Dec. 6 , 2006

Contact: Bob Adams
(425) 564-3081
badams@bcc.ctc.edu

BCC receives $699,000
National Science Foundation grant

Will work with UW and Tennessee educators
to revitalize Information Technology programs
at community colleges nationwide

BELLEVUE, WASH. – Bellevue Community College’s National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) has received a National Science Foundation grant of $699,000 to bring together the University of Washington Center for Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) and a Tennessee educational organization to revitalize information technology programs at community colleges across the nation.

The goal is to permanently bridge a persistent gap between the content of information technology (IT) training programs and the rapidly emerging needs of employers, so that curricula can be more closely aligned with industry needs.

The NWCET will join with the Center for Information Technology Education (CITE) at Nashville (Tenn.) Community College to create new training curriculum based on the NWCET’s continuing research on the specific IT skills needed in today’s workplace and CITE’s approach to developing technology education programs based on real-life experiences of IT professionals.

The UW’s LIFE Center will then adapt the curriculum to apply the most current knowledge of how people learn and develop new and more effective ways of training.

The LIFE Center will also create a new type of online curriculum clearinghouse to permanently bridge the workplace-classroom gap by applying the ‘wiki’ concept, in which users add to and revise a web site’s content. In this case, employers will continually update the IT curriculum content on the site to keep it current with their needs, while educators keep it current with new research on learning and best practices in teaching.

In this online “common space,” a real-time, reciprocal relationship between educators and employers will foster fully current IT education.

The two-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grant will fund the development of the concept and creation of a pilot online curriculum clearinghouse. The NWCET expects to apply next year for additional NSF funds to fully implement the program.

Bellevue Community College’s National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies is a National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education Center of Excellence whose mission is to lead education, business and government in addressing the information technology needs of today’s and tomorrow’s workforce. The NWCET has developed internationally recognized IT skill standards to guide technical education and also provides professional development in the area of information technology to educators at all levels. Further information is available at http://www.nwcet.org/.

The Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center at the University of Washington was one of the first four National Science Foundation Science of Learning Centers funded in fall 2004. The Center is a an interdisciplinary collaboration between learning scientists at the University of Washington, Stanford University, SRI International and other institutions across the country. Its mission is to: 1) Identify and investigate learning theories, methodologies, and key research questions from different domains and disciplines to discover general principles of how people learn; 2) Foster research and education collaborations with individual and institutional partners and promote qualitative improvements, both theoretical and practical, to better understand and support human learning. Additional information is available at http://life-slc.org/.

The Center for Information Technology Education at Nashville Community College in Tennessee, a National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education Center of Excellence, brings together two-year colleges, universities, secondary schools, businesses, industries and governmental organizations to respond to the region's need for well-prepared IT workers with adaptable skills. CITE is dedicated to improving the workforce pipeline through education reform, training of educators and workers and dissemination of information about IT jobs and skills, curricula, and education and training opportunities. Further information may be found on-line at http://www.cite-tn.org/.

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