* Recent education news
Today, a look through the recent-news file:
* Longhorn certifications
Certifications for Longhorn, the next Windows server operating system, will fall under Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) and Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) designations. No details on names or exam numbers are available, according to a blog post by Trika Harms zum Spreckel, a member of Microsoft Learning’s marketing communications team.
The blog says that the first Longhorn exams will beta at TechEd in Orlando on June 4-6. The MCTS exams will be available one month after Longhorn releases to manufacturing, which is anticipated to happen around October or early November, with the MCITP exams following a month after that.
There is no upgrade path from MCSA/MCSE 2000 to Longhorn but there is an upgrade patch fort both MCSA and MCSE 2003 to Longhorn. In one year, the MCSA and MCSE 2000 exams will retire but credentials are expected to remain valid.
Microsoft is offering holders of MCSA 2003 or MCSE 2003 a 40% discount on their upgrade exam to Longhorn. The offer closes by June 30 and is available here.
* Universities offer Web 2.0 education
If someone could send me a definition of Web 2.0 in 100 words or less that would be great. For those who wish to jump aboard this fast-moving marketing train there are universities willing to take your money to teach you all about it. Last October, the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management began offering a course named Web 2.0: Maintaining and Developing Online Communities.
According to a story by the IDG News Service: “The undergraduate course teaches students how new online services such as wikis, blogs and social networks, along with related practices such as content tagging, syndication and categorization, can help companies create communities of clients, employees and partners.”
More recently, The University of Michigan School of Information claimed it was the first institution to introduce a Master’s degree specialization in social computing. The specialization is one of nine others offered under the university’s Master of Science in Information program. These include information policy, archives and records management, and preservation of information. The full list can be seen at the school’s site.
Wouldn’t be useful for there to be a standard definition of Web 2.0 first?
* Exam cheaters in the spotlight
Network World bloggers Linda Musthaler (Linda also authors the Technology Executive newsletter) and Brad Reese have separately written about certification exam cheating. Brad is writing a series of blogs on this issue, starting with a post about CertGuard. CertGuard aims to help stamp out cheating by providing education to IT professionals and vendors about the issue and assisting consumers in reporting suspicious cases to vendors. Check out the first in Brad’s series here.
Linda also raises the issue of cheating in her blog and points to a number of other resources for further reading.
Have you experienced anyone cheating in certification exams? Dive into Linda’s or Brad’s blogs, or respond to the forum at the end of this newsletter.
* Project management leaders
Last week’s newsletter discussed CompTIA’s suggestion that all IT pros should learn project management skills to round out their knowledge. An anonymous reader responded saying that they took the PMI’s Project Management Professional course at the end of last year and has found it valuable in helping the reader better their work relationships. I am trying to get to speak with an executive at PMI to ask why IT pros should consider PMI’s training.
