Posted: Might 10, 2010
The substantial college instructor knows how to give a lecture, but is not extremely current about the most current engineering in laptop or computer science. The IT skilled is up-to-speed on personal computer science, but does not understand how to build a lesson plan, or handle an unruly teenager inside the classroom. Together, nonetheless, they may be understanding from one particular an additional.
"Pedagogy is what I am understanding from them, while I'm bringing my IT skills, which they don't have, to them," says Devon Smith, 46, 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, is trying to help 30 IT professionals—10 each year—re-enter the workforce as higher university laptop or 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 one particular year,
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In Georgia, teachers need only a business certification to teach computer science. As a result, "a lot of people who teach pc 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 computer 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 $5,000 in fees. Since there is no certification in laptop or computer sciences,
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Furthermore, the teachers and the IT workers both attend workshops once a month throughout the university year and week-long workshops in the summer. Each duo also is assigned a "mentor," an experienced pc science teacher, who meets with them periodically to talk in regards to the issues they are encountering in their schools, and offers suggestions to enhance their personal 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 pc science," Ericson says. "Sometimes, you're the only pc science teacher within the university,
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For the one-time personal computer professionals, "it's now a extremely different lifestyle," Ericson says. "College is different."
Smith, who teaches in an inner-city Atlanta higher school, 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 from the workplace again. Each IT worker receives a monthly stipend of $3,410 for 11 months, and the use of a laptop while inside the program. "It's been a good experience, "Smith says. "I'm making it work, and I get a lot of support."
He wishes,
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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 pc will be involved."