With colleges and universities struggling to minimize the effects of the troubled economy, it certainly isn't an easy time to be a CIO. This article presents an interview with a panel of higher education IT leaders about best practices for steering IT through economic crisis. Panelists included Jan Biros, associate VP for instructional technology…

Faced with rising demand for information about early childhood programs, states need to find tools and strategies to monitor the progress of and to identify high-quality early childhood programs. In response, REL Mid-Atlantic convened a regional workgroup for state personnel who work with the systems containing early childhood data. The workgroup…

Web 2.0 tools and technologies, or second generation tools, help districts to save time and money, and eliminate the need to transfer or move files back and forth across computers. Many Web 2.0 tools help students think critically and solve problems, which falls under the 21st-century skills. The second-generation tools are growing in popularity…

Adopting a new technology is an important decision for many academic institutions. Colleges have had to upgrade technology or face diminishing enrollment as students choose to attend other, more responsive institutions. New and imaginative approaches to technology have been developed and implemented by faculty, support staff, and students to…

From the beginning of the electronic computer era, corporate America fully embraced the new technology and became the primary customer for the myriad of hardware vendors. Eventually microcomputers, loaded with quality software, appeared on virtually every desk throughout all American corporations. However, Technology had a much more difficult time…

This article profiles the winners of this year's competition for outstanding technology innovation on US college and university campuses. The winners are: (1) Rice University, Texas (virtualized networks); (2) Drexel University, Pennsylvania (rich media); (3) Harvard Business School, Massachusetts (network management); (4) Louisiana State…

Finding a competent technology leader to manage educational technology for a school district can be a daunting task. The technology director plays a vital role in the leadership of instructional technology and related services. This individual is in a position to frame out the vision and direction for how technology can be used in teaching and…

Discusses planning for the use of technology in education; explains a planning process model that includes needs assessment, creating and selecting goals, and implementing and evaluating the plan; and describes an application of this model in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District (Pennsylvania). (LRW)