A personal cyberinfrastructure

Here’s my podcast of the “New Horizons” column I wrote for the Sept./Oct. 2009 EDUCAUSE Review.

Even if the specifics need changing, mild or moderate or drastic, I’m as confident as I can be that we should be educating our citizenry to be systems administrators of their own digital lives.

10 thoughts on “A personal cyberinfrastructure

  1. Dear Gardner,
    Fascinating talk. How would you describe the similarities and differences between a personal cyber infrastructure and a personal learning environment? What are some small ways we can promote such an endeavor structurally at Baylor?

    Thank you.

    Steve

  2. Gardner– have you implemented this idea with your students yet? I’m pursuing this idea with the computer and information tech program where I teach. Because of financial (and financial aid) issues involved with requiring students to maintain a paid contract with a host, my model is to have our institution serve as the zero-cost “reseller” (using a commercial outfit) to students who purchase and house their domains for free.

    When they leave the program or just feel confident enough to move, they can take it all with them by transferring their domain to another host. It’s a bit of a blend of the ideas I’ve picked up from the Reverend’s WPmu ideas and from “no digital facelifts.”

    I’m very keen on the idea because I have an aversion to structured portfolios and yet feel the pressing need for students to have a space of their own to serve as part of the place and foundation for developing their PLE

  3. Gardner:
    I have started to share your ideas with folks here at the U of Memphis. The reaction has surprised me! My current mental model would have had me to predict that your ideas and thoughts, while interesting, would have no place in their academic lives. I have to admit, I thought when I presented your ideas to others that they would treat them as idealistic or Utopian as they pondered the future direction of higher education, in particularly the role of IT in the academy.

    Actually the reaction I have received has been more along the lines of, “…ok, what next” or, “why not?” For me personally, (an IT guy who evangelizes on how web 2.0 and cloud tools can change the way we do business)- it has been a bit of a paradigm shift. I remain somewhat optimistic that folks will see the light, and step into it.

    Here is a link to an article I read a few days after seeing your piece that is related but comes at higher ed from a business perspective. You might find it interesting:
    http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2009/tc20090914_969227.htm

    (I like the guy’s analogy of “high fidelity” to compare the quality of the college experience. As I contemplate whether or not I need a digital re-mastered version of the “White Album” – high fidelity has been on my mind.) 🙂

    Steve

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