Instead of gearing down for the weekend, the pace accelerates with students packing into classrooms and cars flowing in and out of the parking structure. Heading up the team are full time senior faculty members Dr. Pinny Sheoran and Mark Anderson. Their commitment to learning and re-certifying in the new technologies includes using their personal time for study and their own resources to pay for costly materials and exams. These extra-curricular activities are handled concurrently with maintaining a full work schedule. Their motivation comes from the need to maintain credibility with students and to stay employable within their respective industries.
Certification exams are difficult and costly.
They are taken seriously by the industries that utilize them and are considered a reliable measure of technology knowledge. A direct relationship between the number of certifications and an IT worker's income has recently become an established fact. The relationship of being a continuous learner and a teacher in this rapidly changing environment is becoming the major survival point for faculty engaged in IT instruction. For many instructors, the key to staying abreast of the increasingly computer proficient student population is peer mentoring. Working together, instructors share current technology solutions, explain areas of uncertainty, collaborate on the best sources for new information and coach each other for exam preparation.