The interview/talk with Ryan Thomas was very informative and interesting.  I agree with him a great deal about the importance of managing technology especially;y for distance learners who can not just walk over to the campus help desk to resolve technology issues. Special circumstances have to be considered when dealing with distance education because there may also be the issue of time difference.  If UIUC is to keep up with advances in on-line learning, it has to provide support to all its students with whatever issues they face.  Therefore, knowing how to get help in case of emergencies (such as system shutdowns) is crucial.  If an entire program is wholly on-line, then there have to be measures in place in case of system failures.  Mr. Thomas is right that there can be technology issues at any time and the best way to be prepared is to know how to access your resources. I am very impressed by his awareness and suggestion that colleges have specific program management plans in place because programs are specific to the college/university.  I also hadn’t given much thought to firewall issues. He is definitely right on target that firewalls and identity access have to be managed very carefully because they are security features.   He acknowledged that k-12 programs have these issues more than others but he didn’t really explain why. Maybe he didn’t know why. In any case, if I was Mr. Thomas’s supervisor and had to allocate budgeting for two priorities based on this conversation, it would be to ensure resources to support on-line course infrastructure and availability of resources to resolve identity access management issues so students would not have difficulty getting on-line in their designated programs.  As a student, I would be extremely discouraged and frustrated if I tried to access my moodle or cites account and had issues all the time.  Such issues reflect badly on the program and the university.