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Strategy for Massachusetts Workforce Needs: Broad Spectrum IT Education

This strategy proposes a high-level approach to address the evolving workforce demands of the Massachusetts "New Economy" by building an IT-fluent workforce. It advocates for broadening IT education participation, attracting MA graduates, and implementing cross-disciplinary IT education models. The plan emphasizes providing technical fluency to students, integrating IT into various disciplines, and forming interdisciplinary educational programs. The UMass Amherst experience highlights existing programs, challenges, and opportunities in bridging the IT gap in education. The multiple entry/multiple opportunity strategy targets K12 to Bachelor levels to enhance IT fluency and capitalize on diverse perspectives.

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Strategy for Massachusetts Workforce Needs: Broad Spectrum IT Education

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  1. A Strategy for Addressing the Workforce Needs of the Massachusetts Economy Rick Adrion UMass Amherst CITI

  2. CITI Strategy • High Level Approach • Broad Spectrum IT Education • Multiple Entry/Multiple Opportunity Programs • Goals • Build an Information Technology-fluent workforce and citizenry • Address the workforce demands of the “New Economy” • Broaden participation in IT education and the workforce • Attract and retain more Massachusetts high school graduates in IT education and the workforce

  3. Broad Spectrum Grad UG HS MS PS Literacy Fluency ITAC CS/CE/CIS cross-disciplinary IT

  4. cross-disciplinary IT educationmodels • Basic • Providing the technical “fluency” for students to combine with their own disciplinary studies. • Extended • Creating computing modules or core curricula that other disciplines can incorporate into their curricula • Co-teaching cross-disciplinary courses that, perhaps, derive from interdisciplinary research projects • Encouraging the introduction of computing skills, concepts, and capabilities, e.g., “IT Across the Curriculum,” in other disciplines

  5. cross-disciplinary IT educationmodels • Within CS/CE/CIS • Creating core computing curricula, as a basis for integrating the various computing disciplines (CS, CE, SE, IS, IT) • Introducing cross-disciplinary material in traditional curriculum, i.e., developing and offering computer science courses that incorporate significant non-traditional content meant to endow students with non-trivial domain knowledge. • Comprehensive • Combining core curricula with “cognates” to form interdisciplinary educational programs • Forming a coordinating administrative infrastructure (such as a College of Computing or Informatics) that enables cross-disciplinary programs that cross traditional academic boundaries.

  6. The UMass Amherst Experience • Current programs • Literacy general education courses • “fluency gap” • IT Minor • BDIC, e.g. web design, animation • “cross-disciplinary gap” • CS/CE + limited MIS • Challenges • find a bridge between IT minor & CS major • strengthen IT Minor core? Certification? • IT/IS major? • Cross-disciplinary majors? • multiple entry/multiple opportunity strategy • develop fluency courses

  7. Multiple Entry/Multiple Opportunity K12 Associate /Bachelor Grad Fluency Other Majors ITAC IT Minors X-Discipl. IT Majors AP CS CS/CE/IS/IT Majors • Challenges • Coordinated curricula • Flexible curricula Gap Progs

  8. Opportunities • Build an Information Technology-fluent workforce and citizenry • IT fluency & ITAC • Address the workforce demands of the “New Economy” • Broad Spectrum IT education • Broaden participation in IT education and the workforce • Capitalize on the ITAC programs attraction to women and underrepesented minorities • Combine with multiple entry/multiple opportunity strategy to increase diversity across K20 broad spectrum IT education • Attract and retain more Massachusetts high school graduates into IT education and the workforce • Ditto

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