Are You and Your Students Ready for the 21st Century?
The National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) “Brown Bag” webinar series that offers special topic presentations via bite-sized, 30-minute segments continues this spring. These half-hour presentations – first launched in fall 2020 – offer IT educators expert perspectives on unique technical and employability topics. Faithful blog readers know this series was inspired by a request from the CTC’s National Visiting Committee review panel to find new ways to offer additional faculty professional development. 
Last month, 29 faculty members from across the country attended “Transposition 21: Five Essential Skills for Living in the 21st Century.” The presenter was Carolyn Corbin, an esteemed member of the CTC’s Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) – if you’re not tapping your employers to deliver talks like this on industry trends, you may want to consider doing so. Carolyn is president of the Center for the 21st Century, a socioeconomic think tank which provides speeches, executive briefings, consulting, and organizational training in critical 21st century issues.
During the webinar, Carolyn talked about how the world is transitioning from a 3.0 network community of harmonious traditions and segmented silos to a 4.0 wiki community of disruptive innovation and systemic organizations. She’s identified a specific set of “life skills” that we will all need to successfully navigate these disruptive changes – resourcing, futuring, optimizing, tracking, and balancing. In general, Carolyn’s point is that workers in the 21st century will need to thrive without a formal organizational structure. You can watch a recording of her talk here.
For those interested in learning more, Carolyn will expand on those five skills as a part of this year’s Summer Working Connections, which will run July 11-15, 2022 at Collin College in Frisco, Texas just north of Dallas. The hope is that educators will share Carolyn’s perspectives with students or incorporating them into curriculum. Her workshop will be a part of the “Leadership Academy” track. If you want to be added to the Working Connections invite list, email us at nationalCTC@collin.edu.
Next up for the “Brown Bag” webinars will be Adam Richardson from Lansing Community College and “Lights, Camera, Education” on Wednesday, April 20 (12:30pm Central). If you want to make sure you’re on the invite list, contact us at nationalCTC@collin.edu.
See the list below to watch recordings of the previous “Brown Bag” webinars.
November 2020’s Providing IT in a Crisis
December 2020’s Avoiding LinkedIn Blunders
February 2021’s How to Bring Practical AI to the Community College
April 2021’s Integrating the Raspberry Pi into Your IT Program
September 2021’s A Very Quick Introduction to Cryptocurrencies, Blockchains, and Smart Contracts
November 2021’s Developing and Hosting Your Own Cybersecurity Competition
February 2022’s Transposition 21: Five Essential Skills for Living in the 21st Century