IT's tough being a digital sign these days. Everyone wants a piece of action. From announcements to advertisements, menus to broadcasts, digital signs provide dynamic messaging tailored to locations and circumstances. With the advent of wayfinding technology, today's digital signs can serve up customized directions around campuses and all of…

It's a dangerous world out there, with IT shops hard pressed to protect their institutions and users. "Campus Technology" looks at the 4 biggest security worries--and how IT can fight back. In 2012, 61 educational institutions reported data breaches, involving more than 2 million records, according to the nonprofit Identity Theft…

For colleges and universities today, the question is no longer whether to develop a campus app or not. Instead, the debate has shifted to the best--and most cost-efficient--way to make campus applications accessible to the myriad devices and operating systems out there. Schools have a few options: They can develop multiple native app versions;…

Colleges and universities have got a big problem: how to bake a wireless network as good as Mom's. The problem is that enterprise wireless networks "tend to be a little more finicky" than the home ones. While the home devices are plug-and-play, enterprise networks force IT departments to manage client issues such as drivers and settings. It's a…

This column explores the world of Gene, a composite CIO who leads a sizable IT organization for a top 100 university somewhere in America. The author's goal is to help him navigate the tough times ahead of higher education IT. The author peeks into Gene's daily goings-on, investigates his problems, and helps him to not only survive, but prosper.

Half of servers in higher ed are virtualized. But that number's not high enough for Link Alander, interim vice chancellor and CIO at the Lone Star College System (Texas). He aspires to see 100 percent of the system's infrastructure requirements delivered as IT services from its own virtualized data centers or other cloud-based operators. Back in…

In April, Asia officially ran out of Internet Protocol (IP) version 4 addresses--the computer equivalent of running out of telephone numbers. Over the next couple of years, the rest of the world will also run dry. Yet, unlike the Y2K bug that had some people convinced the sky would fall, this particular problem is generating little more than tired…

In this era of political rancor when everything is a zero-sum game, it is refreshing to think that two parties could actually come together to create a win-win situation. That is exactly what is happening, though, as a number of universities take on the role of application service provider (ASP) for smaller schools. It is not all confetti and…

With the widespread digitization of art, photography, and music, plus the introduction of streaming video, many colleges and universities are realizing that they must develop or purchase systems to preserve their school's digitized objects; that they must create searchable databases so that researchers can find and share copies of digital files;…

What makes a classroom "smart"? Presentation technologies such as projectors, document cameras, and LCD panels clearly fit the bill, but when considering other technologies for teaching, learning, and developing content, the possibilities become limited only by the boundaries of an institution's innovation. This article presents 32 best practices…