FROM THE EDITOR

Looking at 2010

As 2009 draws to a close, it also marks the end of my first year as the editor of JITE. During this past year I have been talking a lot about change, and although you might not have seen much of a change on the outside for volumes 46-1, 46-2 or 46-3, there were many changes behind the scenes that contributed to each volume. Starting with volumes 47-1 (2010) you will see most of the changes that we (the NAITTE Board of Directors and JITE staff) have been working on during 2009 to help reach a larger audience. The most notable change you will see will be the JITE name and cover page. Look for this in the next volume. The Journal has expanded in scope to cover Science, English, Technology, and Math (STEM). Does this look familiar? It should as this is the wave of the future and we will be moving into the future to meet the needs of our readers. Other not so noticeable changes will be a new associate editor who will become editor next year, plus we will be consolidating most of the JITE business operations to one central location. This will be one person or organization who will handle the daily operational duties such as new member requests, membership records, back issues, and mailing labels for libraries.

I am really excited and looking forward to the New Year and all the changes that will be taking place to move this Journal into the future. I appreciate all the hard work by everyone involved to make it happen. Stay tuned for the future, it will be exciting.

In This Issue

Volume 46-3 starts out with the final part in a three part series written by Todd R. Kelley and Robert C. Wicklein titled Examination of Engineering Design in Curriculum Content: Teachers Challenge to Implement Engineering Design in Secondary Technology Education. In this manuscript the authors will answer the question, what selected challenges and barriers are identified by secondary technology educations in order to teach engineering design? In parts one (Volume 46-1) and two (46-2) the authors provided readers with new curriculum options for technology education teachers to infuse engineering concepts into technology classrooms.

To go along with the Kelley and Wicklein article on curriculum content in technology education, the manuscript by Nathan Mentzer and Kurt Becker Motivation while Designing in Engineering and Technology Education Impacted by Academic Preparation, talks about their study which deals with changing motivation in a high school engineering design class. The elements of engineering design were taught to eleventh grades from diverse backgrounds. Assessments were given to measure student’s motivation to apply critical thinking skills and reasoning to solve problems in five subscales: mental focus, learning orientation, creative problem solving, cognitive integrity and scholarly rigor.

While the previous authors did research in curriculum development, Umundadi Kennedy did his research in a manuscript titled A Correlation Study of Students Achievement in Television in which he studied the relationship between male and female students’ academic achievement in the television subject field in rural technical colleges located in the Delta State. The main purpose of this research was to provide youth with useful skills and improve their knowledge in their desired skill areas.

Studying learning styles of students has been very important to the previous authors and the manuscript titled A Cross-Case Analysis of Gender Issues in Desktop Virtual Reality Learning Environments is no exception. The authors writing the manuscript, Lynna Ausburn, Jon Martens, Andre Washington, Debra Steel, and Earlene Washburn, examined gender-related issues using a new desktop virtual reality technology as a learning tool in career in technical education. The authors used two studies to address gender issues in virtual reality training. The findings in this study suggest that males and females may be differently affected by virtual reality environments and this information should affect implication of future virtual learning environments for Career and Technical programs.

In a continuing effort to provide Career and Technical Education professionals with additional insight on how to better meet the needs of the learners, Richard A. Walter and Mark Threeton wrote a manuscript Automotive Technology Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Faculty. Their research provides Career and Technical professionals with insight on how to better meet the educational needs of the learner and identified the students’ preferences for learning while enrolled in postsecondary automotive programs.

In an At-Issue article written by Michael Kroth, Improving Your Teaching: Using Synergistic Andragogy, the author tells about an alternative mode of education where students are formed into small teams and learn from one another through structured interactions.

Volume 46-3 ends with an Under Review report written by Ray Carson, who reviewed Leadership and Self-Deception, by the Arbinger Institute (2000). It’s a must read for educators, Ray Carson says that everyone in education will benefit from the concepts presented in the book. Educators must be able to interact and communicate but may not be effective without understanding how to avoid self-deception.

As you read though the manuscripts presented in Volume 46-3 you can see the authors’ main goals are to make learning more meaningful for students and educators. I would hope that you, as readers, will be able to take the information presented and adopt it into your teaching styles.

I hope everyone has a great and successful 2010 and I am looking forward to working with you.