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Strategies and Activities to Increase Diversity and Improve Enrollment

Regular blog readers know that the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) is currently steering a pilot program called the “Diversity Summit.”  The program kicked off in February with a workshop for select schools from the Convergence College Network (CCN) community of practice. Each participating school sent three attendees – an instructor, an advisor, and an…

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Security Skills Gap Continues

The National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) National Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) has long emphasized the need for IT students to learn security skills.  Indeed, the BILT urges that every class include instruction on security.  Specifically, since 2015, the BILT has asked instructors to find relevant moments in IT curriculum to ask students “Is…

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Wearable Market Continues to Expand

One of the largest growing markets in the “internet of things” is wearables. A recent Venture Beat article notes a sizable increase in wearables sales. It’s still a relatively small market, but for the second quarter of 2017, 26.3 million wearables were sold worldwide.  The leader is the Chinese company Xiaomi, with Apple and Fitbit…

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Teaching the Internet of Things

Two faculty members associated with the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) recently delivered a standing-room-only conference presentation on teaching the Internet of Things (“IoT”) to IT networking students. Brian Nelson (Lansing Community College) and Bill Saichek (Orange Coast College) spoke to attendees of the 2017 HI-TEC educator conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Here are…

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Perspectives and Successes from IT Administrators

The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) spends a lot of time working with IT faculty, whether through professional development events like Working Connections or through quarterly meetings with the 60 schools in the Convergence College Network (CCN) that features best practice sharing. But twice a year, the CTC allows administrators the opportunity to get more…

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New Approach to Transferring Workforce Courses

The University of North Texas (UNT), a grant partner of the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC), continues to develop its innovative Bachelor of Arts in Information Technology (BAIT) program. The manager of the BAIT program – principal lecturer David Keathly – recently delivered a webinar to interested faculty and administrators from the CTC’s community of…

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Is Pokemon Go the Face of the Future?

While not directly related to Convergence Technology, it’s worth noting that there is something unique happening in the world of apps and social media. You may have noticed something called Pokemon Go and it’s taking over the web by storm. Released less than two weeks ago, it already has close to 10 million users. And…

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Is Block Chain Something New Worth Watching?

An important part of every meeting with our National “BILT” (Business and Industry Leadership Team) is the “trends discussion.” That’s the time when BILT members discuss the current state of the IT industry, in terms both of today’s challenges and tomorrow’s tools. At a recent BILT meeting, block chain technology was mentioned. Glenn Wintrich, an…

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Wearing Tech on Your Sleeve

At a recent meeting of the National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) national Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT), the subject of wearable technology came up.  The consensus among this esteemed group is that the sky is the limit for that side of the IT industry, which means plenty of opportunities for IT students.  More and…

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Ten Things We Learned at MPICT 2015

I spent two days at the Winter 2015 ICT Educator Conference in San Francisco recently.  In between my usual administrative duties, I was able to attend several conference breakout sessions that covered a variety of topics, from program development and best practices to the basics of cloud computing and cyberforensics. Below are ten things I…

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