Drawing on research syntheses from the meta project Digi-EBF as well as the German Education Server, this contribution discusses how web products and services offered by the Information Center for Education at DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education address and support educational communities. In the area of research…

For electronic resources and reference librarians, fielding eresource access problems is often a daily task. A library user clicks on a link to an electronic journal article, book, or primary source and is unable to access the full text. Sometimes this problem occurs due to a lapsed subscription, a broken link, or a proxy configuration error. The…

This brief explains what digital literacy skills are and why they are important. It describes what skills students need for digital literacy and provides tips for integrating digital literacy in the adult education classroom.

In today's electronic learning environment, access to appropriate systems and data is of the utmost importance to students, faculty, and staff. Without proper access to the school's internal systems, teachers could be prevented from logging on to an online learning system and students might be unable to submit course work to an online…

Many rural areas of the country lack an on-ramp to the information superhighway for people who are looking for educational and professional advancement, which leaves these rural communities frustrated by a situation that puts their residents at a significant disadvantage. This article describes Quick Start and Advanced Internet Regions (AIR.U) as…

Courses in Information Technology Ethics are often designed as discussion-intensive courses where case studies are introduced and evaluated using ethical theories. Although many of the case studies directly apply to our students' online lives, the stories can sometimes seem too far removed from their own experiences. While we read the news…

The absence of a well-defined space for library resources within course-management systems has been well documented in library literature. Academic libraries have sought to remedy this deficiency in numerous ways. This article describes how a "library nugget," or module, was added to the Buffalo State College course-management system,…

With money tight, more and more districts are considering remote access as a way to reduce expenses and budget information technology costs more effectively. Remote access allows staff members to work with a hosted software application from any school campus without being tied to a specific physical location. Each school can access critical…

In early 2004, the Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC) required that all of its hotels (both owned and franchised) install high-speed Internet access (HSIA) in all of their rooms by June 2004. This case focuses on how one of its franchise properties located on the northern gulf coast of Florida (the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort &…

If a school is seeking to incorporate more collaborative approaches to teaching and learning, the design of the learning environment--whether it's a classroom or a more informal space--can be a critical factor in making this transformative move. Technology, in particular, can play a pivotal role in enabling students to work effectively in teams…

It is tempting to assume that we know what our parents, our community, and our employees want from our schools. It is comforting to think that we know what they support. It is also dangerous. This article encourages school systems to let go of assumptions and to start asking the important questions that will lead school boards and administrators…

Anytime, anywhere, learning provides opportunities to create digital learning environments for new teaching styles and personalized learning. As part of making sure the program is effective, the safety and security of students and assets are essential--and mandated by law. The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) addresses Internet content…

The EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force consulted with IT security professionals on campus about concerns with the current state of security in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. From these conversations, it was clear that security issues generally fell into one of two areas: (1) It has become extremely difficult…

This article describes The Onion Router (TOR). It is a freely available, open-source program developed by the U.S. Navy about a decade ago. A browser plug-in, it thwarts online traffic analysis and related forms of Internet surveillance by sending your data packets through different routers around the world. As each packet moves from one router to…

In "Thinking Ahead: A Vision of the Role of ICT in Education and Research in the Future, 2007-2010," the higher education institutions in the Netherlands agreed on future strategy. Under the direction of SURF, the Dutch national organization, a collaborative strategy for the application of information and communications technology (ICT)…