Goals for Student Learning

Technology is a field of study designed to prepare technical, technical management, and technical entrepreneurial professionals for employment in business, industry, education, and government. By graduation, Technology students should be able to:

1. Think critically and creatively;

Definition: Critical thinking is analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, and reflecting on content related to issues or problems to come to a well-reasoned conclusion and/or solution. Creative thinking is exploring issues or problems in an imaginative way to discover alternate perspectives. Critical and creative thinking occurs within or across subject fields in all those spaces where humans need to interact and make decisions, solve problems, and figure out what to believe and what to do.

2. Understand the theoretical principles of the profession;

3. Understand and apply relevant technology in the solution of technical problems;

4. Develop an appreciation for ethical and professional practices;

5. Develop and refine oral, written, and visual communication skills;

6. Understand management issues in order to perform as leaders, innovate to solve problems, and manage unpredictable environments.

Definition: The management component of the curriculum is interdisciplinary, and includes principles and concepts related to the following issues: planning, organization, and management of human resources, materials, processes, products, and the environment. Specific components in the BSGDT and BSIT programs are:
a) creating and maintaining environments in which people can accomplish goals efficiently and effectively;
b) the process of achieving desired results through efficient utilization of human and material resources; c) the process of reaching organizational goals by working with and through people and other organizational resources;
d) the process of planning, decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling an organization's human, financial, physical, and informational resources in an efficient and effective manner;
e) the process by which managers create, direct, maintain, and operate purposive organizations through coordinated, cooperative human effort; and
f) the process of acquiring and combining human, financial, informational, and physical resources to attain the organization's primary goal of producing a product or service desired by some segment of society.

 

Approved April 6, 2006. 
Updated: September 5, 2008; November 8, 2009; December 17, 2009; and February 26, 2010.