"Conversations with Movers
and Shakers—Making a Difference,"
Washington Jobs.com, A Washington Post Publication,
July, 2000
What is the purpose
of CyberLearning Universe?
It was created after I had conversations in '93 with
President Clinton, Vice President Gore and Gordon
Moore, the founder of Intel. Essentially we identified
two major problems in the coming information age.
One is how do you bring the disadvantaged population
into the information age so we avoid the widening
gap, or the digital divide. The second one is how
do you train enough people in the fast-moving information
technology field so that we don't have to export jobs.
The two goals we set out to do were to train 100,000
IT professionals and 1,000,000 disadvantaged children,
which would address these two problems.
Why did you feel the need to start this organization?
I did a lot of different projects all over the world.
I redesigned the traffic safety program for Puerto
Rico and reduced the traffic deaths by 20%, improved
Venezuela's social security system, and worked with
Mr. Gandhi in India redesigning India's national plan
implementation program, so I was very interested in
making a difference. When I finished the program in
India, I got into tennis because my son Roger was
trying to be a tennis pro. He was 11, but he was also
admitted to a Johns Hopkins University program. I
said, `your future is with your mind, but if you want
to be a top tennis player, you have to go to Florida
and practice with the best year round,' so we moved
there. I ended up buying the Nick Bollettieri Tennis
Academy, which is considered to be the mecca of junior
tennis, created a Total Tennis program, and helped
develop many tennis stars, including Andre Agassi
and Monica Seles. My son got tendinitis in his wrist,
and he couldn't practice seriously anymore. When I
sold the tennis academy, I told my family, `I have
good news and bad news. The good news is I think I
can hopefully make a difference by helping some others
who didn't have the same opportunities you had. The
bad news is, you probably won't be getting much money
from me.' But with a good mind, they can always make
their money. That's when I decided to start the National
Education Foundation, a non-profit organization. In
'94, we started CyberLearning as the operational wing
of the foundation.
How many students
have taken training through CyberLearning Universe?
Probably over 10,000 students, and with the online
program, we can expand rapidly in the next few years.
You are giving
10,000 people a month free IT training online. Originally,
you were offering it to 2000 people. Why such a large
increase?
Initially we wanted to make sure we had an efficient
system without any problems, so we started at 2,000
and increased it to 10,000 per month. We are trying
to reach 1,000,000 individuals in the next two years.
We just signed an agreement with the Association of
PC User Groups, which has 400,000 members all over
the world. The idea is that we're going to provide
them with scholarships, but they would also mentor
students in disadvantaged areas.
How do people take
these courses online?
All they have to do is go to our Web site, www.cyberleaming.org,
click on free IT training, fill out the application,
take a simple aptitude test and pay a nominal registration
fee. As long as they have access to the Internet,
they can take any of 400 courses. About 200 are self-study
courses one could take any time. The other 200 are
instructor-led courses. You go in and sign up for
the course. You can either buy a book online that
the instructor uses, or we have a free library of
1,000 books you can query and read the material online.
The instructor posts the lectures. If you have questions
on the assignments,you send them to the instructor,
who answers them and posts them on a message board.
Can you give some
examples of the courses you offer?
The courses cover pretty much everything. We have
the basic PC courses, the Internet courses, application
courses like Microsoft Office and Lotus. Then we have
programming courses, C+, Visual Basic and so on, database
courses like Oracle and networking courses like MCSE.
You have Cisco, and you have a lot of Web design courses,
you know, HTML, Cold Fusion. Then you have a lot of
Internet application courses like e-commerce. And
A+, which is the basic foundation course for most
of these. It essentially covers all the different
IT topics at all levels, from the very beginning to
the very advanced.
Do people find
online courses to be as effective as classroom work?
My personal recommendation to people is that
some of the courses like A+, MCSE and CCNA, which
require hands-on experience, they should either do
it in a classroom setting or they should be able to
set up and do the labs at home. A lot of the other
courses like Web design and programming courses, most
people can learn online from home.
The only qualification for the online courses
is that they have to earn under $40,000 a year?
To get the lower registration fee of $75. If they
make over $40,000, they can still sign up, but they
would pay $490.
What kind of people have signed up for the
program?
We have a mix of people who are just starting out
in computers to a number of IT professionals who want
to improve their programming, Web design or networking
skills.
Who provides the
IT expertise for the online courses?
When we wanted to offer the online courses, we evaluated
all those available, because these are usually expensive,
multimillion dollar programs to put all these courses
online plus to maintain them, because you have to
upgrade them pretty much on a daily basis and add
new courses. We selected Ziff Davis. They've since
changed their name to Element K. They offered us the
package close to cost. They're the only ones who were
able to offer both the self-study and instructor-led
courses, and a library, without charging extra. We
found out quality wise, Element K is the best because
it's much more interactive and user friendly for people
to take these courses. When you do a course on, say,
PowerPoint, they will not only tell you how to rearrange
the slides, for example, but they bring in a window
and you have to do it. If you can't figure it out,
then they will show you. A lot of these other courses
sequentially tell you the steps, then you open PowerPoint
in your software and go practice there. Our way saves
you a lot of time. Plus, it's like having an instructor
there teaching you. If you have any questions while
you're doing any of these courses, you go to the online
library and read the appropriate material. It's a
totally integrated system.
What are some success
stories from this program?
We had one minority student, a 20-year old, who went
from a $20,000 a year job to a $100,000 job in six
months. He did his MCSE here and his CCNA. Then he
did a number of courses, like Exchange and SQL Server,
online. He has built up so much experience in different
areas that he is now in high demand. Historically,
when you go from one age to the next, like agrarian
to industrial, or industrial to information, that's
when minorities and groups of disadvantaged people
have the opportunity to leapfrog into the first world
without going through an evolutionary process of 50
or 60 years. For women and minorities who may be lagging
behind, this is a golden opportunity. In the next
two or three years, if we can give everybody the opportunity,
there is no reason why they can't earn $20,000 or
$30,000 more, because the economy being so good, people
are hiring whoever they can find who can do the job.
What is your ultimate
goal for CyberLearning Universe?
Our immediate goal is within the next two years to
train 1,000,000 disadvantaged people and 100,000 IT
professionals. Every IT professional we train, we
give them the opportunity to mentor ten students in
a disadvantaged school or community, teaching them
basic IT skills. We're hoping that if we train 100,000
adults, they would automatically train about a million
students. We hope to become an IT university in the
near future.One of the things we found when we brought
in middle school kids from D.C. who had never touched
computers is that in one day, they were actually able
to make PowerPoint presentations. The key there is
using their interests. We ask the kids what they are
interested in, math—They say no. Reading? No.
When it gets to basketball or something, they are
really interested. They select the most valuable player
of the NBA, for example, Shaquille O'Neal. They go
on the Internet and get all the information about
him, and these kids get excited because they are their
role models. Once they get the information, we tell
them to bookmark the sites so they can do it better
the next time, so we give them a primer on doing research
on the Internet for about half an hour. Then they
write a paragraph on why Shaquille is the MVP and
we teach them Word. Then we teach them to create a
database and say, `well, what did he do in '91 or
'92, and what was his record?' Then we teach them
Excel spreadsheets so they can see, what if he had
shot 60%, what would have been the results,' so they
can see relationships. Then we have teams of them
make PowerPoint presentations, so they not only learn
the use of the software, but they also learn teamwork.
I'm convinced that there is no problem in helping
these kids learn if you motivate them. There are two
things that are really important in working with kids.
You have to see what they're interested in, use their
interest to let them learn math, reading or any other
skill, and then give them the tools and cheer them
on.
Do you think a motivated
adult can take this training and double their salary
in a year?
Oh yes. Everything is
possible with resources, if you create the right system.
We've created a great system. Every student who comes
out of this has to master the concepts, applications
and test-taking skills. If they do that, they will
become successful. To use our resources effectively,
we defined CyberLearning as TTCM-outstanding Teachers,
state-of-the-art Technology, high-quality Courseware
and Motivational tools.We also try to create a family
environment. We tell them `this is your place, you
can come here seven days a week and practice anytime.
Somebody will be here to help you.'
What IT skills do you think will be in demand
in the future?
The Internet-related IT skills are going to grow exponentially,
because the U.S. has only about 40% of households
online. Worldwide, it's only 4%. Globally, there is
going to be tremendous demand for Web-based applications,
including e-commerce and Web design. Networking and
programming skills will be in demand too. I think
that within the next two or three years, anyone who
wants to get a good job has to have IT literacy.
What do you think
can be done to address the severe shortage of IT workers
in the D.C. area?
The problem is that there are a lot of jobs available,
but everybody is looking for experienced people. The
second problem is that a lot of these places train
people without hands-on experience. A lot of these
ads, you see an MCSE for $900 or $1,200. There's no
way you can become a good MCSE with hands-on experience
for $1,200. They might pass the exam, but they can't
function as a network engineer. The quality of the
programs has to be improved.
What can help people
get IT jobs when they have training, but they don't
have experience?
That's where internship programs are really important.
We created an internship council with Lockheed Martin,
Computer Sciences Corporation and a number of organizations,
essentially so our MCSEs can get experience and then
jobs. One of the things that is critical is that these
corporations and government agencies locally provide
internships. In the next five years, about 50 to 70%
of all federal IT workers will have to be replaced,
either because of retirement or leaving for better
jobs. The federal government should start an internship
program now. That would be good to absorb many of
these entry-level IT professionals. I think that's
a good solution that would probably help the area
a great deal. Corporations and technology councils
can do the same thing. Another solution is for companies
to take current employees who have college degrees
and the basic abilities, and train them into IT professionals.
Then they could replace them with new people, so you
have a pipeline.
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