Introduction

Welcome to the external web site of the Information and Educational Technology Division of the United States Military Academy. We support the development of leaders of character by providing the information and educational infrastructure for cadets, staff, and faculty to accomplish their missions.

Below you will find our mission statement and our strategic plan for the next five years (2005-2010). Links to the left provide additional information on the computing infrastructure we maintain to support the Military Academy.

LTC Ron Dodge
Director, Information
and Educational Technology

Mission Statement.

The Information and Educational Technology Division leads information and educational technology in support of the Military Academy's mission to develop leaders of character with a focus on the academic program.

Vision

The Military Academy is the world leader in leveraging information and education technology to develop leaders of character.

Our Impact on the Military Academy

IETD is fundamental to the success of the Military Academy.

• We specify, procure, and maintain all cadet technology systems.
• We educate and empower cadets to use technology.
• We design, implement and maintain the information and education systems that cadets, staff, and faculty utilize to complete their missions.
• We specify, procure, and maintain the servers and associated hardware to power the information and education infrastructure of the Military Academy.
• We ensure a safe computing environment by providing patching and anti-viral solutions.
• We work closely with our sister IT organizations to provide governance of Military Academy IT systems.
• We are a catalyst for change and innovation.

Scope

This plan covers all academic information and educational technology including department, center, and library information technologists, and the Information and Education Technology Division (IETD).

Our principal focus is the development of leaders of character as enumerated by the academic program goals in Educating Future Army Officers for a Changing World. IETD also supports and leads efforts to accomplish other information technology (IT) facets of the Military Academy mission. IETD influences the adoption of new technologies into the Army through technical expertise and an understanding of the Army mission and organization.

Educating leaders of character is a reference to both the cadet graduates that enter, and the rotating military officers that return to the Army.

Competitive Advantages

Focus on Teaching Excellence. The Military Academy is the premier leader development institution in the world. Our focus on development extends beyond the classroom and permeates everything we do. This total commitment to cadet education creates an environment conducive to the consideration and careful inclusion of information and educational technology and provides the Military Academy with a competitive advantage.

Faculty and Staff.The faculty and staff are deeply committed to the development of leaders of character. This commitment translates to a willingness to adopt new technologies and innovate if the technology supports enhanced leader development. The Military Academy has a competitive advantage compared to other universities in adopting new technologies.

Infrastructure. The computing infrastructure at the Military Academy compares favorably to other leading universities. This rich computing infrastructure provides a foundation for the exploitation of technology to support education.

Decentralized Structure. Decentralized IT support tailors the delivery of IT services to departmental needs. While not as efficient as a centralized structure, decentralized support is more effective, fosters innovation, and increases responsiveness.

Core Competencies.

Education and Leader Development. IT can enhance or hinder education and leader development. IETD understands the relationship of IT to education. We understand the learning process and how to enhance that process through information technology.

Client Support. If our customers could choose any client support cell in the world, they would choose IETD. We anticipate user needs and proactively plan to accomplish the mission. Client support is the cornerstone of the program.

Project Management. USMA technology initiatives are introduced in the form of projects that must be closely managed to ensure success. IETD thrives through superior project management.

Reliable Infrastructure. IT support for education is mission critical and time sensitive. We provide an academic IT infrastructure that is robust, reliable, and predictable as a necessary condition for the Military Academy to accomplish its mission.

Balancing Control and Freedom. As an educational institution, we must foster inquisitiveness and innovation. As a military unit, we must operate within a Department of Defense infrastructure. This requires the Military Academy to select the right balance between individual empowerment and control of the computing environment.

Information Assurance. Our ability to operate is dependent on our ability to defend our network. In a period of rapidly growing attacks of increasing complexity, information assurance education and awareness is a core competency.

Values/Beliefs

Mission-focused. We have a clearly defined mission focused on the development of educated leaders of character.

Honesty and Ethical Behavior. USMA has core values of honesty and ethical behavior. We firmly embrace these values.

Professionalism. We are skilled professionals and conduct ourselves as such. Our workplaces, personal conduct, and issue staffing exude professionalism.

Refusal to Fail. The Military Academy is critical to the defense of the nation. IETD is critical to the success of the Military Academy. We succeed.

Innovation. We are never satisfied with the level of support or quality of education. We strive to develop better ways to educate and contribute to the accomplishment of the Academy mission. We are always learning, always questioning, always innovating.

Cooperation and Collaboration. Because of the Military Academy structure, not a single person or group is responsible for the resources that we need to accomplish our mission. We cooperate and collaborate transparently to reach the best solution for the Military Academy.

Strategic Objectives

Reliable Infrastructure. Our IT infrastructure is extensive, powerful and fundamental to the accomplishment of the Military Academy's mission. It is not always available or reliable. Over the next five years, our IT infrastructure must become as reliable as a telephone or an electrical outlet. To provide a reliable infrastructure, we must implement proactive IT management and self-healing solutions that gradually degrade instead of catastrophically fail. As part of reliable infrastructure, we will accredit the Academy Management System.

Customer Service Excellence. Customer service is a core competency. Customer service excellence is not consistent across IT support organizations at the Military Academy. If our customers could choose anyone to meet their needs, they would choose us.

Predictable Budget. Our budget is dependent on leadership prioritization of limited resources. Large variances in IT budget support are indicative of a failure to convey the fundamental link between the accomplishment of the Military Academy mission and adequate funding for information technology. A predictable budget allows us to plan and prioritize so as to provide a consistent infrastructure for the accomplishment of the Academy mission. Over the next five years, our budget must become more predictable so that the accomplishment of the Academy mission is likewise predictable. Our budget process must become transparent and creditable.

Ubiquitous Computing. The Military Academy will employ a growing number of networked computing devices that must be integrated to provide common educational picture. The exploitation of these devices must provide secure access to Military Academy resources from anywhere at West Point and limited worldwide locations in a format tailored to the computing device.

Classroom Management. The introduction of wireless classrooms has significantly increased the ability of the faculty to exploit technology in the curriculum. Any classroom is a lab. The growth of ubiquitous computing will increase the capabilities of the faculty to exploit wireless technologies to educate. We must develop classroom management technologies that allow our faculty to easily control the use of technologies in the classroom so as to effectively share information, support group collaboration and presentation, and assess learning.

Process Transformation. Web-based computing is transforming Military Academy business processes. While this process has already begun, it will accelerate over the next five years. We must transform, not translate, business processes to take advantage of web-based computing. In addition to process transformation, leaders of character are increasingly solving problems using this approach. Our infrastructure must support and foster exploration and development of web-based computing.

Outreach to Army. Outreach to the Army is becoming increasingly important as we leverage the resources of the Military Academy to solve real-world problems. Relevancy resonates with leaders of character and our faculty. Our IT staff support outreach to the Army and our infrastructure is sufficiently robust and adaptive to support new initiatives. Outreach projects will grow over the next five years.

Strategic Priority Issues

Consolidation and Space. IETD operates from Bartlett, Mahan, Taylor, Washington Hall, and Building 606. Our ability to lead, collaborate and implement change is limited by the friction induced by the lack of consolidation. We must consolidate and provide the necessary space so that we operate an office in Talyor Hall supporting Associate Dean functionality and a second location in Central Area easily accessible by cadet, staff, and faculty. Additionally, we must consolidate branch websites into a single IETD site so as to provide a single interface to access our services.

Staff and Faculty Computers. The staff and faculty need the computing platform to execute their mission. Each member must have a reliable computer that is less than four years old and appropriate for their duties. Each faculty member must have a reliable PDA that is less than three years old and appropriate for his or her duties. We cannot create holes in our infrastructure by purchasing less than 25% of the faculty computers each year.

Collaborative Learning Technology. The collaborative places where learning occurs must have the infrastructure to support learning. Each collaborative place must have a networked computing device less than four years old, a projector less than five years old, wireless network access with adequate bandwidth, and appropriate control and discipline specific hardware as required.

Proactive Resource Management. Information and educational technology is necessary but not sufficient to the accomplishment of the Military Academy mission. These resources (wireless and wired network, servers, email) must be managed so that failures are resolved before the failure is visible to our customers. Fundamental to proactive resource management is an Academy real-time decision support tool that supports proactive resource management.

Proactive Change Management. The Military Academy must be able to look ahead at potential information and education technology, determine those technologies that have educational potential and develop the appropriate pedagogy and support for the technology.

Academy Knowledge. The Military Academy must move beyond static data storage to intelligent decision support systems that empower cadets, staff and faculty. Users must have access to the appropriate information that they need, when they need it, in the appropriate formats. Academy knowledge will be accessed from outside the Military Academy.

Personnel. There must be sufficient personnel, with the appropriate training and education, experience, personal traits, and knowledge of information and educational technology to meet our strategic objectives. Training opportunities associated with active directory, wireless, and information assurance must be offered at regular intervals so as to maintain our competitive advantages in these areas.

Information Assurance. The number and complexity of computer-based attacks is increasing rapidly. The Military Academy must ensure Academy knowledge is confidential, accurate, and available. The Military Academy must stay above the Army average for Information Assurance Vulnerability Assessment (IAVA) compliance, and avoid all major security incidents.