MIT´s Strategy for Educational Technology Innovation, 1999–2003

This paper discusses the institutional framework and the strategic decisions the led the launch of several major educational technology initiatives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) between 1999 and 2003. It describes how MIT´s central administration provided strategic support and coordination for large educational technology programs and traces how strategies evolved as work progressed through 2003 to a point where major projects had been launched and were ready to proceed as ongoing concerns. The history recounted here provides a snapshot of a world-class university´s confronting the changing environment for higher education engendered by information technology at beginning of the twenty-first century.