Discusses how the implementation of new information technologies or deployment of new information services in higher education institutions pose challenges for budget planners that must be met with a thorough understanding of the nature of communication and information systems infrastructures. Describes these technical considerations and their…

Explores leadership issues regarding information technology in higher education. Discusses the rapid pace of change in technology implementation and the need for higher education leaders to recognize their institution's context of complex collaborations. (EV)

Provides a conceptualization of a communication and information system's infrastructure in order to help campus leaders plan more effectively. Discusses its elements, creating access to information, infrastructure maturity, infrastructure assessment, and technology planning for higher education. (EV)

Describes several types of user devices (computers, laptops, personal digital assistants, telephones), explaining that they serve as a translator between technology's internal representation of information and what can be perceived, processed, and used by humans. Also addresses the use of information technology devices by people with disabilities…

Describes the connectivity features and options of modern campus communication and information system networks, including signal transmission (wire-based and wireless), signal switching, convergence of networks, and network assessment variables, to enable campus leaders to make sound future-oriented decisions. (EV)

Asserts that users and managers of information technology (IT) in higher education institutions need evolving skills as well as an awareness of how changing technology makes them dependent on each other in new ways. Describes the roles and skills of the core IT workforce, department managers, and universal users, and addresses training needs. (EV)

Discusses how the communication and information systems (CIS) infrastructure model is changing and explores the implications for higher education practices and purposes in this context of frequently disruptive but newly empowering technologies. (EV)

Asserts that given an environment in which legal standards may be ambiguous and usage is increasing rapidly, responsible higher education institutions need to develop and implement information system policies that establish clear guidelines for university faculty, students, and staff. Discusses issues that should be addressed in such policies. (EV)

Explores what the typical college or university campus might look like in the early decades of the twenty-first century. Describes what might plausibly occur within the lifetimes of most readers, with emphasis on those changes most likely to be rendered feasible--and driven--by information technology advances. (EV)

Describes how the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (Pennsylvania), a regional consortium of six private colleges and universities, in experimenting with video conferencing and other online forms of technology-based collaboration, developed into the 101-member Community of Agile Partners in Education. This organization, by being…

University computing is in rapid and continuing change. What is needed are structures and procedures flexible and adaptable enough to capture new opportunities and stable enough to allow order in each transition. This must involve all parts of the institutional community and include both centralized and decentralized participation. (Author/MSE)

The microcomputer revolution, in which small and large computers have gained tremendously in capability, has created a distributed computing environment. This circumstance presents administrators with the opportunities and the dilemmas of choosing appropriate computing resources for each situation. (Author/MSE)