ICT Standards

It would be much easier to achieve harmonization of terms, course content, certification content and degrees if we had a common framework and set of knowledge, skills and competencies standards that all could align to.

Much of the chaos and confusion in ICT fields relates to a lack of standardization. People are doing their best to serve their communities and teach students what they think they need to know in order to succeed in ICT related fields. However, there are differences in how that is done across programs. Words are used differently. Degrees and certifications are packaged and titled differently.

Those differences lead to market confusion, in employers, counselors, students and teachers. They make transfer and articulation hard. They alienate some people from the field.

There are many ICT technology standards organizations. See this list for examples

There are far fewer efforts at ICT education standards. For example:

• The NSF ATE funded Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) IT Skills Standards. (These need to be refreshed and expanded to include all of ICT.)
• An Information Technology Association of America collaboration with the U.S. Department of Labor produced an IT Competency Model, an excellent framework lacking some important detail.
• The Association of Computing Machinery has various efforts on accreditation, content and proposed standards for ICT related fields, including ABET and SIGITE.
• The National Skills Standards Board (NSSB) has ICT Skill Standards, not universally accepted.
• UNESCO is working on ICT Competency Standards for Teachers.

Ideally, we would develop one framework and set of standards that all interested parties subscribe to. That framework and set of standards would encompass all of ICT. It would be periodically updated, regionally validated, and would accommodate ICT Literacy (a user level set of knowledge and skills), ICT Proficiency (a set of knowledge and skills needed by all in ICT fields), ICT specializations (like security, programming, networking, database systems, business systems, etc), and unique industry needs.

MPICT can help by:

• Championing the importance of this issue
• Being a clearinghouse for ideas and information on this issue
• Having representation on various ICT education standards efforts
• Disseminating quality practices
• Giving regional community colleges an opportunity to participate with market power