April 2016 eZine

April eZine 2016

Greetings,

We are so happy to complete two PCATT spon sored conferences targeted to our education community. We continue to share teaching techniques, updates i

n technology, and to explore ways to seamlessly integrate technology into the discovery of learning. To the educators who attended, thank you for taking the time and for your enthusiastic participation in these events, the PCATT Apple Summer Institute and the PCATT IT Symposium.

Wishing you all the best,

Beryl Morimoto

Program Manager

Solar Ready Vets

Though recently announced, PCATT has been working with the US Dept of Energy to deliver hands-on solar/photovoltaic training at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. This builds on skills veterans already have through their military service and ends with the highly desirable North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) Entry Level Certification Exam. This is one of the many ways that PCATT serves our veterans and active duty military.

Magic Leap - Mixed Reality

You've probably heard of Magic Leap, the startup that's turning heads and opening wallets of big time investors such as Kleiner Perkins and Google. This is a long and interesting article written by WIRED senior maverick, Kevin Kelly. Yes, that's his title. If you're in the tech field or not, this is technology worth experiencing.

Cybercrime

Here's something to get your attention:

"...the cybercrime racket is now more profitable than the drug trade." And for that reason, it's not going away. The 2016 Trustwave Global Security Report provides insight into areas such as:

Vulnerability and exploit trends
Most common malware types and how to detect them
Latest trends in network, database and applications security

If you'd like a quick overview of the Trustwave Global Security Report, read What are hackers up to these days? from CIO Magazine.

Summer Engineering Academy

There are a few openings available in the Summer Engineering Academy for high school students. The Academy runs from June 6 through July 15 at Honolulu Community College and includes challenging and fun activities for students to learn about electrical and mechanical engineering, computer programming, prototyping, and problem solving skills. Parents also have an opportunity to learn about financial aid and the college application process. Because of the holiday, the application deadline has been extended to June 2, 2016.

How Do Your Skills Fit?

Jobs in IT are rarely single faceted now. You must have skills from different disciplines, vendors, or from one of the many subsets of a broader category. To see how your current skills fit within various types of job categories or how to grow your skill set to further your career, look at Dice.com's skill diagrams. At PCATT, we encourage everyone to grow their skill set, be it with our in-person courses or offerings from other vendors such as those listed on Dice's Related Skills page. Keep growing!

Keep Learning

"Innovative companies realized long ago that learning is a benefit, as motivated employees want to invest in themselves. Randall Stephenson, the CEO of AT&T, recently said 'here is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop.' He continued to say that people who don't learn for 5-10 hours a week will become obsolete. Continual learning will help employees keep pace with the changing tech landscape, and will keep them engaged in their work." -Quote from TechCrunch

If you believe in continued learning, we invite you to take a look at upcoming courses available through our PCATT consortium of the University of Hawaii Community Colleges. Please check back in a few weeks for more courses which will be scheduled for the summer.

Changing Role of the IT Professional

As an IT professional, do you notice a change in your job requirements? I see this at PCATT where we look to our IT professionals not just for technical expertise but for input on business decisions relating to customers and new ideas. Todd Thibodeaux suggests IT pros "take advantage of this shift by augmenting their technical chops with business acumen and communication skills." This is a good thing where " IT professionals can become a valued strategic partner within the organization. "

And finally...

Who do you trust? Would you let a robot (or a moving table) into your secure building? What if it was carrying a delivery of cookies? See what happens in this experiment conducted by a Harvard University student.