Michelle Peterson Posts

Jose Ventura learned about technology and electronics early on from his El Salvadorian father, a true master of circuits and electronics. Mesmerized by the blinking cursor on a yellow and black screen, Ventura began playing, tinkering, fixing and even breaking things — an IT hobby that turned into a career thanks to the help of triOS, the largest private career college in Ontario.

The global IT skills gap, Jamaica’s high unemployment rate and the country’s growing IT workforce are all variables to a problem UTech Jamaica IT instructor Elmarine Jimenez would like to help solve. An academic partnership with CompTIA is helping UTech Jamaica get certified and become part of the skills gap solution.

The flipped classroom model is a hot topic among educators, said Dr. Deanne Cranford-Wesley, but moving all the reading outside of the classroom to maximize hands-on class time can prove to be a challenge. Hear what she and fellow instructor Gerald Kearns shared about their experience designing and implementing a flipped classroom model during their talk at CompTIA’s Academic Educator Conference.

In a presentation about the science of learning — and how it’s possible to trick the brain into learning and retaining information for longer than ever before — attendees of CompTIA’s Academy Educator Conference got an inside look at CertMaster, a new training tool that uses priming, spacing, analytics and engagement tools to help students learn.

Using intrinsic motivators like challenge, control, fantasy and curiosity, plus extrinsic motivators like cooperation, competition, recognition, teachers can nudge students toward being inspired to learn, rather than deterred, according to Mark Relf, the state program coordinator for Rasmussen College, speaking to educators and allies at CompTIA’s Academy Educator Conference in Phoenix. To gamify your classroom, try motivation, new versions of grading, achievement and badges.

In a presentation about the science of learning — and how it’s possible to trick the brain into learning and retaining information for longer than ever before — attendees of CompTIA’s Academy Educator Conference got an inside look at CertMaster, a new training tool that uses priming, spacing, analytics and engagement tools to help students learn.

IT is a great place for women — that’s the simple message Dream IT, a new program by CompTIA’s AWIT Community, is sharing with 10,000 people this year. Through speaking engagements and the new AWIT Career Resource Center, and the community is both spreading the word and compiling a robust packet of slides, videos and instructions for those who would like to share their stories. “All we need are volunteers,” said project lead Cathy Alper.

Dublin tech Andrew Murphy said after using CertMaster, he felt 100 percent ready to sit for his CompTIA A+ exams. “This way of learning was so much easier and much more enjoyable than reading a textbook … it certainly keeps you interested for much longer,” he said. Read more about his experience with CompTIA’s new neuroscience-based, adaptive learning tool.

Happy customers are loyal, less expensive and willing to pay more, according to insight from this summer’s CompTIA UK Channel Community Meeting. Under the theme “Managing Toward Business Excellence,” speakers touched on areas every company can start improving immediately: team excellence, operational excellence and customer service excellence. Read on.

Priding itself in graduating job-ready IT professionals, Canadian owned and operated triOS sought out vendor-neutral certifications to enhance their offerings. A partnership with CompTIA complemented what the IT-based training center had already built.