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The University of Central Florida has strategically implemented blended learning into its institutional practice. “They’re really the leader in terms of an institutional strategy,” Owston says. “They’ve found that students by far and large tend to prefer this. And it’s cut down on capitol—they’re able to make better use of existing resources.”

The Cloud Computing Movement Will Continue. Investing in purchase-and-install software is falling by the wayside as institutions catch onto the value of using "cloud" applications that are housed (and accessed) online. Not only are these options more affordable and easier to implement, but they also include vast storage capacity that can be used for, say, portfolio assessments. "Using cloud computing, schools can create large collections of loosely-sorted data (such as school records, written documents and even video recordings)," said Bob Spielvogel, CTO at EDC, a Newton, MA-based nonprofit that creates programs to address educational challenges, "and then utilize that information to track project activity and conduct portfolio assessments across the student's entire college career." With these and other uses gaining ground in the higher education space, expect cloud computing's popularity to grow in 2011.

iPads. Interactive Whiteboards. Netbooks. Video games. Although educational technologies are being implemented more and more in classrooms across the country, we don't often stop and ask students - or their parents - what they think their technology needs are. But the newly-released Speak Up 2010 survey has done just that