In a series of recent experiments reported by USA Today, college students at Princeton University, Case Western Reserve University, and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business used a Kindle DX instead of hard copy text books. Surprisingly, 85% of students choose traditional textbooks over e-readers.

All through the fall semester, community colleges have been reporting enrollment growth. On Thursday, the American Association of Community Colleges released the results of a survey designed to see if the many individual reports add up to a national trend -- and the survey results suggest they do.

The next time a college or university considers an expensive upgrade to its network to accommodate growing demand, it might be good to remember that the increased demand isn't necessarily owing to greater use of the course management system or student retention program. According to recent research, more than three-quarters of all bandwidth consumed on campus is actually taken up with applications that fall into the categories of gaming, social networking, media, file sharing, and Web browsing.

Distance learning has broken into the mainstream of higher education. But at the campus level, many colleges still know precious little about how best to organize online programs, whether those programs are profitable, and how they compare to face-to-face instruction in terms of quality.

For the first time in more than a decade, American colleges are reporting a drop in the number of students traveling overseas to study, and the economy is to blame.