Institutes Provide Program for IT Faculty DevelopmentWASHINGTON
McGraw-Hill Technology Education is sponsoring the 2004 Working Connections IT Faculty Development Institutes. The 10 institutes were co-founded by the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET), the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and Microsoft. The institutes provide a program for IT faculty development at community colleges.
"We are pleased to be the primary sponsor of this collaborative effort between business and higher education institutions to ensure faculty has access to the latest tools and materials in emerging technologies," says Brandon Nordin, vice president and group publisher, McGraw-Hill Technology Education. "These institutes are vital in keeping faculty current with the latest curriculum and technology trends, resources and marketplace requirements in the IT field, especially as we evolve our instructional vision beyond the era of teaching baseline computer literacy skills and concepts."
 Each institute spans five days and will be held in New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, California and Washington. Institute topics include information security, wireless technologies, new programming languages and Web development. IT faculty from surrounding states will also have the opportunity to participate.
"Ordinarily there is an 18-month gap between the introduction of cutting-edge technology and its eventual integration into college curriculum," says Lynn Barnett, vice president of AACC. "Through this collaborative effort, we aim to shorten that timeline."
 Developed from a training model pioneered in 1998 by Microsoft and NWCET at Bellevue Community College, Bellevue, Wash., and the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, the Working Connections Institute is now active in 10 regions and last summer served 842 educators from 15 states.

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