What Is A Learning Ecosystem?

A crucial “systems thinking” component of a learning ecosystem is this: Integration trumps functionality.  In other words, if 85% of your desired functionality can be achieved with a fully integrated tool, or 97% of your desired functionality can be achieved with no connection to other parts of the ecosystem, use the former and avoid the latter.  (Of note, this is why the RFI / RFP process can be so detrimental to an organization’s longitudinal well-being from a systems perspective.)  

Lying With Data Is Easy – Telling The Truth Without It Is Hard

Data has just danced around the edges of usefulness for most colleges and universities over time.  We have MOUNDS of data, right?  We have historical data going back decades.  Granted, it’s mostly on paper, in cabinets, locked away in a storage room we only open every seven years, brushing off dust and cobwebs like an Indiana Jones film so as to cherry pick the best data to show accreditors…but it’s there.