The Electronic Virtual
University in Your Future
Council of Scientific
Society Presidents
Douglas Van Houweling
President & CEO -- UCAID
Overview
Developments in Information
Technology
Applications
Implications for Research &
Education
Implications for the University
How Fast Will Change Come?
Developments in Information
Technology
Computation
• VLSI progress will continue
• Everything will have a computer in it
• Challenge:
 Even the smallest systems will be extremely
complex
Developments in Information
Technology
Storage
• Density will continue to increase
• Challenge:
 Bigger but not faster
 Archival systems
Developments in Information
Technology
Communication
• Faster improvements in
price/performance than computation and
storage
• Challenges:
 Uneven access
 Speed of light latency
 Mobility
Developments in Information
Technology
Software
• Increasingly interoperable
• Better human factors
• Challenge
 Reliability
 Expense
Developments in Information
Technology
Systems
• Distributed
• Built of heterogeneous components
Challenge
• Complexity
• Reliability
Applications:
Many Disciplines and Contexts
Sciences
Arts
Humanities
Health care
Business/Law
Administration
…
Instruction
Collaboration
Streaming video
Distributed
computation
Data mining
Virtual reality
Digital libraries
…
Application Attributes
Interactive
research
collaboration and
instruction
Real-time access
to remote
scientific
instruments
Images courtesy of the
University of Michigan
Attributes, cont.
Large-scale, multisite computation
and database
processing
Shared virtual
reality
Any combination
of the above
Images courtesy of Old Dominion University
and University of Illinois-Chicago
Implications for Research &
Education
Scholarly Collaboration
•
•
•
•
Same time <--> Different time
Same place<-->Different place
In a shared information space
Ubiquitously and routinely accessible
Implications for Research &
Education
Tomorrow’s Student/Learner
•
•
•
•
Increasingly adult
More diverse
Part time
Less degree oriented, more focused on adding
competence
• More to contribute
Rapid increase in demand
Implications for Research &
Education
Distributed Learning Environments
•
•
•
•
•
Respond to learner demand
Global opportunity
Highly individualized
Require support for distributed communities
Even campus-based learning environments will
need to include global resources
• Will each learner assemble his/her own
virtual university?
Implications for the University
Integration of Research and
Education
• The same tools and infrastructure will support
distributed research/creation/discovery
• Adult learners could be more engaged
• Will students pay to participate in research?
Implications for the University
Other Providers
• Primarily captive corporate or for-profit
“institutions”
• Focused on student needs, not institutional
priorities
• Global from the beginning
• Emphasis on intellectual capital, not facilities
• Will higher education institutions be split:
 campus-based for young undergraduates
 geographically distributed for advanced
degrees and adults
Implications for the University
The Changing Role of Faculty
• Exploding opportunities for diverse affiliations
• Colleagues and students will be increasingly
less local
• Will universities support faculty with multiple
institutional affiliations?
• Will the best faculty members each create their
own virtual university?
How Fast Will Change Come?
The technology will support the
distributed university by 2005
Other providers are rapidly
expanding market share
Institutional change is most rapid in
the non-research sector of higher
education
The faculty will drive change, and
seek out institutional settings which
give them the greatest opportunity
More Info ...
www.Internet2.edu
[email protected]
Doug Van Houweling
Internet2
3025 Boardwalk Suite 100
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
+1.734.913.4250