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The author of this article is a staff reporter for an information technology blog geared towards higher education professionals. The author shares how the University of North Carolina's School of Information and Library Science provided free data storage to all incoming students who were interested in 2011. The service offered by LifeTime Library, works on students' personal computers and allows them to automatically archive their files and folders. The data is then housed on a website, where students can search for files by name or by date saved. Students can continue to use the online storage after they graduate, which remains free for these students. The author shares that at this college, dealing with large amounts of online data is a big part of what students learn at the School of Information and Library Science and they intend for the LifeTime Library services to act as a teaching tool for students to figure out the best ways to organize their own digital information. This college also provides courses to focus on ways to make the service more useful, by incorporating data collected from students. The author interviewed the Dean of the College, who reported that eventually the program should be able to save every version of a file, even if it has been edited multiple times, archive mobile phone data, or save social media pages. The author explored the legal ramifications, sharing that the college has the right to scan any information housed in the data storage, and that students must agree to an acceptable-use policy. The author shares that this college anticipates the program to grow, having students store more information than they would have otherwise. The challenge for administrators to anticipate how much storage will be needed will likely dictate how much the school will have to pay to maintain a service like this one. This article would be most useful for technology administrators looking to implement a similar service at their institution.

This article is written by a staff reporter for a higher education technology blog. She shares information from the results of an annual survey on higher-education computing, The Campus Computing Project survey. This survey asked Information Technology administrators at 543 colleges and universities questions about mobile applications and investments in campus technology. The main topics covered in this article are: how campus information-technology officials face fewer budget cuts in their departments, their opinions of the competition for college and university business from learning-management-system companies, and the uncertain views of massive open online courses (referred to as MOOCs). A majority of campus information-technology officers agreed that MOOC's offer a capable model for the "effective delivery" of instruction online. This article also reports that the study revealed that more than two-thirds of those surveyed indicated they were uncertain about whether MOOC's offer a solid business model for campuses to "realize new revenues". The author shares how survey results pointed to the increasing competition between MOOC providers like Udacity and Coursera and that the market for companies that sell learning-management systems (LMS) is becoming more competitive as well. The number of survey respondents that use Blackboard's learning-management system had dropped from 71 percent (in 2006) to 45 percent (as of 2012). Other LMS companies, such as Desire2Learn, Moodle, Sakai, and Instructure's Canvas have been more successful as a result. The author shared that although budget cuts in technology departments are going down, 27 percent of survey respondents reported budget cuts this year, compared with 50 percent in 2009. However the author shared that public institutions may still remain at-risk for budget cuts. This information would be useful for higher education technology professionals, particularly those who are making decisions related to technol

The author of this opinion article is a professor of educational technology and distance learning at the University of Alaska. This article describes the significant implications of the new version of the internet, also known as the "semantic web" for education. Three areas the author believes will be most affected are: knowledge construction, personal learning network maintenance, and personal educational administration. This information would be most helpful to senior-level administrators in higher education who make large-scale decisions regarding their college or university's technology. Under Web 3.0, the author predicts that personal learning networks (PLNs) will be built primarily around subjects, instead of services. The author goes on to describe how personal learning agents will identify relevant information from any source that is accessible and provide information on exactly what students and faculty desire to learn. The semantic web makes it possible for the internet to become an effective and focused information resource that can be tailored for specific content area objectives.The semantic web has the potential to challenge traditional ideas about the institution providing all of the knowledge to students by itself and instead connects information between institutions. The author anticipates that at some point, institutions will describe courses and degrees semantically, to help their own internal functioning, but with the effect of making many parts of education somewhat comparable across institutions. This article encourages faculty, staff, and students to join the discussion about semantic web in order to help Web 3.0 developers shape a tool useful and connected to the higher education environment.

Historical perspective of the higher ed CIO. Examines the role of the CIO approximately 10 years after the job gained a foothold. Important for context on the topic of the role of the higher ed CIO. Information includes survey data about the responsibilities and job duties of the developing role. Value lies in the literature dating back earlier than the date of this publication for more information and a deeper historical perspective. Of note, even then CIOs were concerned about their place within the organization and their professional growth as well as being able to manage campus IT in the future with considerations for rapid growth and adoption by all campus users and commercialization of computing resources. These concerns are present today, in current literature suggesting that ongoing research and inquiry is necessary to ensure the health of the profession. Additionally, the struggle to maintain adequate footing in both the administrative and the academic side of the college was present then as it is today, suggesting that the CIO is truly unique in comparison to other "C" level positions.

Ben Showers, the author, admits to keeping the projections optimistic, and avoiding the issues of privacy, protection, and data shadow.The article describes five changes to mobile technology that will influence higher education into the future. The first change is mobile devices as a platform for learning and courses. Currently, mobile applications are more of a stepping-stone to larger course-management sites. In the future, students will desire actual learning platforms on their mobile device. The second change focuses on mobile realities. Augmented reality on mobile devices now allows the digital world to overlap with the real, physical world. Higher education institutions are able to use these new augmented reality technologies to aid students in find resources and information on-campus. The third mobile technology to affect higher education is mobile form. In the future, mobile devices will become more personalized and much smaller. As devices are created within glasses, earpieces, and sensors, higher education will have to adapt to those changes. Mobile scales are the fourth change to mobile technology Showers highlights. Large universities will have the ability to personalize each student's experience, offering an educational concierge service never before imagined. Finally, mobile disconnectedness will influence higher education. As students' lives become infiltrated with information via mobile devices, using the Internet, campuses should offer wifi coldspots. Wifi coldspots will offer students and faculty an opportunity to detach from the online work, taking a break from the academic world. 

MIT - center for information systems research research. Some interesting topics on governance of IT in systems. Some good policy application.

Edited by then president of EDUCAUSE, this book is a collection of case studies and reflections on practice from the field of higher education information technology management. Oblinger's objective was to provide evidence of impact in regards to adoption and successful implementation of campus technologies. The format allows campus leadership and IT professionals to examine the challenges and issues associated with higher ed IT through the lens of their peers at other institutions. The variety of cases shows similarities and differences among institutional types. Valuable as a snapshot of what was happening at the time of its publication for perspective and context as well as to question whether strategies are effective, or not, over time.

Weiss' dissertation topic centers on the required skills and knowledge of a higher ed CIO. Her research examines CIO titles, roles, responsibilities, professional development and formal education and training. Her aim was to define a process by which to evaluate the performance and success of a higher ed CIO. While I do not agree that CIOs can be assessed equally, I think the inquiry conducted by Weiss yields a valuable trove of information with which to illustrate the functional responsibilities of a CIO. She looks at the role of CIO from the perspective of campus IT stakeholders and makes an assessment based on their view and opinions of competency in a CIO. This differs from literature on the subject told from the CIO perspective, thus has value in subsequent research on the topic of CIOs.

This article explains how one institution, Abilene Christian University (ACU) has focused on mobile phones and how they are successfully changing the classroom and data collection efforts. This is one example of how the traditional teaching and learning model is becoming more collaborative and interactive, now that instructors and students have equal and flexible access to information. ACU does regular self-reporting surveys of students and teachers to assess their opinions and evaluations. Based on the data collected since using devices in their courses, students are participating more during class and communication between faculty and students has increased. This article also describes how this institution has incorporated "mobile learning fellows", faculty who are given time to work on and evaluate a mobile learning project of their choice. The author is the Senior Editor of Network World magazine and this information would be helpful for faculty and administrators in information technology or instructional technology, in order to successfully implement curriculum onto mobile devices.

Manoj Chacko, Steven Johnson, Munir Mandviwalla, Ilya Rogov and David Schuff, members of the department of management information systems, Fox School of Business, Temple University posted a video to reveal the rational behind their groundbreaking media site, mis.temple.edu. The purpose of the video is to illustrate educational changes from the last generation to the current one. The reality of the learning process is a shift from semi-structured, planned communication and sequential work, to extremely unplanned communication and multitasking. Technological input has also evolved from mere emails and web-based course management tools, to include social media tools. The authors believe that previous learning systems did not enable innovation and community building within a highly hierarchical college system where students had no access to their personal information. The challenge is therefore finding a system where courses and academic community can not only bridge the boundaries, but foster greater communication amongst the stakeholders. For that to be feasible, social networks, related data storage and communication tools must be created. Of course there are prerequisite factors such as an all inclusive and non-hierarchical culture, along with public and private access and individual control. The technological tools should also be uncomplicated and user friendly to achieve the desired end of collaboration and information sharing. This video is targeted at students, as an advertisement to enroll at Temple University.

Malcolm Read talks about the benefits of collaboration not just on higher education community, but on information and communications technology (ICT) community as well. He also highlights the role of the virtual environment in enhancing collaborative research, and the impact of cloud technology on research, teaching and learning, and higher education management. ICT infrastructure has benefitted from the growth of collaboration research, facilitated by the World Wide Web. The usage of the virtual environment for virtual research has not been without its challenges, one being that the technology tools and applications usually require specialist support, and has high overhead costs, which are usually borne by the researchers themselves. Read argues that it is time for a new profession of research technologists to emerge with the skills to support collaborative research, identify generic approaches within the field of research, provide the required training, and provide maintenance of related infrastructures. Another alternative would be to heighten the professionalization of personnel who service the e-learning environment. On cloud computing, Read believes that the wealth of information available through the cloud is a valuable resource to administrative computing in the sense that it offers a cheaper data storage option. Of course one of the most obvious benefits of the cloud, is that it offers access to web 2.0 operations such as blogs, wikki and of course emails. The way each institution uses cloud technology however, will differ according to their individual needs, a point that should be taken into consideration if an organization should opt to design processes in collaboration with other institutions. Read sees virtualization as a solution to the problem because it can be used on any single computer, to run different applications, making it shareable between institutions. One concern here however is that of data security and duration of service. The crux of th

The author of this article is a faculty member and software specialist of Computer Information Systems at Bentley College. He discusses that in today's Web 2.0 world, wikis have emerged as a tool that may complement or replace the use of traditional course management systems as a tool for sharing course information. In the article, he describes best practices for using a collaborative web application known as a wiki to change a traditional course management system. A wiki is a useful tool for involving students in the process of creating and sharing course content. While course management systems have specialized features such as online grade books and exams, useful exclusively in academic environments, students are not likely to encounter these tools outside of a college classroom. By introducing a wiki for collaborative course management, students also learn to interact with a useful real world tool. This allows them to complete some tasks that would be more difficult using a traditional course management system. Since students and faculty can both post information to the wiki, the role of the instructor changes from being the leader to being a partner with the students in their own learning process. The author shares some of the educational uses, such as tools for teams to perform group projects, creating literature reviews for research projects, participating on signup sheets, summarizing readings, posting project summaries, communicating with students, and even sharing class notes. Educational concerns are also shared, such as: wikis lack features that are needed for acceptance within the educational community, access control to protect certain public pages (such as the syllabus), or providing private spaces for collaboration. The author views this as problematic because anyone can change anything. However, he also shows that this aspect may promote a sense of community among its users. He predicts that the course management system (CMS) of the future must be

As online education continues to expand in the United States, Kenneth Heischmidt and Yves Damoiseau conducted a study to better understand the dimensions of quality in online business courses. The authors collected data and studied the dimensions of quality perceived by students in online classes. The results of the study aid online instructors develop courses to meet student expectations, increase satisfaction with the course, and ultimately increase student success. After surveying 260 business students at Southeast Missouri State University enrolled in an online class, 96 responded to the survey. The survey results led to three dimensions of quality in online courses: feedback, format, and content. Students expect timely feedback from an instructor, including prompt grading, access to the course and grades 24/7. The course format itself should be easy to navigate, without group work, and instruction facilitated by the instructor, according the students who participated in the study. Finally, the content of the course must offer clearly explained assignments, supplemental notes provided by the instructor, up-to-date content, and convey more information during class time than found within the textbook. In addition to the three dimensions of quality, the study also revealed, students expecting to receive an A or B in a course were also significantly more satisfied with their online course experience.  The number of participants in the study was small, limiting the results. A large participant pool is needed to test the results on a grander scale. The study focused on business students, but could be adjusted for other departments and programs in the future, increasing access to participants.

Coursera, one of the largest education companies offering online courses, claims to be content in building their user base without earning profits. Venture capitalists continue to invest in massive open online classes, however, without generating revenue, the investments may begin to wane. For now, elite colleges and universities, in addition to for-profit educational companies, will continue to offer online classes for free, while searching for a margin for profitability. A few sources for revenue have been considered. One of the most promising sources is the payment of licensing fees paid by other institutions to use "courses in a box" or video tutorials complementing currently offered courses. Another possible source of revenue is the sale of high-achieving student data. Corporate employers, such as Facebook and Twitter, can buy information on high-performing students studying specific subjects. A third option for profit generation is charging for credit-baring courses. The American Council on Education is reviewing a variety of courses offered through Coursera to determine if the courses are college credit worthy.  No steady revenue source has been identified in connection with massive open online classes, yet. While different organizations and institutions continue to find a way to profit from highly accessible online education, the user base will continue to increase. Hopefully, in addition to finding a mode of revenue, courses may be offered for college credit and the completion rate of MOOCs will increase. The current completion rate of MOOCs is 10%. 

PRWeb assists companies and organizations release news on their products and services, with extended reach through online searches. LoudCloud Systems, the creator of LoudCloud Learning Ecosystem, for Higher Education, promoted an enhanced version of their current product through PRWeb in July of 2012. The new LoudCloud Learning Ecosystem, for higher education, includes greater flexibility for teachers and administrators; a task centered design, a redesigned behavioral reader, and enhanced analytics on students, administration, and teachers. LoudCloud Systems establish themselves as an emerging leader in learning management systems in 2010, and has continued to impress the education industry with new products and upgrades. The learning solutions offered by LoudCloud are intuitive, collaborative, adaptive and intelligent. The system collects data on users and personalizes their learning experience based on each individual's learning styles. LoudCloud Learning Ecosystems, for Higher Education now offers more than 100 discreet rights, but also allows for segmented branding within one system for larger institutions.  LoudCloud Systems offers services for higher education and K-12 institutions. Administrators and information technology personnel are the intended audience for this article. The reader should remember LoudCloud wrote the article, with supervision by PRWeb. 

Four faculty members from Ferris State University share their experiences integrating technology into their classrooms, usingto the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning. The Center assists faculty members in learning technologies to enhance their lesson plans. All four faculty members insist the technology is easy to learn and use as enrichment to coursework. The technology allows the faculty members to establish a presence, both online and on-ground, all while using technology their students are already familiar with. Faculty members, as well as information technology employees, at higher education institutions are the intended audience for this video. Each faculty member described a different technology he or she uses within the classroom (both online and on-ground). The four technologies described include Adobe Connect, iTunes U, CPS pulse clickers, and Poll Everywhere. Adobe Connect is a way for students and faculty members to engage online, including back and forth real-time discussion. iTunes U allows faculty members to share podcasts of lectures and lessons for students to listen or watch at their leisure. CPS pulse clickers enable students to take tests and quizzes during class and receive immediate feedback and grades. The CPS pulse clickers also let the professor know what material students have or have not mastered, dictating the rest of the lecture. Finally, Poll Everywhere allows faculty to poll students before, during, or after class, increasing student engagement, as cell phones are typically used to poll.

The University of Delaware created a video highlighting one faculty member's use of technology within a study abroad program in Panama. Professor Jorge Cubillas works in the Foreign Languages and Literatures department at the University of Delaware. Cubillas uses Facebook and blogs to assist students in reinforcing material learned in class. The intended audience for this video is higher education administrators working with study abroad programs.  Cubillas creates a group within Facebook for the University of Delaware students studying in Panama each semester. Interestingly, Cubillas does not interact with the students using the Facebook group, but rather allows them to feel more comfortable by sharing with just students.  The Facebook group, according Cubillas, creates cohesion within the group and facilitates sharing of information and experiences among the students. Students also contribute to blogs, adding written passages, as well as personal videos, reflecting on their experiences so far. The students' written and oral skills in Spanish improve through their blogs, while also sharing great, personal experiences with the rest of the world.