From here to technology in less than an eternity.

• Author: Rubin, Jane T.
• Position: Tax and accounting education

Despite many recent alterations in emphasis and focus, accounting and tax education is about to undergo changes unprecedented in their scope and impact. These changes are being imposed by technology, and go to the heart of what is taught, how it is taught, and what kind of person it is going to take to become an accounting professional in the near future.

In response, many schools of accounting have modified their teaching approaches, to include more emphasis on interpersonal communication and group interaction skills that enhance leadership and team work.

While these changes meet some of the criteria for a better-educated accounting professional, there is another, more complex issue that has not been addressed by most schools. Technology is changing both the nature of the accounting profession and the delivery of the associated instruction.

New technology has become integral to professional practice; the profession is becoming dominated by technology-based tools, and accounting professionals have become information technology workers. Technology tools have greatly affected the traditional practice areas of auditing and tax, and the accounting profession is actively expanding its role in information systems consulting and assisting clients with business decision-making.

There is a tremendous deficiency between current opportunities and the supply of information professionals, one that is widening due to increasing needs.

Many aspects of accounting are, in fact, systems analysis, and many common accounting tools now have significant elements of technology in their makeup. The increase in demand in these critical areas is not being met with a corresponding growth in academic production of technologically trained accountants. These deficits in production provide exceptional opportunities for qualified accounting graduates. Consequently, there is an ever-growing demand on the accounting education profession to produce graduates with adequate technological training.

Accounting educators need to develop a business plan to obtain funding for a heavy initial investment in hardware and software, and to secure continuing operational budgets to support technology use in the academic process.

Customarily, accounting education has focused on process, details and regulation. Traditional approaches, based on textbooks and lecturing in a classroom environment, have been satisfactory to prepare students to enter the profession. New classroom technology, such as computer-driven projection systems, has allowed traditional delivery to change somewhat. For example, lectures and student projects can be organized and presented electronically, using slides developed from easily accessible software. However, these technology tools have not changed the basic approach to teaching. While a university that cannot afford technology enhancements to the classroom can still enable students to pass certification examinations, they will be less able to cope with the demands of the profession without a good understanding of information technology and an ability to work effectively with technology tools. In addition, an accounting practitioner's ability to engage in continuous learning after graduation depends on using rapidly changing technologies effectively.

Some accounting education programs that cannot afford to integrate technology into accounting courses have responded by adding required or elective courses already offered by computer information systems (CIS) departments. This approach has...