Applications of telecommunications in education: National Science Foundation projects on advanced technological and online education in information engineering technology

The National Science Foundation (NSF) advanced technological education (ATE) project # DUE-9950029 is aimed to help increase the pool of qualified Information Technology (IT) workers in the U.S. It addresses the severe national and statewide shortage for such workers that are projected to persist well in the 21st century. It aims to provide a 2+2+2 seamless transition for students from their junior year in high school, through an associate degree at the community college level or at university, to Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Information Engineering Technology. The growth in employment of all occupations in the U.S. Information Technology industry between 1996-2006 is projected at 88.25% while the growth of college/university IT and Computer Science (CS) faculty is projected at only 18.3%. This motivated the faculty of several U.S. educational institutions to propose the NSF CCLI-EMD project that is aimed on the design and development of several IT and computer science online degree programs in US colleges and universities. One of the primary goals of both NSF projects is active utilization of innovative Web-based telecommunication, software engineering, portal, multiagent, streaming multimedia, teaching, learning and information technologies.