The Evolution of TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION

Anonymous . Canadian Business ; Toronto  Vol. 80, Iss. 19,  (Sep 24, 2007): 31,33-34,36-37.

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In today's business world, technology is not an end in itself. To be useful, it must be deployed to increase
competitive advantage. That's the message that's being communicated to students at post-secondary institutions
across Canada.

Here's a look at how some of the country's top colleges and universities use leading-edge technology to deliver
programs, and how students are developing the skills they will need to make technology-related decisions in the
future.

On-Campus Students Take Advantage of Distance Ed

Online learning isn't restricted to distance education students anymore. Of all students taking online courses at
the University of Waterloo, more than 65% are also taking on-campus courses.

Online education is very convenient for students who have scheduling conflicts because of part-time jobs, or
because of other courses they wish to take," says Jane Recoskie, the university's manager of distance education.
In addition, she says, students who take courses online enjoy a rich and rewarding learning experience.

"Using rich media, we can enhance the lecture material with graphics and audio files. Instead of the simple
PowerPoint presentation that students might see in class, the online version can include animation. It might
illustrate to biology students how cells divide, for instance."

At present, about 60% of Waterloo's distance education courses are fully online. The university is working towards
putting the balance fully online but there is no timetable for completion of the project. At the same time, it is also
working with instructors to facilitate the online learning experience for students.

"We're helping faculty to implement the wide array of tools available in the course management system to enrich
online learning," says Jane Holbrook, liaison to the faculty of science from the university's Centre for Teaching
Excellence. These include online discussion forums, which enable professors to see how projects are progressing
and assess student interaction, and quizzing tools, which allow students to do self-assessments.

Some faculty use discussion forums in highly innovative ways, says Holbrook. "We can set up discussion forums
so that students might be required to post online before reading what others have said, for instance. This helps to
ensure that students are participating actively, not just repeating what others have said."

One professor solicited multiple-choice questions from students and used the best ones to create online quizzes
as preparation for final exams. Only those who submitted questions had access to the quizzes.

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Sheridan Bridges to Technology Occupations

There aren't enough qualified people to fill the enormous demand for professionals in the information and
communications technology field. But Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning hopes to
address that problem with an initiative designed to help foreign-trained individuals, usually newcomers to Canada,
who want careers in technology.

The seven-week Fast Track to Technology Occupations - Programs for Internationally Trained Individuals (FTTO) is
designed for Canadian citizens or landed immigrants who received training outside the country.

"People come to Canada from all over the world and many of them have engineering degrees, but they can't get
engineeringjobs here," says Gary Closson, dean of the School of Applied Computing and Engineering Sciences at
Sheridan. "We're fast-tracking them through technology training because there are usually many technician and
technologist jobs available for every engineering job that exists."

Thirty students took the FTTO program at Sheridan this summer, with 25 completing the program. In addition to
English-language training, topics included Canadian communications styles compared with those from abroad,
expectations about working in teams in Canada, health and safety legislation and responsibilities, Canadian
technology workplace issues, such as the Ontario Building Code, and working in a unionized environment.

"Often, these students don't understand our workplace culture and expectations and they are not aware of the
unique health and safety issues here," Closson explains. "They learn about those things in the bridging program,
both from the instructors and from one another."

Graduates are then eligible to enter the second year of most of Sheridan's two- and three-year programs. The
college also provides a mentoring service to help with co-op placements and their final job search.

"They can still work toward becoming professional engineers at some point in the future," says Closson. "In the
meantime, the bridging helps them get into the workplace in a field that interests them."

A new group of students will enter the FTTO program this fall.

Student Interest Strong in joint Tech-BComm

Faculty at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia were overwhelmed this fall by the
demand for their bachelor of commerce program, with a combined major in business and computer science.

"I was shocked," says Carson Woo, associate professor of management information systems (MIS) at Sauder. "We
received over 450 applications to fill 25 spaces."

The four-year program, offered jointly by Sauder and UBCs department of computer science, is designed to meet
the growing demand for graduates with strong foundations in business, MIS and computer science. Students
complete the core BComm program and graduate with a commerce degree as well as a computer science major.

"We heard from many sources that students with only computer science backgrounds didn't understand how
business functioned. Employers said that they were missing the contextual information required to interpret the

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needs of the business and implement the appropriate systems."

The BComm combined major program was designed with that in mind, says Katriona MacDonald, assistant dean
and director of the undergraduate program at Sauder. She also cites a 2003 Ipsos-Reid poll of B.C. technology
companies who were planning on hiring into computer-related positions. Fifty-two percent of respondents said the
most desirable area of expertise for science students to develop is greater breadth of business knowledge.

To that end, instruction covers the complete cycle - from understanding a problem and its possible solutions to
how an IT system can help, designing software systems, doing the programming and implementing the system.

One unique feature of the program is the flexibility offered for completing the 12 months of co-op placements; for
example, a student may complete one work term in a technically-oriented area and then do a second term in an IT
project management environment.

According to MacDonald, the program is ideal for those who wish to lead IT-related projects or advance in higher
management positions in IT-related companies, or build their own IT-related business.

CIOs in Training

IT professionals must become more business-savvy if they hope to move successfully up the corporate ladder.
That's the impetus behind the IT leadership development program at Ryerson University in Toronto.

"In today's business world, technology must be deployed to increase competitive advantage," says James Norrie,
director of the university's Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management. "Tech skills aren't enough -
CIOs also need business, marketing and networking skills to succeed."

Now starting its fifth year of fulfilling that requirement, the IT leadership development program doesn't contain any
technology training per se. "One way we describe it is: 'It's the business case, stupid'," notes Norrie.

The program focuses on leadership, strategy development and execution, resource management, relationship
building and conflict management.

Candidates for the program require the support of their employers, who must identify them as CIO candidates, and
the program engages the participants' direct superiors so they understand how the learning is to be applied.

"We want their behaviour to change as a result of the program," explains Norrie. "We've traditionally done a poor job
of equipping technology professionals on the way up."

A Ryerson survey found that 89% of Canadian CIOs promoted from senior technology management positions fail in
their first assignments. Interestingly, those from non-tech backgrounds seem to do better.

"It seems that people from other areas of the business don't get caught up in the sexiness of technology," says
Norrie. "They can take a more strategic viewpoint, which makes them more effective executives."

The IT leadership development program consists of three week-long modules of four days apiece, delivered over a
six- to nine-month period. The first focuses on strategy, innovation and leadership; the second on communications,
negotiation skills and vendor management; and the third on communicating your leadership vision, multi-vendor IT

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procurement and creating exceptional value.

Between modules the participants return to work, where they can apply the learning and, once they graduate, enjoy
a much improved chance of success when they become CIOs.

Ivey Takes IT to New Leve!

It's no secret that organizations are looking for IT people with strong business skills. But the reverse is also true,
contends Nicole Haggerty, assistant professor in the information systems group at the Richard Ivey School of
Business at the University of Western Ontario.

"Economic studies talk a lot about the need for IT managers to acquire better business skills. But concurrently,
organizations want to cultivate IT capability in their business managers."

IT-competent business managers are better able to lead IT projects, champion new initiatives and foster solid
relationships within their organizations, says Haggerty.

"In the past, business people tended to throw money over the wall and wait for technology to be delivered.
Countless IT projects went off the rails as a result. The development of more tech-savvy business managers will
help to reverse that trend."

Haggerty believes the Ivey School is making a significant contribution to the achievement ofthat goal with the
creation of a new dual-degree program, which combines the Ivey HBA (Honours in Business Administration) with a
degree in computer science specializing in information systems.

The university's undergraduate computer science department provides the computer science theory and practice,
while the Ivey business degree adds an understanding of business leadership skills.

"Our graduates wall have well-recognized degrees in both business and computer science," Haggerty says. "Even if
they never enter the IT side of business, they'll know how to partner with the builders of IT systems."

"We recognized a business need for a deep understanding about the IT side of business," says Darren Meister,
faculty director of the HBA Program and associate professor of Information Systems at the Richard Ivey School of
Business.

"Our goal is to develop our students' decision-making skills involving the use of technology. But technology is not
an end in itself: the emphasis is on how technology can be used to make organizations and industries more
competitive, both nationally and globally."

Library Resources Going Mobile

One result of the rapid adoption of mobile technology in all sectors of society is the rise of mobile learning.

Mobile learning - the delivery of electronic learning materials on mobile computing devices - provides flexibility in
time and location of study and expands the availability of on-the-spot information and resources.

A leader in this field is Alberta's Athabasca University, where students can now access and download selected

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course materials using PDAs, mobile phones and other mobile devices.

A leader in this field is Alberta's Athabasca University, where students can now access and download selected
course materials using PDAs, mobile phones and other mobile devices. The university stores resources for courses
on its mobile M-Library.

"We're currently piloting the conversion of courses and library materials for delivery on mobile technology," says
Tony Tin, electronic resources librarian and co-ordinator of the mobile learning project at Athabasca. "Our library
has created the Digital Reading Room to integrate learning resources already in digital format into the curriculum
and facilitate the delivery of course materials using a variety of technologies."

The Digital Reading Room is an interactive online reading room, offering digital files for course readings and
supplementary materials. It currently houses more than 20,780 resources serving 235 courses, says Tin, noting
that they have been specially selected by faculty and are organized by course and by lesson for convenient mobile
and desktop online access by students.

"About 60% of our course and library material is currently in digital format and our goal is to make that 100%."

The university faces other challenges, says Tin. One of them is that phone costs are prohibitive for some people,
and some devices don't support a lot of data streaming. But the technology is developing fast, he adds, and in the
near future iPhones may be deployed to deliver course material to students.

Sidebar
"We can set up discussion forums so that students might be required to post online before reading what others
have said, for instance. This heips to ensure that students are participating actively, not just repeating what others
have said"

Sidebar
"In today's business world, technology must be deployed to increase competitive advantage. Tech skills aren't
enough - ClOs also need business, marketing and networking skills to succeed."

Sidebar
"Our goal is to develop our students ' decision-making skills involving the use of technology, but technology is not
an end in itself: the emphasis is on how technology can be used to make organizations and industries more
competitive, both nationally and globally."

DETAILS

Publication title: Canadian Business; Toronto

Volume: 80

Issue: 19

Pages: 31,33-34,36-37

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 Number of pages: 5

Publication year: 2007

Publication date: Sep 24, 2007

Section: ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

Publisher: St. Joseph Communications

Place of publication: Toronto

Country of publication: Canada, Toronto

Publication subject: Business And Economics

ISSN: 00083100

CODEN: CABUDO

Source type: Magazines

Language of publication: English

Document type: General Information

ProQuest document ID: 221367137

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/221367137?accountid=50247

Copyright: Copyright Rogers Publishing Limited Sep 24, 2007

Last updated: 2017-11-09

Database: ProQuest Central

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