M-PICT Summer Faculty Development Week, 2011
Posted On Thursday, June 2, 2011 at at 6/02/2011 03:33:00 PM by Gary HartleyThanks to our ATE partner M-PICT for offering yet another wonderful summer event. Here are the links to:
- More Information on the Event
- Facebook page
- M-PICT BLOG http://mpictcenter.blogspot.com/
- YouTube Channel
This huge consortium of colleges and industry is breaking new ground in ICT every day. Stay connected to keep up!
CPATH II/SRCT Update
Posted On Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at at 1/25/2011 10:41:00 AM by Gary HartleySee the CPATH II update for January, 2011 here.
Revisiting CT Framework and Rebranding CISE
Posted On Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at at 1/19/2011 08:48:00 PM by Ray DePenaIn November 2009, I wrote a post about developing a framework that enables a Student Driven CT Management Program allowing students to self select and direct their studies accordingly. Today, I ran across this:
Twenty Top Ideas for a Better MBA
First Place: Stackable Knowledge Units
Idea: Rather than a fixed generic curriculum, Stewart suggests creating specialized stackable "knowledge units" made up of perhaps three or four courses or co-curricular activity units each. This allows students to consume "chunks" of knowledge as needed or desired for career development, have some certificate as an intervening credential, and potentially create a market for knowledge units in specific technical or specialized areas drawn from engineering and the sciences. Individual students could choose and combine accredited knowledge units, even across multiple universities, to create unique career development sequences based on their individual needs.
Stewart: "If breaking down barriers to trade is good for business, it should also be good for business education. Let's create a market for knowledge units instead of degrees."
We may be on the right track after all.
Cloud Computing, Innovation, and FLC Students
Posted On Friday, August 20, 2010 at at 8/20/2010 07:05:00 PM by Ray DePenaMaryland Education Enterprise Consortium and UMBC Announce Agreement with Google
"The Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium (MEEC) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) have announced an agreement that makes Google Apps for Education available to the 189 K-12 and higher educational institutions in Maryland that are members of MEEC. Google Apps, which is free for educational institutions, currently provides email, documents, group pages, chat and other products to over eight million students.
UMBC’s decision to migrate to Google comes after engaging in conversations with students, faculty and staff. “As we discussed options for outsourcing email with students, they overwhelmingly recommended Google because it works exceptionally well with their mobile lifestyle,” said Mike Carlin, UMBC assistant vice president of IT. “UMBC will immediately set up the 3,000 new students enrolling for classes this fall on Google email and will provide the 10,000 existing students with the option to convert their accounts over to Google in late August 2010. By the start of the spring 2011 semester, we anticipate having all students moved over to Google.”"
Recruiting Secrets: The Power of Relationship
Posted On Monday, April 12, 2010 at at 4/12/2010 02:11:00 PM by Gary Hartley
In our last meeting, we discussed briefly the importance of relationship in recruiting team members for our project(s). I like doing recruiting, and in most cases I find a good match between the needs of my project and my friends, colleagues and contacts. When you think about how many people you know from work, the neighborhood, the community, and civic organizations, the possibilities for garnering appropriate expertise - not to mention diversity - are limitless!
If you need to develop the infrastructure for your team, you might find the following suggestions helpful:
- Know your "elevator pitch." Keep it factual and accurate, and talk to people in everyday parlance (they don't have months of CT discussions under their belts like we do!)
- Share your passion for the project. Tell them why you are involved, and what "grabs" you about the content, the goals it has, or working with the rest of the team.
- Give them some references to check out, including the BLOG, NSF information, Wing's material, or anything else you find interesting.
- Invite people to the AdCom meetings so they can see what it is like to work with this group. Offer to go to the meeting together, if that helps!
- Give a clear vision for the work of your team, the time commitment involved, and what role you think they could play. Make this a discussion of what interests THEM about the topic.
- Be sure to mention the contributions they could make to this effort, both in the short and long term. Let them know their value to our efforts!
In my experience, people will get involved if they think there is a long term goal that is worthy, and if they know others are enthusiastic about it and will value their input. So, start making your list! Here is a tool that will help...
Pattern recognition as a foundational CT skill
Posted On Thursday, April 8, 2010 at at 4/08/2010 02:37:00 PM by Dave BurrellBrook Hall submits the following questions:
Dear Colleagues, In anticipation of this week's busy agenda, I feel it inappropriate to ask my questions about my learning curve during the meeting. However, I have attached a small summary of an exercise I am composing for my Zoology class this Fall. It is not the exercise itself for which I need some feedback, but the questions it has brought to mind.
I think the most important is "What do you foresee a module containing?" I am looking for a 'skeleton' to mold my thoughts. How long? What are the components? What will success look like, etc...Lesson plans are a snap. How do they fit in a module? Or do they?
My energies are high and my creativity robust. I am simply looking for a tiny road map to follow and need some metaphorical "climbing tools" for my mountain.
Looking forward to hearing the reports on Friday
Dan Ross answers:
Humans are great at pattern recognition, but computers are less great at it. We CAN get computers to do pattern recognition and there are a variety of techniques to do this, such as nueral networks and other kinds of algorithms. There is a lot of work going on by specialized computer scientists in this area. So, developing a pattern recognition tool may be too advanced for the non-specialist. However, USING some pattern recognition tools may be a more universal “foundational skill”. So, I think that the CT part of this may be:
1) Getting students to realize that computers can do pattern recognition.2) Getting students familiar with the various pattern recognition techniques that are available, and their capabilities, characteristics, and limitations.3) Getting students to select some existing PR technique and map/adapt its associated algorithm templates to their problem/data set.
Subject: Various
CS Concept: Expert Systems/Artificial Intelligence Techniques
Grade Level: Various
Lecture Unit: Instructor will explain the basic idea of rule-based expert systems using sample rules from some familiar human experts such as gardeners or medical doctors.
Assignment: Students will create a list of rules of the form if(Boolean expression) then (action), that characterize a set of knowledge rules for the body of knowledge being studied in that particular subject. For example: “If the grass is brown, then water it” for horticulture, or “If it hurts when I laugh, then don’t laugh" for pre-med students. Students will then role play and hand execute the system.
Evaluation: Role play in small groups and hand execute the list and see if it correctly diagnoses the medical condition. Send the student a bill after their claim is denied by the insurance company.
Phil Tierney answers:
An obvious biology analog would be a dichotomous key.


