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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2002: article | |
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Latest information technologies showcased during conference By Deborah A. Benedetti | |||||||
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More than 200 Cooperative Extension administrators and technology specialists, extension faculty and staff and others interested in information technologies and their use in higher and continuing education traveled to Penn State for the National Extension Technology Conference 2002. Participants represented more than 40 land-grant universities and more than a dozen state extension services and federal agencies from around the nation. The conference is organized by faculty and staff of land-grant universities who are interested in the use and application of information technologies in the Cooperative Extension system. The theme was “Innovation through Cooperation.” Many faculty and staff members from Penn State Cooperative Extension and the College of Agricultural Sciences contributed their expertise to planning and presenting the conference. John Dickison, video coordinator, and Tom Weber, computer coordinator, both with the college’s Information and Communication Technologies unit, served as conference co-chairs. They led the team that established video and audio transmission via Internet 2 for an extension administrator track session of the conference featuring Penn State President Graham Spanier and Iowa State President Gregory Geoffroy. The extension administrator track, a new feature for the conference, was designed for county directors, regional or district directors, state directors and information technology leaders. The goal was to foster collaboration among extension staff, faculty and administrators as they face the challenges of investing in technology and integrating and applying it to education, while at the same time maintaining an up-to-date technology infrastructure. “The Role of Land-grant Universities in a Digital Future” session was the lead part of the administrator track. From The Nittany Lion Inn at University Park, Spanier led a discussion about initiatives and policies related to information technologies and their use in the delivery of educational programming, with Geoffroy, who participated from a television studio at Iowa State University in Ames. The session was available for live viewing on the Internet from anywhere in the world. It also is archived and available for viewing at the conference Web site at www.netc2002.psu.edu. In a handout for this session, Dickison and Weber detailed the virtual network the Penn State team created for the conference and praised the assistance they received, noting, “We have had excellent cooperation from Penn State’s Office of Telecommunications and Penn State Public Broadcasting. We have also had superb support and enthusiasm from our telecom and broadcasting counterparts at Iowa State.” Spanier and Geoffroy demonstrated the flexibility of the virtual network during their presentations about “The Role of Land-grant Universities in a Digital Future.” Geoffroy said he was pleased to participate in a conversation that would not have been possible before. “In our increasingly digital world, technology is bringing people ever closer together and making information and knowledge more accessible,” he said. “I’ve worked with three land-grant universities during my career, and our basic fundamental role hasn’t changed. Land-grants still emphasize discovering knowledge and putting it to work. Technology will impact how we do our work, but it won’t impact our mission.” He added, “Our success is determined by speed, accuracy and relevancy of knowledge. These factors continue to be important today. Our solutions have to be interdisciplinary. We have to find ways to bring down boundaries and give our employees more approaches to achieve the Kellogg Commission’s vision of the engaged institution.” Iowa State University has embraced the engaged institution concept, Geoffroy said. Engagement is one of the university’s three strategic goals: learning, discovery and engagement. He stressed that engagement is not a synonym for extension, rather extension is part of all three strategic goals. “Engagement includes increased service learning, applied research, technology transfer and the involvement of faculty in solving community problems,” he said. Geoffroy cited one project Iowa State and Penn State are partnering on to help youth: PROSPER (PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience). (See story.) “We live in a knowledge-based economy and society,” he said. “The more we address societal problems, the more we will be a central partner with our communities. We can’t continue to have separate systems within the university. We must be more engaged within the university. Information technology is a top priority in facilitating engagement.” In his remarks, Spanier said the Pennsylvania legislature’s response to Penn State’s land-grant mission and funding needs to carry out this mission have prompted him to think more critically about the land-grant concept and where Penn State is headed. Penn State continues to request more funding for the elements that are most historically tied to land-grant universities. The University has been making special requests for Cooperative Extension and other outreach programs and has been successful in getting more funding in two budget years. “I’m wondering if land-grant and extension service will ever enjoy the same status as before,” Spanier said. “I’m wondering if our state governments will continue to support the land-grant mission. Will our mission continue to be considered a public good? Legislatures are indicating higher education is not a right, but a privilege, and students should be expected to pay for it. Their solution is to put more money into financial aid. This will have a leveling affect on universities and could erode many of things we do as land-grant universities.” Spanier added, “We could be faced with financial crises in Cooperative Extension services around the United States. State support is declining significantly. Do we begin charging our clients? What will our response be? These are important issues facing land-grant universities.” Across the country, legislatures seem willing to allow land-grant and higher education institutions to increase tuition by double digits. Spanier asked, “Should undergraduate students be asked to support the land-grant mission? We are facing an interesting question about the future of the land-grant mission.” As part of this session, the presidents answered questions from conference participants. The administrator track continued with a Socratic Dialogue involving eight panelists. Dr. James H. Ryan, vice president for Outreach and Cooperative Extension at Penn State, led the panelists and conference participants in a discussion about ways to implement technology and process changes. Panelists were Dr. Zane R. Helsel, director of Regional and National Partnerships, Rutgers University; Dr. Pete Vergot, district extension director, University of Florida Extension; Kenneth A. Spelke, assistant dean and director, Information Technology and Communication Services, University of Illinois Extension; Dr. Gary E. Miller, associate vice president for Distance Education and executive director of the Penn State World Campus; Dr. Jorge Reina Schement, professor and co-director of the Penn State Institute for Information Policy in the College of Communications and in the School of Information Sciences and Technology; Ellwood “Woody” Kerkeslager, president and chief operating officer, Information Futures, Madison, N.J.; Helene Nawrocki, director, Potter County (Pa.) Educational Council; and Ralph Booker, county extension director, Marshall County, Ind., Purdue University. Nirmal Pal, executive director of Penn State’s eBusiness Research Center, shared his business insights during the National Extension Technology Conference. He discussed “Changing E-business Landscapes and Imperatives in 2002.” Pal joined Penn State in 2000 after a 30-year career with IBM. He said e-business involves three elements: transforming key business processes, including key stakeholders and integrating the processes and stakeholders with Internet technologies. “E-business is not just commerce,” he said. “It’s commerce, collaboration and communication. E-business encompasses e-commerce, which includes both business-to-business and e-retailing. Things are happening, and you need to prepare for change.” The eBusiness Research Center has an assessment tool for determining if a company is e-business ready. Pal invited people to check out the tool on the center’s Web site at www.ebrc.psu.edu/. Pal’s presentation and the live, point-to-point video conference over Internet 2 conducted by Spanier and Geoffroy were part of the administrator track of the conference. The conference also included demonstrations of information technologies and sessions that addressed many information technology issues, including the impact of technology on outreach and how information technologies can be applied to land-grant universities’ education mission. In addition, the conference featured tours of Penn State agricultural and technological facilities, a share fair and poster session, more than 70 breakout sessions and other activities. Kansas State University will host the next National Extension Technology Conference June 14–18, 2003. An outreach program of Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State Cooperative Extension and Communication and Information Technologies | ||||||
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© 2002 Outreach Communications, Outreach & Cooperative Extension, The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108, fax: (814) 863-2765, e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu |
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