Balancing Marketing Education and Information Technology: Matching Needs or Needing a Better Match?

It is suggested that acceptance of new technologies in education by students will rely heavily on the ability of educational institutions to manage the change process, and the potential advantages and dangers of information technology in the context of creating knowledge workers for the marketing industry are examined.

Abstract

The use of new information technology in marketing education has been widely, and often uncritically, accepted as both inevitable and beneficial with little in-depth analysis of this phenomenon, which is both a new mode of teaching (and learning) and a competency domain in its own right. This article examines both the potential advantages and dangers of information technology in the context of creating knowledge workers for the marketing industry. Research findings are presented to illustrate that students have distinctively different learning profiles and experiences, and these affect how students respond to traditional and new technological modes of teaching. The authors suggest that acceptance of new technologies in education by students will rely heavily on the ability of educational institutions to manage the change process.