Over the next few weeks, Education Dive will be profiling individuals who have been selected for the Education Dive A-List. The A-List is a set of distinctive voices on Twitter who are helping to push the industry forward, and have been chosen to show up in Education Dive's "Trending" section.
A-List Member: Bruce Maas
Twitter Handle: @UWMadisonCIO
What is your day job?
Vice Provost for IT and CIO, University of Wisconsin-Madison
How did you get your start in education?
I started as a budget analyst half time during my final semester while an undergraduate. I have a double undergrad major in Accounting and Management Information Systems, so the early part of my career was spent on the business side. After a year, I was appointed the first Budget Manager for my campus, and then served as an academic administrator for three schools, providing budgeting, accounting, payroll, HR, technology, and sponsored research support as an Assistant Dean. This prepared me with grounding in the academic mission as I then moved over to IT leadership.
What do you think will be the biggest trends in education over the next year or two?
Teaching and learning is being rapidly disrupted by technology. We are in the midst of one of the largest disruptions to hit higher education in many years, and it is happening fast. Those universities that are positioned for this will be really challenged, and those that are not ready will be facing very serious consequences. This comes on the heals of 30 years of continually declining public support for education. I am not sure I have ever seen anything in higher ed during my 30 plus years like this confluence of economic conditions and disruptive technology.
What is the one Twitter account that you would recommend that education professionals follow and why?
The value of twitter is not one account, it is the many interesting voices. I follow hashtags for conferences, which provide me with a back channel if I am at the conference, and a source of information if I am not there. New users should see who friends or colleagues are following, and then follow people who post information of interest. I follow a range of people with a focus much broader than IT and higher education, for example.
For more:
- See What's Trending in Education
- A-List Profile of teacher and IT director Vicki Davis
- A-List Profile of educator Andrea Fanjoy
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