ICT Center: Knowledge Community

国家信息和通信技术（NICT）资源中心开发了一个ICT实践社区（CoP），影响四个不同但相互交织的受众：社区学院教师和管理人员，社区学院学生，行业代表和以ICT为重点的ATE中心和项目。 该中心与其他ATE中心的不同之处在于，它专注于ATE中心和项目的机构流程，这些流程导致项目的可持续性和对技术人员教育的长期影响。 过去的工作强调了三种主要类型的活动：1）通过与其他中心和项目合作建立社区; 2）通过使用社交媒体和新兴技术来产生讨论和共享资源，从而增强他人的能力; 3）连接中心和行业，以利用社区内外的知识。 在此扩展中，该中心继续这些活动，但也侧重于收集证据，证明开发COP并与其他中心和项目合作对技术人员教育质量产生积极影响。 评估计划详细说明了直接跟踪以过程为导向的资源共享“CoPs的本质”如何提高组织效率并导致以下方面的持久变化的问题：1）中心和项目的管理; 2）中心和项目相互作用的方式，与其他社区学院和行业保持ATE计划的目标;（3）他们与学生互动的方式。 这一过渡年的评估还侧重于：1）在寻求ICT中心和CoP的指导后，确定ATE中心和项目的行为和运营中发生的变化; 2）跟踪这些变化如何导致技术人员教育的改进;以及3）确定改进如何影响学生。 ATE计划的优势在于它是一个社区，而不仅仅是一系列项目。 社区的建立和培育是通过几个主要与其他项目和中心合作的项目和中心来实现的。 该提案研究了实践社区能够在多大程度上导致改善副学士学位授予机构的科学和技术教育的成果。

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.