Created by
Jim Thomas (North Carolina State University) on March 28, 2007
Again, sorry I lost my notes on this one, but on this session especially, I think impressions may be the more important aspect anyway.
First, the speaker, Gary Bertoline made a very strong impression on me. He is an older guy, bright shock of white hair, but I have never seen anyone with more enthusiasm about the promise technology holds in improving our future. As a forty-something grad student, I often second guess my ability to stay up to speed with the pace of technological change, but Gary seems as ahead of the curve as anyone I have met in industry or academia, so I think I cannot keep using the age excuse.
Second, Gary says his role in this talk is to be a technology evangelist. He asks that each of the members of the audience try to embrace a new technology for teaching every day, every week, every course. His talk begins with a look at the changes in the global marketplace, the shift in the kinds of skills we need, and the changes in the attitudes of students.
He feels learning technology has been slow to adapt. We are 10 years behind. We are not unlike American car companies were in the 1970s - relying too much on outdated models.
At the end, Gary says he hopes he has infected us with the virus of advanced tech. We should go back and demand our Universities build out their cyber-infrastructure for our long-term job security, because institutiions that do not do this will lose their competitiveness.
jt
