โ Scribed by Liz Sanders
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Information technology is changing the face of institutional research. But this is not a new phenomenon. Once-new technologies such as mainframe and personal computers allowed institutional researchers to use software packages to analyze data and more easily edit research reports. What is striking today, however, is the rate of change driven by advances in information technology-in computers, networks, and telecommunications-and the sustained rate of change pervasive in higher education.
At a recent national conference on the nature of stresses on research and higher education, Duderstadt (1999) noted that administrators and faculty raised a number of critical issues, yet interestingly, the impact of information technology was not explicitly among them. These discussions made it clear, however, that the stresses mentioned, such as concerns about indirect costs and government reporting and accountability requirements, were only symptoms of the impact of more fundamental forces driving change, many of which related directly to emerging technologies.
The chapters in this volume explore the ways in which these emerging technologies, often in conjunction with other trends, have affected the IR office. The authors discuss emerging technology trends in the corporate sector that are relevant to higher education, the dual challenge of both open information access and pressures for accountability, how technology can be used to transform IR functions, and how IR has been affected by technology' s imprint on learning and pedagogy. From these discussions, three general themes emerge: the role of information technology as a catalyst for change, the meaning of open access to information both inside and outside the institution, and the new information professional in general and, specifically, the new technology-savvy institutional researcher.
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