Award Abstract # 1204953
ICT Center: Knowledge Community

NSF Org: DUE
Division Of Undergraduate Education
Recipient: SPRINGFIELD TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Initial Amendment Date: September 15, 2012
Latest Amendment Date: September 15, 2012
Award Number: 1204953
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: David B. Campbell
DUE
 Division Of Undergraduate Education
EDU
 Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date: September 15, 2012
End Date: August 31, 2014 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $308,846.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $308,846.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2012 = $308,846.00
History of Investigator:
  • Gordon Snyder (Principal Investigator)
    gsnyder@hcc.edu
  • Nina Laurie (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • John Reynolds (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Springfield Technical Community College
1 ARMORY SQ
SPRINGFIELD
MA  US  01105-1700
(413)781-7822
Sponsor Congressional District: 01
Primary Place of Performance: Springfield Technical Community College
One Armory Square
Springfield
MA  US  01102-9000
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): TMJXBJPDLX95
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Advanced Tech Education Prog
Primary Program Source: 04001213DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 1032, 9178, SMET
Program Element Code(s): 7412
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

The National Information and Communications Technologies (NICT) Resource Center has developed an ICT Community of Practice (CoP) that impacts four distinct, yet intertwined, audiences: community college faculty and administration, community college students, industry representatives, and ICT-focused ATE centers and projects. The Center differs from other ATE centers in that it focuses on institutional processes of ATE centers and projects that result in sustainability of programs and long-term impacts on technician education. Past work has emphasized three major types of activities: 1) building community by working with other centers and projects; 2) empowering others by using social media and emerging technologies to generate discussion and share resources; and 3) connecting centers and industry to leverage knowledge within the community and beyond. In this extension, the Center continues these activities, but also focuses on collecting evidence that developing CoPs and working with other centers and projects positively impacts the quality of technician education.

The evaluation plan details questions that directly track how process-oriented resource-sharing "the essence of CoPs" improves organizational efficiencies and leads to lasting changes in: 1) the management of the centers and projects; 2) the way that centers and projects interact with each other, with other community colleges and industry to sustain the objectives of the ATE program; and 3) the way that they interact with their students. The evaluation of this transitional year also focuses on: 1) identifying the changes that occurred in the behavior and operations of ATE centers and projects after seeking guidance from the ICT Center and the CoP; 2) tracking how these changes lead to improvements in technician education; and 3) identifying how the improvements impacted students.

The strength of the ATE program is that it is a community and not just a series of projects. The community is established and nurtured by having a few projects and centers that mainly work with other projects and centers. This proposal studies the extent to which communities of practice can lead to outcomes that improve scientific and technical education at associate degree-granting institutions.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

For 17 years the ICT Center/ICT Community of Practice (CoP) was a unique entity within the NSF ATE Program because it served as a resource center not only to ICT faculty, staff, and administrators, but it provided guidance and mentoring to other ATE centers and projects seeking to strengthen their infrastructure as well as their information­ sharing capabilities. Within that second “tier” of resource­ sharing with other centers and projects, the ICT Center/ICT CoP functioned as an ATE resource meta­center: it conducted work that was of value to the ATE community and strengthened the ability of other ATE centers and projects to better, more efficiently produce demonstrable positive outcomes. Its existence has strengthened the ATE community by promoting an open environment that encourages an interdisciplinary approach to utilizing a community of practice to grow operations and increase impact on technician education. If new centers and projects have solid foundations in their start­up, management, and operation practices, they will have increased capacity to educate more technicians. If existing centers and projects are able to scale up their efforts in education and improve how they are able to communicate and disseminate their findings with other projects and centers, the entire ATE community’s knowledge base is strengthened. And if centers and projects build alliances and collaborations with industry representatives and subject matter experts, students associated with those centers and projects will have improved understanding of their chosen occupation as well as improved connections with potential employers. The ICT Center as a resource center has influenced the ATE community at all levels, from project/center design to classroom impact.

The ICT CoP National Resource Center:

  • Built a national network of colleges, subject matter experts, and business and industry with the goal of improving the national K­14 ICT educational pipeline, providing professional development for community college faculty, partnering with subject matter experts to incorporate the latest research and technology into technician education programs, and disseminating best practices in pedagogical approaches to community colleges.
  • Assisted ATE centers and projects seeking organizational technical assistance in reaching NSF expectations by providing resources and expertise. 
  • The Center’s core mission of supporting ICT technician education efforts remained central. In addition, the ICT Center explored new ways of transcending disciplinary limitations to assist ICT­ enabled and non­ ICT ­specific centers and projects with guidance in other areas of proven expertise, including organizational management, CoP development and implementation, evaluation, and the incorporation of emerging technologies into various facets of center operations and outreach.
  • As a recognized thought and practice leader in ICT technician education, the ICT Center brought together academia and industry to project what skill sets will be needed by ICT technicians in the coming years (as opposed to what is needed right now). By bringing together key players, the Center was able to address a critical need: making technician education relevant to the workplace.
  • As part of the ICT CoP, faculty, administrators, and members of the business and industry community leveraged each other’s expertise, connections, and experience to accelerate development and change processes. Increased academic and business and industry involvement in the CoP grew the pool of subject matter expertise available to all participants, and increased the diversity of thought within the CoP. 
...

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