Archive for February 2016
BILT (Part 1): Critical to Student Success
Having a business council working with colleges is not a new concept. However, the Convergence Technology Center’s approach puts business in a co-leadership role rather than just a business approval role. The approach is key to ensuring that the students educated/trained by our partner educational institutions are “workforce ready” to be hired by the businesses.…
Read MoreVirtual Labs: May Be Coming to a Campus Near You!
As you may know, Georgia Southern’s primary role for the National CTC is to help promote and deliver NetLab virtual labs to select Convergence College Network member schools. This NetLab system allows students to access IT labs 24 hours a day/7 days week from anywhere they can get an internet connection. They’re no longer bound…
Read MoreTale of the Thumbtack: Updating a Program Bulletin Board
Developing strategies to successfully recruit students is a key goal of the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC). The CTC staff recently rolled up their sleeves to tackle this problem head-on when we decided to update a bulletin board in a classroom hallway here at Collin College. The bulletin board is in a high-traffic area students…
Read MoreSharing Best Practices
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) manages a community of practice called the Convergence College Network (CCN). The CCN is a cohort of 45+ community colleges and universities from around the country that share best practices and receive CTC benefits and resources. The goal is to enhance the CCN’s IT programs. Quarterly meetings are one…
Read MoreLearning to Backchannel
The term “backchannel” refers to an informal, secondary communication channel that runs parallel to a formal presentation or lecture. That is, why you’re giving a lecture, your students are making comments and asking questions on a social media-style feed that’s being projected on the wall behind you. To us, it’s a fairly revolutionary concept. The…
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