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Session 1547

One-Stop Shopping for Engineering Technology Educators

Elaine L. Craft SC ATE Center of Excellence National Resource Center for ET Education Florence-Darlington Technical College

Abstract The two-year college engineering technology community has a new central resource for ideas, materials, and technical assistance for improving engineering technology education. The SC ATE National Resource Center for Engineering Technology Education provides a specific link to the following: • Materials developed for a new national image and marketing campaign to promote ET careers (Sinclair Community College); • Videos, web sites, and workshops designed as tools to recruit learners, educate policymakers, and encourage expanded involvement of business and industry in ET education (WGBH public television); and, • Workshops available to help faculty incorporate continuous quality improvement principles into ET education (ABET). In addition, a "one-stop shopping" web site for accessing best practices and exemplary materials for recruiting and retaining students, as well as for teaching engineering technology, is available. An ad hoc committee of engineering technology educators is helping to build this centralized resource for the two-year college ET community.

Introduction Lew Platt of Hewlett-Packett once observed, "Whatever made you successful in the past won't in the future."1 Or as John L. Chambers of Cisco Systems has said, "We have to face the difficult challenge of changing when things are going well."2 Certainly in the marketplace and even in education, we have seen that organizations must be flexible, constantly evolving in response to changing expectations and demands--not just to maintain the status quo but also to survive and flourish. Products, services, or curricula that are meeting our needs today may not be relevant in five years--or next semester. Engineering technology educators can benefit from a central point of contact for locating information to help with a myriad of challenges:

• Far too few high-quality engineering technicians are being produced, with means that more students need to be recruited and retained through to graduation.3 • Employers are demanding highly skilled technicians with strong teamwork, communications and problem-solving skills.4 • A clearer connection needs to be made between the skills taught in the classroom and the

Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

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Craft, E. (2003, June), One Stop Shopping For Et Educators Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12589