Educause Study on Students and Technology

Educause Center for Applied Research has release this 2010 study based on qualitative data from students at both 4-year and 2-year institutions on how undergraduate student use information technology. The study is 120 pages, but, for a shorter synopsis, you can peruse their key findings which provides information of student use of desktops versus laptops, mobile devices, learning management systems, and social networking.

Obama's Push for Online Education

In this article I ran into from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Marc Perry reports on a plan that's emerging from the Obama administration to provide colleges with access to "open" online classes for which the government would potentially fund the development. Colleges (and there seems to be a special indication of community colleges in particular) could repackage and add value to these classes by providing the actual online interaction and instruction to the students while still keeping costs affordable. There's also the suggestion that a community college or consortia of community colleges could house the project's development. Also included in the article is a broader discussion of the need for change from the current model of higher education and how online education can prove a better use of an instructor's time and a way to better tailor to the learning needs of students.