Testimony

Educating our Children with Technology Skills To Compete in the Next Millennium.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak today from higher education's perspective on technology education. As president of Penn State, chair of the Commission on Information Technologies of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and a founding board member of the University Consortium for Advanced Internet Development, I will say that this area is one of the highest priorities for universities and colleges nationwide. As advancements in information science and technology continue to revolutionize so many aspects of our society, the scientific, technological, and sociological dimensions of accessing, storing, retrieving, communicating, and using information are key concerns for universities such as Penn State. They are vital to our role in promoting economic and human development and integral to our educational mission.

Higher learning's efforts to promote technology education do not occur in an isolated context, but move forward with many of the same developments in infrastructure, capabilities, and policy that enable the integration of information technology at the elementary and secondary school levels. Cooperative efforts such as Pennsylvania's Link-to-Learn initiative, which seeks to provide unlimited access to the global information network for all the schools, libraries, and communities of the state, are essential to developing a technology-able citizenry. My university is leading the professional development component of Link-to-Learn; others are taking the lead in different areas. It is in working together across all levels of education and in partnership with government and business that we all will be able to meet the many complex challenges that these rapidly advancing technologies present.

At the university level, our educational challenge relates both to vastly increasing the number of graduates in information science and technology fields and to transforming the technology skills and awareness of all students to better meet marketplace needs. We also can contribute to the continuing education that is inherent to such a quickly evolving field.

Without a doubt, there's a need to graduate more individuals in the technical fields of computer science and engineering. It is estimated that more than one million new computer scientists and engineers will be needed within a matter of years, yet we know that the number of computer and information science baccalaureate degrees is dramatically down compared to 10 years ago, to about 25,000 per year. We also know that only about 2 percent of students earning bachelor's degrees earn them in computer science. The effort to build the skills and interests needed for these fields must begin in the elementary and secondary school years, particularly as they relate to mathematics and engineering.

But based on my observations at Penn State, I believe the tide may already be turning. Demand for our computer science program greatly exceeds its present capacity. We are now seeing the first generation of graduates who have grown up with personal computers. These young people demand access to them on campus for solving problems and completing projects in their courses, and they know that digital technologies are important tools in virtually every field of work. Many are savvy enough to see the excellent job opportunities awaiting graduates with high level information technology skills.

What we must do is capitalize on these interests and do so in such a way as to meet the full array of needs for information science and technology workers. There's a need for a spectrum of skills and sophistication ranging from two-year degrees to PhDs. There is also a need for students in nearly every major to develop significant competency in information science and technology applications. Institutions of higher education must balance specific information technology skills development with long-term competencies in communications, management, and other disciplines. I believe we will accomplish this best through greater integration of information science and technology studies and discipline-based programs, and by partnering with industry to understand quickly and clearly marketplace needs, provide practical experiences for students, and gain access to the latest breaking technologies for the academic community.

Among the options we are pursuing at Penn State is the creation of a new School of Information Science and Technology. While we have not fully articulated the vision for this new approach, my hope is that we would provide a strong core curriculum for students with minors in other fields, or alternatively a minor for students with majors in other fields. The school would promote interdisciplinary approaches not only in teaching, but in research and service as well.

Looking more broadly at the integration of information technology throughout the curriculum, advanced digital technologies are revolutionizing the process of teaching and learning in every field. As they do so, all students gain valuable experience in using these tools on a daily basis.

For example, instruction is becoming far more interactive. E-mail and other networking modes increase interaction between students and teachers and among students, changing the traditional one-way flow of communication from the professor that has been so much a staple of instruction in the past. The most recent report by the Campus Computing Project indicates that e-mail is now being used in 33 percent of college courses, up from about 25 percent last year, and from 8 percent in 1994 when this measure was first collected. At Penn State, more than 90 percent of our students have activated their access accounts giving them e-mail service and entry on to the Web. In our College of Engineering, 100 percent of the students are on-line.

Further changes in teaching and learning are being wrought by the enormous availability of resources through the net that may be directly accessed by learners. Data, sound, visualizations, and now even tactile information engage students throughout the university more actively in learning.

These changes have profound implications for the structure of courses and programs, for staffing to support both faculty and student technology users, for our library collections and services, and, of course, for the availability of interactive technologies. For students, this new model of instruction fosters important lifelong learning skills. For the extended learning community we serve, it offers an unprecedented level of flexibility and quality in learning.

Another change concerns the incredible growth in demand for information technology services, and the increased dependence that a university such as Penn State has on a fully functioning infrastructure. There are more than 38,000 computers directly attached to Penn State's network, and tens of thousands of computers in faculty, staff, and student residences off campus that are connected indirectly via dial ups. Penn State transmits in excess of 1.7 million e-mail messages per day. Our central Web servers are accessed more than 500,000 times each day from all over the world. Almost 15,000 students have created Web pages that are accessed some 260,000 times per day. Our faculty routinely transmit billions of characters of data in their research to and from other centers around the nation and the world. We have just launched a Penn State World Campus--a virtual university whose programs and courses will be offered via the Internet and other distance education technologies.

If universities are to capitalize on technology to promote active learning and support our tremendous and still growing telecommunications needs, there are several challenges that must be met.

We must keep up with the continuing advancements in telecommunications technologies. It may not be possible to predict what technologies will predominate in five years, but it is certain that they will require a significant institutional investment. This must be an area of special priority. On the horizon are developments such as synthetic environments that use multimedia to create artificial realities. Portability will become increasingly critical. We will hear voice carried over the Internet routinely. High speed networking will accelerate substantially compared to today's standards. The university without such capabilities will be left far behind.

Our institutions also must keep up with user demand for connectivity and do so at a sufficient capacity to support the desired applications. The necessary infrastructure must be in place--cabling, satellite, technology classrooms, computer labs, and support staff--to meet the needs of those on campus and extend services to the communities we support. This is a continuing need as equipment ages, demand grows, and new applications emerge. Increasing bandwidth, for example, has become a significant need to accommodate high speed networks and multimedia applications. There never seem to be enough computers in our student labs on campus. Despite the large number of students at Penn State who own their own computer -- in excess of 60 percent at the University Park Campus -- they use the labs for specialized and expensive software and higher computer power than they own. They also look to the labs for high performance networking that connects to academic services at Penn State and elsewhere. Our students line up, often waiting 30 minutes or more at a lab even though the majority have access to another machine. Last fall semester, there were almost 1.3 million sessions in our core computer labs at University Park.

The growth of Web-based instruction will vastly increase the number of hours of connectivity required for courses. This has tremendous implications for infrastructure as well as training for faculty.

Another area of challenge relates to policies that are supportive of the increased flexibility and access made possible through technology. Many of these issues impact students directly, concerning such areas as financial aid and transferability of credits for distance education. Others relate to the flow of information itself, centering on intellectual property issues. Still others concern the regulation of the telecommunications industry and promoting the best interests of educational institutions in this arena.

Last fall, the Higher Education Alliance for Information Technology, a coalition of the major higher education associations that represent nearly 3,000 colleges and universities, released the document Higher Education Policies for the Digital Age to convey our united position on many of these issues. This document is available at the Website http://www.nasulgc.nche.edu/DigitalAge_TOC.htm.

An overarching principle for higher education's position on these matters is that the commitment to unfettered free inquiry, critical examination, and free dissemination of information and ideas transcends changes in technology and organization. We therefore believe that intellectual property rights and the interests of users must be balanced to promote creation and dissemination of ideas. Particularly with the growth of the Web, copyright infringement liability is of concern. For our institutions, in their role as on-line service providers, it is essential to define the limits of third-party liability.

In keeping with our commitment to free speech and inquiry, we espouse the view that these concerns should take precedence over narrower concerns such as protection from exposure to offensive material, particularly when such protection can be achieved by means other than legislation.

We also want to see any regulation of telecommunications carefully targeted to sustain competitive market forces that enhance access by promoting efficiency and lower costs. In the case of Internet regulation, for example, substantial freedom has contributed to the successful commercialization of the Internet and to major investments in advanced networking facilities by the telecommunications industry.

The higher education community also advocates policies that promote access by the widest possible public to the benefits of our digital age. We want to encourage seamless access to educational opportunities at all levels as well as investment in advanced network technologies for the workplace, home, and all levels of educational institutions.

Finally, we believe that higher education will serve the public best if reliable and efficient communications networks are ubiquitous. We urge that public investment in network infrastructure and basic research be combined with freedom for competitive market forces to promote efficiency and lower costs. Key initiatives here include a continuation of a government/university/industry partnership in support of advanced Internet development. We wish also to promote policy that supports the transfer of newly developed Internet technology to all segments of the education community. And we are concerned that open standards and protocols be developed to facilitate the transition to more advanced generations of the Internet.

We have reached a point with the current Internet where it is no longer able to reliably handle the expanding information and communications needs of our universities. Internet 2 is a project of the University Consortium for Advanced Internet Development, an organization of more than 100 research universities across the nation. It is rapidly moving forward to develop a network that is substantially faster than the one we have today and able to handle highly complex applications essential to the teaching, research, and service missions of our institutions. Another major goal of this project is to transfer rapidly new network services and applications to all levels of educational use and to the broader Internet community. Advanced Internet technologies will give all of us the capability to extend the learning environment into homes and businesses.

Internet 2 is a separate, but highly compatible effort to the federal Next Generation Internet project. I urge your support for H.R. 3332 that will provide authorization for the Next Generation Internet initiative. The development of advanced network technologies will be dependent on a continued partnership of government, universities, and industry.

In summary, technology education in our universities will proceed best in a technology-rich environment that capitalizes on the latest applications and tools in all areas of teaching and learning and provides widespread access to the vast information resources available today. This environment is essential to support special initiatives to meet information technology workforce needs as well as to promote the technology skills of all students. As we expand infrastructure, advance networking capabilities, and pursue policy initiatives that enable the integration of information technologies into every aspect of our work, we also are making contributions that are vital to reaping the many economic and educational benefits of these powerful tools throughout our society.