I published this on my web site a while ago and I need to post it here for everyone to understand the context of my passion for transforming technological education. Here is my original post -
My History
My College Days
My interest and research in educating the future technology professional goes back to college when I was a student at Florida Tech in Melbourne, FL. I always knew that hands-on experience was critical in securing a good high paying job in this economy. I experienced that as a student at Florida Tech when I knew to be competitive that I needed to gain work experience. So, throughout my college experience, I always tried to find work in technology. My first experience came at Harris Corporation as a computer operator during the third shift. I took this job because I knew that I needed experience. About a year after that, I was hired by Rockwell International as a computer operator and I ran the department on weekends.
Also, I worked on creating a student foundation at Florida Tech and I took a role in helping secure real world capstone experiences for my fellow students. I knew that was the key to success along with a four year degree. I graduated with a BS in Computer Engineering at Florida Tech.
My First Job
I landed my first full time job at E-Systems, Melpar Division, in Falls Church, VA. I had an opportunity during my spring break in my senior year to interview with three places - E-Systems in Texas, E-Systems in Falls Church, VA, and the Navy in Connecticut. I ended getting an offer from E-Systems, Falls Church, VA. I got this job based on my summer internship experience with Dictaphone Corporation where I was a technical writer. E-Systems hired me as a Systems Engineer. During the interview, I did have my portfolio of my senior design project that I showed to people who interviewd me. Even at this point in my life, I was convinced that I needed experience to land a good job. I brought my
experiences to the interview because of this.
My Teaching
I was hired by Northern Virginia Community College as an Adjunct around 1994 in the electronics department to teach computer repair. I took a full time teaching job with Computer Learning Center (CLC) in Alexandria where I started in the Electronics department and moved to the client/server programming department which I started as Lead Instructor. I then was hired full time by NOVA in 1998 once I secured my Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from George Mason U.
My Interests and Research
While I was at NOVA, I was program head for about 5.5 years. I decided that I would be a voice for change in the Information Systems Technology department. I became very interested in workplace experiences for my students. I piloted a capstone course, worked on Internships and partnerships. I was able to secure partnerships with Intel, Teligent, and others. I often interviewed students and reviewed resumes. I got resumes that were pitiful. One resume was a quarter of a page. I would interview students who had no clue about the concepts they had learned in their courses. Students would tell me that 'I took that class six
months ago'. Yikes! I thought. From this experience and the minimal research I was doing, I knew that we needed to transform what we were
doing in our IT program. We need graduates who could hit the ground running and that obviously was not happening from what I was observing.
Finally, I worked with the Commonwealth of Virginia to write a proposal to the NSF ATE program about a hunch I had about teaching and learning which needed to be transformed in 2002. This work transformed my thoughts on how we educate and train students in technical programs.
My Interests and Research
While I was at NOVA, I was program head for about 5.5 years. I decided that I would be a voice for change in the Information Systems Technology department. I became very interested in workplace experiences for my students. I piloted a capstone course, worked on Internships and partnerships. I was able to secure partnerships with Intel, Teligent, and others. I often interviewed students and reviewed resumes. I got resumes that were pitiful. One resume was a quarter of a page. I would interview students who had no clue about the concepts they had learned in their courses. Students would tell me that 'I took that class six months ago'. Yikes! I thought. From this experience and the minimal research I was doing, I knew that we needed to transform what we were doing in our IT program. We need graduates who could hit the ground running and that obviously was not happening from what I was observing.
Finally, I worked with the Commonwealth of Virginia to write a proposal to the NSF ATE program about a hunch I had about teaching and learning which needed to be transformed in 2002. This work transformed my thoughts on how we educate and train students in technical programs.
The more I worked with our students the more I became aware of workplace readiness issues that needed to be addressed. I met Scott Brainard, who at the time was project manager of the SCANS 2000 Center at John Hopkins University. I met him at the announcement of the voluntary partnership between NWCET, NCTT, and National Skills Standards Board at NVCC, Annandale Campus. I believe this was in 2002. I talked to him about our NSF ATE grant proposal we submitted and we started a partnership. The SCANS report was published in 1992 that talks about the key workplace skills that were missing. We started a partnership with them and learned from them how they 'teach' these skills in their local high schools. I knew that college students also needed these skills too.
We were awarded an NSF grant in Summer 2002 to look at what we called value-delivery skills and creating a consortium of IT education iVirginia. We setup the SCANS 2000 center as a partner in the grant. We had several meetings to discuss the whole issue with them. As part of this grant, we help several focus groups in No VA. The first focus group used emotional intelligence skills as a foundation to talk about the value-delivery skills needed to be successful. I felt that the first focus group was a success and now we had a second focus group that looked at how we could teach this skills in the classroom.
Well, most of the skills were behavioral. How do you teach behavioral skills? In the past, I would have looked at teaching a teamwork course or the like. But, today, I realize that you can not teach behavioral skills. You can only experience them. This causes you to look at this in whole new light. Now, I need to design activities that allow students to practice these skills in the classroom. So, this means assigning group projects where students work in teams and evaluating their performance during the project. Then, evaluating the outcomes of the project whatever the artifact may be. One big outcome of the second focus group was what are coined 'curveballs'. Now, when we teach projects the complaints that the projects were not realistic enough. We need to introduce curveballs to simulate the real world projects. Some examples of curveballs are change team members, change requirements, etc. Here is a paper I wrote before this focus group and one after this focus group.
Value-Delivery_Skills_-_An_Essential_Component_in_IT_Education_8_26_02.pdf
Oh yea! Before I forget, I wrote a white paper on my vision for the educational system in VA as we were funded by NSF. I attached that to this entry. To continue, the work on the NSF continued my research interest in Workforce Development and actually moved my ideas forward. My partnership with Mike Peterson, who was the Executive Dir of Institute of Excellence in Information Technology, was a great partner in moving my ideas for workforce development forward. Also, I decided to enroll at Pepperdine University in the Educational Technology Doctoral Program to further my education in this area of learning and technology. I have research interests in educating the future
technology professional, learning theory, learning technology, along with technology's impact on today's workforce. The last focus group caused me to contact Case Files (http://www.thecasefiles.org) and I partnered with them because they had a way to design activities that require an authentic business problem. I ended up partnering with Dr Ruth Loring and she became a mentor of mine as I went through the doctoral program and also as we worked on our NSF grant. I attribute a lot to her in helping me understand Case Files and I was invited to every major event that they had. I also worked at them also.
My_Vision_for_Information_Technology_Education_in_Virginia.pdf
The Case Files
Why did the Case Files work interest me? There are actually two projects. One project comes out of CITE at http://www.cite-tn.org/pbcb.htm and the other is Case Files at http://www.thecasefiles.org. Both projects come under the heading of Problem-based Case-based learning.
From my research, each of these projects has merit. The goal of becoming a technology professional requires an apprenticeship in a community of practice of technology professionals. Learners become members of the community through participation in the community's activities. Learning is about participation in a community. This allows an apprentice to under the culture, tools, and technologies of the community. The CSS projects in CITE are what the literature calls 'real fields' and they provide a real authentic problem solved in real time with a sponsoring business. This type of project allows learners/apprentices the opportunities to develop a professional identity.
Now, a Case File is what the literature calls a 'practice field'. A Case File is a real world problem but it is not done in real time. Typically, a CSS project becomes a Case File once the the project is complete. This type of project provides a context that allows for learners to practice their skills in a safe environment but it is not a real field and learners can not develop a professional identity in a community. These problems are isolated from the real world because they are not solved in real time. But, they do have merit. I believe that a combination of real fields and practice field are needed in an technology program. Actually, if we take sports as an example, a team is formed and practices occur to help the team prepare for a game. Then, games provide a context for the team to compete with other teams and also when statistics are kept. Also, team members develop a professional identity in the community of sports players.
Story Centered Curriculm
There is another project that is of interest to me. It is at http://elc.fhda.edu/index.html. While Case Files is based on John Bransford's work at Vanderbilt, SCC is based on the work of Roger Schank. I become a student of both of them. Socratic Arts is Dr Schank's organization that promotes SCC. It is at http://socraticarts.com/aboutscc.html. I recommend you read the pdf there. It is very cool. Also, an implementation of SCC is at Carnegie Mellon West at http://west.cmu.edu. Now, SCC is a simulation of an organization where the faculty are mentors to the learner teams. The simulated organization has projects they do with tasks. Learners are put into teams to work on the tasks in the virtual organization. To do this correctly, the whole environment appears to the learner as a real organization. There is merit to this work. I struggle with whether to call this a practice field or a real field. I tend to favor practice field since this is not done in the real world but in a virtual world.
The projects are not real projects for a real customer. It appears that CMU also has a internship requirement which adds the real field to the equation. I am no longer active with this project as I used to be. I am still active with Case Files.
Implications for Programs
From looking at the different approaches that exist, I strongly believe in the need to develop a balance of practice fields and real fields in developing learners to become technology professionals. I have attached two white papers that talk to learning to become. This work was influenced by working on both projects.
knowledge_work_v2.pdf
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