https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/ en https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/how-ai-agents-are-helping-campus-it-teams-manage-student-support-during-peak-demand-perfcon Meet Wilson, perhaps the most welcome name on campus at SUNY Morrisville. Housed in Microsoft Teams, the AI-powered desk assistant routes student inquiries to campus technical databases, automatically resolving common questions and creating trackable back-end tickets for the university’s internal IT team. Since deploying Wilson, the university has seen a 35% decrease in tickets that needed to be routed to help desk agents. Click the banner below to navigate identity and access management in the age of AI. Fri, 23 Oct 2026 13:09:32 -0400 Akeya Dickson https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/how-ai-agents-are-helping-campus-it-teams-manage-student-support-during-peak-demand-perfcon https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/how-institutions-are-adopting-human-centered-approach-it As colleges and universities adopt new technology, the most consequential question may be how they support the people expected to use it. A number of issues on the 2027 EDUCAUSE Top 10 list emphasize the need to integrate humanity into technology experiences.  Mark McCormack, interim vice president of research, insights and analytics for EDUCAUSE, summed it up: “I think issue No. 5 [designing human-centric technology experiences] is the clearest and boldest declaration of the value of designing our systems, tools and technology experiences with the human person in mind, with what they… Thu, 22 Oct 2026 13:34:14 -0400 Amy McIntosh https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/how-institutions-are-adopting-human-centered-approach-it https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/how-higher-ed-institutions-are-managing-third-party-risk Higher education’s reliance on third-party software and Software as a Service platforms has never been more consequential. Recent attacks on learning management systems and other platforms used by higher education institutions have demonstrated how a vulnerability at a technology provider can become a problem for institutions that depend on it. For universities, the challenge is particularly acute. Third-party applications are embedded in teaching, research, administration and student services, often handling enormous amounts of sensitive data. How can institutions take advantage of these… Wed, 21 Oct 2026 11:58:23 -0400 Brad Grimes https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/how-higher-ed-institutions-are-managing-third-party-risk https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/qa-how-iqmp-capturing-student-interest-quantum-technology At the site of the former U.S. Steel South Works site in South Chicago, a new industry will soon blossom. As construction on the first building within the 128-acre Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park wraps up, the $2 billion project will bring global attention to the state’s burgeoning quantum research industry. Under the direction of CEO Harley Johnson, a founding professor in mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IQMP has attracted key quantum-focused tenants away from Silicon Valley and other known tech hubs. EdTech spoke with Johnson… Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:38:41 -0400 Tara E. Buck https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/qa-how-iqmp-capturing-student-interest-quantum-technology https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/loaner-programs-reinforce-higher-educations-commitment-device-access Amid the pandemic, campuses started loaning out devices to students to meet an immediate need. Now, many of those loaner programs have evolved into integrated, scaled systems. Schools are treating device access as a core institutional commitment to digital equity. At Brightpoint Community College, Library Director Suzanne Sherry has seen the impacts. “For students who have been sharing a computer with family members, now they don’t have to boot their little brother off to get on and finish their college work,” she says. In the 2026 EDUCAUSE Students and Technology Report, “students… Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:38:50 -0400 Adam Stone https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/loaner-programs-reinforce-higher-educations-commitment-device-access https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/review-cohesity-dataprotect-ensures-steadfast-backup-and-recovery-higher-ed Colleges and universities face growing pressure to modernize their data protection strategies while defending against sophisticated cyberthreats. Legacy backup tools often fall short, especially when ransomware targets critical systems, or when compliance requirements demand verifiable controls across multiple environments. These days, especially in higher education settings, the focus is on resilience versus simple backup tools, meaning that backup solutions need to be evaluated not only on data retention but on how quickly they can assist in getting operations back up following a disaster… Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:39:55 -0400 John Breeden II https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/review-cohesity-dataprotect-ensures-steadfast-backup-and-recovery-higher-ed https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/why-workload-placement-determines-ai-roi-higher-ed Campus AI initiatives are forcing colleges and universities to rethink hybrid cloud strategies, moving beyond simple combinations of on-premises infrastructure and public cloud services. With AI workloads becoming more complex and distributed, IT leaders are increasingly focused on determining where training, inference and data processing should occur to balance out performance, cost, security and compliance requirements. The result is a growing emphasis on workload placement as a foundational element of AI architecture rather than a tactical infrastructure decision. Success increasingly… Tue, 13 Oct 2026 13:09:04 -0400 Nathan Eddy https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/why-workload-placement-determines-ai-roi-higher-ed https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/review-logitech-spotlight-2-helps-faculty-stay-focused-teaching Great presentations are rarely about great slides. Instead, they come from instructors who connect naturally with students, maintain eye contact and keep technology from interrupting the learning experience. While presentation remotes have existed for years, most simply replace a keyboard’s arrow keys. Logitech's Spotlight 2 aims to become something much more useful. During my hands-on evaluation, the Spotlight 2 quickly proved itself to be more than just a slide clicker. Its thoughtful combination of wireless freedom, haptic feedback and advanced presentation tools allowed me to stay focused… Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:32:07 -0400 John Breeden II https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/review-logitech-spotlight-2-helps-faculty-stay-focused-teaching https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/how-leaders-overcome-it-staffing-shortages-through-retention-and-upskilling The talent tension in higher ed has many dimensions. Attracting IT talent has been a long-standing challenge for a variety of reasons, including compensation, burnout due to workload demand and limited or unclear advancement pathways.  As if those challenges weren’t enough, policy changes and enrollment trends have created a cascading effect. Research funding, declining international student enrollment and overall uncertainty are piled on to the difficulty IT leaders are already grappling with in hiring and keeping an adequate number of staff to meet the needs of their campus. Layoffs… Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:05:16 -0400 Nori Barajas-Murphy https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/how-leaders-overcome-it-staffing-shortages-through-retention-and-upskilling https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/2027-educause-top-10-spotlights-age-change Each year, the EDUCAUSE Top 10 report outlines the major trends, opportunities and challenges facing higher ed technology leaders, highlighting lessons learned from the year prior and forecasting what’s to come in the next year. The 2027 EDUCAUSE Top 10 theme is the Age of Perpetual Change, spotlighting the pace of technological innovation in higher education and institutions’ abilities to adapt to it. The list was unveiled at the 2026 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Denver. According to Mark McCormack, interim vice president of research, insights and analytics for EDUCAUSE, the theme of change… Thu, 08 Oct 2026 17:11:06 -0400 Amy McIntosh https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/10/2027-educause-top-10-spotlights-age-change