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This quarter, MPICT has added over 100 pages of content to its
website at
www.mpict.org/ict_education.html.
 Most
of the new information on MPICT’s website is in the area of
ICT Education, one of the main drop-down menus on the site.
This section is at the core of MPICT’s mission to coordinate,
promote and improve ICT education in northern California,
southern Oregon, northern Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific
Territories.
This material starts with a description of what ICT education
is and why it is important, and it describes four major
dimensions of ICT education:
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ICT/Digital Literacy – Teaching people to be
competent basic users of ICT is an important role of ICT
education, to help enable successful in academic and work
careers, and efficiently participation in modern technical
society.
-
ICT Enabling Applied Technologies – Developing
people with more knowledge and skills to deploy, manage and
maintain ICT equipment, software and systems, so they work
well for users - in all industries.
-
Specialized Industry Uses of ICT – Developing
and supporting unique systems and uses of ICT for specific
industries and businesses.
-
ICT Research and Development Science –
Developing people who deeply understand the science and
technologies underlying ICT and who can work to advance the
fields.
 There
is information on ICT education issues in K-12 educational
systems.
The community college ICT education section describes some
unique issues in ICT education at community colleges, and it
presents MPICT research on 172 ICT related programs offered by
70 community colleges in the MPICT region:
-
136 programs at 53 colleges in northern California,
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12 programs at 4 colleges in southern Oregon
-
6 programs at 3 colleges in northern Nevada,
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14 programs at 7 colleges in Hawaii, and
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4 programs at 3 colleges in the Pacific Territories
 It
is interesting to experience what it would be like for a
student interested in “computer stuff” to try to find relevant
offerings at community colleges. It many cases, it is a
difficult, confusing and even alienating process. That
experience could be significantly improved at many colleges in
the region. Hopefully, this information will help make it
easier for students and others to find and connect with
appropriate programs.
It is also interesting to note that ICT related programs at
community colleges go by so many different titles, and they
are found in many different departments and divisions:
sometimes in engineering, sometimes, business, sometimes in
career and technical education, sometimes computer science...
There is little consistency across programs in how ICT related
associate degrees or academic certificates are designed. As a
result, employers often have no idea what a person with a
community college ICT educational credential knows and can do,
and the value of community college ICT educational credentials
is therefore significantly diluted.
 The
4-year college and university section identifies ICT related
program offerings at all 4-year public colleges and
universities in the MPICT region.
A section provides information on how to find private 4-year
colleges and universities with ICT programs. The difference
between public and private school costs has narrowed in this
economic climate.
The ICT Educator Resources section is growing a library of
filtered resources on National Science Foundation grant
opportunities and ICT related NSF ATE Centers and Projects;
rich resources available to California Community College
faculty in ICT related programs; and a variety of resources
for faculty in ICT related programs anywhere.
California specific resources include:
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@ONE (Faculty Training/Development)
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3C Media Solutions (Video Production & Distribution)
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ASSIST (Higher Ed Articulation and Transfer)
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California Career Resource Center (CalCRN – Career Guidance)
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California Colleges.edu (College and Career Planning)
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California Industrial and Technology Education Association (CITEA)
-
Cal-PASS (Academic Data, Reports and Professional Learning
Resources)
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California Virtual Campus (CCC Online Courses)
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Career Pathway (Student Placement)
-
CCC Apply (Online Exploration and Application to California
Public Colleges)
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CCCEWD (Economic and Workforce Development Services)
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CCCGIS Collaborative (Geographical Information Services)
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Corporation for Educational Networking Systems (CENIC –
Network Services)
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CETC (CCC Technology Services)
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College Buys (Discounted Computer Equipment and Software)
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CTE Central (CTE Info, Funding and Other Info)
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CTE Online (CTE Resources)
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Higher Education Consortium of Central California (HECC –
Academic Collaborative)
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Joint Special Populations Advisory Committee (JSPAC –
Diversity Efforts)
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K20CETC (Teaching and Learning Tools)
-
Open Educational Resources (OER) Center (Open Source
Textbooks)
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Statewide Career Pathways (High School to Community College
Articulation)
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Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs – Economic and Workforce
Development)
Other resources include:
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Applied Math and Science Education Repository (AMSER – Free
Educational Resources and Services)
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BUBL Link Computing and the Internet Catalogue (Resource
Library
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Computer-Using Educators (CUE – Instructional Technology)
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CNET.com (Tech Gizmos, News and Reviews)
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CurricUNET (Curriculum Development Assistance)
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Dr. Dobbs (DevSearch Development Tools; Programmer's search
engine)
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Ethics in Computing (Not to be overlooked; Links to privacy,
free speech, intellectual property, and other websites)
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Experiential Learning Center (Learning by Doing Resources)
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Free Online Dictionary of Computing
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Google Directory of Computers
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How Computer Stuff Works (Many explanations on computer and
other technologies)
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IPL2 Computers and Internet Resources (Online Research Tool)
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FIRST (Robotics Contest Mentoring)
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National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
Career/Technical Education (CTE) Statistics
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National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
(NRCCTE) (CTE Assistance)
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O*NET OnLine (Occupational Information)
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Partnership for 21st Century Skills (It Takes More Than Tech
Skills to Succeed)
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Scholarly Societies Project: Computer Science (Computer
Science Societies)
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Society for Science & the Public (SSP – Promoting STEM
Fields)
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Webopedia (Online dictionary for computer and Internet
technology)
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WhatIs?Com (Definitions of Internet and computer-related
terms)
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Wikibooks (Free Textbooks)
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ZDNet (Hardware & software information & news)
 Each
of these resource links starts with a one-page summary of the
resource, which is written by MPICT for a community college
faculty and student audience to provide a summary of the
resource, why you would be interested in it, what you might do
with it and how to get to relevant additional information.
We are very interested in developing additional useful
information and resources. Please let us know your
suggestions!
Back to Q1 2010
Newsletter |
