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 4 DUE-9950029 is aimed to help increase the pool of qualified Information Technology (17) workers in the U.S. It addresses the severe national and statewide shortage for such workers that is projected to persist well in the 21st century [1,2,3]. 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 a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Information Engineering Technology. On the other hand, while the growth in employment of all occupations in the U.S. Information Technology (IT) industry between 19962006 is projected at 88.25%, the growth of college/university IT and Computer Science (CS) faculty is projected at only 18.3% [1,3]. These findings motivated faculty of several U.S. educational institutions to propose the NSF CCLI-EMD project that is aimed on a design and development of several IT and Computer Science (CS) online degree programs in the US colleges and universities. One of 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. The InterLabs Research Institute at Bradley University (Peoria IL, USA) is leading member in both NSF projects on research, implementation and utilization of the state-of-the-art telecommunications in education.