The Teaching Factory Theory: Technology And Innovation Center

According to Tait (n.d.), Technology and Innovation Centers (TIC) was developed in 2010 as partnership between academia, industry, government, and business to foster creativity, technology development, translational research and rapid commercialization which bring collaboration and innovation together developing multi-disciplinary solutions. (p.1).

It is supported by Hepburn and Wolfe (n.d.), in their study on the comparisons of the German, American and UK models of technology and innovation centres. The centers have exemplified their own key strengths which made them establish and leverage their local research and innovation capacity. (p.24). All of them performed their roles from undertaking basic researches to applied researches taking
The University of Queensland (2016) in its Institute for Learning and Teaching Innovations has taken the road by adopting the flipped classroom. As Gerstein (2011), in her article on flipped classroom model, she pointed out the different stages a flipped classroom concept must be followed. Her framework simplifies the process from experiential management ….concept exploration ….meaning making to demonstration and application. The online courses have evolved to massive open online courses (MOOCs). MOOCs solidly founded on ICT technology has been accepted as the new trend in the genre of networked learning. This was challenge by Jaschik (2013), when she introduced the feminist MOOCs called Distributed Open Collaborative Courses (DOCCs) anchored on feminist pedagogy. Jaschik (2013) in consonance with Juhasz(2013), affirmed that DOCCs are aimed to challenge MOOCs thinking about the role of instructor, money, hierarchy and “massive”. She pointed out that MOOCs are based on centralized singular syllabus where expertise is basically depending on the just one or two individuals while DOCCs are more focus on distributed participatory learning where expertise are founded in all
Stanley and Trinkle (2011) in their article mentioned several possible cracks that can create potentially daring change. Those fissures that caught the researcher’s attention are on multiversity, the demand for middle skills jobs and the new invisible college. The previous centers mentioned are components that need the application of technology leading to various generation of knowledge. This generated knowledge can be discoveries, innovations, processes, effective tools, techniques which are potential opportunities for business. The creation of a Business Resource Center (BRC) in the STP can be an avenue to nurture the creation of businesses. Bridgerland Applied Technology College (n.d.) described BRC as a one stop shop for new and expanding businesses where the facilities can cultivate startup and spin-offs business through mentoring and coaching (p.2). The Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, (n.d.), profoundly supports the center since it provides the coordination of business support, education, tracking of clients, access to sources of funding, training, technical expertise, talent, and networking for new and existing businesses (p.1). Healthlink Worldwide, (2003), initiated the creation of the resource center as a service facility containing the relevant and accessible collection of resource materials (based on