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This article serves two purposes in research about emerging technology and higher education: 1) it provides insight on the business side of the issues and trends, highlighting the energy and enthusiasm of vendors and developers eager to deliver what they think higher education needs and 2) a different perspective on Clay Christensen, a notable figure in technology and higher ed who is perceived as both a hero and villain by different groups in both sectors. There are several articles about the spring 2014 "disruption" events, along with dozens of blog posts. This one is selected because it provides enough context and information to associate Christensen with other literature and it introduces the vendors and developers to the topic. The author's tone is moderately critical of the events and the people involved, a nice comparison for articles penned by Christensen and other evangelists themselves.

Since 2002, the New Media Consortium has partnered with experts in the field of educational technology, including the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI), to conduct a Delphi study and generate its annual Horizon Report on emerging trends in educational technology. The report, widely considered a respectable analysis of issues and a guide to addressing those issues, is disseminated with a Creative Commons open license for public distribution and consumption. Key themes in the NMC Horizon Report include: Infrastructure, leadership, organizational strategies, teaching and learning, curricular content, and assessment (pg. 4). The framework of the report includes sections on policy, leadership and practice (pg. 6). The report includes references for further reading on every issue presented. The references are evidence of the research conducted by the panelists involved in developing the annual report. Trends are also described as short term, mid term or long term trends, helping the reader estimate the impact of the trends on existing campus IT issues and initiatives. Some of the trends in the 2014 report support trends identified by EDUCAUSE and Gartner, while others are unique. Social media is an issue in the NMC report, but not the others, while assessment strategies using student data and technology are common among all three. The Horizon Report is unique in its daring presentation of topics that challenge conventional thought about higher education. The report predicts a significant threat to higher ed coming from online learning and emerging models of formal education. The report also highlights the power and impact of data - from learning analytics to predictive instructional models - that seem to transfer authority from professors to technology and technologists. There is a lot to consume in the Horizon Report. Analysis can be augmented with blogs and conference proceedings which review the report in part or in whole. Reading the report and supporting re

This video archive presents a point/counterpoint debate of the challenges and opportunities afforded a campus CIO. Issues discussed include: the cost of and shrinking budgets for campus IT; service and support for students and faculty users; managing emerging technology, such as Second Life virtual worlds; and professional development for CIOs. Both panelists agree that a CIO needs to be both a strategist and a plumber, but this agreement is not reached until the conclusion. Value in this resource are the issues presented and frank and sometimes humorous discourse between the two CIOs. The debate occurred when campuses were battling increased use of technologies by all stakeholders and decreased budgets due to the global economic crisis. The viewpoints reflect that challenging time and serves as a basis for evaluation of CIO ability to manage effectively in a crisis when technology use cannot be curbed by budget cuts.

This article explores the gap between expectations of faculty and students by focusing on defining the online "student". The author looks at practitioner interviews to identify "ways of talking" about students and Annemarie Mol's (2002; 1999) concept of enactment to understand who students are and how they behave in the interactive spaces of online learning. The author's argument is that understanding the category of "student" in multiple ways offers faculty a way to approach the "potentially disorienting spaces" (Bayne and Ross, 2007) of online teaching practices. Online learning presents a different environment of interaction and engagement for teaching and this article states that in order to be effective, teaching online students requires new strategies for engagement. Some of the strategies outline developing a community of learners, treating students as customers, and considering students in the context of their digital generation. This article is helpful for those who are teaching an online course or considering how to design an online offering. The author is a curriculum and academic developer for LaTrobe University in Australia.

Satish Patel, ICT coach at Umea University, describes the processes involved in designing net-based courses. Through this video, he provides a comprehensive break down of steps to take from rationale, to delivery. Patel is of the opinion that just as poorly written essays are the result of poor structural foundation or lack of understanding of teacher expectations, so are poorly taught courses the fall out of course design expertise. Course design should begin with the consideration of time and space requirements, along with learning goals. Course work can be delivered in numerous constructs of time and space, but planning should take into account the syllabus and any challenges associated therein. He recommends that teachers ask themselves what the rationales are for selecting certain tools such as wikki, blogs, etc., to determine if there may be roadblocks such as prior student preparation, and time. The next step is alighting on an ICT blend. Tools should be matched with tasks and intentions. Based on John Brigg's model of constructive alignment, Patel states that the challenge lies in figuring out how to get students to learn what teachers want them to learn. In other words matching intentions with activities, deciphering how learning objectives will be examined and related to students. Patel's preferred format for course design is a table that outlines objectives, assessment measures, practice opportunities, and presentation tools. He recommends incorporating verbs from Bloom's taxonomy into the table. The final step is conferring with an ICT specialist to recommend appropriate tools.

This article by Glenda Cox highlights the concern for teachers' ability to implement and sustain the increasing use of technology to enhance learning, in a world where technology does not remain stagnant. From 2005 to 2011,the University of Cape Town, South Africa gave out small grants as incentives to teachers who employed the use of innovative technology. This article shows the result of a survey given to 30 recipients of the grant, to uncover the factors that compelled them to alter their pedagogical and teaching practices. The survey questions were centered on individual action and social structures. When asked why they altered their teaching to include technology, most of the teachers said it was their personal decisions, fashioned by pedagogical need to improve learning, and they received structural support in the form of money to purchase resources. Their responses also revealed that they enjoyed collaborating with their peers. The innovations continued to be sustained in the institution because they addressed real concerns. The motivation factor for these educators was not a desire try technological advances, but rather a desire to improve their teaching. Cox concludes by encouraging support for teachers who want to make such changes, because support creates awareness, leading to sustainability of innovations. Cox also stresses the need for more funding for innovations. This article is targeted at institutions wishing to support the advancement and sustainability of technological innovations.

tech for individuals with disabilities in a learning environment.

This is a guest post by Dereck Bruff, and assistant director at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Vanderbilt University, Dwayne Harapnuik, director of faculty enrichment at Abilene Christian University, and Jim Julius, associate director at Instructional Technology Services, San Diego University. The post is a summary of an interactive session of a Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network conference to discuss the question of whether or not the technological revolution, characterized by social technologies and access to the web, can transcend the slow evolutional environment of Higher education institutions. 59 obstacles were identified as the culprits for hindering the advancement of higher education from the industrial model and teaching paradigm, to a learning paradigm. Six of the problems were named in the article are: faculty mistrust; lack of effective modeling; loss of faculty control during the shift to student centered learning; not enough emphasis placed on faculty development professionals; faculty closed off to being open to new technologies; and skepticism about the ability of technology to produce depth of learning. The authors and other POD members agreed that the solution would be to move from a faculty centered teaching mode to a student-centered one, and to encourage a culture of openness by encourage the sharing of effective uses of technology between faculty members. The article is directed at higher education institutions that wish to change their educational landscape.

The article serves two purposes for research on the topic of higher ed information technology: 1) the challenges associated with managing campus IT are universal; the issues are not found only in American higher education and 2) a case study for exploration of solutions for campus IT problems including cost, adoption and oversight, or management. The recency of the publication is important for context on current trends and issues as well as current management strategies. The sources is important because the authors are economics professors at universities in the UK who are working toward an openness in education agenda, an issue that is often met with resistance in the US even though it is commonly regarded as a possible solution for some IT problems. Openness in education has been widely debated in consideration of three key areas: cost, quality, and access. Open education resources (OER) includes free or low cost textbooks, lab manuals, learning objects and courseware. These options offer resources to educators and students at a lower cost than publisher materials and vendor software, however faculty and others question the quality of resources that are offered for free. The myth that "free" does not equal "good" in the eyes of academics prohibits widespread adoption of OER thus limits access to education resources for many. The case study in this paper goes much deeper, to examine the issues relating to creating an openness initiative at a major university and evaluate the strategies used to shift the campus mindset in regards to OER, change behavior for selecting campus and course resources, and open a dialog around OER, both using and creating from and for the OER community. Bonus: excellent lit review on the topic of openness in higher ed.