As the new Campus Computing Survey showed, cloud computing in higher ed isn't spreading quite as fast as the hype. But where necessity dictates a shift in IT practices, cloud computing is making some significant headway, as four campus CIOs explained at a recent Educause event.
Oracle has entered into an agreement to buy RightNow Technologies, a provider of cloud-based customer service to call centers, the Web, and social networks.
The results of a nationwide survey about technology in higher education suggest that the growth of mobile computing on campus has been dramatic in the last year, but that despite the attention paid to cloud computing, most universities are taking a wait-and-see approach for most applications beyond e-mail.
Datatel has revised its services offerings to provide as little or as much support for its IT applications as its institutional customers want. The company, whose flagship offering, Colleague, powers enterprise operations for hundreds of universities and colleges in the country, said it now also offers that suite of applications in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
A special program being delivered out of Wright State University to help deaf and hard of hearing people meet online for virtual drug and alcohol abuse treatment has begun expanding its platform to serve other special needs groups as well.
Today's IT leaders need to re-imagine the role played by information technology, and that requires being able to think beyond simply modernizing what's already in place. Achieving "creative destruction" will help the organization move beyond its current practices--which currently consume the bulk of IT resources--and into a world of cloud computing, mobile usage, media tablets, and social media. That's the message being delivered by Gartner at its annual Symposium ITxpo 2011 conference.
Publishing and education tech behemoth Pearson has introduced a new, free, cloud-based LMS for higher education--OpenClass.
Google has unveiled several enhancements to its cloud services, including premiere support for its app engine and database, storage, and machine learning offerings.
Trent Batson's recent survey of ePortfolio technology providers shows that there's a move in the ePortfolio marketplace now, from its earlier concentration on institutional assessment portfolios to the inclusion of a wider range of products that support student-centered as well as institution-centered portfolios--opening up the potential for new learning designs.
Oracle is launching an enterprise collaboration and social networking tool, Oracle Social Network, which will be offered as part of the new Oracle Public Cloud services.