Providing access to robust connectivity is critical to ensuring today's students are college and career ready. As such, federal, state, and district-level leaders have dedicated a significant amount of time, effort, and resources toward improving our schools' external broadband access, including both Internet access and wide area network (WAN).…

Improvements in Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and standardization of interoperability standards among heterogeneous Information System (IS) applications have brought a paradigm shift in the way an IS application could be used and delivered. Not only an IS application can be built using standardized component but also parts of it can…

In many ways, specialized computer labs are the black holes of IT organizations. Budgets, equipment, employees--even space itself--are sucked in. Given a choice, many IT shops would engage warp drive and escape their gravitational pull forever. While Captain Kirk might have looked to Scotty for a fix to the problem, colleges and universities are…

In April, Asia officially ran out of Internet Protocol (IP) version 4 addresses--the computer equivalent of running out of telephone numbers. Over the next couple of years, the rest of the world will also run dry. Yet, unlike the Y2K bug that had some people convinced the sky would fall, this particular problem is generating little more than tired…

Mobile use of the Internet is on target to surpass fixed use by 2014. Three-fourths of all college/university students have purchased or intend to purchase an Internet-enabled handheld device within the next year. The smartphone market is changing almost monthly. Attempting to manage even just one or a few "devices" is becoming a lost…

This paper reports on the on-going study of Small and Mid-Size Enterprises (SMEs) in the Central California concerning their use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This research project analyzed data from a sample of 161 SMEs. Specifically, this part of the study is investigating the major barriers to applications of e-learning…

This paper challenges the view that strategies for using Web 2.0 should primarily be based upon technological characteristics. The value of the organizational strategic alignment approach for developing specific operational Web 2.0 strategies for government organizations is explored both theoretically and empirically. On the basis of a review of…

An important step towards the successful integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in schools is to facilitate their capacity to develop a school-based ICT policy resulting in an ICT policy plan. Such a plan can be defined as a school document containing strategic and operational elements concerning the integration of ICT in…

A month ago, a French court ruled that internet access is a basic human right. Gordon Brown has said it is as crucial for people as electricity and water. Yet, 17 million Britons are still excluded from digital technology and an estimated 13 per cent of the population--some six million people--are both socially and digitally excluded. There are…

Much recent discussion has focused on the pros and cons of cloud computing. Some institutions are attracted to cloud computing benefits such as rapid deployment, flexible scalability, and low initial start-up cost, while others are concerned about cloud computing risks such as those related to data location, level of service, and security…

Like many institutions across the country, Utah Valley State College (UVSC) found itself struggling to keep its website current. In the spring of 2003, the UVSC's IT department began looking at alternatives that would simplify and streamline the process of updating the university's web pages. Specifically, they wanted a straightforward way to…

Cloud computing is the latest paradigm shift for the delivery of IT services. Where previous paradigms (centralized, decentralized, distributed) were based on fairly straightforward approaches to technology and its management, cloud computing is radical in comparison. The literature on cloud computing, however, suffers from many divergent…

When the author was brought on as CIO of Westmont College in October 2008, the president, Board of Trustees, and campus environment made it clear that technology needed a major overhaul to meet the college's growing requirements. Also, these changes needed to happen without significantly increasing the IT budget or staff. Marketing Charts…

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…

The University of Washington (UW) adopted a dual-provider cloud-computing strategy, focusing initially on software as a service. The original project--to replace an obsolete alumni e-mail system--resulted in a cloud solution that soon grew to encompass the entire campus community. The policies and contract terms UW developed, focusing on…