Welcome to Issue 26 of NACTEL News – August 2008
with news, info, and insights from the National Coalition for Telecommunications and Learning

Registration | 95 year-old College Graduate | No Gas Required ! 
Techie Word | Today's Chuckle | Partner News | Student Story

Registration Information

Registration is now open for the early Fall 2008 term. There is still time to register for Fall classes, which begin on September 19. Registration ends August 27 for new students and September 3 for returning students.

NACTEL program at Pace University

Today’s Chuckle

NEW Office Terminology...

• 404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located. "Don't bother asking him; He's 404, man."

• ALPHA GEEK: The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group.

• BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

• CHAINSAW CONSULTANT: An outside expert brought in to reduce the employee headcount, leaving the top brass with clean hands.

• CHIPS & SALSA: Chips = hardware, Salsa = software. "Well, first we gotta figure out if the problem is in your chips or your salsa."

• CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

• FLIGHT RISK: Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave a company or department soon.

• IDEA HAMSTERS: People who always seem to have their idea generator running.

• MOUSE POTATO: The online, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

• OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake.

• PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the heck out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

• PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

• TOURISTS: People who take training classes just to get a vacation from their jobs.

• YUPPIE FOOD STAMPS: The ubiquitous $20 bills spewed out of ATMs everywhere. Often used when trying to split the bill after lunch. "We each owe $8, but all anybody's got are yuppie food stamps."

NACTEL has received a $1 million contribution from AT&T over a period of three years to build a new, interactive, web-based career mapping tool.

This career planning tool will be online and made widely available to the public, providing assistance for incumbent telecommunications workers as well as those people who wish to enter the industry. The interactive online tool will focus on jobs in the present and future telecommunications industry, the requisite skills, aptitudes, and experience required for those jobs, as well as the education and training resources to prepare workers for those positions. In addition, the tool will provide a current snapshot of the telecommunications industry and how it is evolving.

"I am curious by nature and want to understand how things integrate and operate. NACTEL provided the perfect platform for me to continue my quest for knowledge with telecom-specific information that is both current and robust."

Pamela earned a degree in Business Administration and wanted to expand her knowledge with a better understanding of emerging telecommunications technologies.  When she received an email from her employer outlining NACTEL, she thought, "Why not? I have to go to work every day, I may as well know as much as I can."

In addition, Pamela noticed that top-craft was hiring people with AS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Networking.  She saw NACTEL as her entrée for advancement.

At the time, Pamela was working in an SBC factory assembling components. "I saw cables, parts and pieces but wasn't completely sure how they all worked together."

Through NACTEL, Pamela has gained the knowledge she sought.  Today, she works in the construction field as a Technical Specialist.  "NACTEL gave me a solid comprehension of how things operate.  I have ownership of the end-to-end process of service delivery to our customers.  In addition, when a higher-level position opens-up, I now have the credentials necessary to be a forerunner for advancement.”

Pamela graduates with her A.S. degree in May 2007, then plans to take some time off from her educational endeavors.  "With all this extra time, I will plant some flowers, work in the yard and maybe paint a few rooms in my house."