Check it out at http://my.ilstu.edu/~dgwilso/.

If you click on the "Participants" link, you'll be directed to a preliminary schedule of conference sessions. Over the coming months, this page will be updated with hot links for each session. Each link will take you to a more detailed page that will include presentation materials, video clips, and photos. We hope that this site will be useful to IGAEA members long after the conference, with all presentation materials archived for your use.

Be a Presenter!

We are currently accepting proposals for conference presentations: check out the "Be a Presenter" link on the conference Website. Got a great session or idea that you use in your school? Share it! We prefer presenters who focus on strategies and technologies for teachers working with graphic communication students. Our goal is that presenters will represent the range of education levels, both secondary and post-secondary.

First Time Attendees are Eligible to Receive Funding

The Paul D. Von Holtz Conference Incentive Awards Program (IAP) is designed to offer an inducement to members to attend their first IGAEA Annual Conference. Through these incentive awards IGAEA encourages and assists members to attend their first annual conference. This program helps members become better acquainted with the benefits of active participation in the work of the association.

The IGAEA awards a number of incentive awards each year, from a minimum of $300 to a maximum of $500, to educators who are members of the association to assist them in participating in their first IGAEA Annual Conference. The amount of the award is determined by the distance the participant will have to travel to attend the annual conference.

The Incentive Award Committee is now taking applications for this year’s awards. We encourage anyone interested in attending the conference at Illinois State University as a first-time participant to apply for an incentive award. Typically, there are 10 – 15 awards per conference. The application deadline has been extended to April 15, 2010. Check this website under Awards to download an application.

Reston, VA—Individuals who choose to enter the workforce immediately after high school or postsecondary education need to have core academic and workplace competencies for employment.  To provide students with a credential that validates their mastery of these competencies, and to help meet standard government education requirements, GAERF and SkillsUSA have established a partnership to offer online PrintED/SkillsUSA Skill Connect Assessments. These examinations will test technical skills and knowledge with interactive questions enriched by animations, videos, drawings and photographs.  The five assessments will include:

“Two critical trends are converging today in the field of career technical education,” notes GAERF President Ralph Nappi. “One is the need to ensure that entry level workers are well prepared with updated skills on the most current technologies. The other trend is the emphasis on one universal set of standardized skills from which to test and measure competency,” he continues. “By GAERF’s joining forces with SkillsUSA to provide end of program assessments for all graphic communications students, a more consolidated and efficient approach to address the needs of our future workforce is now in place.”

“These Skill Connect Assessments align with education and industry standards to provide employers a trusted evaluation of entry-level technical skills,” adds Tim Lawrence, SkillsUSA Executive Director. “Our ultimate goal is to ‘lift up’ students, both those inside and outside of traditional education programs.”

The Advertising & Design, Graphic Communications, and Screen Printing assessments are expected to be available for spring 2010 testing. The Digital File Preparation/Digital File Output and Offset Press Operations/Binding & Finishing assessments are expected to be available for spring 2011 testing. Students who receive passing scores on the assessments will receive co-branded GAERF/SkillsUSA certificates that display GAERF, PrintED, and SkillsUSA logos.

To access a demonstration of a skill connect assessment log onto:http://www.workforcereadysystem.org/demo.shtml.

About PrintED
PrintED, administered by the Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation, is a national accreditation and certification program, based on industry standards, for graphic communications courses of study at the secondary and post-secondary levels. PrintED provides a career pathway for students to enter the workplace with verifiable credentials, or to pursue further education with college credit already in hand.

About SkillsUSA
SkillsUSA is a national partnership of students, teachers and industry, working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA chapters help students who are preparing for careers in technical, skilled and service occupations excel. SkillsUSA has more than 300,000 students and instructors as members. For more information on SkillsUSA, visit www.skillsusa.org.

About GAERF
The Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation was created by the National Association for Printing Leadership, NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing, and Converting Technologies and the Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation in 1983. These three national associations jointly own the Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC). GAERF was created to channel a portion of the revenues earned by GASC-managed shows into projects supporting a strong future for the industry. For additional information about the Foundation and its programs, visit the GAERF web site at www.gaerf.org or call toll-free at (866) 381-9839.

This article is taken from www.gaerf.org

Do you have questions regarding screen printing? What frames should you buy? Where can you get the best deal?

These are all questions that you can post to the IGAEA membership to get their advice and opinions through the IGAEA forums.

All registered members have access to our new online forums. These forums link members to each other to share expertise, discuss topics, and buy/sell used equipment. Please take advantage of this resource. 

The project exchange - a compendium of classroom projects presented by members at each conference, is now online. Registered users can download PDF projects for use in their classrooms.

Online now are projects from the 2008 conference, and we hope to add more projects in the future.

To get access, become an IGAEA member by clicking the Membership menu item.

For members, click on the Project Exchange menu item.