NEWS: UofT nomination for Frye IT leadership program succeeds

 

Laurie Harrison has been selected to attend this year's Frye Leadership Institute. Frye is North Amercia's premier program for developing tommorrow's leaders in Higher Education Information Technology. It's purpose is to develop creative leaders to guide and transform academic information services for higher education in the twenty-first century. "It is an honour to both Laurie and OISE that U of T's nomination of Laurie was successful," says Bob Cook, OISE Chief Information Officer, and Laurie's boss.

The Frye Leadership Institute includes an intensive, two-week residential program held at Emory University in Atlanta, as well as a year long practicum project. The Institute offers participants the opportunity to explore and analyze the leadership challenges stemming from the changing context and complexity of higher education with particular attention to the implications of the power of information technology as a change agent. Participants must be nominated by a member of the institution's senior leadership and are selected competitively from among applicants who have a commitment to, and talent for, leadership within higher education.

 

The selection is based on attributes of successful candidates such as a willingness to take risks, the capacity to understand the environment outside one's immediate surroundings, and the ability to apply critical and creative thinking to problem solving.

 

For her practicum project, Laurie will develop a prototype eResearch environment, providing faculty, graduate students and researchers with improved access to knowledge building tools as well as mechanisms to work collaboratively to share research outputs.

 

The practicum will include an evaluation of existing infrastructure that provides our graduate students and researchers with access to data management tools, collaborative environments and ICT services. As is the case with many institutions, we currently have a range of standalone tools and interfaces used to complete various research related tasks. While we have begun to explore use of a roles management system to coordinate access to teaching environments and administrative services, this has not yet been explored in the research context. The overarching vision is provision of a suite of services and tools that allows students and researchers to access data repositories, collaboration tools, and shared applications - a Virtual Research Environment. The practicum will also explore support for knowledge building and mobilization activities arising from the convergence of Web 2.0 technologies and Open Access publishing systems.

 

 

“The practicum project has the potential to become an “exploratorium” for technology-based support of research activities within the institution. I also anticipate the opportunity to improve understanding of the changing needs of our research community as it evolves and re-invents itself in light of the need for new models of practice in the Social Sciences.” --Laurie Harrison