the guillemot breeding colonies of Skomer Island, based on the research of our own Professor Tim Birkhead.
These were really stunning, and I was lucky enough to bump into the artist, and had a really interesting chat about how he'd done them.
I took the opportunity to have a really good look round the cathedral, which is spectacular, and had a good look at the candlesticks in the crypt made by my neighbour and good friend, Keith Tyssen.
Then it was down to Castle House, which used to house the Co-Op, but the University has taken it over and transformed it as part of Festival of the Mind into an Artspace. There was a display from the National Fairground archive, including the greatest photobooth in the world, which of course we had to have a picture taken in - the Clown, the Ringmaster and the Bearded Lady!
There were some great art installations in the building - here's a couple:
As well as a demonstration of how hot we are, and how hot buildings are demonstrating heat loss and thermal energy
The building is a fantastic example of 1920's architecture, including a cantilevered spiral staircase
It was great to see it being used in this way - it lends itself to pop up shops and art installations - hope for the future?
After all of that walking it was time to meet some friends for a sit down and well earned drink, and then it was back to the Spiegel Tent for Man vs Machine - a great show looking at whether fMRI scanning can get the same result in judging what we are thinking about as a mind reader. Without giving too much away, the answer is yes.
Very entertaining show from Dr Aneurin Kennerley from our Dept of Psychology and an exceptional mind reader/mentalist/magician called Looch. I loved him!
After that it was wine, pizza, home, more wine.
Started off up at the Student village where our new students are arriving, and we put on a great event to welcome them and their parents and families. The sun didn't actually shine, but it did stop raining, and the helpful staff even mind the students' suitcases so they don't have to carry them upstairs to get their keys.
Our team were out in force helping students connect to our network, and with any other IT problem they might have. Here's them at the start, waiting for the students to arrive.
As we make our systems easier to use and more resilient, the less we have to deal with problems, and the more we can help them get the best out of our services.
After spending soe time at both villages, I walked into the City Centre, mainly to see what was going on with the Festival of the Mind. Saw the pop up gardens:
and went into the Spiegel Tent to see the CiCS team who are handling all of the technical support, including the AV and filming the talks.
Then went to the Cathedral where there was another pop up garden
and I got a chance to see the remodelling of some of the interior, including a new lantern in the ceiling
I really went in to see the Loomery Scrolls which is an exhibition of drawings by the artist Chris Wallbank documenting life in the guillemot breeding colonies of Skomer Island, based on the research of our own Professor Tim Birkhead.
These were really stunning, and I was lucky enough to bump into the artist, and had a really interesting chat about how he'd done them.
I took the opportunity to have a really good look round the cathedral, which is spectacular, and had a good look at the candlesticks in the crypt made by my neighbour and good friend, Keith Tyssen.
Then it was down to Castle House, which used to house the Co-Op, but the University has taken it over and transformed it as part of Festival of the Mind into an Artspace. There was a display from the National Fairground archive, including the greatest photobooth in the world, which of course we had to have a picture taken in - the Clown, the Ringmaster and the Bearded Lady!
There were some great art installations in the building - here's a couple:
As well as a demonstration of how hot we are, and how hot buildings are demonstrating heat loss and thermal energy
The building is a fantastic example of 1920's architecture, including a cantilevered spiral staircase
After all of that walking it was time to meet some friends for a sit down and well earned drink, and then it was back to the Spiegel Tent for Man vs Machine - a great show looking at whether fMRI scanning can get the same result in judging what we are thinking about as a mind reader. Without giving too much away, the answer is yes.
Very entertaining show from Dr Aneurin Kennerley from our Dept of Psychology and an exceptional mind reader/mentalist/magician called Looch. I loved him!
After that it was wine, pizza, home, more wine.
Friday, 19 September 2014
New students on their way
Of course, the other exciting thing happening at the moment is our students are coming back. Tomorrow and Sunday thousands of first years will arrive to collect their keys for their accommodation and start a new part of their life. We'll have staff in the student villages and on campus all over the weekend to help them get started with us, and get connected. We've produced a new set of web pages, and a new publication to help them.
We've also worked with International Student Support office to make a video about IT services aimed at prospective international students.
So we're all set for our new students, let's just hope the sun comes out!
We've also worked with International Student Support office to make a video about IT services aimed at prospective international students.
So we're all set for our new students, let's just hope the sun comes out!
Sounds of the Cosmos
So much going on at the moment!! Happening for the next 10 days is Festival of the Mind - an extraordinary celebration of research here at the University presented in partnership with professionals from Sheffield creative, cultural and media industries. The Spiegel tent is again on Barkers Pool, with a fantastic programme of events - the full listing is here
Last night I was privileged to be at The Sounds of The Cosmos. A collaborative event betwwen a number of different departments. The Department of Music organised the concert of Gustav' Holst's The Planets by the Sheffield Rep Orchestra, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy provided talk on the cosmos which interspesed the movements. Outstanding graphics and images produced by Human Studio were shown on 8 screens around the room. We provided all of the technical and operational support which included installing all of the screens and projection gear, and filming the event. An inspirational event, and great team work. Unfortunately the only picture I've got was taken on my phone and isn't great quality, but gives you an idea of what it was like. It also demonstrated what a great venue we have in the Octagon Centre, and we should use it more for events like this.
Last night I was privileged to be at The Sounds of The Cosmos. A collaborative event betwwen a number of different departments. The Department of Music organised the concert of Gustav' Holst's The Planets by the Sheffield Rep Orchestra, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy provided talk on the cosmos which interspesed the movements. Outstanding graphics and images produced by Human Studio were shown on 8 screens around the room. We provided all of the technical and operational support which included installing all of the screens and projection gear, and filming the event. An inspirational event, and great team work. Unfortunately the only picture I've got was taken on my phone and isn't great quality, but gives you an idea of what it was like. It also demonstrated what a great venue we have in the Octagon Centre, and we should use it more for events like this.
Thursday, 18 September 2014
Conferences, food tasting and project assurance
The last couple of days I've spent on conference organising business in preparation for the main UCISA conference in March 2015. So in a whistlestop tour of Edinburgh I've visited two hotels including checking out the different rooms, the conference centre including looking at entrances, exits, pedestrian routes and layouts, and the dinner venues. As well as getting a good speaker programme together, with keynotes, workshops, showcases and poster sessions, the 'environmental' factors are extremely important
You can have the best speakers around, but if the rooms are wrong, the food bad, or the coffee undrinkable, that's what people remember. We've had more complaints about the quality of the coffee than almost anything else! It's also important to make sure everyone is catered for, and in some recent conferences the quality of the vegetarian food has been particularly poor. A few years ago the lunch choice for vegetarians was fish and pasta....
So, in a very hard task, we now taste all of the menus in advance and choose what we're going to have. Can't remember how many canapés, starters, mains and deserts I've tasted over the last couple of days. But I know I've put weight on! I've also met with an events company to theme one of the dinners which looks as though it's going to be exciting. It's all coming together now, with just a few more speakers to confirm, it should be a great event.
Today I've been at the UCISA Executive meeting, where most of the agenda was taken up discussing in detail the change in charitable status of UCISA, more of which here.
We also looked at the progress of the many UCISA groups who organise many events and produce some very high quality publications and toolkits. One of the latest is on Major Project Governance assessment, which you can find here.
It has been very well received and colleagues from Sheffield have contributed to it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
You can have the best speakers around, but if the rooms are wrong, the food bad, or the coffee undrinkable, that's what people remember. We've had more complaints about the quality of the coffee than almost anything else! It's also important to make sure everyone is catered for, and in some recent conferences the quality of the vegetarian food has been particularly poor. A few years ago the lunch choice for vegetarians was fish and pasta....
So, in a very hard task, we now taste all of the menus in advance and choose what we're going to have. Can't remember how many canapés, starters, mains and deserts I've tasted over the last couple of days. But I know I've put weight on! I've also met with an events company to theme one of the dinners which looks as though it's going to be exciting. It's all coming together now, with just a few more speakers to confirm, it should be a great event.
Today I've been at the UCISA Executive meeting, where most of the agenda was taken up discussing in detail the change in charitable status of UCISA, more of which here.
We also looked at the progress of the many UCISA groups who organise many events and produce some very high quality publications and toolkits. One of the latest is on Major Project Governance assessment, which you can find here.
It has been very well received and colleagues from Sheffield have contributed to it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, 12 September 2014
Enterprise, Mobility and Digital literacy
Last night I was honoured to be invited to the Enterprise, Innovation and Impact awards in Firth Hall. The hall looked lovely as usual, and it's nice to see the window at the front of the hall which until recently was bricked up. The awards recognise the enterprising nature of many of our students, and the partnerships we have established with local businesses. There were some great projects, including The Bear Sock company promoting socks made from bamboo, the sales of which go to support bear welfare, We Love Life, a community platform which helps people improve the way they manage diabetes and Panela, a company extracting raw cane sugar without using additives. An excellent evening, and so good to see what our students can do. Lots more info on the Enterprise web site.
Today we had the first meeting of our SAP Mobility project bard. We're about to start implementing a range of mobile apps which give access to functionality from our finance and HR systems - viewing payslips, booking and approving leave, approving purchase requests etc. All things people want to do on any device, and fitting with our mobile strategy. Using Agile techniques, we'll be rolling apps out as and when they're ready, and consulting about priorities.
Finally this afternoon I met with a JISC colleague to talk about another JISC project I'm involved in - Building Capability for Digital Leadership, Pedagogy and Efficiency. This is about digital literacy skills for staff in all areas.All staff need these skills to get the most out of systems and services we provide, to make the best use of teaching technologies, and to improve efficiency in our processes. We all agree this is a real need, but how we will address and solve it is another matter. Answers on the back of a postcard please!
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
The Diamond
Today I was really lucky to have a site visit to one of our new buildings - The Diamond. Designed to provide space for engineering, lecture theatres, teaching space, and exciting Information Commons type space, it's really taking shape now. The cladding's going on:
and it looks good from the inside as well - the whole building will be semi-transparent:
The lower ground floor where the lecture theatres will be is huge, and you can see the doors into the lecture theatres, and see up onto the ground floor with its bridges and jutting out platforms. Above that are the holes cut into the first floor moonscape where you see up into the huge atrium.
Up on the first floor, the first pod is taking shape in the atrium:
This is what this pod will look like when finished:
A great visit - despite the fact that builders don't put stairs in at first. They seem to prefer ladders and scary steps. I was quite proud of myself for skipping up and down these.
Finally, my favourite picture from the day.
and it looks good from the inside as well - the whole building will be semi-transparent:
The lower ground floor where the lecture theatres will be is huge, and you can see the doors into the lecture theatres, and see up onto the ground floor with its bridges and jutting out platforms. Above that are the holes cut into the first floor moonscape where you see up into the huge atrium.
Up on the first floor, the first pod is taking shape in the atrium:
This is what this pod will look like when finished:
A great visit - despite the fact that builders don't put stairs in at first. They seem to prefer ladders and scary steps. I was quite proud of myself for skipping up and down these.
Finally, my favourite picture from the day.
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
Keep calm, and go to the fairground....
Today it was our Business Continuity Operations Group where we looked at a number of things, including some new web pages to let people know what to do in case of an incident. We also signed off the Business Impact Assessment templates that are going to be rolled out across the University to help departments with their business continuity planning by getting them to think about what they actually do, and what the impact would be of them not being able to do it. We also looked at some very helpful case studies written very honestly by Universities which had suffered incidents rangin from earthquakes, to fires, to evacuating student residences because of potential flooding. Lots of learning points, especailly around disruprion to learning and teaching, and the importance of good crisis communications.Tonight I went to the opening of Marvelosa, an exhibition in Library of original art inspired by The
National Fairground Archive which celebrates 20 years this year. There were wonderful works by Pete McKee:
and Anthony Bennett - this sculpture was my favourite.
Definitely worth a visit - open to the general public until 8 January.
Monday, 8 September 2014
TELfest
Today is the launch of TELFest - our technology enhanced learning festival organised by the CiCS Learning Technologies team. 21 sessions on offer throughout the week, and over 800 sign ups to the various sessions. There's sessions covering MOOCs, using the VLE, Mobile learning and social media. I was chairing a panel session on the value and impact of learning technologies in Higher Education. Some lively debate and discussion on what technologies had made the biggest difference to teaching and learning, what sort of spaces we need to teach using new technologies, how we can help all staff get the skills they need to make the best use of them, and what the future might hold.
Then in the afternoon it was our Service Strategy Board where we looked at progress with our projects, some project gateways, and looked at some resource issues we have, especially around service transition, where are not always very good at operationalising new services. We also had an update on our introduction of agile project management, and you can read all about that here.
Friday, 5 September 2014
From Cradle to Grave
Yesterday I was at a JISC workshop looking at prioritising strands for one of the co-design projects, From Prospect to Alumnus, or From Cradle to Grave as it quickly became renamed.
Basically this project is looking at how we might provide a more joined up experience for students in their interactions with different bits of the university. Currently this tends to be disjointed, not coordinated and must be confusing for students. One of the things we looked at was the different "touch points" a student has with different parts of the University. These are many and varied, from initial enquires about open days and application, through registration, their academic department, tutors, the IT Helpdesk, libraries, accommodation helpdesks, to graduation, careers and alumni. Data is collected at many of these touch points, but it isn't collected in similar ways, and is often not shared across different agencies. We compared this with some good examples in the private sector.
We also looked at sharing of information across institutions, which will become more important as mobility between institutions increases. At the moment, most of us focus on retention.
We discussed the many cultural and process barriers to sharing information, which are often more important then the technical.
We agreed that the learner needed to be put at the heart of this journey, not the institution and not the systems.
We ended with a list of priorities for further development, including customer relationship management, vendor management, data structures and integration and employability. All of these will have action plans put against them which I'll share as soon as they are published. All very timely for our own student system review.
Today I've been meeting with senior executives from Computing magazine, discussing with them our current issues and what we would like to see them cover in future publications and events. A very mixed set of attendees from commercial private and not for profit sectors so a variety of views expressed!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Basically this project is looking at how we might provide a more joined up experience for students in their interactions with different bits of the university. Currently this tends to be disjointed, not coordinated and must be confusing for students. One of the things we looked at was the different "touch points" a student has with different parts of the University. These are many and varied, from initial enquires about open days and application, through registration, their academic department, tutors, the IT Helpdesk, libraries, accommodation helpdesks, to graduation, careers and alumni. Data is collected at many of these touch points, but it isn't collected in similar ways, and is often not shared across different agencies. We compared this with some good examples in the private sector.
We also looked at sharing of information across institutions, which will become more important as mobility between institutions increases. At the moment, most of us focus on retention.
We discussed the many cultural and process barriers to sharing information, which are often more important then the technical.
We agreed that the learner needed to be put at the heart of this journey, not the institution and not the systems.
We ended with a list of priorities for further development, including customer relationship management, vendor management, data structures and integration and employability. All of these will have action plans put against them which I'll share as soon as they are published. All very timely for our own student system review.
Today I've been meeting with senior executives from Computing magazine, discussing with them our current issues and what we would like to see them cover in future publications and events. A very mixed set of attendees from commercial private and not for profit sectors so a variety of views expressed!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Wednesday, 3 September 2014
Gadgets...
I have to admit it, I'm a bit of a gadget person. Ruby Wax once referred to me as The Geek Girl. The last gadget I got was a Fitbit which I wear all the time (except in the shower) to measure how many steps I take, how many miles I walk, and how many active minutes I have in a day. when I first got it it was quite scary how little exercise I got on some days. Now if I haven't reached my target when I get home, I go for a walk. Headphones in, music or audiobook on and off I go. Much to the amusement of my neighbours, given that I live in the city centre. Made a real difference to how much exercise I take.
But, I've been looking recently at whether sitting down for long periods of time, which I often do, is good for me. The simple answer is, it isn't! I often get pains in my neck and shoulders, and I know I hunch and tense my shoulders when sitting over a keyboard. So, a few days ago I got a Varidesk - allows me to stand up when I want to, and sit down when I don't. Interestingly, in the 3 days I've had it, I've barely sat down. Don't feel the need to, and feel so much more comfortable. And no shoulder ache. Also, my step count has gone up considerably, presumably because it's very difficult to stand still.
I can't write a post about gadgets without mentioning the latest addition to the department today -
Google Glass. Given us all much amusement today, and it was quite weird when one of the Assistant Directors appeared at my door looking like The Borg and said - "I can take a photo of you by slowly winking"....
And this is the picture - my standing up desk, taken with Google Glass.
But, I've been looking recently at whether sitting down for long periods of time, which I often do, is good for me. The simple answer is, it isn't! I often get pains in my neck and shoulders, and I know I hunch and tense my shoulders when sitting over a keyboard. So, a few days ago I got a Varidesk - allows me to stand up when I want to, and sit down when I don't. Interestingly, in the 3 days I've had it, I've barely sat down. Don't feel the need to, and feel so much more comfortable. And no shoulder ache. Also, my step count has gone up considerably, presumably because it's very difficult to stand still.
I can't write a post about gadgets without mentioning the latest addition to the department today -
Google Glass. Given us all much amusement today, and it was quite weird when one of the Assistant Directors appeared at my door looking like The Borg and said - "I can take a photo of you by slowly winking"....
And this is the picture - my standing up desk, taken with Google Glass.
Value for Money
One of the things we've been doing over the last few days is writing our value for money report - part of a series of reports produced for the University to show how we're achieving value for money, pointing out areas where we could do it better, and looking at future strategies. We have some excellent examples from CiCS, especially around infrastructure, voice and data and printing.
We've expanded our local cloud server and storage infrastructure making use of aggregation, resource sharing, standardisation and thin provisioning. This means we only grow capacity when it is really needed. We make the best use of resources by sharing - we supply capacity that meets peak demand, but not all peaks are at the same time. It also means we can clone test systems from live data ensuring that upgrades have a good chance of success with minimal storage overhead. We can also snapshot systems prior to upgrades etc quickly reverting if things go wrong. This usually answers my main question at our weekly CAB (Change Advisory Board) which is "what happens if it all goes horribly wrong?" Usual answer - we'll have taken a snapshot so we revert. I have to admit that the "we" in the above paragraph definitely doesn't include me - some much cleverer people than that do it all.
Last year we had 750 virtual servers in production and development, this year we have 1063.
The way in which the network is being designed and deployed is also relevant to VfM. Wherever possible we install an appropriate amount of outlets that meets the users needs (not too many, not too few) and only patch those that are actually being used. This in turn means that we can install fewer switches than under the previous ‘standard’ model making savings on both capital and operational spend.
We’re also revisiting older deployments and retro-fitting the ‘only patch used ports’ model, enabling us to reduce the amount of kit needed in those properties (making operational savings there), with recovered kit then being deployed in other areas (making capital savings on those projects)
Continued roll-out of IP Telephony and underlying infrastructure provides better/easier access to voice services for users whilst reducing the amount of network equipment needed to provide it.
My final example, from many more listed in the report, is the My Sustainable Print Service which went live in April 2014; the service was made available to all Staff and PGT and the Students Union. Student print equipment was replaced in the Information Commons as part of this agreement improving quality and functionality. The recurrent annual saving for the university is £1.4M; 19 tonnes of carbon saved, reduced from 24T to 5T. A new fleet of approx 555 new multifunctional print, copy, scan devices has been installed on campus. The legacy fleet has been removed and so far totals 1500 devices which have gone to a Social Enterprise; toner cartridges have been removed and/or sold with an approx value to date of £5k.
As user expecttions increase and IT becomes even more ubiquitous and critical, we will keep exploring ways of making our services more efficient and demonstrating value for money.
We've expanded our local cloud server and storage infrastructure making use of aggregation, resource sharing, standardisation and thin provisioning. This means we only grow capacity when it is really needed. We make the best use of resources by sharing - we supply capacity that meets peak demand, but not all peaks are at the same time. It also means we can clone test systems from live data ensuring that upgrades have a good chance of success with minimal storage overhead. We can also snapshot systems prior to upgrades etc quickly reverting if things go wrong. This usually answers my main question at our weekly CAB (Change Advisory Board) which is "what happens if it all goes horribly wrong?" Usual answer - we'll have taken a snapshot so we revert. I have to admit that the "we" in the above paragraph definitely doesn't include me - some much cleverer people than that do it all.
Last year we had 750 virtual servers in production and development, this year we have 1063.
The way in which the network is being designed and deployed is also relevant to VfM. Wherever possible we install an appropriate amount of outlets that meets the users needs (not too many, not too few) and only patch those that are actually being used. This in turn means that we can install fewer switches than under the previous ‘standard’ model making savings on both capital and operational spend.
We’re also revisiting older deployments and retro-fitting the ‘only patch used ports’ model, enabling us to reduce the amount of kit needed in those properties (making operational savings there), with recovered kit then being deployed in other areas (making capital savings on those projects)
Continued roll-out of IP Telephony and underlying infrastructure provides better/easier access to voice services for users whilst reducing the amount of network equipment needed to provide it.
My final example, from many more listed in the report, is the My Sustainable Print Service which went live in April 2014; the service was made available to all Staff and PGT and the Students Union. Student print equipment was replaced in the Information Commons as part of this agreement improving quality and functionality. The recurrent annual saving for the university is £1.4M; 19 tonnes of carbon saved, reduced from 24T to 5T. A new fleet of approx 555 new multifunctional print, copy, scan devices has been installed on campus. The legacy fleet has been removed and so far totals 1500 devices which have gone to a Social Enterprise; toner cartridges have been removed and/or sold with an approx value to date of £5k.
As user expecttions increase and IT becomes even more ubiquitous and critical, we will keep exploring ways of making our services more efficient and demonstrating value for money.
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