More than ever, faculty and students are working jointly on documents sharing screens in class, swapping course materials and taking their collective pulse through polls. Nevertheless, many faculty members complain that technical support for group projects is lagging on campus, leaving them searching for solutions elsewhere. While some faculty…

On many campuses, iPads have taken over the hearts and minds of everyone. Everyone, that is, except the IT department. These sexy tablets might be the apple of faculty and students' eyes, but for IT directors and their staffs, working with iPads in an enterprise network environment is not the stuff of a love affair. To state the problem…

The "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) wave has engulfed the campus, with students bringing their own devices into the classroom, and professors and administrators expecting access to e-mail and other applications from their preferred operating systems. While BYOD brings numerous benefits to campus users, it can be challenging from an IT…

In a flipped classroom, professors assign pre-class homework consisting of brief, recorded lectures and presentations, digital readings with collaborative annotation capabilities, and discussion board participation. This frees up classroom time to promote active learning through collaborative, project-based activities using simple display and…

There is a civil war simmering in classrooms nationwide. Arrayed on one side are students who would sooner cut off an arm than sacrifice their mobile devices. On the other stand faculty members who expect to be the focal point of their classes and will not abide distractions. Caught in the crossfire are instructional technology professionals.…

Ten years ago, integrating videoconferencing into a college course required considerable effort on the part of the instructor and IT support staff. Today, video- and web-conferencing tools are more sophisticated. Distance education has morphed from audio- and videocassettes featuring talking heads to a more interactive experience with greater…

With collaborative learning one of the hottest buzzwords in higher education today, it is tempting to believe that schools have taken to the concept like ducks to water. Sadly, that is not the case. The old-style lecture format has been employed for so long that faculty--even students--often struggle to transition to a more engaged approach to…

Soon after the iPad's release in 2010, several universities decided to issue the devices to all incoming freshmen. At the time, critics scoffed at the moves as little more than marketing gimmicks designed to attract students. In truth, few of the schools required instructors to design curriculum around the iPad or had specific plans to measure…

In spite of the fact that web 2.0-enabled tools and services are supposed to be easy to set up and simple to use, some faculty in higher education never got that memo. They don't know a tweet from a tag, identify Ning as a four-letter word for "river in China", and would probably guess that Squidoo is a friend of SpongeBob and Patrick. This guide…

To meet the expectations of today's tech-savvy students, colleges and universities are looking for ways to speed up their processes and provide better services for their No. 1 customer. They have turned to technology to simplify processes, reduce costs, and meet the high expectations of a technically literate student body. In this article, the…

Working on the digital side of higher education is high-profile. The value of the services being offered by the UMassOnline IT organization, for instance, has placed it in a leadership role, giving it "the opportunity to work with a variety of departments and divisions within the system, other local colleges and, of course, the higher education…

When it comes to getting the most out of IT, the majority of two-year schools face very real challenges. For starters, community college budgets are generally smaller than those of most four-year schools. Then, of course, there's the issue of refresh: Because students come and go every two years, there's the expectation that schools will…

Multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) are gaining momentum as the latest and greatest learning tool in the world of education technology. How does one get started with them? How do they work? This article shares 13 secrets from immersive education experts and educators on how to have success in implementing these new tools and technologies on…

State-of-the-art, energy-efficient facilities are now emerging on campuses across the US, and for a variety of reasons: One practical consideration is that such buildings bring down energy costs, which are now soaring. Facing rising expenditures and a tightening of potential revenue, universities are looking for ways to reduce operating costs, and…

At Campus Technology 2008, Arizona State University Technology Officer Adrian Sannier mesmerized audiences with his mandate to become more efficient by doing only the "core" tech stuff--and getting someone else to slog through the context. This article presents an excerpt from Sannier's hour-long keynote address at Campus Technology '08. Sannier…