Blogs
March, 2022 At the peak of the 1980s pop culture boom, a new idea was emerging in the field of computer science. The idea of a single storage location for business data came from IBM™ researchers Barry Devlin and Paul Murphy, who proposed the concept of the data warehouse. The purpose of this storage was to improve the ability of businesses to make data-grounded decisions.
February, 2022 “Digital credentials” has come to be a bit of an umbrella term encompassing everything from badges to competency-based education to comprehensive learner records, and conversations on the topic can grow to include not just new ways to articulate learning but corollary topics such as education-to-workforce and supporting technologies like blockchain, verifiable credentials, and self-sovereign ID.
February, 2022 One interesting and unforeseen result of the global health crisis is that both individuals and corporations alike are finding the need to take a pause. This pause provides a moment to re-evaluate not only where we are, but also where we want to go. For me, the pandemic has allowed me to take a step back and take stock in both my personal life and professional career. In my personal life, I have been asking myself the following questions:
January, 2022 Is your organization using open source applications such as CAS, Shibboleth, Grouper, midPoint or uPortal? Educational institutions use open source software as an alternative to proprietary software for the superior control, choices, and the economics that it provides.
November, 2021 A few years into my career at Unicon, I attended an LMS conference and found myself to be one of the few vendors in the room amongst faculty and staff. I sat in a session about LMS administration, a fairly benign topic, that turned into a lively debate about how and where to use vendors to help get LMS work done.
November, 2021 In his 2017 book “The Inevitable,” Kevin Kelly states that technology is in a perpetual state of “becoming.” That is, technology is never finished or done - it is just a series of changes. I see this concept of “becoming” in the current data landscape.
October, 2021 After what has seemed like an eternity, it feels great to be planning to attend EDUCAUSE in person! While we have managed to stay current with colleagues through virtual gatherings over the past 2 years, nothing beats being in the same room (with masks on, of course!) ;-)The agenda this year is filled with relevant and timely topics ranging from Cybersecurity and Privacy to Innovation and Emerging Technology. The conference is hybrid, meaning there will be sessions available for virtual attendees as well as in-person ones. The conference web site seems well designed, and there are lots of opportunities to interact online, including a trivia game over zoom!
October, 2021 Unicon and Instructure are close partners. We work together with the Instructure team to offer support services, participate in joint projects, and collaborate in support of offering the best services to our clients. It is refreshing to work with the Instructure team where our professional relationship revolves around providing the best service to our clients.
September, 2021 IMS held its quarterly meeting last month focused on updating the membership on many of its initiatives. IMS members can access recordings and presentation materials from the day long virtual session here.Here are some of the notable updates presented at the meetings:
September, 2021 Even though it’s been several weeks since I returned from ASU-GSV, I’m still watching back the recordings from the session. It’s wonderful that the amazing panels and content presented have been made available publicly. As someone who considers myself an extrovert, the prospect of attending my first in-person conference was exhilarating. Kudos to the whole ASU-GSV team for reacting quickly to the changing conditions surrounding the delta variant: they were able to shift conference protocol to allow attendance in a safe manner. Of course, it was also helpful that San Diego’s weather made outdoor gatherings very pleasant indeed. I made it a goal to attend or watch every session that had the...