IT Education
All about the ATE Program
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) is an ATE Center. That is, the National CTC is an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) center funded by the National Science Foundation. The National CTC, hosted by Collin College in Frisco, Texas, is one of many such ATE centers and projects at community colleges around the country devoted to…
Read MoreSeven Fascinating Things We Heard at WASTC
The National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) recently attended the WASTC Winter ICT Educators conference and gave a breakout presentation on its Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) model. Regular blog readers know that the BILT model energizes the relationship between educators and business leaders by encouraging a partnership that allows a better alignment of curriculum…
Read MoreDid You Miss These Posts From 2017?
As 2017 comes to a close, the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) wanted to take a moment to look back at the many topics and events and resources covered in its blog. In 2017, the National CTC posted over 40 blog entries. Using Google Analytics, the 15 posts below were identified as the most popular…
Read MoreIT Community, Are You Sharing?
One of the most popular features of regular web meetings the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) hosts for its Convergence College Network (CCN) community is “member sharing.” Many CCN meetings feature group discussions or a detailed delivery of grant information and resources. But at a recent CCN web meeting, the agenda was driven almost completely…
Read MoreCome See Us at the WASTC Conference
For the sixth year, the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) will be helping support travel for a delegation of IT faculty from its Convergence College Network (CCN) community to present best practices at a IT education conference in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. Until 2015, this two-day January event was hosted by the Mid-Pacific ICT…
Read MoreStudent Feature: Chidera Obinali
As a young girl, Chidera Obinali got her first taste of technology through playing an online virtual pet environment game, known as NeoPets. “They have little pages where you code HTML and CSS within NeoPets,” Chidera explained. She made friends all over the world through the game. “I would join guilds that were all based…
Read MoreAre you getting IT trends updates…served on a platter?
The first half hour of every quarterly web meeting the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) hosts with its national Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) delivers a discussion of IT trends. This is a great way for BILT members to share with the participating educators an insider’s look at how the IT industry is evolving…
Read MoreWinter Working Connections and Successful Online Training
For the third December in a row, the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) will be hosting its annual Winter Working Connections professional development training event completely on-line. When it was first offered in 2009, Winter Working Connections was an expansion of the CTC’s popular week-long, in-person, Summer Working Connections event that runs each July. The…
Read MoreCommunity Sharing of Curriculum
Four times a year, the National Convergence Technology Center (CTC) hosts a meeting of its Convergence College Network (CCN) community of over 60 community colleges and universities from 24 states across the country. These meetings are one of the prime benefits of membership in the CCN in that they provide the perfect platform for resource…
Read MoreSoft Skills for All Ages
In 2014, the National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) “BILT” (Business and Industry Leadership Team – an engaged and dedicated group of IT industry experts that meets once a quarter to discuss IT trends, answer faculty questions, and validate entry-level job skills) recommended that IT programs weave “soft skills” training into IT every course. A year…
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