Home > Research

Research

Blogs and Streams From Sun's WWERC Annual Conference

2/26/2008

This week in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems is bringing together thought leaders in education from more than 30 countries for its annual Worldwide Education and Research Conference, this year themed, "The Power of Communities." Conference organizers are maximizing the reach of the conference through live broadcasts and blogs...

Survey: Half 'Have No Plans' To Deploy Vista

2/20/2008

Migration to the Windows Vista operating system apparently isn't generating much enthusiasm among IT personnel in the enterprise. A survey conducted in November of last year by market research firm King Research supports that notion. The study found that "90 percent of participants have concerns about the migration to Windows Vista."

Sun SPOTs Go Open Source

2/13/2008

Recently Sun Microsystems announced that it would open source both the hardware and operating system for Sun SPOTs, its sensor networking product based on Java technology. CT talked with Arshan Poursohi, a staff researcher in the Sun SPOTs lab on Sun's Menlo Park, CA campus to find out how higher education institutions can incorporate Sun SPOTs in research and instruction.

Which Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008?

2/1/2008

Mobile broadband, collaborative Web technologies, and mashups will all significantly impact education over the next five years, along with "grassroots" video, collective intelligence, and "social operating systems." This according to a new report released this week by the New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative, the 2008 Horizon Report.

Web 2.0 Threats Loom Large for IT

1/25/2008

With the seemingly exponential growth of Web 2.0 technologies, IT professionals in education--and all other sectors, for that matter--face new challenges as control over technology slips away and moves into the hands of users.

Open Source Poised for Surge in Education

1/24/2008

Open source software will nearly double in the education space over the next four years. From its present level of $286.2 million, the market--including software, services, and maintenance--will reach $489.9 million by 2012, according to a report released today by market analyst Datamonitor, which proclaimed that "open source software has the ability to change the face of the education Industry."

Macs Vulnerable to Malware? Say It Ain't So!

1/24/2008

IT security firm Sophos this week let the cat out of the bag, spilled the beans, and otherwise debunked the widely treasured myth that Macs are invulnerable to malware in its "Security Threat Report 2008," released Tuesday. The report said that, among other things, "in 2007 [organized] criminal gangs for the first time arrived at Apple's doorstep with the intention of stealing money." Proof, the firm said, that "hackers are extending their efforts beyond Windows."

SANS Flags Browsers, Botnets as Top Security 'Menaces'

1/17/2008

Research and education organization the SANS Institute this week revealed its list of the top menaces facing IT in the coming year. Echoing earlier reports from security watchdog organizations, the group's "Top-10 Cyber Security Menaces for 2008" cited Web 2.0 technologies, converged devices, botnets, and browser addons among the worst, with a heavy emphasis on consumerized technologies and the vulnerabilities they present.

Snapshot: Personal Electronic Devices Owned by Students

1/8/2008

Eduventures conducted research to better understand the views, attitudes, usage, and future demand/ownership of various technologies and brands among college students. The research, conducted via a Web survey, targeted 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled full-time at a four-year college or university.

Snapshot: Firefox, IE Vie for Popularity Among College Students

12/10/2007

To better understand the views, attitudes, and usage of various technologies and brands among college students, Eduventures conducted research of 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled full-time at a four-year college or university via a Web survey.

Survey: Higher Ed Marketers To Increase Online Budgets

12/7/2007

Are higher education marketers doing enough online? A new survey conducted by EducationDynamics (formerly Halyard Education Partners) suggests not. While marketers cite favorable results from online lead generation campaigns, few are allocating significant portions of their marketing budgets to online media. However, this may be changing in the coming year.

2007 U.S. Electronic Learning Market Tops $13 Billion

11/30/2007

In the United States, the demand for self-paced electronic learning products will hit $13.6 billion by the end of 2007 and will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.01 percent over the next five years. This according to a new forecast from Ambient Insight detailed in report released this week entitled, "The U.S. Market for Self-paced eLearning Products and Services: 2007-2012 Forecast and Analysis."

Snapshot: Academic Services Spending To Reach $1.2 Billion

11/26/2007

Composed of professional services such as those supporting online education and faculty recruitment that help institutions support teaching and learning objectives, the academic services market is serving key postsecondary priorities.

Continuing Education Sites Lacking, Researchers Say

11/20/2007

Continuing and professional education (CPE) sites are somewhat effective at helping students with their enrollment decisions, but they're lacking in some key functionality areas: content, search capabilities, and multimedia. In the second of its three-part series of research reports, "Optimizing School Web Sites as a Marketing and Recruitment Tool," education consultancy Eduventures found that prospective continuing education students in large part think these sites come up short in areas they consider crucial and made specific recommendations for the types of content that should be added to these sites to boost their effectiveness.

IBM/University Collaboration To Develop Open-Source Accessibility Tools

11/20/2007

University researchers in the United States and the U.K. have started collaborating with IBM to develop open-source software solutions aimed at bringing accessibility to older workers to "help them adapt to and remain productive in the changing workplace of the 21st century," according to information released late last week by IBM. The effort is part of IBM's Open Collaborative Research initiative, which creates partnerships with universities for the purpose of developing and releasing open-source tools to the public.

Microsoft Releases Beta of High-Performance Computing Server

11/16/2007

Microsoft took the next step into the arena of high-performance computing (HPC) Nov. 13 when it announced the release of the first beta of Windows HPC Server 2008, the successor to Compute Cluster Server 2003.

Snapshot: Campus Infrastructure Computing Market

11/12/2007

The infrastructure computing market is composed of technologies that support the collection and interconnection of computer, voice, video, and data, including the security and storage of information.

Storm Botnet Ebbing, Says UC San Diego Analyst

11/8/2007

An Oct. 20 presentation at the ToorCon hacker conference by Brandon Enright, a computer security researcher at the University of California, San Diego, struck a nerve in the CS community by concluding that the notorious Storm Worm could be losing steam.

Women Lose Ground in IT, Computer Science

11/7/2007

Women are falling further behind in information technology and computer science, according to a new report released by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). The study, the NCWIT Scorecard, compiled data on girls and women in computer science and IT as students at the K-12 and post-secondary levels, as well as women working as professionals in IT and as faculty in computer science in higher education. It painted a fairly bleak picture of the situation in the United States, where women make up the drastic minority of participants in science- and technology-related studies and where that minority shrinks further the higher one looks up the academic and corporate ladder.

California, Maryland Universities Nab Aeronautics Grants

11/6/2007

Three universities in California and Maryland have received grants as part of the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Fundamental Aeronautics Program. The program is designed to foster collaboration between industry, education, and NASA itself to benefit the aeronautics community.

Snapshot: Functionality Preferences for Admissions Portals

11/5/2007

Professional Web designers are skillful in creating integrated sites that make use of a range of technical functions, such as virtual tours, online chats and podcast downloads, as well as informational formats, including text, graphics, pictures, and so on. Eduventures explores what preferences prospective students have around these functions and formats.

Mobile Educational Gaming To Triple by 2012

11/5/2007

The market for mobile educational gaming will more than triple by 2012, according to a new forecast released late last week by research firm Ambient Insight. Demand for mobile educational gaming will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 26.5 percent over the next five years, with annual revenues expected to hit $185 million by 2012, up from the current $57 million.

USRA To Lead NASA's Undergraduate Student Research Project

11/5/2007

NASA has launched an educational initiative designed to provide "real-world" experience to undergraduate students of STEM subjects. The Undergraduate Student Research Project (USRP) will be headed up by the Universities Space Research Association, in Maryland.

Admissions Sites Get Low Budgetary Priority

11/2/2007

Just how much priority should admissions sites be given? For prospective students, they're crucial, trusted, and highly utilized sources of information. But according to new research from education consultancy Eduventures, higher ed admissions departments give them a much lower priority--at least in terms of budgeting.

Open Source Adoption Low but Growing

11/1/2007

An Independent Oracle User's Group (IOUG) survey found that business deployment of open source solutions (OSS) was not extensive relative to proprietary solutions. The survey was based on 226 responses from the IOUG membership.