by Bernie Goldbach in Clonmel
I HAVE 62 TEACHING DAYS left this semester and most of my focus remains with GenZ students who I intend to marshal towards productive employment. Many of my current students express an interest in working as User Experience Developers.
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Based on feedback from a survey creative media graduates, staff on the TUS-Clonmel campus are reviewing the Creative Media Design (CMD) degree. One future iteration of the programme could result in three clearly defined elective streams that would start no later than the fifth semester. One stream would be for web development. One stream would teach UX. And the third stream would give graduates strong expertise in digital marketing. If you have time, please take a three minute survey by clicking the hyperlink or by tapping the blue Launch Me button above. You will be helping to support our planned revisions.
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I HAVE STARTED talking about major news items with my 11 yo daughter. This week, 10 items from the Sunday Times and Sunday Business Post caught my attention. Two of them concern job opportunities for creative graduates.
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Continue reading "Trying to move up from merely converting data formats" »
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DURING A MORNING IRELAND conversation, Wendy Murphy from LinkedIn [1] shared insights from the Economic Graph, "a digital representation of the global economy which provides LinkedIn with unique insight into labour markets". [2] Several of the top 25 skills that got Irish professionals hired in 2015 feature in third level programmes delivered by Jackie Humphries and the staff on the LIT-Thurles campus.
As might be expected in a LinkedIn data set, technology skills dominated the list. Top of the lists are skills with strong academic courses running on the Thurles campus of the Limerick Institute of Technology. Working with third level students taking business, creative multimedia and digital animation production degrees, I teach elements of search engine marketing and data visualisation. [3] The Economic Graph shows "huge demand for professionals in Ireland with expertise in areas like Cloud Computing, Big Data and IT Security". Companies need these skill sets as Ireland continues carving out data centres for big players like Facebook and Microsoft.
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Bernie Goldbach in Limerick | Photo of young teacher.
I SPENT SOME very productive years developing curriculum items for a blended education programme delivered to an international audience and noticed a job opening in the same space here in Limerick, Ireland.
The job is with SQT.ie and it involves developing, auditing and managing all aspects of the training company's Quality Management System. As a former member of three different accreditation teams, I examined the by-products of this kind of position. Clear quality control standards have been specified by Ireland's accreditation authorities and institutional frameworks need to be respected as well by training providers who aspire to maintain their accreditation and their professional relationships.
No more than a half dozen of the creative multimedia graduates from the Clonmel campus of the Limerick Institute of Technology have the skills for this interesting position. I have more details below the break.
Continue reading "A Good Job for a Blended Educator #jobfairy" »
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Bernie Goldbach in LSAD-Clonmel | Photo of Mike Kiely and Brian Lanigan.
EVEN THOUGH I am stuck in a job that has proven to lead to lower salaries the longer I remained in it, my career in teaching will lead me to "the good life" according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
Statistics don't lie: out of 14 major career categories, teachers are No. 2 in overall wellbeing, trailing only physicians. The Gallup Blog says, "Teachers have high wellbeing because they rate their lives highly and are in great emotional health, which are two key subcomponents of wellbeing. In those two categories, teachers also rank No. 2, beating out professional workers, nurses, business owners, and managers and executives, among others."
With the current hiring freeze in the Irish education sector and with normal retirements pushing teachers out of the classroom before the onset of senility, Ireland will need new blood in classrooms soon. Unfortunately, structural changes to the teaching pipeline (i.e., forced pay cuts for newly qualified teachers and low starting salaries for third level lecturers) means there is less excitement in Ireland about entering the teaching profession now. So the Gallup data could change things.
Continue reading "Finding: Teaching Leads to the Good Life" »
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IT TOOK US several months to sort out a weak digital terrestrial television signal. The solution involved getting a big antenna with a preamp.
I talk about how we meandered to the solution and I shot a short video of our antenna installation. At the end of the day, you can't expect to get the Irish digital television signal with a puny antenna if you live outside a built-up area in Ireland. We live close to the Rock of Cashel and the granite mass appears to reflect the antenna that's located closer to us. We solved the problem by pointing a big antenna array at the DTT transmitter. On some days, we need a preamp on the antenna if we hope to keep a clear signal on the television set.
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Bernie Goldbach in LSAD-Clonmel | Image from the Indo
I GET A STEADY FLOW of Irish job openings as a daily newsfeed. There isn't a day without an offer for web developers, content management specialists or front end designers.
We train Honours degree students in the fundamental skills related to new media. As recurring surveys show, the pay packages for these specialisms are recession-resistant. That is good news for those considering a career in the smart economy.
And if that's something intriguing to you, I strongly recommend the Level 8 Honours Degree in Creative Multimedia as a point of consideration.
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Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Photo by iTouch
I RECORDED A MINOR victory in the Honeydo DIY stakes when closing up the Wavin covers around our home this weekend. My iPod Touch makes one vantage point look eerie in the photo.
A big thanks to several readers who offered advice on detecting and correcting problems with home sewage systems. Although more needs to be done to completely fix problems we encountered during the humid Irish summer, I've reached the stage where we can restore normal ventilation in the house.
This is a big win for me, even though a more sophisticated engineering job remains to finish the task. I'll take the win.
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