>Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 14:40:52 -0400
>To: Raven
>From: Richard Rice <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Another Viewpoint on IT
>
>An interested party sent me this positive piece: seems like Microsoft has 
>been generous at UMass. Note that they are concerned in the drop in  IT 
>graduates since 2001. On the other hand, Bill Gates and other tech CEOs 
>lobbied hard for this year's new 20,000 HIB permits, which allows foreign 
>IT specialists into the market. Supply and demand being what they are, 
>lowers the market price for IT workers and hence the demand by students 
>for training in this field. Andy Novobilski has kept on top of this issue.
>
>Richard
>
>
>Microsoft: UMass a tech 'showcase'
>
>
>
>Company recognizes Amherst campus for teaching innovations
>
>
>
>By Eric Goldscheider, Globe Correspondent  |  October 21, 2005
>
>AMHERST -- 
><http://studio.financialcontent.com/Engine?Account=bostonglobe&PageName=QUOTE&Ticker=MSFT>Microsoft 
>Corp. is naming the University of Massachusetts at Amherst its first 
>''Information Technology Showcase School" in the nation, a recognition of 
>the university's efforts to promote new technologies in the service of 
>teaching.
>
>''We see the university as a true pace setter in higher education," 
>Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who will disclose the designation 
>during a breakfast visit to the campus today, said in a prepared statement.
>
>Over the past decade, the university has used $1 million in grants from 
>the company to create the Microsoft Center for Women in Engineering and 
>Science. In addition, it created a minor in information technology and 
>incorporated computers and technology in classrooms to allow professors to 
>hold snap polls during lectures.
>
>This semester, students in Gino Sorcinelli's Introduction to Business 
>Information Systems class are working on research projects with students 
>at the National University of Ireland in Galway. Every other week, 
>Sorcinelli's students discuss their projects with their counterparts 
>across the Atlantic through a Web-based teleconferencing program.
>
>Nathan Murphy, a junior who plans to go into real estate, last week 
>teleconferenced on his project about security issues, using 
><http://studio.financialcontent.com/Engine?Account=bostonglobe&PageName=QUOTE&Ticker=HPQ>Hewlett-Packard 
>Co. as a case study. He said he was less than totally impressed by the 
>technology.
>
>''I find it interesting, but I feel like at this point we're definitely 
>not using the system to its full potential," Murphy said.
>
>Sorcinelli said many of the technologies UMass is experimenting with are 
>just maturing. ''These are baby steps," he said.
>
>Richard Rogers, a professor of resource economics who also serves as the 
>faculty adviser to the provost for undergraduate education, helped forge 
>the relationship between Microsoft and UMass.
>
>Rogers, who has been using interactive learning tools for almost 10 years, 
>said, ''I'm not a gadget guy, I just look like a gadget guy when I'm 
>teaching." Many of these tools, he said, help ''make a large class feel a 
>bit smaller."
>
>Philip DesAutels, a Microsoft ''academic development evangelist" based in 
>Waltham who was instrumental in awarding UMass the designation after 
>visiting the campus, said he was impressed by the longstanding commitment 
>at UMass to using technology in the classroom.
>
>''Rather than saying, 'here's technology, find a way to teach,' " he said, 
>Microsoft is interested in seeing how teachers are utilizing technology in 
>the service of teaching.
>
>Benefits to the university from this designation are primarily 
>''recognition for a job well done," Rogers said. ''The Redmond PR machine 
>will kick in" during the coming year to disseminate ideas and practices 
>coming out of UMass, he said, referring to Microsoft headquarters in 
>Redmond, Wash.
>
>Beyond that, Microsoft will give money to existing initiatives to bring 
>women into information technology and will help extend the infrastructure 
>on campus for using technology in classrooms and lecture halls. A new 
>23,000 square-foot ''Learning Commons" in the basement of the W.E.B. Du 
>Bois Library is scheduled to be dedicated today. It includes 164 computer 
>workstations, a suite of software, and staff available to assist students.
>
>The showcase schools program, which eventually will include five colleges 
>and universities, is part of a broader effort to address problems 
>affecting the technology industry, according to Ted MacLean, general 
>manager for Microsoft's New England operations.
>
>''The US economy alone needs to add nearly a million new IT-related jobs 
>between now and 2012, yet we have this fundamental issue at the academic 
>level of not generating enough candidates to fill those roles," MacLean said.
>
>Ever since the technology bust in 2001, enrollment in IT programs has 
>dropped as much as 80 percent in some schools, he said.
>
>The showcase program ''really exemplifies our commitment to education," 
>MacLean said.
>
>Since 1998 Microsoft has given UMass approximately $1 million in research 
>grants and funding and about $10 million in software and equipment donations.