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IT Professionals and Instructional Staff: Friends or Foes?

Presenters:
        [Panel Discussion]
        Jack W. Pope, University of San Diego, [moderator]
        David Tiedemann, Syracuse University
        Robert Ducharme, University of Mary Washington
        Barton D Thurber, University of San Diego

This facilitated panel discussion focuses on the interface between IT professionals and college faculty in an attempt (1) to ascertain whether and how technology is changing the nature of the institution itself, (2) to discover whether IT professionals and instructional stakeholders share the same goals, or in some cases, even the same language, and (3) to discuss what can be done if they don't. We expect to emphasize the critical need to listen, not only to stakeholders as they articulate their technology needs, but, even more critically, to those who do *not* have those needs, or who have needs that differ from those we might have expected, and why. We have in mind what Carole Barone characterizes as not one but two expert communities in higher education - technologists and academics [Barone, Carole A. et al; Creating a Context for Consensus, Technology-Enhanced Teaching and Learning; 2001]. These communities may overlap, but they also may not; yet if technology is truly transforming educational institutions we had better find out how various on-campus communities understand that transformation, and especially how different understandings interact or even compete.

The panel, representing 3 different institutions, consists of two Information Technology administrators, a Professor of English Literature, and a Business Professor.