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Adventures in Service: Sweet Victory in Dallas

[Editor's note: Although most of what we do appears to be tech-related -- all cables and components -- the reality is that we are part of a person-to-person business, built on understanding, communication, collaboration and trust. That's service. This week, contributor Anita Vidwell shares her Thanksgiving adventures in service.]

Dallas, TX. Thanksgiving with my parents was a resounding success, despite all forecasts. Previous family gatherings subjected my boyfriend, Chance, to Daddy's political insights regarding the unmanliness of ponytails punctuated by lectures on how it has been scientifically proven that liberals are the source of all things evil in the world.

This holiday, perhaps as an olive branch, Daddy invited us down and put us up in the Anatole. The flight was pleasantly uneventful (thank-you Southwest!). I convinced Chance to leave his man-bag at the hotel and the big day itself passed with nary a peep out of Daddy, save for one sniffling crack directed toward Chance about how patchouli is really just cheap perfume for women of questionable repute (eliciting a threatening, "Carl!" barked from Momma in the kitchen). 

Brilliant Learning Space Mash-up: Norlin Commons @ CU Boulder

Boulder, CO. Interesting things were happening at the University of Colorado at Boulder ("CU Boulder"). ITS and the university libraries partnered for an ambitious project: The Norlin Commons, which opened ahead of schedule in July. The good folks at CU Boulder rolled out the welcome mat to show our EDUCAUSE contingent around.

We met an energetic team of librarians, technologists and planners eager to discuss the fruits of their collective. For nearly half a decade they worked to a) identify key aspects of the current state of student resources within their domain (the Norlin Library); b) articulate the outcomes they wanted students to experience in some future incarnation of the library; c) partner with professional planners and designers to assist with due diligence and to translate their goals into an actionable plan; d) use that plan to seek funding support among their chief constituents (the students themselves).

The result is the Norlin Commons, a splendid mash-up of "mixed-use" and "flexible" zones, where services and beverages intersect at a place where students naturally congregate to get work done, unwind and refuel.

EDUCAUSE in Denver: The DU Tour (via Sydney)

 

This week, EDUCAUSE holds its national conference on information technology in higher education in Denver, Colorado. A group of colleagues from Lehigh, Purdue, Sydney (AUS), Stanford, Touro and UMass toured learning space at the University of Denver. 

Malcolm Booth, Director of Educational and Research Services at UT Sydney, posted an excellent narrative and photo collection of the visit.

We'd especially like to thank Mark Rodgers and Jane Loefgren (University Architect's Office), and Julanna Gilbert (Director, Center for Teaching and Learning) and others for taking the time to provide an informative tour of their lovely campus and facilities.

An Open Proposal for Innovation, Part Two: Projector Math

The previous article identified some of the challenges to maintaining a large number of high-tech classrooms constructed with traditional presentation technology, namely that the exorbitant cost of upkeep transforms great classrooms into "fiscal alligators" that ravage funding pools. Let's take a closer look at one big-ticket item: the display system.

A few assumptions

1. Until digital wallpaper is perfected, there is no getting around the need for a projected image in a classroom or conference room with more than twenty seats or so.
2. Integral to learning (and dominating every aspect of our lives), the big-picture genie cannot be put back into the bottle. In the near future, expect to find large digital displays everywhere.
3. For text to be readable, the height of a projected image must be at least one-sixth the distance to the farthest viewer (one-fifth is even better). No one takes binoculars to class unless they're on a bird watching field trip.
4. For any image to be easily readable, it must offer sufficient contrast (black text on white background) and color clarity. A bright projector (greater than 3500 ANSI lumens) is needed. No one ever complains that the projected image is too bright. No one should have to dim the lights while teaching unless they're teaching 20th-Century photo processing.
5. It is unclear whether flat panels offer greater practical longevity than projectors, despite manufacturers' claims to the contrary. Let's play it safe and assume they also have a useful life of about four or five years.
6. DVI is not going to solve all our problems. 99.9% of the classroom systems currently in place utilize analog video processing. Most laptops in service still have VGA (analog) video outputs. Hoping to solve a plumbing compatibility problem withyet more plumbing seems counter-intuitive and costly.

 

An Open Proposal for Innovation, Part One: The Carolina Case

Recent newsletters explored examples of good-enough innovations that proved to be game-changers. At their introduction, few, if any, were regarded as either "best in class" or "state-of-the-art." It is important to acknowledge how perfectly adequate good-enough really is because within the context of well-regarded institutions of learning there are occasions when nothing short of state-of-the-art appears to be acceptable. In learning technologies, the pursuit of this ideal can lead to unanticipated costs.

High-profile institutions are, after all, in the business of attracting the best and brightest minds by offering top-notch learning, work and research environments designed to bring out their best work. When resources are plentiful, it is commonplace to hear a best-of-the-best mantra reverberating through the walls of every planning session; often with insufficient thought to operating costs associated with "cutting edge" amenities.

In order to find a way to accept that now is an ideal time to re-imagine classroom tech, let us first consider how we arrived at where we are, and all we've accomplished...

Large, progressive institutions such as the University of North Carolina are renowned for blazing trails in learning technologies. For more than two decades, UNC pioneered technology-enabled learning space.

Good Enough: A Reader Chimes In

To the Editor:

I enjoyed reading your treatise on Good-Enough innovation and wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. I know many people who won't even attempt anything new unless the result offers some guarantee of perfection. They always talk about how they've got their eye out for opportunities that can deliver the "big win" and the "slam-dunk" but these folks never seem to get much accomplished. Maybe they think it's too risky?

Please accept the following list of good-enough innovations that I think are worth mentioning.

If you decide to post this please sign me,

Anita Vidwell

1949, Lego-brand "Automatic Binding Bricks" (a.k.a. "Legos"). How could you guys have missed this one? Legos were all over Bob Capp's article in Wired: The Lego version of Nirvana's Nevermind album cover was clearly meant to represent MP3's harsh rendering of music. The Lego sculpture of a desk telephone tells me that Skype may not be as good as a real telephone, but it's close enough for jazz (no pun on the previous musical reference). A Lego model of the Predator plane can't actually fly, but then the actual MQ-1 Predator is too small to carry a pilot, so it's kind of a toy plane that drops real bombs. Lego bricks are kind of an anti-toy because the play they inspire has to come entirely from the child's imagination. Legos are about the only toy that adults can play with without shame. As a kid, Legos inspired my little brother to flush them down the toilet. He really liked plumbing.

Good Enough Pt. 2: A Brief History

Foreword

It is my wish to challenge you to consider new learning space. Although I am not privy to inside information that maps out exactly what the future look like, I am quite certain that future learning environments will be the product of this new economy and not the one before it. None of us should be inclined to sit on our hands and let the cards fall where they may.

It is my wish to help you recognize that such change is possible for you. You are the stewards, the planners, the trainers, builders and fixers. More so than your boss or your reports, you have a clearer understanding of your customer as well as the prevailing constraints that thwart your ability to do right by your customer. Given the circumstances, who could blame anyone who decided to wait for someone else to figure it out?

Throughout history, ordinary people with an idea, tenacity and some luck carved out some thing (often some quite modest thing) that proved to be extraordinary over time.

Something disruptive.

Disruptive things are rarely perfect. Often, they appear to be quite flawed in comparison to the other bits and bobs for sale on the shelf. In the final analysis, however, disruptive things proved to be good enough in critical ways that may not have appeared obvious (or of any value) at the time of their introduction.

Good enough is within our grasp. So let's get going...

What's So Great About 'Good Enough' Tech?

In September's Wired magazine, senior editor Robert Capps (rcapps [at] wired [dot] com) observes that the MP3 audio format prevails despite the advent of digital audio algorithms that offer greater sonic resolution with comparably small file sizes. Capps speculates that the incremental gain in fidelity, as delivered by newer digital formats, offers insufficient advantage to prize the lossy, old format from the clutches of mobile audio listeners. In short, MP3 may be mediocre (Bob used a harsher word that, coincidentally rhymes with his last name) but for the majority of listeners-to-go, it is mighty good enough.

In MP3s, Capps finds the perfect metaphor to shed light on an often-overlooked phenomenon at the intersection of Good-Better-Best Street and Better-Faster-Cheaper Boulevard. There is mounting evidence to predict that, when presented with an array of sparkly tech-choices, portable music listeners tend to favor, as Bob puts it, "flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and dirty over slow and polished." In short, "having it here and now is more important than having it perfect."

A note to our Type-A readers: In future articles, AV-1 explores how this phenomenon relates to classrooms, but for now, feel free to share your comments and observations (below or on the AV-1 List).

Among the numerous examples offered, these three stand out as most relevant for our purposes: Flip Ultra, Skype, and Netbooks.

Digital Signage in Higher Ed: The Survey

AV Technology magazine would like to invite you to participate in a short survey about your campus' involvement with Digital Signage systems. Results will be aggregated and published anonymously in the October issue of AV Technology.

Please take a few moments to answer these six questions: http://tinyurl.com/digsign. 

Thanks! 

Mark Mayfield, Editor, AV Technology