From Butler to Enabler: How IT Services Empower Teaching and Learning

It is no argument that modernizing at any institution is a learning curve. In this month’s Top of Mind podcast episode: “From Butler to Enabler: How IT Services Empower Teaching and Learning,” Alison Robinson, associate vice president and deputy CIO of the Division of Information and Technology Services at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, joins host, Elizabeth Farrell in discussing this curve; specifically, the role technology teams play in enabling teaching and learning. For Robinson, enabling and supporting mean two different things, and the difference represents that change in modernizing your IT organization. Your IT department can serve as either a butler—you need a tool, and I’ll bring a tool—or as a partner—specializing in service management.

Highlights include:

• What is a service catalog, and why is it necessary?
• How to shift an IT departments functionality from butler to partner.
• What to ask yourself when moving the data center.