| | August 20179CIOReviewbe attributed in part to the development of the high performing mobile ecosystem, with many mobile devices and lightweight laptops reaching the market in mass when digital learning content became broadly available. In addition, many elementary and high school students are taught with mobile devices with access to educational content in the cloud. With e-books being available for most courses, students hardly need to be printed textbooks.Digital LearnersThe Information Technology industry has been on a speedy journey of digital transformation for the past several years. At the same rate, society has been embracing technology aggressively and making it part of life. Many of the students we admit into higher education now and in the coming years were born in the middle of the modern digital era and have been exposed to many technologies throughout their learning years. They intuitively incorporate digital technology into everything they do. Many of the incoming students have attended schools that have a one-to-one student-to-device programs. Many of these students have been exposed to learning management systems (LMS) since elementary school. They have learned how to code using digital notebooks. These rich experiences will inevitably create enhanced expectations about what they will find when they reach colleges and universities. Higher education will continue to suffer from budget shortfalls and the delivery of the necessary technological solutions may continue to be a challenge. However, CIOs need to be innovative to deliver solutions that enhance the learning experience of these students. For example, the advent of cloud computing creates some opportunities to deliver solutions that scale up and down on-demand. Agile application development practices will streamline product delivery timelines while reducing costs. Centennials are digital learners that expect an enhanced digital learning ecosystem. They will expect an agile infrastructure in which learning activities are delivered in an engaging digital ecosystem. CIOs need to be prepared to not only accommodate but to revolutionize, the needs of today's students and the incoming Centennials.CIOs and technology leaders need to recognize that the solution delivery models of the past are not a recipe for success going forward. Failures of projects after a significant investment in time and money have been career ending endeavors for many in the past. The evolution of digital transformation will continue to dictate how IT organizations deliver products and services expeditiously in a very rich digital ecosystem. With the maturity of cloud and the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning being an integral part of many IT organizations, transformation through innovation is going to be the new normal for the CIOs of the new digital era. CIOs are no longer limited to just managing technology
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