This article explores the implementation of effective synchronous voice communication sessions within a graduate level university program in education. Through the analysis of data derived from the multiple perspectives of an instructor, graduate student, program administrator and instructional technology support person, challenges and highlights…

Online delivery of university-level courses has grown exponentially in the last decade and is increasingly being recognised as a viable and effective alternative to face-to-face classroom teaching. Many scholars have already written about the benefits and best practices of online teaching in general. However, not many studies have paid specific…

The "Local Technology Plan Guidelines" serve as the basis for the Department's annual technology data collection. This report takes a look at the data submitted by 344 school districts, examining the progress Massachusetts school districts are making in meeting the recommended guidelines. In doing so, it will gauge the degree to which…

Technology's impact on the delivery of health care mandates that nursing faculty use all technologies at their disposal to better prepare students to work in technology-infused health care environments. Essential components of an infrastructure to grow technology-infused nursing education include a skilled team comprised of tech-savvy faculty and…

Budget pressures compel everyone in higher education to demonstrate value in IT investments, using both quantitative and qualitative information. Like many institutions, however, both Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found themselves forced to rely more on anecdotes than on management information to guide decisions. In…

Central IT organizations under stress often cannot offer a high level of service to groups with above-average support needs. An example of such a group would be a well-funded, research-oriented computer science department. Several factors contribute to the increased demand on IT organizations. Given the availability of relatively…

Purpose: To determine what factors influence faculty's decisions to use technology in their classes, what factors prevent them from use, and whether there are differences among faculty by gender, ethnicity, rank, sub-areas, etc. in using instructional technology. Design/methodology/approach: A survey instrument was used to measure attitudes…

Critical thinking is a highly desirable goal of online higher education courses. This article presents qualitative data from a mixed-method study that explores how asynchronous discussions within online courses influence critical thinking among students. In this study, online discussions were related to higher levels of critical thinking, but…

Schools of education (SOEs) are experiencing increased pressure to prepare teacher candidates for the effective and innovative integration of technologies. Lack of both ubiquitous on-campus access and effective modeling by SOE faculty are two often-cited barriers to reaching this goal. The Academic Technology Initiative (ATI) at a large…

Recently, these authors had the opportunity to present "IT and Educational Technology: What's Pedagogy Got to Do With IT?" at the 2006 EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference. The presentation addressed IT staff as teachers of pedagogy--not just trainers of how to use a tool--and how this change came about. The authors thought that the…

This study was designed to determine the degree of use, level of client satisfaction of professional development and educational services, and to identify suggestions for improving services. Results from a mixed methodology approach indicated moderate to high levels of satisfaction in two program areas and moderate to high levels of…

Teaching today's students requires an integration of learner-centered pedagogy with innovative technological resources. In this article, Blase Scarnati and Paula Garcia describe the redesign of a junior-level music history course guided by learner-centered principles and driven by a fusion of stimulating technology-based learning tools and…

The Association Supporting Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) is a group of people interested in small college computing issues. It is a blend of people from all over the country who use computers in their teaching, academic support, and administrative support functions. ASCUE has a strong tradition of bringing its members together to pool their…

This article discusses 10 "IT myths": (1) Standardizing on a single computing platform reduces costs and enables better support; (2) Requiring students to own a computer (or laptop) will improve the quality of education at an institution; (3) Having a campus subscription to a music download service will reduce the incidence of online copyright…

This article discusses the part-time/Internet-based Master of Public Health (MPH) program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was the first school of public health in the United States to offer a Master of Public Health program via the Internet. The JHSPH MPH Program…