EdTech and Higher Education

This is building better developers, the developer podcast. We will accomplish our goals through sharing experience, improving tech skills, increasing business knowledge and embracing life. Let's dive into the next episode. Hello and welcome back. We are continuing our season with a series of interviews. This is going to wrap up our four part set of interview sessions with Jeff Dillon of EdTechConnect. And we're basically just going to sort of wrap up. It's a little shorter, but go into really what it really is a little bit about what makes Jeff tick a little bit. What is where is his joy and life. And I think you'll find as we have often come to that when you like life becomes just that much more pleasant. So we'll wrap it up with him and let's get back to our discussion with Jeff. So I want to flash back a little bit because this is more of almost a personal curiosity just from your journey. When you started out, because you're just sort of describing your position in a university, that's something that didn't exist at some point in the past. It's not that long ago. I don't know if it's 15, if it's 20, maybe 25 years ago. But being a position that's focused on technology for the higher ed, was that something that when you came into your, you know, you switched over into the university job, was that something where that was a position that they had opened up and they needed to bring somebody in? Was it something that you came in in a slightly different role and sort of crafted that yourself? Or was it something that the universities saw a need and sort of started to pave that way? And you said, hey, this is something that I'm a good fit for. Yeah, that's a gosh, no one asked me that question a long time. That's a great question. In 2000, I took my first university job after I sold my first business and I was so central IT owned the website and the president's cabinet created a new position, took it out of IT, put it in marketing and called it Webmaster. And so I got that Webmaster position that was in marketing, but had that interesting relationship with central IT because I had to manage this antiquated website that they put up that they kind of knew it wasn't great. But yeah, so that was my first entrance into it where we had that title of Webmaster, which means you kind of did everything and no one really knew, you know, it was just a different world back then. So did it grow? Was it something that you started out as Webmaster and then as you started looking as you started looking around the campus and saw how technology is being used? Was that where you were? Were you able to sort of craft it yourself? You said, hey, that's something that probably should fall under our territory. Is that sort of how that grew? Yeah, I didn't I didn't really go into saying where things should live, but I got really involved with working with central IT on the LMS transition. We were going from like WebCT updating a version, a new campus calendar product was out there on the market. We implemented a new campus calendar. We implemented a portal. My you know, was a U portal based portal product back then was it was new. So all those things were brand new and they were cutting edge back then. And so I was involved with those, although I was not in central IT, I could I could make everything look nice and I could brand it and I could do I could I could build the sites too. I wasn't really a database guy, but so I was kind of as I could have been in central IT. It was I forget back then how everything was structured. You know, fast forward to maybe 2010 ish when when web teams were being formed, you know, the people, the entity or the group in charge of the website was often split between marketing and central IT in whatever whatever way. So when I took the jump over to, you know, from Arizona to California, I had a couple of part time people that ended up reporting to me at in Arizona that were developers. But I moved to take a big step up to have a full team, you know, a team of I think six, six staff developers here in Sacramento. And that's where it evolved to where like we're using almost the same systems as well. And then I was moving to the central IT side at that point. So now, as you've gone out and gotten familiar with a lot of other universities, not only system, you know, systems as well as other universities, is that are you seeing that that sort of grew in each of these organizations by need? Or are there some of these where you're still sort of we'll call it like evangelizing the idea of making higher tech or higher in higher education, making technology a part of that? Is there still some pushback? Are you seeing where a lot of these organizations have in universities particularly have seen that there there's a need and they're they're not they're essentially coming to you as opposed to you having to sell them on that idea? You know, I think there's always the selling that has to happen. I've really taken the point over my last 10 years of my career that the ideas that originate in IT are much harder to get through and you really need an external stakeholder. You know, often we do need to show our campus what's possible and then say, Hey, can or does this help you? Does this help you? And that's kind of my mission is to say, look, what's out there and expose our campus to these these tools. You know, and but but across the board across the country, it's really, I think, just a function of resources. You know, everyone knows there's all the great solutions, but just some schools just can't afford them or don't have the demand power right now that I mean, the staff are really struggling with all these new services we spun up to like for equipment checkouts and hotspots that we're managing and and the turnover it's it's been really challenging lately. But it's always our role to be aware, you know, in my role as a director to say, Hey, this is what's available to us. You know, long term, this could really, you know, might be a cost up front, but we should look at, you know, and not put ourselves in the situation we're in right now with this system and look at look at what these companies are doing. They're designing for us. This is this solves this problem. So it's it's a it's a balance. And so that also leads probably sort of starting to run out of time. But this has been excellent. So I do want to ask. So you focused on with EdTech Connect is a website and a place to come for for researching some of this, these products and some of the directions that organizations can go. Are you and I know you're you're limited in resources because you're you're getting started. But is it either something where you currently do or are planning longer term to provide essentially some sort of, you know, consulting and services on that line of, hey, if you want to figure out what, you know, if you're trying to figure out what product you need, we have a site, but also where you can help them out a little bit by saying, hey, here's maybe a based on either your your size or financial constraints or the the technology resources that you have on campus. Here's some places that you need to look or, you know, here's some, some deeper information about these products. Yep, that's definitely on the horizon. Like you said, we're still small. But I am I am leaving my job at the university to just do this full time and possibly in January, I might team up with one of these best of class vendors and work more directly with them. But yes, we're going to have some services for universities if they need help at any level. It just makes sense. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, somebody like yourself that's gotten this kind of experience is very, it's highly valuable to a lot of these these organizations, because they just they're not going to have people that have got, you know, the the amount of experience in the specific experience as well, you know, to spend that much time in one industry and really be able to sort of see it grow, even though everything seems to grow so fast these days, it's it's out of control, no matter where you're at. But to be able to find somebody that least has a solid foundation, and has been through, you know, has been around the block a few times in that area, I know is incredibly valuable, particularly in evaluating potential solutions. Yeah, it's, it's fun to see, you know, it maybe goes along right with the podcast, it's the name of this podcast is that, you know, I feel like I've really found a way to use my experience in higher ed, but also my passion for the entrepreneurial side of me. And it's all coming together. And it's really, it's really kind of fun, because it doesn't feel like work. Because I can talk about this stuff all the time, you know. Oh, yeah, that's, that is, that's, that may be this, that's probably the secret of life right there is to have something that you are passionate about. And that it's it's helping others. So you don't ever feel you know, you never feel like it's selfish or anything. It's just you're having a great time, you're helping others you get it's it's win win. And you know, if you can turn or turn it into a career and pay the bills and everything, then it's you know, everything is is rainbows and roses and sunshine. So right, right. You know, that's awesome. And even particularly because it's like you, you're living the dream in that sense, where you that's always been sort of my, you know, I guess my elevator speech about it is, if you were able to retire, what would you do? That's exactly it. You know, this is that's then it's like, hey, all my I don't have any primary concerns. So now I'm going to do what I want to do. And so it's it's very telling that you're basically saying, I'm going to essentially do what I've been doing for the last, you know, many years, I'm going to keep doing it. But now I can focus a little bit more, and help others in some of the problem areas that maybe I couldn't, you know, I wasn't able to focus as much before now I can really, you know, drill down into things where I see a need. And I see that I can provide a solution. You're right on with that. I totally agree. And, you know, I had this, I have this idea, I may have seen it somewhere else, but I have this idea to, to have a Venn diagram that you need to, you need to figure out like what what you're good at, people say, go follow your passion. You know, that's great. Go follow your passion. But you also it's a it's a it's a bad place to have to be poor in this country. So you kind of need to find something you're good at, too. I say find something that you're good at, that you're that you're passionate about that you love, and then find something the world needs. And if you can find that sweet spot, that's, that's great. Exactly. And it's, I think it's it I've found and talking to a lot of people, it is not as hard as people think it is. It's amazing that there's, there's all these little, you know, niche needs, that it's amazing that you can you can find yourself a perfect fit for certain people, it may not be enough, you know, you're not going to be maybe a, you know, a Walmart, that's a, you know, one size fits all kind of thing or something. But you can you can be very effective being very specific in your solutions. And it's also the whole thing's a little easier, because you're not having to sell people on it. It's, it's really you just have to tell them about it. And they're like, they'll, they'll come to say, Wow, that's exactly what I wanted. Tell me more. Yeah, that's and that's when you're I think that's just like, that's a great feedback loop, because you're, I think all of us are, it warms our heart to have somebody say what you can what you're about to tell me is exactly what I want to hear. It's exactly what I want to learn about. So you get that enthusiasm and excitement on both sides of the conversation. Yeah, it's fun. So I wanted, I want to respect your time. And we're sort of running up to the end of it. The last thing is there a specific if somebody's interested in learning more, or if they're in higher education, they want to dig into some of your products and offerings in your site? Is there a sort of like some primary links or best way to get ahold of you? Yeah. Yeah, get ahold of me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn.com slash in slash edtech connect. Or just visit edtechconnect.com. All right, well, I want to thank you for your time. Thank you for a great conversation. This was exactly what I expected. That there's just a there's a wealth of information out there. And, you know, it's just great to even when we're only scratching the surface, at least we can scratch the surface and at least take a first step. So you have there's a little bit idea of what's what's underneath and maybe a couple of next steps to take from that. Thanks, Rob. And let me know if you ever want to talk more about about edtech and we'll talk again. Oh, definitely. Thanks a whole lot. This was this is awesome. And same if there's anything I can do for you, then let me know I'd be more than happy to do so. And there you have it. That will wrap up our conversation with Jeff. If you want to learn more, take a look out at edtech connect, even if you're not looking for exactly that kind of software, the site, the format, the way it works. And then even some of the related articles that you can find links to out there on edtech connect, I think are very useful, particularly back to the site itself, where it is a solution to something that we probably stumble across on a regular basis, maybe not that exact vertical, not exactly education related software, but software in whatever our line of business is. It may give you some ideas for how you can take what he's done and find a way to do that for whatever industry or niche that you are working in. As always, you know, the theft is the best form of flattery is maybe take some good ideas from him, see how that works. And if nothing else, it may even give you some great ideas for just some general user interface, catalog browsing types of solutions, because there's a lot of good stuff there. It flows well. It's a very nice site. So highly recommend it. Kudos to Jeff and his team for putting that together. That being said, we have now put this interview together. We're going to put it to bed and we will come back next time. And we're getting pretty close to wrapping this season up. So if you're looking for something in the future, some additional interviews or some sort of topic, definitely shoot us an email info at developer.com. That's D-E-V-E-L-P-R-E-N-E-U-R.com. And we'll be happy to take a look at it. We're getting close to the end of the year, but we're looking at what we want to cover in the year ahead. So as always, we're not going to throw any challenges out to you this time. So just go out there, have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time. Thank you for listening to Building Better Developers, the Developer Noor Podcast. For more episodes like this one, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon, and other podcast venues, or visit our site at developernoor.com. Just a step forward a day is still progress. So let's keep moving forward together. There are two things I want to mention to help you get a little further along in your embracing of the content of Developer Noor. One is the book, The Source Code of Happiness. You can find links to it on our page out on the Developer Noor site. You can also find it on Amazon, search for Rob Rodhead, or Source Code of Happiness, or you can get it on Kindle. If you're an Amazon Prime member, you can read it free. A lot of good information there, and if you're going to be interested in finding out more details about the book, this is a great place to check out this book. That'll be a lot easier than trying to dig through all of our past blog posts. The other thing is our mastermind slash mentor group. We meet roughly every other week and this is an opportunity to meet with some other people from a lot of different areas of IT. We have a presentation every time. We talk about some cool tools and features and things that we've come across, things that we've learned, things that you can use to advance your career today. Shoot us an email at info at developineur.com if you would like more information. Now go out there and have yourself a great one.