IT and the Ivory Tower (continued)
market standard immediately. The question is: Is this really important?" says Robert De Loght, IT management consultant/owner, RDL Consult in Brussels, Belgium. "I think that companies have the permanent responsibility to pay attention to training their personnel. Prior education just paves the way to absorb even more material."
"Training students on one particular tool or programming language is meaningless because technology changes so rapidly," agrees Wuchun "George" Shen, director, Business Intelligence Consulting at AnswerThink in Boston, Mass. "Higher education should instead teach students problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, scientific and innovative approaches and methodologies."
Building Blocks or Bulldozers?
But should universities limit themselves to providing the building blocks? Or should they bulldoze their way to the frontlines?
"I think universities will be forced to hire or work in collaboration with third-party e-learning and instructor-led firms -- or perhaps the companies that actually develop the products -- that are more easily able to adapt and train [students in] new technologies," says Steve Johnson, e-Learning Designer at Pacific Life Insurance in Los Angeles, Calif.
"If they don't, I think the online degrees that people used to scoff at may actually become the best resource for the latest technology training, while [traditional] universities continue to lag further and further behind, graduating students with outdated skills by the time they receive their diploma," he adds.
Universities are well aware of the challenge and are doing their best to respond. "We're not up to speed universally across our whole campus yet, but we're getting there," says Ray Miller, Adjunct Assistant Professor, College of Applied Science -- MET, University of Cincinnati. "With 36,000 students, it is a challenge." (article continues)
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