The e-mail drill was one of numerous mind-training exercises in a unique class designed to raise students' awareness about how they use their digital tools. Colleges have experimented with short-term social-media blackouts in the past. But Ms. Hill's course, "Information and Contemplation," goes way further. Participants scrutinize their…

Frantic troubleshooting by an overworked staff versus someone else fixing problems smoothly. A sliver of server space per person versus a five-gigabyte chunk. Half a million dollars versus free. That's what colleges are faced with as they decide whether to continue running their own e-mail services or outsource them to a professional service like…

Some professors, librarians, and administrators have begun using Twitter, a service that can blast very short notes (up to 140 characters) to select users' cell phones or computer screens. The practice is often called microblogging because people use it to send out pithy updates about their daily lives. No need to wait until you are back at your…

Examines the effects of word processing and pervasive e-mail on quality of college students' writing. Reports on strategies some instructors are using to improve writing and encourage structure, including having students e-mail drafts of papers to professors, requiring student to rewrite papers, encouraging students to review printed out (rather…

Faculty at 11 higher education institutions in California, New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico have been experimenting with computer conferencing on the BESTNET (Bilingual English-Spanish Telecommunications Network). The growing system is credited with creating an international student-faculty community that crosses cultural barriers for…