Posts by Mark Dempsey
Where are the women in STEM?
If it hasn’t already passed through your e-mail in-box, a recent, lengthy New York Times article on the lack of women in science is worth a look. It’s a detailed exploration of a topic many STEM educators know well, written by Eileen Pollack, one of the first women to earn a B.S. in Physics from Yale…
Read MoreWalking in a Winter-Working-Connections-Land
Next month, the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) will be hosting its fourth Winter Working Connections training event for IT/convergence faculty. The event will run December 16-18, 2013. If you haven’t yet registered, there is still time to book your seat. We’d love to have you join us. Winter Working Connections is a smaller cousin…
Read MoreSTEMtech in the ATL
After working for a year now at the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC), I’ve not gone through the cycle of conferences. (I’m helping now prepare for our involvement in the November 15 Texas Community College Technology Forum, which is where things were when I started last November. Circle of life.) Of all the conferences the…
Read MoreGraduates on the job
All of the hard work the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) undertakes is designed for one single end goal: give students the skills they need to land good jobs in an IT industry in dire need of qualified workers. We asked some of our Convergence College Network (CCN) partners to connect us with recent graduates. …
Read MoreEvents 101
Prior to joining the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) to help manage its special events and meetings, I spent several years helping organize educational seminars for UCLA Extension. Out there in California, most of my event attendees were international executives from Asia in black suits learning about marketing and media rather than professors from America…
Read MoreOctober conference preview
By the end of 2013, National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) staff will have directly attended twelve conferences around the country (including eight which we have hosted or co-hosted). Three of those twelve are scheduled for late October. Below is our busy itinerary for the month. If you’ll be attending any of these events, we hope…
Read MoreCamp Android
An unusual program for teenagers was running simultaneous to the National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) annual Summer Working Connections professional training event this summer. In an out-of-the-way, second-floor classroom at Collin College’s Preston Ridge campus in Frisco, Texas, 20 teen girls spent five days learning app-programming basics during “Android App Camp.” The Collin College camp…
Read MoreA closer look at the HI-TEC student posters
“Student posters” are a common element of STEM conferences. For the uninitiated, it’s a kind of science fair like what you may remember from middle school with plants on record players and celery in colored water. But “student posters” at STEM conferences, of course, offer far more sophisticated and advanced technical thinking than the brightest…
Read MoreAustin city limits
The entire staff of the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) recently traveled down I-35 to Austin, Texas to attend the “HI TEC conference.” That’s shorthand for High Impact Technology Exchange Conference. The goal was to not only continue gathering insights and resources from other IT educators to improve the CTC’s best practices, but also to…
Read MoreSummer Working Connections by the numbers
Every Summer Working Connections attendee is required to take three surveys during the five-day training event. A short survey on Monday afternoon helps with any necessary course corrections. The two longer, more comprehensive surveys at the end of the training event on Friday afternoon provide an overall look at the program’s success. Together, these surveys…
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