Insights

This year marks my fifth Slate Innovation Summit. I think that gets me a pin. Five years ago I was just a few months in to working at Technolutions and nervous about meeting my first clients in person (mostly because I was relatively new and didn’t want to be put on the spot to answer…Read more

For most institutions, May represents early returns, to say nothing of frantic or disciplined refreshing of reports to reveal the evidence of the size and shape of the class that may be on campus in the fall. “How are the numbers?” memes abound, making light of the fact that “the numbers” to most only mean…Read more

I don’t need to tell you that we live in a world of immediacy. You know it even more if you’re actively working with today’s students (no matter the generation). Often, the immediacy mindset transfers into our professional goals. And so, we need the solution, the module, the email, the portal, the [insert anything and…Read more

While listening to Holly Morris, Director of School Incubation of the Washington State Charter School Association, speak about design thinking at the recent UCDA Design Summit in Savannah, my mind zeroed in on her comments about giving priority to empathy. She was reminding the roomful of designers that before offering solutions, we need to understand…Read more

I’m thinking about the importance of parents. I have good friends who just became first time parents. They’re young and energetic and the birth of Olive Kay thrills and amazes them. In this first week of parenthood, the exhaustion and weight of responsibility is just starting to show itself. They have a lot of that…Read more

The higher ed world was abuzz yesterday because some bad folks decided to hack into three institutions via password resets at the institutional level (Single Sign-On and, via that access to student details, such as applicant information). The students were sent emails offering them a view of their application, including comments, scores, etc.,effectively an inside…Read more