Wrong speed and direction on the information highway?
David Clark-MurphyDirector
davidcm. management pty ltd
Wrong speed and direction on the information highway?David Clark-MurphyDirector davidcm. management pty ltd | |
This survey of training needs for WA's digital future highlights the need for a radical revision of curriculum structure to meet extraordinary circumstances. The accelerating pace of emerging and converging technologies is rendering traditional education and training programs ineffective and obsolete. The inflexibility of hierarchical course structures in Information Technology and Telecommunications mean that students are ill prepared for the rapidly changing workplace they aspire to enter. This survey highlights curriculum design that has already been overtaken by dynamic changes within the electronic information field, and proposes alternatives for future design.
Such enabling electronic competencies have a pervasive influence across the entire WA business community and public sector. Many people who are not in IT&T occupations are regular users of these technologies and need the appropriate competencies. Thus implications for training in these enabling competencies are relevant for all WA industry.
Current research data and analyses are differentially historical, often describing industry training and education situations months or even years before. Whilst historically useful, the situation highlights the need for a more proactive approach, with projections of training-needs based on input from leading edge practitioners, best practice industry advances, and informed consideration of significant event horizons relevant to industry needs. Current curricula are hampered by being hierarchically structured, comprising of foundation breadth progressing to a single specialisation. This structure is demonstrably already unsuitable for current industry requirements.
The findings and recommendations of this survey are catalogued into key areas for convenience but are seen as interdependent issues to be considered holistically:
A broader title of Electronic Information Industries (EII) was termed as a result of this survey. This term now includes corporate networks, computing, printing, design, photography, multimedia, Internet providers, radio, educational technologies and consumer electronics. To consider any less was seen to deny the pervasive nature of these technologies and their practical use by virtually everyone in industry and society. Electronic Information Industries then includes anyone who uses computers or microprocessors in their work, from faxes and photocopiers, to CAD/CAM designers and graphic artists, to email and Internet researchers. Many people who are not in direct IT&T occupations are regular users of these technologies in their daily work duties.
Traditional computer, telecommunications, broadcasting and printing technologies are now converging as part of the digital revolution. Each one of these fields has its own set of regulations and its own industry culture. The merging of these fields into a single industry sometimes referred to as multimedia, will inevitably create massive vocational dislocations that challenge conventional approaches to labour forecasting and planning for industrial training. Also, convergence has revolutionary implications for the education and training sector itself in terms of flexible delivery and distance education systems in harness to provide training in all vocational areas.
The impact of technological convergence has major ramifications for EII training strategies. Since the distinctions between various technologies are disappearing, rigidly specialised training is becoming irrelevant. EII vocational training will have to be versatile enough to provide employees with skills that are applicable and transportable to more than one convergent sector. This will give them the flexibility to move between related technical fields as required.
An important dynamic of convergence is the pace at which it and other associated technical advances are developing. The rapidly accelerating speed of change means that it will become more and more difficult to forecast winners, losers and orphans amongst various technology options. A strategy which fosters highly specialised training in this convergent environment will inevitably produce at least some trainees with skills that are already obsolete at graduation. It is crucial for EII training to be multi-faceted enough to ensure that graduates do not have "all of their eggs in one basket" and are skilled for several employment options.
Most technological systems within the realms of EII (including IT, telecommunications, broadcasting, radio communications, printing, electronic aspects of design and multimedia) are in the process of transition from analogue to digital forms. This has direct implications for vocational training, because aside from providing trainees with skills to suit new and future digital systems, remaining analogue systems also need a skills base to support them. Even with the predominance of digital technology, some elements of analogue will continue and a number of these, particularly in radio communications, underpin emergency services affecting matters of life and death.
The education and training sector may wish to support a niche-focussed training program that is conducted in close consultation with organisations relying on analogue facilities. A plan to retrain personnel in digital applications once analogue systems have been phased out should be a key component of such a strategy.
As various technologies converge into digital multimedia, the demarcations between the traditional industries themselves also should begin to dissolve. Therefore, careers spanning more than one sector will probably become the norm. For example, it should not be unusual in the future for a trainee to commence his/her career in IT file administration and conclude a smooth career progression managing satellite links for a television service. Any effective training strategy will have to take this trend and the inherent requirement for a wider concept of multi skilling into account. In practical terms, this means providing modules for updating practitioners from across the EII spectrum on major technological changes and applications. Maybe these sessions could be conducted jointly with relevant industry organisations and employer groups. Programs of this type will be far more effective if the initial training which they complement has been built on principles of maximising flexibility.
Each traditional industry segment has its own regulatory and policy framework. As segments converge into one industry, contradictions and ambiguities between telecommunications, broadcasting, publishing and other regimes will become acute. Ultimately, a single, consistent set of laws, regulations and policies will be required covering all branches of multimedia. In the short to mid term, conflicts between various sets of legislation and guidelines may seriously impede the industry's expansion. Given the complexity of these issues, a training module dealing with legal and regulatory aspects for EII trainees may be advisable.
The utilisation of equipment in virtually all branches embraced by EII has evolved from an emphasis on maintenance to one of replacement as a result of the 'Black Box Mentality' (McGinnis, 1997). IT, telecommunications, broadcasting and consumer electronic equipment have all become, cheaper, more compact and more complex. In most cases a series of electronic functions are performed by a piece of integrated equipment or 'black box'. If a 'black box' fails, it is now commonplace to replace it with a new unit rather than attempt to repair it. Due to the relatively low cost of modular 'black boxes', the difficulties and expense of dealing with ever miniaturising components as well as the need for quick rectification of problems, replacement is rapidly becoming the preferred remedy for a fault. Another factor in this trend, is the overall improvement in the reliability of electronic equipment. Replacement is a much more valid option, since equipment failure is becoming a rarer occurrence. As a consequence of the reduction of equipment costs, rapid technological advances and better reliability, equipment is now often replaced because of its perceived obsolescence rather than its dysfunction.
The 'black box' approach is altering the roles of those involved in IT and T engineering and operations in several ways. Generally, contemporary equipment requires much less maintenance attention, while repair is often rejected in favour of replacement. It is still important for technicians to understand what functions the 'black box' performs and how to determine whether or not it is operating correctly. However, the task of pulling the unit apart to rectify the fault is becoming an ever-shrinking part of the job. Today, detailed benchwork maintenance can only be justified for the most expensive, crucial infrastructural and/or customised equipment. Virtually everything else is replaceable as matter of course.
This shift of emphasis should be reflected in appropriate education and training programs. However, the 'black box' trend does introduce some additional concerns. Firstly, although the 'black box' approach is a logical response to resource considerations, the trend implies a more superficial approach to electronic theory. This means that ultimately there will be a decreasing number of people in EII fields with the capabilities to carry out repairs at component level in emergencies or in rare cases when equipment is irreplaceable. Secondly, decreasing knowledge about what is inside a 'black box' and how it operates will undermine Western Australia's ability to support an equipment design industry. Taken to its logical conclusion, the 'black box' mentality could cause "hands-on" technicians and engineers to evolve into operators and this is a key concern of many in the telecommunications industry.
The next phases of public sector online innovation are already emerging. In the future the public will be able to access all local, State and Commonwealth Government services through a single Internet "window". Also, all government transactions, (payments, fees, licence renewals, etc) will be able to be conducted online, following trends now being pioneered by the banking industry.
Variations on telecommuting and online interactions will inevitably be harnessed to deliver most types of government services to overcome distances and time constraints. These include telemedicine applications, multimedia distance education, electronically linked legal proceedings, and consultations with caseworkers.
Increasingly, businesses are utilising the Internet to advertise their products and services to customers world wide. Recent developments in encryption technology are now making it safer and easier to conduct business transactions online. As more Australian organisations seek to be internationally competitive the quest for new methods of reducing overhead costs, lifting labour productivity and unlocking additional flexibility becomes more intense. One of the most logical strategies for realising these aims is to harness telecommunications solutions to move information rather than people.
Given its geographical size and scattered population, Western Australia could be a world leader in telework innovation. Although the State has been one of the quickest areas in the world to buy new IT and T technologies, it has shown far less initiative in employing them to their fullest potential to deliver greater efficiencies, cut costs and reap other competitive advantages. Managing the changes inherent in telework requires consistent effort. However, it is still a relatively simple and uncontroversial path to achieving productivity increases and minimising costs, especially in comparison to options such as industrial relations reform and downsizing. Whether Western Australian organisations wish to adopt telework voluntarily or not, it will be forced upon them by their competitors elsewhere. Telework and telecommunicating will dictate more creative uses of corporate IT and IT facilities along with an expanding number of highly trained technicians and operators to support these functions.
With the nature of industries converging, it appears more appropriate to think of training in other terms, perhaps as concentric circles.
The core competencies could be delivered at educational and training institutions, with the proviso that module development and staff development is initiated early. The second level of advanced general skills could be joint ventured with industry to varying degrees depending upon interest and projected demand. It is strongly recommended that industry provide the specialisation training, perhaps part funded by appropriate government agencies. It seems unlikely that sufficient resources could be justified to provide such high industry specialisation by any one agency.
A significant outcome of this study highlights a quandary for training institutions, whether to disengage, apply catch-up tactics, or provide strategic leadership for the Vocational and Educational sector and WA industry. The external environment of technological change, in the dynamics of emerging and converging technologies, appears to be accelerating at a higher rate than the capacity of internal processes of training institutions to adapt. Adaptation is urgently required in the areas of curriculum design, development of teachers, and commercial initiatives to more closely engage with industry in the training of suitable future employees.
The challenges for academy and administrations include:
The main message is for the need to challenge paradigms to address emerging situations without historical precedence. The application on this occasion relates to curricula design that has already been overtaken by dynamic changes in enabling technologies within the electronic information arena. Perhaps this example highlights a more conceptual challenge for academy, to rigorously and proactively examine educational paradigms in the face of current and future societal and industry needs.
| Author: David Clark-Murphy 41 Chardonnay Drive, The Vines WA 6069 Tel +61 8 9297 3015, fax +61 8 9297 3123, mobile 041 894 4223 Email: davidcm@ozemail.com.au David is a sessional lecturer in Corporate Finance, Business Statistics and Small Business Marketing at Edith Cowan University, and is Director of davidcm. management pty ltd, a management consultancy specialising in innovative executive development, research, and consulting to government agencies. Please cite as: Clark-Murphy, D. (1998). Wrong speed and direction on the information highway? In C. McBeath and R. Atkinson (Eds), Planning for Progress, Partnership and Profit. Proceedings EdTech'98. Perth: Australian Society for Educational Technology. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/edtech98/pubs/articles/clark-murphy1.html |