School districts nationwide are struggling with the costs of building out the high performance, reliable networks needed to support the digital transformation envisioned by President Obama’s ConnectEd initiative.

A recent NetworkWorld article, “Whatever Happened to Green IT?” left me wondering: was the sustainable computing craze which became popular in 2008 and spawned CoSN’s Green Computing effort just a passing fad?

T.H.E. Journal’s recent article, “Bandwidth for All,” takes a crucial look at the problems of connecting rural America to broadband. Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about the growth in overall bandwidth needs; fortunately, this is being addressed in part by the ConnectED program and its $2 billion in additional funding promised by the FCC. But for some rural schools, the program won’t be enough.

One of the major benefits of the internet is that it allows us to connect with people who we might otherwise never meet. No matter what challenges your district is facing, odds are there's another district out there which is grappling with the same things. By working together in online communities of practice, you can share your experiences and come up with common solutions to your problems. There's strength in numbers! But online communities of practice have proven especially powerful when they're mixed with in-depth, face-to-face interaction.