Posts by Connected Tech
Hello to Our Newest Partner
Meet David Pope, lead representative for our newest Convergence Technology Center partner college, Ozarks Technical Community College. David holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Missouri State University. Prior to joining OTC, David worked in hospital information systems for five years, and has worked in collections, legal investigation, and game design. Currently, David teaches…
Read MoreBILT (Part 2): A Business Imperative
When businesses get engaged in a local BILT (Business and Industry Leadership), we call this a “win-win” approach. In a previous post we talked about the value to education institutions partnering with local businesses as well as the rewards this presents to the students, but businesses can also find immense worth being on such a…
Read MoreWriting IT Resumes
The CTC recently spoke with Deidra Witt, Talent Acquisition Sr. Advisor at Dell, to better understand what recruiters are looking for in entry-level job seekers. We learned that HR and hiring managers work together to develop job descriptions, both new openings and backfilled positions. Recruiters look at the requirements for the job and then a…
Read MoreBILT (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 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…
Read MoreThe Revolution of the Stereotype “IT Guy”
Throughout BILT (Business and Industry Leadership Team) and KSA (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities) meetings, it’s become abundantly clear that IT employers are putting more emphasis on the need for what we in the industry call “soft skills” but after the CCN’s most recent webinar with NetApp’s Matt Brown, Infrastructure Business Relationship Manager for IT Business…
Read MoreThe Latest and Greatest in IT Industry Trends
As has become custom, a recent conference call meeting with the National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) kicked off with a lengthy discussion of current and future trends in IT. The goal is to let faculty members also on the call know about the real-world state of the industry. Where…
Read MoreSTEM Female Bias Concerns in K-5
We all know women in STEM can be the victim of bias in college classrooms and employer conference rooms and labs. But a recent article in The New York Times points to research that suggests that this sort of gender bias might extend to the elementary school classroom. A study in Israel showed that teachers…
Read MoreNSF Shares Best Practices
The Department of Labor recently asked the National Science Foundation to provide technical assistance services to DOL “TAACCCT” grantees. (If you haven’t heard the term “TAACCCT,” the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant program was established with the signature of President Barack Obama in early 2010. It set aside $2 billion, which…
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