Command, Control, and Curriculum

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Opinion

Command, Control, and Curriculum

8/21/2003

By Kenneth C. Green

Between 1943 and 1961, Dwight David Eisenhower had five jobs: Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe (1943-45), Army Chief of Staff (1945-48), Supreme Commander of NATO forces (1950-1952), and president and commander in chief of the United States (1953-61). He also served, briefly, as president of Columbia University (1948-50).

One story about Ike’s months at Columbia highlights the difference between academic and military organizations: walking across the campus with the provost just prior to assuming the Columbia presidency, the provost was briefing the General about an important issue on which the faculty and administration had differing opinions. Eisenhower, ever the military man, commented that the University should simply tell the faculty what to do. The provost responded, “General, the faculty are the university.”
Generals enjoy command and control; college presidents suggest, encourage, and cajole.

The Eisenhower story comes to mind as we enter the third decade of the so-called “computer revolution in higher education.” In January, 1984, concurrent with Apple’s launch of the Macintosh, a small number of colleges and universities began the first computer resale programs as a way to provide discounted microcomputers to students and faculty.

Campus officials viewed the resale programs as an extension of the instructional mission of their institutions—providing students with access to technology.

This new link between instructional mission and information technology manifested itself in other ways. For example, during the mid-1980s, colleges and universities, along with Apple and IBM, encouraged faculty to create courseware—sometimes simple/sometimes sophisticated homegrown curricular resources designed for “microcomputers.”

The excitement of the times and technology is reflected in a 1984 Drexel University documentary, “Going National: The Drexel Microcomputer Project.” We see Drexel students, faculty, and administrators getting their new computers, learning to use a Mac, using computers in class and for course assignments, and talking about their great aspirations for the role of computers and information technology as part of the college experience.

Two decades later, what hath we wrought? Without question, the technology that was new and unique in 1984 has become ubiquitous. Twenty years ago students came to campus to learn about computers; today students come to campus (and to online courses) to learn about and to learn with technology.
And yet, there is continuing concern about the disappointing levels of instructional integration. The 2002 Campus Computing Survey reveals that senior campus IT officials continue to identity the “instructional integration of information technology” as the “single most important technology issue” confronting their institution over the next two-to-three years. Moreover, less than a fifth of institutions participating in the 2002 survey report that their campuses consider faculty IT efforts as part of review and promotion.