TY - GEN
T1 - Preparing the new Information Technology professional in Virginia
AU - Peterson, Michael
AU - Morneau, Keith
AU - Saad, Ashraf
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright 2003 ACM.
PY - 2003/10/16
Y1 - 2003/10/16
N2 - Current demands for graduates of Information Technology (IT) programs require that they possess deep technical skills, multidisciplinary awareness, and the ability to deliver the value of technical skills to customers and clients. In order to produce this kind of IT professional, secondary and post-secondary educational institutions must embrace this vision. Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF DUE 0202482), the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) Institute of Excellence for Information Technology (IE-IT) is spearheading the realization of this vision in an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) project titled: "Creating Pathways for New IT Professionals". The project is piloting the creation of a Consortium for IT Education in Virginia in order to upgrade and align IT curricula, to provide clear, well-defined pathways in IT education from grades 9-16, to incorporate value-delivery skills into secondary and post-secondary IT curricula, to institute updated articulation agreements in IT among secondary and postsecondary educational institutions, and to provide professional development training to secondary and post-secondary IT instructors. This work is incorporating advice and input from the IT industry, from existing pilot projects, and from the work of other ATE projects. The project is impacting the IT programs, faculty, and students in secondary schools as well as two- and four-year colleges in Virginia through the project's statewide Consortium for IT Education, through support for online communications and collaboration, and through professional development training and workshops. Students graduating from IT education programs with curricula that are better aligned with those of higher levels of IT education and that have better, regularly updated dual enrollment and articulation agreements will benefit academically because more of them will be admitted to four-year programs. Moreover, advancing and upgrading IT education programs statewide will benefit the careers of their students making them better prepared to join the IT workforce upon graduation.
AB - Current demands for graduates of Information Technology (IT) programs require that they possess deep technical skills, multidisciplinary awareness, and the ability to deliver the value of technical skills to customers and clients. In order to produce this kind of IT professional, secondary and post-secondary educational institutions must embrace this vision. Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF DUE 0202482), the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) Institute of Excellence for Information Technology (IE-IT) is spearheading the realization of this vision in an Advanced Technological Education (ATE) project titled: "Creating Pathways for New IT Professionals". The project is piloting the creation of a Consortium for IT Education in Virginia in order to upgrade and align IT curricula, to provide clear, well-defined pathways in IT education from grades 9-16, to incorporate value-delivery skills into secondary and post-secondary IT curricula, to institute updated articulation agreements in IT among secondary and postsecondary educational institutions, and to provide professional development training to secondary and post-secondary IT instructors. This work is incorporating advice and input from the IT industry, from existing pilot projects, and from the work of other ATE projects. The project is impacting the IT programs, faculty, and students in secondary schools as well as two- and four-year colleges in Virginia through the project's statewide Consortium for IT Education, through support for online communications and collaboration, and through professional development training and workshops. Students graduating from IT education programs with curricula that are better aligned with those of higher levels of IT education and that have better, regularly updated dual enrollment and articulation agreements will benefit academically because more of them will be admitted to four-year programs. Moreover, advancing and upgrading IT education programs statewide will benefit the careers of their students making them better prepared to join the IT workforce upon graduation.
KW - IT education in Virginia
KW - Information technology education
KW - NSF ATE project
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84870357723&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/947121.947127
DO - 10.1145/947121.947127
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:84870357723
T3 - Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Information Technology Curriculum, CITC4 2003
SP - 28
EP - 30
BT - Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Information Technology Curriculum, CITC4 2003
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
T2 - 4th Conference on Information Technology Curriculum, CITC4 2003
Y2 - 16 October 2003 through 18 October 2003
ER -