Academic technologists at Lynn University (Florida) learned the hard way just how important a disaster recovery plan can be. Back in 2005, when Hurricane Wilma walloped the region with driving rain and 120 mile-per-hour winds, the storm debilitated Lynn's IT department, causing damage and flooding that thwarted the campus network for nearly two…

For the generation of people whose classroom memories consist of chalk squeaking on a blackboard, weather-beaten textbooks and a ready supply of sharpened No. 2 pencils, the resources available to students in many 21st-century American schools may seem unfamiliar, even amazing. Computer networks with access to the Internet--wired or wireless--have…

What would an educator do with $650 million? Better yet, what "should" he/she do with $650 million? No, this is no game show. It's a real-life challenge posed to school districts nationwide in the year since President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The bill dedicates more than $90 billion to education, with…

Can daily access to laptop computers help students become better writers? Are such programs affordable? Evidence from the Inspired Writing program in Littleton Public Schools, Colorado, USA, provides a resounding yes to both questions. The program employs student netbooks, open-source software, cloud computing, and social media to help students in…

Web-based applications offer teachers, students, and school districts a convenient way to accomplish a wide range of tasks, from accounting to word processing, for free. Cloud computing has the potential to offer staff and students better services at a lower cost than the technology deployment models they're using now. Saving money and improving…

Owing to the popularity of computers and computer networks, fostering the web-based problem-solving ability of students has become an important educational objective in recent years. This study attempted to compare the effects of using selected and open network resources on students' intentions with regard to their information system usage by…

This article features the new Framework of Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). This latest, version 2.0 iteration of the skills framework builds upon work the organization did earlier this decade. This time CoSN, a professional association for district technology leaders, reached out to a variety of…

It's a riddle faced by virtually every IT director: how to fulfill users' desire for more muscular computing resources while still obliging administrators' commands to keep education spending down. Against long odds, many district technology directors have been fulfilling both counts, optimizing their computing systems with improvements that pay…

Laptop use in class is a characteristic of universities that is changing rapidly. Although much of the attention and research regarding this issue has focused on the debate of whether to impose mandatory laptop programs, the reality of wireless campuses allows students to use their laptops in class for class related and non-class related…

As the ranks of educators on Twitter grow, more and more are heard about the importance of their "PLNs" (a term reportedly coined by educational technology guru David Warlick). A PLN, or Personal Learning Network, is a group of like-minded professionals with whom one can exchange ideas, advice, and resources. So why shouldn't students have PLNs of…

Australian Education Review (AER) 56 explores national and international policy priorities for building students' innovation capabilities through information and communication technologies (ICT) in Australian schools. Section 1 sets out the Australian policy context for digital education and highlights some of the emerging challenges. It provides…

School districts need adequate financial resources to purchase hardware and software, wire their buildings to network computers and other information and communication devices, and connect to the Internet to provide students, teachers, and other school personnel with adequate access to technology. Computers and other peripherals, particularly,…

This article explains how the document management team (circulation and interlibrary loan) at the University of Maryland University College implemented Microsoft's SharePoint product to create a central hub for online collaboration, communication, and storage. Enhancing the team's efficiency, organization, and cooperation was the primary goal.…

This study investigates the factors impacting the achievement of adult learners in a technology certificate program on computer networks. We studied 2442 participants in 256 institutions. The participants were older than age 18 and were enrolled in the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) technology training program as "non-degree" or…

This study reports how university students domesticate their personal laptops at the beginning of studies on a wireless campus. The aim was to examine how students integrate the laptop into their personal education experience, what sort of processes were experienced to render the laptop useful and meaningful, and how gender and IT proficiency…