Whether its college or high school, technology has permeated education. Just as you used to have to peruse a list that included pencils, crayons, notebooks, and binders (and has become insanely long...) you are faced with a similar-and a lot more expensive-list when your child heads off to school. There are a thousand things to worry about when your child moves away for school, and technology shouldn't be one of them. Let's clear up some questions that you may have so that you can worry about the things a parent should worry about ok?

Laptop or Desktop
The first thing that you want to do is find out if your child's college provides a computer for its students. If it does, then fine: problem solved. If it doesn't (as is likely) then you must determine what your child will be doing at school. If they plan on becomming a programmer, graphic designer, or using AutoCAD, then they should get a desktop. The extra power and added flexibility to upgrade will be a great help. All other students should get a laptop. Laptops are now plenty powerful enough to cover all but the most specialized needs. I highly recommend that you read this article to help you figure out what you should be looking for.

The Internet
Getting on the internet is vital to a student. If your child lives on campus, call and see if they provide free wireless to students. Another question that you may have to ask is whether or not they need a router. If your student lives off-campus, make sure to have internet service setup and get your child a wireless router. When buying a router, buy a wireless N based router. Routers last for years barring a lightening strike, so the extra $10 will get your child a router that they can use for years. They will experience better range, and better transfer speeds between computers which could be of great benefit in group projects.

Entertainment
As much as we would like to think that our kids will be exceptionally studious individuals who do nothing but study...it isn't going to happen. Reality check: Your child will spend alot of time watching Youtube videos, downloading music (probably illegally), and partying. You can try to dissuade them, but it isn't going to work. Make sure to talk to your kids about some of the dangers of college life. Ok, now that I am done ranting, lets get back to technology shall we?
Your child will need to have an mp3 player if they don't already. If you don't want them to break the law, make it clear to them not to use Limewire to get music. Not only is this illegal, it is one of the top ways that your kids computer will be infected with malware. Don't know what to get? Read my article.

General Tips
I will try to only dispense technology related advice here...
Talk to your kids about file-sharing. It is illegal. The people who search for pirated content search college campuses quite heavily. If they want music, I strongly recommend that you subscribe them to an all-you-can-listen-to service such as Rhapsody, Zune, or Napster. Rather than pay iTunes $10 for an album, pay $10 a month and they can download all the music they want. Oh, and this is legal as well. As another alternative, there are some absolutely fantastic FREE streaming services such as Last.fm, Pandora, and Spotify. If your child must download, then tell them to not upload files. The hawks who watch this focus on the uploaders, rather than the downloaders. While this won't make you immune, it will greatly increase your odds of not getting fined.
Talk to your kids about theft. Aside from airports, I can't think of any place where laptops are more stolen than at a college campus. Based on my experience, laptops are stolen on a regular basis at large campuses. Make sure to tell your child to bring it with them when they leave, and to make sure that their residence is locked up when they leave.
College students are busy. As such, they tend to be a bit careless and prone to accidents. Make sure that they have protective cases for their technology. They need a laptop carrying case or backpack, and cases and screen protectors for their cellphones and mp3 players.

Questions to ask
As I mentioned earlier, be sure to ask if your college offers a computer as part of its tuition. The odds are slim, but you never know. Asking this may save you $1000 out of pocket. Ask if the college offers a discount on computers through its bookstore. I will warn you however, that this is 99.9% likely to cost you more than you can find in the retail space. The only people who should really take advantage of college discounts are those people purchasing a Mac.
Find out if the college has an operating system preference. You don't want your child to be on a Mac when the coursework requires a windows only program. Newer Macs can dual-boot into Windows, but you will need to buy a seperate copy of Windows for this to work. That is another couple hundred dollars tacked onto the already pricey Mac. Unless your child is going to school for computer science, they are likely not to need Linux.
Find out the internet details. Some offer wireless across the campus, others to the dorms, still others offer wired broadband to the dormrooms.
One last aspect to consider is printing. Printing can become quite expensive. As a grad student, I currently print a ream's worth of paper every two weeks and when you factor in the price of toner/ink, it becomes a major expense. Ask your college if they offer free printing. This used to be quite common, but has become less so as paper and ink/toner costs have continued to rise.