Published: February 15, 2008 10:54 am            

Students encouraged to consider I.T. careers

Don’t believe everything you see or hear on the news. Despite reports about information technology jobs going overseas, the U.S. Department of Labor reports that five of the top 30 fastest growing occupations in the country are in I.T.

With so many jobs available, and a shrinking interest in the subject among students, Oklahoma State University and Stillwater High School have teamed up to rekindle interest in young people. Dr. David Biros, assistant professor in the management sciences and information systems department at OSU, has started an Innovative Technologies course with Jason Webber, Web design and math teacher at SHS.

“We’re just trying to get the word out that this is what we do and there are tons of jobs out there,” said Biros.

The class is designed to disprove some of the myths about information technology, and introduce OSU’s Management Information Systems program to high school students. Biros said many people don’t understand what the profession is all about.

The myth is that it requires a lot of programming knowledge, when it actually requires only a couple classes of programming. Also, the myth seen on the news about many I.T. jobs being outsourced. Many companies are actually in-sourcing their I.T. jobs, said Biros.

“You can’t change a router or a switch in Oklahoma from overseas,” Biros said.

In the first semester of the Innovative Technologies class at SHS, 21 students have signed up to participate in the elective. The class is just a small portion of the full program at OSU, according to Biros.

Recently, the class learned about computers and built them, piece by piece. Now they are learning how to network computers together and defend the network from hackers. The class broke into teams to build the computer and were graded upon whether it was functional.

One group that received an “A” for the project included Blake Anderson, senior, and Tyler Wallace, junior. Both of these students have an interest in information technology and are impressed, so far, with the program.

“We learned the whole background of computers,” said Anderson, who plans on attending OSU to study either electrical engineering or anesthesiology. “It is really interesting.”

“This is something that I am interested in,” Wallace said, who is also undecided about her major-to-be, but knows OSU is the place. “It really opens the door to my possibilities. I find it really helpful. It answers a lot of questions that I have.”

With the early success that the class is having, Biros and Webber are hopeful to continue the class into the future.

“This class is an introduction to some real life business skills,” Webber said. “This is what you do when you get a job.”

        

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