With funding cuts looming, colleges and universities must find ways to stretch their IT budgets without reducing staff and student access to technology. New developments in shared computing may be the answer.

Shared computing takes advantage of the power and speed of today's processing chips and operating systems to allow multiple users to work off a single computer simultaneously. One of the companies at the forefront of this movement is LG, whose SmartVine Monitors allow up to 11 teachers, students or administrators to share the same PC. Users run their own applications as if they all had their own desktop.

LG's SmartVine Monitors reduce the maintenance and support needed for a typical classroom. Also, colleges and universities can cut energy costs because running fewer PCs dramatically decreases the electricity used. Most important, when it comes time to replace older computers, schools can use shared computing with SmartVine Monitors to buy fewer computers without having to impose restrictions on staff and student access.