The College Pay Off

Did you know that a worker with an associates degree is expected to earn $1.7 million dollars over their lifetime? Even those students with some college are expected to earn more than $200,000 more than a student with just a high school diploma.

A new study by Georgetown University, The College Pay Off, looks at the payoff of attending college versus stopping at high school.

Report after report confirms the need for more educational attainement beyond a simple high school diploma. Career and technology education plays a vital role in helping students expand their education, many doing it while in high school.

The report also confirms the need for programs like the Cooperative Alliance Program that gives students the opportunity to earn trasnscripted college credit while in high school. Many students enrolled in the Alliance are graduating high school just a few hours short of their workforce degree (associates of applied science) and have increased their potential lifetime earnings, all before graduating high school.

Technology Centers on Twitter

Our list of CareerTech Twitter accounts is growing!! We have added two new Twitterers to the listing for you to follow.

Southwest Technology Center and Pioneer Technology Center

That brings us to 18 technology centers who use Twitter as well as 3 of the 8 CTSO's who are using it to get the word out.

Technology Center Twitter Accounts
Autry Technology Center
Caddo Kiowa Technology Center
Canadian Valley Technology Center
Chisholm Trail Technology Center
Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center
Francis Tuttle Technology Center
High Plains Technology Center
Mid America Technology Center
Mid Del Technology Center
Meridian Technology Center
Metro Technology Center
Moore Norman Technology Center
Pioneer Technology Center
Pontotoc Technology Center
Southwest Technology Center
Tri County Technology Center
Tulsa Technology Center
Wes Watkins Technology Center

CareerTech Student Organizations
FFA
BPA
DECA


CareerTech Divisions
OK Horizon
Testing
MAVCC
CIMC


By the way, now all three educational agencies in Oklahoma are on Twitter. (CareerTech was the first!)

Oklahoma Education
Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education
Oklahoma State Department of Education
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education


Did we miss anyone?

Google Weather

Google maps now has weather! Check out this video from Google explaining it all. I use Google maps almost exclusively for directions, and now that it is combines with data from weather.com, I have just one more great reason to use it.

My Twitter Feed is BIGGER than your Twitter Feed

This year during summer conference we had our first live Twitter feed!! Thanks Kerry for helping (he runs the CareerTech Testing blog) admin the whole process.

It was pretty crazy Tweeting, admin and taking pics all at the same time. We were running two laptops, an iPad, iPhone and Blackberry to keep up with it all and in order to join the conversation. I did not count the Tweets we had, but I was able to print 44 pages from the #okacte hashtag!

We also had the first CareerTech Tweetup at the front of the stage at the end of the general session.

From four signs in the exhibit area last year to the signs, inclusion in the program book and the live feed we grew tremendously this year. We already have some ideas on how to do it better next year.

We are thinking about a Tweet Team, moving the Tweetup to the beginning of the first general session and some other stuff that we will keep secret and you will just have to see at summer conference 2012.

Looking Back and Ahead - Summer Conference 2011 and 2012

Summer Conference 2011 is in the books and it was a good conference. There were plenty of professional development opportunities on both days that were well received.

A huge thank you goes to the people that put on summer conference. From the project management office who coordinates the whole event and spends countless hours negotiating with everyone, the OkACTE staff who coordinate all the awards and more, the IT staff who makes our lives much easier to the people stuffing packets and making sure that the details are covered, I can't say enough about the work that you do and it is very appreciated!

I had the opportunity to speak the three groups and the National Technical Honor Society and to speak with the Tech Prep section about the changes that we will be seeing as a result in the elimination of Tech Prep and the transition with Carl Perkins to Programs of Study.

I enjoyed my time at conference and hope you did to. I always enjoy getting to see people from across the state and wish that there was more time to talk with them. I also enjoy getting to hear from the different speakers on a variety of subjects. Their insight always makes me leave with a different idea or thought on how to make careertech ed better, and for that I say thank you.

See you down the road at next years Summer Conference August 2-3, 2012 (Thursday - Friday) in Oklahoma City.

To .EDU or not .EDU

22 technology centers are now accessible through the .edu domain.

Welcome Western Technology Center http://www.westtech.edu/


.EDU
Autry: http://www.autrytech.edu
Canadian Valley: http://www.cvtech.edu
Central Tech: http://www.centraltech.edu
Chisholm Trail: http://www.cttc.edu
EOC: http://www.eoctech.edu
Francis Tuttle: http://www.francistuttle.edu
Gordon Cooper: http://www.gctech.edu
Great Plains: http://www.greatplains.edu
Kiamichi: http://www.ktc.edu
Meridian: http://meridiantech.edu
Metro Tech http://www.metrotech.edu
Mid America: http://www.matech.edu
Moore Norman: http://mntc.edu
Northeast Tech http://www.netech.edu
Northwest: http://www.nwtech.edu
Pioneer: http://www.pioneertech.edu
Pontotoc: http://www.pontotoctech.edu
Red River: http://rrtc.edu
Southern OK: http://www.sotc.edu
Southwest Tech: http://swtech.edu
Tulsa Tech http://www.tulsatech.edu
Western http://www.westtech.edu/

.ORG
Tri County: http://tctc.org
Wes Watkins: http://www.wwtech.org

.NET
High Plains: http://www.hptc.net

.TEC.OK.US
Mid-Del: http://www.mid-del.tec.ok.us

.COM
Caddo Kiowa: http://www.caddokiowa.com
Green Country: http://www.gctcok.com
Indian Capitol: http://www.ictctech.com

Okcareertech.org QR code

It's here! The official Oklahoma CareerTech QR code is here!!


You should start seeing it soon on a website or publication near you.

NTHS Summer Conference Presentation

Today I had the opportunity to present to STEM instructors about NTHS. I really enjoyed talking with them and sharing one more opportunity for their students to be recognized for their outstanding work.

National Technical Honor Society Summer Confernce 2011

View more presentations from Jeremy Zweiacker