EDUCAUSE's Susan Grajek Discusses the Top 10 IT Issues for 2022

Each year, EDUCAUSE publishes its Top IT Issues list to determine and summarize the most strategic and important contributions that technology can make as a value driver. A panel composed of higher education technology professionals identifies themes in the top challenges and opportunities identified by college and university presidents, provosts, chief business officers and other leaders through interviews.

Cybersecurity as well as teaching and learning with technology tend to pop up every year, but this year’s list includes a brand-new issue: radical creativity.

“They said that we really need to prepare students and learners by helping to move the culture forward and begin focusing on those higher-order skills in creativity and innovation and other areas. That’s going to be important for a successful workforce to cultivate,” said Susan Grajek, vice president of partnerships, communities and research for EDUCAUSE. “A big issue is to figure out how to really use technology to help students hone and foster their radical creativity.”

Higher education institutions should consider connectivity issues and design thinking as they integrate technology into their plans for 2022 and beyond, according to Grajek.

“Certainly, we want every student to be able to access the most sophisticated learning opportunities that technology can provide, but if we’re going to do that, we can't burden the student with the expectation that they can afford it or be able to provision themselves that way,” she said. “When it comes to design thinking, it’s an iterative development; we can’t base technology design on our experiences when we were students five, 10, 40 years ago. We really need to embed students in every step of the design process to learn what they really want and need.”

Read more coverage of EDUCAUSE 2021, including insight about this year’s Top IT Issues list.