How do you teach old and new tech?
Can Facebook already be “old” tech, now spending $2 billion to acquire “new” tech? Or can what’s old become somehow new again with the invention of a new gadget? The velocity of creative destruction in tech makes it tough to prepare students for a career in this industry. It makes it tough on students, too. The demarcation between old and new is pretty blurry. The W. P. Carey School’s IS Department keeps a wary eye towards that blurry line. Our new U.S. News & World Report No. 12 ranking and our hosting of a national student leadership conference are two recent data points. But the problem is that the line between what’s old and new doesn’t remain in place for very long!
By Michael Goul | Chairman, Department of Information Systems
Wired Magazine provides an interesting look at how the Oculus virtual reality screens might change the way we interact with a future Facebook. The application? E-commerce. That’s right, it’s an emerging tech vision of an ecommerce shopping cart application. The subhead: “Looks like everything old is new again in virtual reality land.” Can Facebook already be “old” tech, now spending $2 billion to acquire “new” tech? Or can what’s old become somehow new again with the invention of a new gadget? The velocity of creative destruction in tech makes it tough to prepare students for a career in this industry. It makes it tough on students, too.
The demarcation between old and new is pretty blurry, but it’s a line we must always keep addressing in our role as graduate and undergraduate IS educators. The W. P. Carey School’s IS Department keeps a wary eye towards that blurry line. Our new U.S. News & World Report No. 12 ranking and our hosting of a national student leadership conference are two recent data points. But the problem is that the line between what’s old and new doesn’t remain in place for very long!
Searching for proper definitions of old and new tech
Maybe we should look to those who are investing in tech for more precise definitions of what’s old and new. Financial analysts such as those appearing on CNBC have been using the phrases, “old tech” and “new tech” like they’ve been around forever. However, in an interview with CNBC’s Melissa Lee, a San Diego analyst identified simply as Dan refers to the “1990s tech stars” as representative of old tech. [ http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000259786 ] Dan discusses Microsoft Corporation and Cisco Systems — contending these companies may be breakout best buys.
Are the 1990’s really that long ago?
Adding fuel to the fire, a different Dan — Dan Caplinger — writes in The Motley Fool that “aging tech giants” IBM and Cisco are holding back the major indices, and it might be that there’s been a “permanent changing of the guard in the technology industry.” Even more confusing, on CNBC’s “Fast Money,” another analyst says Hewlett Packard has “shaken its old tech perception” because they “continue to invest in emerging technologies.” On the quant side, Mark Sebastian tracks the numbers; he says that pretty much every dollar leaving growth stocks is landing in old tech. Maybe those investing in tech are as confused about old and new tech as the rest of us.
Balancing old and new tech in graduate IS education
The W. P. Carey School’s specialty programs in information systems were just ranked No. 12 in the nation by US News & World Report. While rankings are not an end-all, it’s motivating to receive recognition for our hard work. Many of our Master of Science in Information Management students have 8–10 years of experience. Under the new definition, they are old tech superstars doing very well in their careers to date and are grabbing opportunities to rise to the next level. Our programs train graduate students to assess new tech in terms of its business advantage and its potential to transform organizations.
Students learn about cycles of creative destruction and how to lead IT through the complexities. Our curriculum is always vetted by the department’s industry advisory board — a dedicated group representing both old and new tech. If you are interested, there’s still time to apply for the Master of Science in Information Management on-site program for a May start. In addition, you can check out the Master of Science in Business Analytics program the department co-delivers with the school’s Department of Supply Chain Management. This is clearly a new tech program that is capitalizing on organizations’ growing appetite for harnessing big data.
Undergrads are new tech evangelists, but what about old tech?
Just last week the department hosted the Association for Information Systems Student Chapter Leadership Conference and Competition. This special report is dedicated to the conference, whose theme was “Inspire, Collaborate and Compete.” More than 120 up-and-coming undergraduate stars of new tech learned from CIOs and industry leaders who came up in old tech and who now embrace new tech when it makes business sense. Students came from as far away as Egypt to learn from each other and from the members of the W. P. Carey School’s Information Systems Executive Advisory Board.
These business leaders attended many of the events, talking with students and delivering keynotes. Student leaders heard from recent W. P. Carey information systems graduates — all with great careers underway — some in old and some in new tech. The student leaders in attendance are in the junior or senior year of university coursework. They returned to their campuses to lead their student chapters into the future: they are the movers and shakers. Student chapters are very important because they provide the linkage point for peer social interaction as well as industry and career connections.
For undergraduates like those in our programs, the ability to learn from industry experts who’ve weathered the storms of numerous cycles of creative destruction provides icing to their educational experiences. For student leaders who must fashion their student chapters into a vehicle for balancing old and new tech, the industry connection is vital.
Everything old is new again
The one truth about a career in IT, whether in industry or academe, is that the cycle of creative destruction is what keeps us all going. There’s an excitement to it that never goes away. It requires constant learning and reexamination of the past. We are always a little bit uncomfortable with where things are headed — but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Maura Pennington wrote about people like us in Forbes , in an article titled, “Embrace The Life-Building Power Of Creative Destruction.” She writes: “Creative destruction is necessary and inevitable — accept it and control it.
Be the one who abandons an old way of living and thinking in order to live and think more productively and profitably … engage in active self-improvement and education. Make yourself a person that can’t be interchanged with any other and you make yourself eminently employable. You won’t merely be someone who can land a job, you will be someone valuable to those around you.”
Photo: From left, Avnet executive Steve Phillips, IS department chairman Michael Goul and AIS Executive Director Pete Tinsley.
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