Any academic from an overrepresented group who advocates more "diversity" is directly contributing to the lack of "diversity" by remaining in his position. Assuming the number of jobs is relatively fixed, such an individual is effectively saying, "I want the percentage of academics who have the same demographic…

Higher Education institutions understand that there is a need to embed professional skills within degree programmes. However, evidence shows that graduates, whilst having developed good theoretical knowledge, lack experience and confidence when entering the workplace. Employers view the importance of degree-related skills as only a part of the…

The burgeoning consumer-tech market is creating new challenges for higher education IT departments. As increased expectations of mobility and connectivity have students and faculty looking to consumer technology to meet their academic needs, IT must revamp operations and infrastructure to meet the demand, while keeping security risks and budgets…

Whether for an entire district, a single campus, or one classroom, allowing authorized access to a computer network can be fraught with challenges. The login process should be fairly seamless to approved users, giving them speedy access to approved Web sites, databases, and other sources of information. It also should be tough on unauthorized…

David Foster is the founder of Kryterion, an Internet test administration company, and currently serves there as chief scientist and executive vice president. He is the author of numerous articles for industry trade journals and textbooks and sits on the Council for the International Test Commission. In this interview, Foster talks about his…

As colleges and universities rely more heavily on software as a service (SaaS), they're putting more critical data in the cloud. What are the security issues, and how are cloud providers responding? "Campus Technology" ("CT") went to three higher ed SaaS vendors--Google, IBM, and TopSchool--and asked them to share their thoughts about the state of…

The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires any school or library receiving funding from the federal E-Rate program to deploy web filtering technology to prevent users from viewing objectionable material while they are using the institution's computers. However, opponents of web filtering legislation question whether or not mandated…

Schools should be proactive rather than reactive to issues of technology safety, and this requires careful planning and policy implementation. In this article, the authors provide information and recommendations that will help middle grades educators, students, and parents to safely and successfully manage the many technologies they encounter and…

According to most surveys, computer manufacturers such as HP puts out reliable products, and computers in general are less troublesome than in the past. But personal computers are still prone to bugs, conflicts, viruses, spyware infestations, hacker and phishing attacks, and--most of all--user error. Unfortunately, technical support from computer…

This article features an assistant professor of technology who shares his story of near disaster and offers advice for others about protecting their data. The author presents steps that can be taken to prevent unexpected events from destroying data. The author strongly recommends using backup files as a way of securing computer files and data.…

Despite intensive security measures, institutions are still suffering breaches--sometimes quite painful and costly ones. After a major breach was reported at UCLA this past November, the author spoke with "Educause" security expert Rodney Petersen, to get his perspective and advice for higher education leadership. This article presents…

Seeing an institution's name in the headlines for a security breach may be among a CIO's-- and a president's--worst nightmares. Whether the breached data involves social security numbers, credit card accounts, clinical records, or research, this is bad news. Federal agencies that provide research funding may lose confidence in data integrity,…

Risk management training cannot prevent hazards, but can help students learn to deal with them more efficiently. A risk-assessment and risk-communication approach to dealing with computer problems can be applied in the business classroom. (JOW)

In this article, the author explains how antivirus programs work. He also explains how performances of various antivirus programs vary from one to another. He also takes a look at 13 antivirus programs and explains which of these will keep computers protected. These programs include: (1) Sophos Anti-Virus Version 3.86.2; (2) McAfee VirusScan 9.0;…

For schools, spam is not only an annoyance and a time waster; it clogs district mail servers, consumes valuable network bandwidth, and can deliver and propagate a variety of malware programs that can wreak havoc on their system. A district strategy to "can the spam," therefore, must be multifaceted and address security vulnerabilities at different…