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When it comes to EDUCAUSE, I like to think of myself as something of a member of the loyal opposition.
Often, I find myself wishing that EDUCAUSE could be more critical about educational technology, and serve as a counterweight (rather than an accelerant) of the metastasizing edtech industrial complex.
That is why I’m heartened that EDUCAUSE is getting one emerging technology so right - the mimeograph.
In a groundbreaking, forward-leaning, and thought -leaderly publication "7 Things You Should Know About the Mimeograph" (released on 4/1/17 as part of a Special Issue), EDUCAUSE demonstrates the postsecondary disruptive potential of the mimeograph.
The authors of the report write that:
“...the mimeograph represents a prime opportunity for a college or university to be an educational innovator and for venture capitalists to gain entree into the edtech market.”
This may be just the publication that we need to push the risk adverse culture of postsecondary education to adopt some of the fail-fast and break things ethos of Silicon Valley.
Many of us got into educational technology because we are impatient with the status quo. Mimeograph technology may be the perfect Trojan Horse to push non-incremental institutional change.
As the EDUCAUSE publication points out, the potential of the mimeograph goes well beyond a tool that embodies the central Bloomian tenets of active learning pedagogies. The mimeograph, if widely adopted, can differentiate institutions within a highly competitive postsecondary ecosystem.
"By implementing a broad program of mimeograph technology--deploying, perhaps, a fleet of the machines in departments across campus and in libraries—your institution would establish itself as a technology early adopter.”
My read is that we are going to witness the mimeograph acting as a bridge between the administrative and academic computing sides of the house. The future of mimeograph technology is clearly cloud based, as EDUCAUSE observes that:
“...some experts believe that MaaS (mimeograph as a service) is on the horizon.”
This shift to MaaS will allow colleges and universities to play to their strengths, moving to a consumer of mimeograph technology rather than a producer. Academic technology units will need to be strong negotiators with cloud based mimeograph vendors, freeing them from running the systems, while putting a premium on the ability to collaborate with faculty.
How do you think that mimeograph technology fits in the paradigm of the new learner-centric institution?
Have you seen examples of the mimeograph at scale?
How do we avoid the the inevitable hype cycle that is bound to form around mimeograph technology?
Are we already at peak postsecondary mimeograph?
