Virtual Resources for Engineering Technology and Manufacturing Technology Courses

All Florida State and Community Colleges, universities, secondary and elementary schools are now operating remotely to ensure the safety of their students, families, themselves, and our educational colleagues. With educator dedication, strong support from each college and the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), our students will complete the 2020 spring semester and make plans to continue their education.

There have been so many creative and inspirational solutions in such a short time across all educational levels, I am sure those stories have warmed all of our hearts and inspired us to be bold and try something new. Personally, I love the story of the school bus driver, driving alone to deliver lunches to those students who typically get lunch at school; and the parade of teachers from an elementary school driving through the neighborhood on the first day of “school at home” to let their students know that they were “still there”. Although separated, the situation has brought many together in new remote ways, in small and large groups to address these issues (and many more). Please do not hesitate to reach out to your colleges, the FLDOE, the Division of Career and Adult Education and FLATE for assistance.

For our part, FLATE is keeping up with industry and educational transitions and has aggregated a list of online resources onto the ET modules index page. The list includes some generous offerings of free access to online curriculum, simulations, demonstrations, video lectures, and more from our educational colleagues, and our equipment and curriculum providers. We continue to add resources that might be used for engineering technology (ET) and manufacturing courses and/or labs. If you would like us to include your resource onto the list, please contact us.

FLATE also looks forward to meeting virtually with all its Engineering and Manufacturing Technology colleagues at two online ET Forum sessions later this month. Two 2-hour online sessions will hopefully fill the gap left by not meeting face-to-face at Eastern Florida State College (EFSC). The online sessions are scheduled for Friday, April 17 and Friday, April 24 from 9:00 - 11:00 AM. While we are all learning how to explore and exploit many new educational technologies and communication tools, it will be great to share what we know, what is working, and other lessons learned. FLATE is also excited to welcome Bob Blevins, State Supervisor for Manufacturing and Chancellor Henry Mack to our ET Forum sessions. Both will provide updates on the online session occurring on April 17th. Looking ahead, we hope to be able to leverage our online meeting space and time to accomplish other important projects and keep our community connected between ET Forum sessions. During these difficult times, feel free to contact me (barger@fl-ate.org) or the FLATE staff if you have a question or issue that you’d like to discuss.