EDUCATING EXECUTIVES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.

• Author: Davis, Kathy

Go back to the security of life as you've known it, or stay in "Wonderland" and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes. That's the choice Morpheus gives Neo, Keanu Reeves' character in the action film The Matrix. Choosing Wonderland, Neo learns computers have taken over the world, and life as he has known it is merely an illusion created by an elaborate computer program.

Things haven't gone that far in the real world, or so it appears. But as "e-" starts appearing in front of everything and you try to figure out exactly what your kids are visiting in cyberspace, you can feel as if you've fallen into a world where the language is different, the rules have changed and everything is moving at lightning speed.

Today's business-school graduates feel at home in that world because technology is an integral part of their course work Students do research on their laptop computers instead of just in the library. They submit project work via e-mail and make presentations using PowerPoint software. During class, they log on to the Internet Web site the professor is using as a case study, and they take "e" classes such as e-commerce, e-marketing and e-economics. By graduation, they're technology-savvy.

What if you got your MBA years ago when "e" was just another letter in the alphabet? You had better brush up. "If management cannot adjust, they're just going to be eaten alive by more nimble firms," says Edward Fuller, an adjunct professor at Meredith College in Raleigh and a financial-systems consultant with Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp. Business schools are working closely with the corporate world to give current and future managers the technological know-how needed to succeed.

To keep the channels of communication open, Meredith established a computerized-information-systems advisory board. Its 20 representatives from business and industry meet quarterly to discuss real-world technology applications and issues. One course that came out of the advisory board's efforts is about technology and ethics. Technology allows massive amounts of data to be collected in transactions as simple as buying groceries with a frequent-shopper card. Ethical issues can arise when deciding how that information is used or to whom it is sold.

Such issues provide a good example of why business students need to augment management skills with an understanding of what technology can do. Roger McGrath, associate professor of business in the McColl School of Business at Queens College in Charlotte, says the McColl School achieves this by integrating technology into the day-to-day classroom experience rather than teaching it as a separate subject. In the new Sykes Learning Center, every desk and conference table is wired so students and faculty can plug in their laptops. Management classes include discussions about technology-related topics such as how to build social capital in the age of telecommuting, when people see each other face-to-face less often.

The School of Business and Economics at Wingate University in Wingate also incorporates technology into its regular course work. Barry Cuffe, associate professor of management science, makes sure his students have experience using software programs for quantitative subjects such as linear programming. That way, he says, once they're out and working they will know how to manipulate similar systems to run statistical analyses. Both students and professors use PowerPoint software to make presentations, and professors encourage students to use the Internet as a research tool.

Cuffe says Wingate recognizes it must keep in step with technology to remain competitive. The university has formed a...