A Conversation With The Future and Microsoft’s Cameron Evans

Insights and observations from the CTO of Microsoft Education in the U.S.

I had the good fortune of attending an event described as a “Conversation With The Future” at the recent Campus Technology 2011 Conference. There were three of these special sessions offered, each with a senior leader from a different major player in the technology industry. Attendees were encouraged to participate in the dialogue, and each seat had a microphone available to facilitate this.

The session I attended was hosted by National Technology Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Education, Cameron Evans, who is responsible for shaping and executing Microsoft Corp.’s technology and policy strategy in U.S. Education.

Insights & Observations
During this dialogue, a number of concepts and revelations came up that I wanted to share here. Following is an assortment of selected ideas and insights about today’s and tomorrow’s technology environment (please note that I have taken the liberty of expanding on some of Mr. Evans’ comments, these statements are not verbatim). Below that is a summary of some of the projects Microsoft has in place to help students become tomorrow’s technologically-enabled leaders.

• Mobile Applications & Devices: Evans made the observation that it’s really not about the device being mobile, it’s about people being mobile. The devices will keep changing, while the desire for increased and enhanced mobile functionality will persist. It’s important that we keep that in mind as we strive to plan for future applications and device requirements.
• Microsoft is partnering with chip vendors to expand on the “system on a chip”, enabling the  running of windows on any device that has the chip in it, and this really could be any device – household appliances, toys, your car, and so on.
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