From this year’s Advanced Programming Institute in Savannah, here are the top new issues and trends for programming professionals.
- Consolidation of data.
Data sources do not always talk with each other, so getting reports valuable to programming professionals is often difficult. The new issue was raised by Kevin Carter of the College of Extended Studies at San Diego State University, and was confirmed as an issue by others. It is some progress, though. A few years ago many if not most programmers were reporting an inability to get data out of their software system. Now that data is coming out, but many programs use two or more sources of data, with financial data often being a separate data set.
- Understanding learning now part of job.
Your instructors now need to be trained on how the brain learns, and ways to enhance learning. That means that understanding how we learn is now also part of the programming professional’s job. Learning and teaching success are at the heart of your program, and success means quality in the classroom. With new technology, new research on the neurology of learning, and student expectations for learning increasing, it is now important that programmers move beyond the last century focus on “bums in seats” and take leadership in training instructors.
- Proper data analysis critical.
Proper data analysis is now critical to decisions that programming professionals need to make. The “action” is at the Division level, according to your LERN consultants and professional staff. Program professionals at the LERN Institute learned the most sophisticated and successful techniques for analyzing program success at the Division level. - This is the Year of the Creative program professional.
LERN has declared 2015 the “Year of the Creative” lifelong learning professional, and nowhere is that more important than with your programming professionals.
Today’s creative program professional starts with data and uses the program’s data as the baseline and foundation for creative thinking. Ignoring data analysis in your brainstorming is a high risk activity, while using your data to begin your creative thinking is now a formula for the more successful programs.
C2Ps Awarded
From the Advanced Programming Institute, more participants took the Certified Programming Professional (C2P) exam this year.
Congratulations to these new Certified Programming Professionals:
-Robin Hoke, C2P, Gateway Technical College, Sturtevant, WI.
-Becky Ryan, C2P, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA.
-Kevin Carter, C2P, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA.
-Felicia Crittenden, Central Carolina Community College, Sanford, NC.
-Kimberly Recker, C2P, Hawkeye Community College, Cedar Falls, IA.
The big LERN Institutes in Savannah this spring have become THE professional development for the field of lifelong learning. But they are also producing news and new advanced tips. This year’s attendance was the second largest in 10 years.
Photo: Some smiles at the Advanced Programming Institute. From left: Will Castillo, CCT, Pearl City, Hawaii; Kimberlee Whittington, Baytown, Texas; and Donna-Mae Winquist, Edmonton, Alberta.