Overcoming the Critical Shortage of IT Professionals

Georgia’s OpportunityBy David G. Brown, VP and Dean

Wake Forest University

for the Georgia Board of Regent

Atlanta, April 14, 1999

Glimpses of the Shortage

• “Some 80% of teachers reported having technology training, but just 20% of those teachers felt well prepared to use it.” US Dept of Education Study released January 18, 1999

• Two-thirds of all U.S. Households are expected to be on line by 2003 Reuters, March 26, 1999

Glimpses of Shortage

• 346,000 IT jobs are vacant! High Tech Workforce Resource Center, Jan 98

• Microsoft is skimming the best minds of academia. “They are eating our seed corn,” Chairman, Carnegie Mellon, Computer Science, April 6, 1999.

Massive Shortage of Computer Scientists & Engineers will be met by----

• Outbidding Other States for Existing Talent [unreliable]

• Retraining [Yes, Now]• New Graduates

[Long Run Only]• “Promoting” “AB ITers”

[Yes]• Dumbing Systems

[Long Run Only]

SPECIAL CHALLENGES IN MEETING RETRAINING AND UPGRADING NEEDS

• Too Few Knowledgeable Trainers

• Students have too little flexibility

• Good Published Training Guides Become Obsolete Too Rapidly

• Training Needed Throughout the State

Solution = Interactive Learning

From the times of

Craft Guilds & Small Townswe have “known” that ---

• Most learning is collaborative

• Frequent feedback increases learning

• Loyalty-to-group motivates learning

• More time on task usually means more learning

Beliefs of 91/93 Vignette AuthorsPedagogy and Philosophy

• Interactive Learning

• Learn by Doing

• Collaborative Learning

• Integration of Theory and Practice

• Communication

• Visualization

• Different Strokes for Different Folks

From Interactive Learning Forthcoming June, 1999From Anker PublishingDavid G. Brown, Editor

Computers Enhance My Teaching and/or Learning Via--

PresentationsBetter--20%

More Opportunities toPractice & Analyze--35%

More Access to SourceMaterials via Internet--43%

More Communication with Faculty Colleagues, Classmates,and Between Faculty and Students--87%

Source = Wake Forest Students and Faculty

Computers allow people----

• to belong to more communities• to be more actively engaged in each

community• with more people• over more miles• for more months and years• TO BE MORE COLLABORATIVE

Actions for Georgia

• Bring Whole Culture to Threshold Literacy.• Create Robust IT Infrastructure to attract Top

Talent and enable Georgia to utilize talent from distant lands. Include Citizen Help Desk.

• Cross Train- like journalism and library science• Gather existing electronic resources into

“textbooks” Avoid CD sinkholes. Proceed with “insurance brokerage” model.

Actions for Georgia

• Establish “learning clusters” throughout the state (where learners collaborate and reinforce each other)

• Use interactive learning & communication tools in course design. Avoid the Educational TV mistake.

• “Test market” virtual exercises in “face-to-face” settings. Expect most modules at first to be developed for ‘on campus learning’

David G. BrownWake Forest University

Winston-Salem, N.C. 27109336-758-4878

email: brown@wfu.eduhttp//:www.wfu.edu/~brown

fax: 336-758-4875