From the Executive Director

With the new academic year now well under way, I want to take a moment to update you on recent activity at NITLE. Our organization, I’m pleased to report, continues on a positive trajectory. Let me draw your attention to some specific developments that are advancing our mission to help liberal arts colleges integrate inquiry, pedagogy, and technology.

The most critical development has been clarification of NITLE’s strategic focus. For this academic year and into the near future, NITLE will concentrate its work in three areas especially pertinent to the future of liberal education: digital humanities, libraries and scholarly communications, and new learning resources. In the past year, our conversations with leaders in the community—including members of our advisory board, participants in the 2011 NITLE Summit, chief academic and information officers, library directors, and others—have pointed again and again to these three rubrics.

To drive action in these areas, members of NITLE’s national advisory board are working in committees focused on these areas as well as NITLE Labs. I am also very pleased to announce that Dr. Alan Kay, a true visionary and pioneer in personal computing, has been named NITLE Fellow for the 2011-2012 academic year. I fully expect Dr. Kay’s views on creativity in education to push all of us to think harder and more deeply about our shared mission in liberal education. I thank both him and the members of our advisory board for their work with NITLE.

In the past months, NITLE has also added key staff members with the talent and experience necessary to get things done. Dr. Lisa Spiro joined us this past April to direct our NITLE Labs program, bringing deep experience in the digital humanities and libraries. Under her leadership, NITLE Labs is providing liberal arts colleges with a “safe zone” to test concepts, experiment with new approaches, and learn by doing.

Mr. Fred Moody, our new program officer for libraries and scholarly communications, joined the team in July. Previously the editor-in-chief of Rice University Press, the all-digital academic publishing experiment that operated from 2007-2010, Mr. Moody is working closely with members of our advisory board and reaching out to others in the community to develop a strategic response to the current crisis in scholarly communications.

Also in July, Dr. Paul Henley came on board as our new membership director. A strong, engaged, growing NITLE Network is essential in helping liberal arts colleges and universities gain perspective on local challenges and take advantage of broader opportunities, including strategic partnerships and inter-institutional collaboration. Dr. Henley brings to NITLE both extensive experience with community development and a strong academic background.

In August, Dr. Sean Johnson Andrews joined the staff as a program officer, focusing on the future of libraries and scholarly communications. He will also serve as a consultant for NITLE’s futures and scenario modeling consulting practice. An ACLS Public Fellow, Dr. Andrews is currently on leave from Columbia College Chicago, where he served as assistant professor of cultural studies.

Finally, we welcome a new affiliated fellow to our ranks at NITLE: Dr. Tom Warger. A seasoned veteran of IT management in higher education, Dr. Warger is working closely with us to develop the NITLE consulting program. Many of you know Dr. Warger and are familiar with the deep expertise he brings to the table. He has helped dozens of colleges and universities plan strategically for the future over his more than 20-year career.

Evidence of NITLE’s strategic focus is already emerging, such as in the call for proposals just released for this spring’s NITLE Symposium. We hope to engage with you about our direction and work at this or another of our upcoming events. We also invite you to contact us directly with questions you may have about our programs and initiatives or idea and projects that you would like to explore with us.

Sincerely,

W. Joseph King, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education