[Educause 2003] More tidbits

There was a good keynote speech yesterday from Shirley Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic. Dr. Jackson talked about the challenges facing higher education in the new century, and how information technology both is a forcing function of change and offers enabling tools for coping with changes. She then went on to talk about how progress in coping with the issues facing us are being undermined by the decreasing interest of students in the US in science and technology, and how we have to work hard to correct that.

While there was not a lot of new information here, it was really great to see a higher education leader with some real vision of the issues and the place of IT in helping our institutions - it made me feel the lack of leadership at my own institution, which has been without a President for over a year now.

Went to a reception hosted by Apple last night, where they tried hard to make the point that the iTunes Music Store is a good way for campuses to fight illegal file sharing, and how they're looking for ideas from campuses to pilot joint programs with them. I dunno... as much as I love the iTunes store (and I am a very regular customer of it), I don't see any reason a higher education institution should help Apple (or any single commercial entity) do their marketing for them - legal music downloads will probably supercede illegal downloads when they have as wide a selection and better quality at the right price point. I look forward to that day.