The 2008 EDUCAUSE conference in Orlando was dominated by vendors pitching new ways to cut costs on college campuses and technology officials discussing solutions to ongoing problems such as illegal file sharing and laying out how universities can create more energy-thrifty IT departments.

Analysts say the fate of struggling internet company Yahoo Inc. likely rests on its choice of a new chief executive to replace co-founder Jerry Yang, who announced Nov. 17 that he would step down as CEO when a successor is named. But it's not just the company's investors who have a stake in the decision: So, too, do the millions of educators and other internet users around the world for whom web searching and related applications have assumed increasing importance.

Teaching to the test is a mistake, Harvard's Tony Wagner reminded the audience of his Nov. 18 keynote address to the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), because it interferes with transmitting the seven "survival skills" every student should acquire before graduating.

The failure of Virginia Tech's text-messaging alert system has raised questions about the effectiveness of such systems to warn faculty and students of an emergency -- an important consideration as schools nationwide continue to invest in these technologies.

If Google delivers useless search results, just erase them and you won't see them again: That's now possible under a new system that Google Inc. unveiled Nov. 20, reports the Associated Press.

In a striking display of the power of live video, a 19-year-old Floridian committed suicide on Nov. 19 while broadcasting himself on the live internet video site Justin.tv, reports NewTeeVee.

The young woman who typed the final, cruel message to 13-year-old Megan Meier the day she killed herself took the stand to testify against her former employer and confidant, Lori Drew, on Nov. 20, reports Wired News--but several moments in 20-year-old Ashley Grills's 80-minutes of testimony seemed to undermine the government's case.

Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews, a self-professed critic of the so-called 21st-century skills movement in schools, writes of a new report that is "the first sensible report on 21st-century skills I have read."

Hackers have seized on the enormous popularity of the Disney movie High School Musical 3 to spread Trojan horses, adware, and other malicious code, reports CNET--a development that could give educators a timely reason to teach students of the dangers of internet scams, and using peer-to-peer networks to share files in particular.