EDUCAUSE Announces 2006 Awards in Higher Education Information Technology

The association honors two prominent leaders, an exemplary writer, and a transformative use of technology

The EDUCAUSE Leadership Award

This highest individual recognition offered by EDUCAUSE acknowledges and celebrates leaders whose work has had significant positive impact on the contributions of information technology to higher education.The EDUCAUSE Awards Program is sponsored bySunGard Higher Education, An EDUCAUSE Platinum Partner.

Howard Strauss (posthumous)
for visionary, entertaining, and provocative thought leadership in the world of higher education information technology
former Manager of Academic Outreach
Princeton University

At the time of his death in September 2005, Howard Strauss served as manager of academic outreach for Princeton University, providing education and outreach services for faculty and charged with raising the level of academic IT use and sophistication on campus. During almost 35 years at Princeton, he held a variety of positions in administrative systems and academic computing. As manager of Princeton’s advanced applications group, he and his group found ways to turn the latest information technology into practical applications. They created Princeton News Network (PNN), one of the first campus-wide information systems and a precursor to Gopher and the World Wide Web. They also helped deploy the first fledgling “dormnets” on campus, installed some of the first Web cams, and turned a legacy student information system into a student-driven interactive advising tool.

Beyond Princeton, Strauss was for five years the technical anchor for the CREN Tech Talk series of Webcasts. He was a member of the Pearson Online Learning Advisory Board and the Syllabus Conference Board, a NACUBO faculty member, and a founding member of Election Watch, a public advocacy group focused on integrity in electronic elections. He authored and presented numerous IT courses and served as an IT consultant for companies and universities. In 1987, his futuristic “Apple PIE” won second place in Apple’s national competition to design the Computer of the Year 2000.

Strauss was probably best known to his professional colleagues for his quirky and insightful writings and presentations. He published dozens of articles and was a regular contributing author to several computer journals. He was always sought out at Educom, CAUSE, EDUCAUSE, and other higher education conferences where he regularly spoke to standing-room-only audiences. Attendees could count on him to highlight important new technologies, offer a unique vision of the future, and articulate what he saw with humor and creativity. Betty Leydon, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Princeton University,called Strauss “iconoclastic and often contrarian…able to engage audiences spanning a range of technical backgrounds, making computing approachable and understandable while still challenging even the most technical members of the audience. In many ways, he served as a role model for the creative members of his profession.”

EDUCAUSE is making a $3,000 contribution in Howard Strauss's name to a scholarship fund of his family's choice.

Daniel A. Updegrove
for consistently thoughtful guidance and collaborative leadership of IT initiatives at institutional, regional, and national levels
Vice President for Information Technology
University of Texas at Austin

For nearly 30 years, Dan Updegrove has distinguished himself as a capable leader, trusted partner, and insightful contributor to initiatives at university, state, regional, and national levels. In January 2001 he became the first vice president for information technology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also an adjunct faculty member in the UT School of Information. Previously he was CIO at Yale University, associate vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania, and vice president of Educom. According to a June 2006 announcement, he will leave his UT post to focus on the university’s state and national network initiatives after a successor is installed.

Updegrove has brought original, important leadership to a broad variety of efforts. The clear intellect and coherent sense of strategy with which he cochaired the EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Security Task Force from 2000 to 2004 helped the task force convince the Bush administration that the higher education community is a trusted and respected partner in the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. Updegrove was a driving force behind the creation of LEARN, the Lonestar Education and Research Network, and served as the first board chair of this statewide networking organization. He also led the effort to connect LEARN to the National LambdaRail (NLR) and represents LEARN on the NLR board. He represents UT on Net@EDU, Big 12 CIOs, Common Solutions Group, the Coalition for Networked Information, Internet2, and Southeastern Universities Research Association and participates on higher education advisory committees for Apple Computer, Dell, Microsoft, and Network Appliance.

Updegrove has been a frequent contributor to the publications and programs of EDUCAUSE and its predecessor organizations, serving on the board of directors and numerous advisory and conference program committees. He has also served on program committees for ACM SIGUCCS, Internet2, and the Seminars on Academic Computing; IT visiting committees at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Lehigh University; and a number of university reaccreditation committees. He has consulted on IT strategic planning, networking, computer-based planning models, and computer gaming simulation at more than 75 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad, and has delivered well over 150 conference and seminar presentations.

According to EDUCAUSE President Brian Hawkins, “Throughout a long and distinguished career as an IT leader at major research universities, board member of regional and national technology organizations, speaker, writer, and welcome colleague, Dan has moved people, institutions, and a profession to new tiers of excellence.”

EDUCAUSE is making a $3,000 contribution in Dan Updegrove's name to the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin.

The EDUCAUSE Quarterly Contribution of the Year Award

One of the fundamental means for transmitting significant experiences and wisdom among colleagues is through publication in a peer-reviewed journal. This award encourages such effort by honoring unusually effective and well-reasoned articulation of professional experience that will be of use to other institutions and individuals. Winners of this award are selected by the EDUCAUSE Quarterly Editorial Committee. The award is sponsored by SunGard Higher Education, An EDUCAUSE Platinum Partner.

“The 361º Model for Transforming Teaching and Learning with Technology”
EDUCAUSE Quarterly, Volume 28, Number 4, 2005

by Dennis A. Trinkle
Chief Information Officer
Valparaiso University
formerly CIO and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
DePauw University

Focusing technology initiatives on learning while aligning them with the institutional mission and culture can transform teaching and learning. This clearly written and comprehensive article tells the story of DePauw’s efforts to become a model for using technology to enhance liberal arts education and enrich the college experience, emphasizing the critical message to “put learning first.” Ten key factors for success provide the foundation for a thoughtful analysis that is both useful and compelling. Written while the author was at DePauw University, the article reflects the philosophy and efforts that won DePauw the 2003 EDUCAUSE Award for Systemic Progress in Teaching and Learning. The full text of the article is accessible from www.educause.edu/AwardWinners/1374.

The EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award

Offered for the first time in 2006, this award recognizes innovations and initiatives centered on information technologies that provide groundbreaking solutions to major challenges in higher education or that change prevailing conditions to allow new solutions to be deployed in remarkable ways. The award is sponsored by SunGard Higher Education, An EDUCAUSE Platinum Partner.

2006 recipient: 

Course Management Systems

The inaugural EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award recognizes a complex, far-reaching web of initiatives that has broadly impacted higher education in less than a decade. Course management systems evolved from isolated good ideas for using technology to streamline course administration or enliven instruction into essential components of the integrated, IT-enabled higher education enterprise. At their simplest, course management systems have helped convert paper syllabi, reading lists, and other handouts into coherent, always accessible, easy-to-update online resources. They also enable online instructional environments in which students can work interactively with content, multimedia, instructors, and each other. Course management systems also simplify the administrative tasks associated with managing a course. Whether they are applied in support of face-to-face teaching, blended courses, or completely online distance education, these functions align with the learning needs and lifestyles of collegiate learners of all ages.

In selecting course management systems for the first EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award, the association celebrates both an important innovation and our ability to recognize and implement a significant new capability that now touches almost every institution of higher education and nearly all students in some way. Course management systems are even expanding their reach to the K–12 space. This achievement is an important intermediate milestone toward the ultimate EDUCAUSE goal of helping higher education use technology in truly transformational ways, to enhance and support high-quality learning for all.

For an overview of the academic origins of course management systems, key figures in the technology’s early evolution, open source developments, and the current spiral of innovation, competition, and collaboration, see the EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award site.

Learn more about the EDUCAUSE Awards Program.

About EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises more than 2,000 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 200 corporations, with 15,000 active members. EDUCAUSE has offices in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. Learn more at www.educause.edu.