Objectives: Faculty new to teaching operating systems or those looking to refresh their course need to understand the state of the art in operating system education. Toward this goal, we conducted a survey of operating system instructors to understand how they approach teaching the course and what textbook and software platforms they use in their…

This study explores how virtual desktops hosted within a cloud computing environment can be used as a data capture tool to undertake research exploring web-browsing and web-searching behaviour. It details the protocol used to observe the task-orientated web interactions of 105 university and school aged participants within the confines of a…

The global nature of Internet has revolutionized cultural and commercial interactions while at the same time it has provided opportunities for cyber criminals. Crimeware services now exist that have transformed the nature of cyber crime by making it more automated and robust. Furthermore, these crimeware services are sold as a part of a growing…

If one buys a new PC, laptop, or netbook computer today, it probably comes preloaded with Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition. This is a significantly limited, advertising-laden version of Microsoft's suite of productivity programs, Microsoft Office. This continues the trend of PC makers providing ever more crippled versions of Microsoft's…

The Internet as a networked system has been rendered more complex than ever before as human endpoints are grafted into the system via increasingly pervasive and personalized networked devices. According to the United Nations, the Internet is a transnational enabler of a number of human rights, and as such, access to the Internet has been…

It's a perfect storm out there, with powerful forces remaking the IT landscape in higher education. On one side, devastating budget cuts are pushing IT departments to identify ever-greater cost savings. On the other, the explosion in mobile devices is pressuring IT to provide anytime, anywhere computing with no downtime. And finally there's…

Changes presented by cloud computing--shared computing services, applications, and storage available to end users via the Internet--have the potential to seriously alter how libraries provide services, not only remotely, but also within the physical library, specifically concerning challenges facing the typical desktop computing experience.…

It's been well documented in a number of articles regarding the contemporary library patron that with the rise in mobile computing and smart phone technology, patrons are looking for fast and easy service from whichever technological avenue they are using to access library services. Libraries are responding with increasing numbers of online…

Since Java applets seem to be on the retreat in web application, other approaches for displaying interactive mathematics in the web browser are needed. One such alternative could be our open-source project JSXGraph. It is a cross-browser library for displaying interactive geometry, function plotting, graphs, and data visualization in a web…

For many IT shops, the cloud offers an opportunity not only to improve operations but also to align themselves more closely with their schools' strategic goals. The cloud is not a plug-and-play proposition, however--it is a complex, evolving landscape that demands one's full attention. Security, privacy, contracts, and contingency planning are all…

Open source software is poised to make a profound impact on K-12 education. For years industry experts have been predicting the widespread adoption of open source tools by K-12 school districts. They're about to be proved right. The impact may not yet have been profound, but it's fair to say that some open source systems and non-proprietary…

Web browsers are plagued with vulnerabilities, providing hackers with easy access to computer systems using browser-based attacks. Efforts that retrofit existing browsers have had limited success since modern browsers are not designed to withstand attack. To enable more secure web browsing, we design and implement new web browsers from the ground…

There have been many attempts to define the generation of students who emerged with the Web and new digital technologies in the early 1990s. The term "digital native" refers to the generation born after 1980, which has grown up in a world where digital technologies and the internet are a normal part of everyday life. Young people…