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Building Automation And The Contextualization Of Information Technology: The Journey Of A Midwestern Community College In The U.S., Neal Grandgenett, Pam Perry, Thomas Pensabene, Karen Wegner, Robert Nirenberg, Phil Pilcher, Candi Otterpohl

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

The buildings in which people work, live, and spend their leisure time are increasingly embedded with sophisticated information technology (IT). This article describes the approach of Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Omaha, Nebraska of the United States to provide an occupational context to some of their IT coursework by organizing IT instruction around the context of building automation systems (BAS). This contextualization allows IT students not only to study IT as a standalone discipline but also to study its integrated use within a specific occupational context. The article also describes MCC’s focused curriculum design efforts funded by the National Science …