Posts by Mark Dempsey
Summer Working Connections registration opens Wednesday
This week, the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) will launch registration for Summer Working Connections on Wednesday morning, April 19. For the first time, we’ll be hosting two weeks of Working Connections – an in-person week here at Collin College north of Dallas July 10-14 and then an all online week July 17-21. Regular blog…
Read MoreCTC | April 2023 Newsletter
* Recordings now available for the two most recent “Brown Bag” webinars * Spring is always “reporting season” for the National CTC * The CTC is going to HITEC in Atlanta
Read MoreWhat do you know about ChatGPT?
A recent meeting of the National CTC’s BILT (Business and Industry Leadership Team) featured a presentation from Miami Dade College faculty member George Gabb on ChatGPT, the advanced natural language processing AI model developed by OpenAI that uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like text. To train this model took as much power as needed…
Read MoreOffering programs to incarcerated students
The National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) most recent “Brown Bag” webinar featured a look at how Sinclair Community College offers a wide range of classes in prisons throughout the state of Ohio. The presenters were Kyle Jones, Chair and Associate Professor of Sinclair’s Computer Information Services department who’s worked in the IT field for over…
Read MoreTwelve Things We Heard at the Innovations Conference
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) recently attended the first League of Innovations conference held in-person since March 2020 in Tempe, Arizona. CTC staff delivered two breakout sessions – one on implementing the BILT (Business and Industry Leadership Team) model to energize a program’s relationship with employers and one on sharing best practices for hosting…
Read MoreTracking the lasting impacts of Summer Working Connections
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) recently conducted its annual longitudinal survey of attendees from the past three years of Summer Working Connections events. For those who may not know, each July, Working Connections offers cutting-edge, cost-effective professional development opportunities to current IT faculty. This helps teachers get the newest technologies and latest industry trends…
Read MoreSocial media successes
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) uses a number of digital tools in pursuing its grant goal of disseminating and sharing resources and best practices. Because spring is always “reporting season,” the CTC staff has been looking back at 2022 activities and events. That work includes an in-depth exploration of online and social media traffic.…
Read MoreLearn more about the BILT in Texas
If you’re familiar at all with the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC), then you know how important the BILT (Business and Industry Leadership Team) Model is. Recommendations and feedback from the National CTC’s BILT form the cornerstone of all of the grant’s work. Put simply, the BILT Model offers a structured approach to engage employers…
Read MoreAre you teaching your students RPA?
The National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) most recent “Brown Bag” webinar featured a look at robotic process automation (RPA). The presenter was Dr. Rajiv Malkan, a Professor in the Computer and Information Technology Department of Lone Star College, Montgomery in Houston with over 30 years of leadership contributions in higher education within multiple settings and…
Read MorePortfolios can help students get hired
From Spring 2019 to Fall 2021, the National CTC led a pilot program to determine whether applicants that go into a job interview with an e-portfolio of their work stand a better chance of getting hired than those without an e-portfolio. Eight colleges participated, teaching the same content across multiple classes. Faculty and students were…
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