Posted: May 10, 2010
The high school instructor appreciates the way to give a lecture, but just isn't really present about the latest technology in laptop or computer science. The IT skilled is up-to-speed on computer science, but isn't going to understand how to produce a lesson prepare, or manage an unruly teenager inside the classroom. Collectively, even so, they can be studying from one yet another.
"Pedagogy is what I am learning from them, while I'm bringing my IT skills, which they don't have, to them," says Devon Smith, 46,
Windows 7 32 Bit, who spent more than 20 years working for Dow Jones & Co. as a software engineer, before leaving the company in 2006. "Everybody is helping everybody."
The three-year program, called Operation Reboot,
Office Home And Student 2010, is trying to help 30 IT professionals—ten each year—re-enter the workforce as large college computer science teachers. The program, run by the Georgia Institute of Technology's college of computing in collaboration with the Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program (GaTAPP), pairs an IT worker with an existing computing teacher.
They co-teach at least two computing classes for a single year, allowing the IT specialist to learn the ins and outs of the classroom, and the teacher to get an education in information engineering. The National Science Foundation is funding the program through $2.5 million in grant money, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
In Georgia, teachers need only a business certification to teach pc science. As a result, "a lot of people who teach laptop or computer science classes don't have any formal training in personal computer science," says Barbara Ericson, director of computing outreach at Georgia Tech's college of computing. "So the idea was to match up people who have the knowledge and background in pc science, but don't necessarily understand how to teach."
Each of the IT workers is taking courses with GaTAPP to obtain a teacher's certification. They have three years to finish. Georgia Tech pays the $5,
Office Professional Plus 2007 Key,000 in fees. Since there is no certification in personal computer sciences, the IT professionals concentrate on math, science or business. The IT workers and the teachers also attend classes at Georgia Tech, which provides courses on how you can teach personal computer science.
Furthermore, the teachers and the IT workers both attend workshops once a month throughout the college year and week-long workshops within the summer. Each duo also is assigned a "mentor," an experienced personal computer science teacher, who meets with them periodically to talk about the issues they can be encountering in their schools, and offers suggestions to enhance their computer teaching skills. The teachers receive new textbooks for their classes, and stipends totaling about $2,250 for attending the sessions.
"The idea is to get them both trained in better ways to teach laptop or computer science," Ericson says. "Sometimes, you're the only laptop or computer science teacher inside the university, and it's hard to discuss things with anyone else at the university because nobody understands what you are talking about."
For the one-time computer professionals, "it's now a really different lifestyle," Ericson says. "University is different."
Smith, who teaches in an inner-city Atlanta higher university, agrees. "It's been a little rough," he says. "Many of these students bring different issues into the classroom from day to day. But I'm committed to doing this."
With a homemaker wife and three children, a single of them in college, he's happy to be using his skills within the workplace again. Each IT worker receives a monthly stipend of $3,
Office Pro Plus 2010 Key,410 for 11 months, and the use of a laptop while in the program. "It's been a good experience, "Smith says. "I'm making it work, and I get a lot of support."
He wishes,
Windows 7 Professional Key, however, that the schools had newer, more up-to-date laptop or computer equipment for their students. "They're not the best," he says. "They're old. They definitely need some upgrading."
Still, "some of the kids really like computers. Their faces really light up when I take over. It's different from what they're used to," he says. "Initially, the kids didn't see where computers would help. I have to remind them that what they learn here will absolutely affect everything they will be doing, that, whatever it is, somehow a personal computer will be involved."