Educational Models and Open Source: Resisting the Proprietary University  

This paper presents an educational model derived from open source methods for computer programming. The article places this search for an alternative model within a framework of proprietary educational practices that are driven by a need for efficiency and rationalization. As an alternative model, the paper suggests that an open source derived educational process would emphasize collaborative problem based learning, working through drafts, risk taking, mentoring, user testing, releasing early and often. . . .

Faber, Brenton D. ACM SIGDOC (2002). Articles>Education>Knowledge Management>Open Source

Intuitive Ethics: Understanding and Critiquing the Role of Intuition in Ethical Decisions      

This article examines the role intuition plays in forming ethical decisions.  First, the article reviews examples of intuitive ethics in professional communication research.  Second, the article suggests that intuition is the naturalization of dominant cultural values and beliefs.  Third, the article considers naturalized values within institutions and organizations, demonstrating how naturalized values can lead to unquestioned and oppressive institutional practices.  Ethical inquiry, according to this view, investigates and denaturalizes those assumptions that are carried forth by intuition.  Fourth, the article offers a pedagogical example of this theory, demonstrating how a group of business communication students investigated the intuitive practices of a non-profit organization.  The article concludes by suggesting the value that a “critique of intuition” may have for the teaching, study, and practice of professional ethics.

Faber, Brenton D. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>TC>Ethics

Professional Identities: What Is Professional about Professional Communication?    

Professional communication is a growing component of English departments and other communication programs. Yet, in most cases, the term professional communication is used as a catchall term for various types of workplace and occupational writing. As such,professional communication, as it is currently framed, seems to have little to do with professionalsor the process of professionalization. This article calls for a more thoroughexamination of the concept of professional communication by reviewing (1) the ways inwhich researchers have used this term to describe the rhetoric of professionals who communicate,(2) the democratic and knowledge-based contradictions between rhetoricalscholarship and professional powers, and (3) the current challenges facing professionalworkers, including deprofessionalization and proletarianization. The author argues thatif professional communication research and teaching are to remain prominent parts ofacademic programs, researchers, theorists, teachers, and students must become moreaware of conceptual issues that inform and define professional work.

Faber, Brenton D. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>TC>Professionalism

Technologizing Change: Rhetoric of Software Implementation at a University Campus  

This paper reports on a study of new software implementation at a university. Seven emails distributed by a central Office of Information Technology were examined for semantic (content) meaning and syntactic (grammatical) function. Semantic findings show a high degree of topical shift. Syntactic findings show a high number of clauses and complements. The analysis also shows how determiners were used to construct 'new' information as 'given' (presupposition). The paper argues that discursive stability was created by technologizing the rhetoric of implementation. The study concludes by suggesting that a heavy reliance on dependent clauses, along with other features, may be indicative of technologized discourse.

Faber, Brenton D. ACM SIGDOC (2003). Articles>Technology>Software>Rhetoric

Using Corporate-Based Methods to Assess Technical Communication Programs    

Assessment continues to be an important issue for technical communicators in both practitioner and academic contexts. In this article, we investigate methods of program assessment used by corporate learning sites and we profile value add methods as a new way to both construct and evaluate academic programs in technical communication. Our goal is to introduce value added assessment methods as one way to supplement and expand current methods of program assessment. The article initially reviews Return on Investment (ROI) indicators as a widely used model for assessing programs. However, we are critical of these indicators, suggesting that they are biased against technical communication in both practitioner and academic contexts. The article then examines and critiques assessment methods from corporate training environments. These include methods employed by corporate universities and value added process-based assessment methods. The second half of the article profiles value added methods by applying them in a brief assessment of a technical communications certificate program. We conclude that while the program uses ROI indicators as a marketing device, the value the program brings and adds to its university is the "portal" it creates for university and business community collaboration. This value cannot be fully demonstrated solely through the use of ROI indicators. The article then discusses the kinds of programmatic negotiations value added processes require within university contexts that may impose non-value added activities on departments and programs. The article concludes by critically examining the appropriateness of corporate assessment methods for academic contexts.

Faber, Brenton D., Linn Bekins and Bill Karis. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2002). Articles>Education>Assessment

What Can Technical Communication Programs Learn from Corporate Universities?  

As technical communications programs consider our own strategic program development it is important for us to consider a variety of program development models that exist both within and outside of traditional university contexts. This presentation will present alternative models for program development employed by leading corporate universities. These programs emphasize on-demand learning, immersion and experiential learning, and highly accountable educational experiences. The presentation will not argue that technical communication programs should simply import these models from corporate settings. Instead, it will suggest that corporate approaches bring many important issues to the table that strategic program developers need to evaluate and discuss as they consider their own program development.

Faber, Brenton D. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education

Writing Centers and Academic Advising: Towards a Synergistic Partnership

When considering forms of academic writing and, more broadly, the kinds of advice academic writing centers provide students, we usually think about academic communication, disciplinary forms of writing research reports, pedagogical approaches, and perhaps, on a good day, providing students with assistance on making presentations at academic conferences. Unfortunately, student mentoring, in the form of academic and professional advising, is rarely considered as a potential outcome or role of an active writing center. This article introduces academic advising as an important and useful role academic writing centers can fulfill. Academic advising can not only influence students' academic and career choices but can also play a critical role in creating and facilitating a productive academic culture within a departmental and university-wide context.

Faber, Brenton D. and Catherine Avadikian. Academic.Writing (2002). Articles>Education>Writing