Partnerships take the lead: a deans summit on education for a technological world

There is much concern about graduates from the U.S. precollege (K–12) system being technologically literate enough to survive in our modern, rapidly changing technological world. Through the sponsorship of the IEEE Educational Activities Board, a Summit of Deans of Education and Deans of Engineering was convened to address the issues of technological literacy. Forty-two pairs of deans began cross-campus collaborations at the summit, held October 1–2, 2001, in Baltimore, MD. The conference comprised keynote speakers, panel sessions, a poster session, and breakout groups that brainstormed to develop common or emerging themes and action plans. Each pair of deans committed to a customized action plan to guide their future collaborations in the contexts of precollege (K–12) teacher preparation, outreach, and the enhancement of engineering teaching, learning, and assessment. This paper summarizes the conference and the action items suggested by these deans.