Promoting communication and inclusiveness in the IT classroom

• Authors: Elizabeth V. Howard
• Venue: Proceedings of the 6th conference on Information technology education
• Year: 2005

The demographics of the IT industry have changed dramatically during the last decade with a significant reduction of women and minority representation in the IT field. Additionally, employers of IT graduates have repeatedly requested that educators place an increased emphasis on soft skills, such as speaking, writing, teamwork, interpersonal communication, and intercultural sensitivity. The challenge for IT Educators is to create classrooms that are inclusive of all students and emphasize critical soft skills without sacrificing technical content. By adopting a pedagogical approach based on a model for intercultural sensitivity and adapted to specifically address the IT classroom, IT Educators can model the very soft skills that we wish to instill in our students. This paper recommends strategies for encouraging these communication skills and creating an inclusive environment.