Penn: Top IT workplace bringing tech-learning to Nicaragua

Technology lovers at the University of Pennsylvania had at least two points of pride this week, a ranking and an act of good works.
Computerworld released its annual 100 Best Places to Work in IT list, naming Philadelphia’s Ivy League school No. 4, ranking it the best for benefits and second for diversity.
It comes near a university announcement that researchers from the school’s Graduate School of Education plan to introduce laptop computers and a technology-based curriculum to students and teachers in a rural community school for the children of coffee-farm workers in Nicaragua, beginning in July.
The Computerworld list gave Penn a glowing reference, a portion of which includes the following:

This Ivy League university wanted to improve security for its community following the tragic events at Virginia Tech. Toward that end, the IT group collaborated with the school’s public safety group to develop an “instant alert” system. The IT staff worked to find technologies to meet the university’s requirements, incorporated additional features, developed an infrastructure that does double-duty by also disseminating non emergency updates and hosted the system off-site with redundancy. IT also kept costs down by leveraging an existing technology.

Warm words for a university launching a three-year research initiative at the Buenos Aires School, which will examine issues surrounding closing the digital divide. The research will also document how using a technology-based curriculum can impact a school environment, student learning, and dynamics of school, family and community dynamics. The data will be used as a model for replication in similar settings elsewhere in Central America.
The list included other regional companies, including No. 43-ranked Lehigh Valley Health Network of Allentown, No. 67-ranked The Vanguard Group of Malvern and North Broad Street’s own Temple University, ranked 90th, as reported by Philly Tech News, including others that have a significant presence here.
Image courtesy of Slash Film.