A lesson from Tech

On Thursday and Friday we held our annual meeting and retreat. Each year we pick a theme and then spend a bit more than 24 hours discussing it. This year was technology in higher education. We spent the first day at Stanford. They understand the use of technology - we learned about how the medical school is using image capture technology (about 3300 hours a year in new material) and how the university is working on You-Tube and iTunes University projects in releasing content to the general public (I am a big fan of a Podcast called Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders) and we also heard from two juniors who have developed a combined software that includes all the features of the iPhone - geomapping and then digs into university resources like the directory and maps and course schedule to give students immediate information about their campus. It is an application that should be on most campuses.

On Thursday afternoon we held our Executive Committee and heard from a number of institutions, large and small, who were trying to think about how to deal with the current economic uncertainties. Many presidents discussed challenges based on credit uncertainties. Some thought they might freeze operations or salaries or even propose reductions in the current or coming year.

On Friday we went to Apple for a briefing. We heard four very different presentations. The first, from one of their Washington types looked at what education needs to react to in this generation of students. The second took us through iTunes U from Apple's perspective - which fit nicely with the presentation the day before at Stanford. The third, which I believe to have been the most popular was from a marketing type who has responsibility for handhelds. He talked about Apple's approach to the launch of the iPod (which coincidentally had been just seven years before - on October 23). He said they understood that launching a new product when there was market turmoil (remember 9/11 and the tech meltdown) required some fortitude - but it has paid off. They hired engineers when everyone else was laying them off. The final presentation brought together four key elements of how Apple looks at education.

Both days were wonderful - but the marketing one would be a good one for higher education to learn in these days.