Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Ed-tech officials: Video will make schools more 'efficient'

More than half of education technology officials in K-12 schools and higher-education institutions said they would buy video technology in the next year to make their schools “more effective and efficient” and better prepare students for the workforce, according to a new survey from technology giant Cisco Systems.

Ray Schroeder, director of the University of Illinois Springfield’s Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service, said the video conferencing service at his university costs about half of what it did five years ago, thanks to the expansion of the online video conferencing market.

“You have a lot of competition out there, which has driven the cost down,” he said. “Now, when you take Cisco and Tandberg … they almost have to be more expensive, because of the quality they bring to the marketplace.”

Schroeder's comments were featured by the website eSchool News in a May 5, 2010, article.

Download a PDF of the article