Stuckness and Low Vision: How Technology and Socratic Classroom Dialog Changed My Life  

The author shares some stories from her own life that may be useful in helping Web page designers and product developers better understand issues surrounding low vision, hearing loss, and mobility restrictions using her 'art of accommodation.' In this article, she discusses this art as it applies to seven areas: (1) reading structural cues and wayfinding, (2) multimedia, (3) graphics, (4) text design and visual threshold, (5) contrast, (6) glare and size of electronic displays, and (7) mobility.

Reece, Gloria A. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Education>Accessibility>Web Design

Student Collaboration: The Ups and Downs of a Real Life Project  

Many people disagree on whether collaboration is an effective tool in the workplace. Pros and cons exist on either side of the argument. This paper does not attempt to solve the argument or to suggest that every situation calls for the same solution. Instead, it relates the ups and downs of a real life project and the valuable lessons those involved have learned.

Beheler, Tiffany M. and Jill Malar. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Collaboration

Students as Builders of Virtual Worlds: Creating a Classroom Intranet

As composition pedagogy has moved from the current-traditional model toward a collaborative process-oriented model which focuses on an epistemology of socially constructed knowledge.

Eyman, Douglas. Michigan State University (2000). Articles>Education

Students as Netizens: Connecting the Classroom with the Web  

Connecting students with the digital world available through the Internet is an aspect of the traditional technical communication classroom that is often stated as a goal by many instructors. Accomplishing this task is sometimes a pedagogical challenge. Some of the issues involved in turning students into competent 'netizens' result from pre-existing student attitudes, while others reside directly with the instructor. Ultimately, it is the instructor’s responsibility to construct meaningful learning experiences that incorporate the rich resources of the Web in ways that enhance course learning goals. While focusing on the Web as a supplementary learning resource, instructors can stimulate learning experiencs by functioning as 'navigators' and 'pathfinders' in creating 'Web treasure hunts' for their student netizens.

Shirk, Henrietta Nickels. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Online

Students Perform Usability Testing for Industry Clients  

This paper describes how undergraduate students at Mercer University designed and performed hands-on usability tests on seven different products from a wide range of outside clients. Though the projects were challenging and quite difficult for undergraduates, they resulted in significant learning for students and important usability data for the clients. The professor describes the course design and discusses the clients and projects, and three undergraduates report their experiences serving on project teams as project leader, usability specialist, and technical specialist.

Davis, Marjorie T., Corley S. Brown, Erik T. Lindborg and Katherine T. Watson. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Usability>Testing

A Survey of Technical Writing Practitioners and Professors: Are We on the Same Page?   

Do technical writing professors teach what practitioners practice? Do practitioners practice what professors preach? We surveyed writers and teachers nationwide, asking each group to rate the importance of types of writing, writing skills, electronic communications, computer usage, and nonwriting topics, such as oral presentations and graphics. Teachers and writers agree that ethics, revision, and document design are important. However, writers focus on manuals, whereas professors teach reports and resumes. Writers emphasize grammar, punctuation, hypertext, and total quality management, whereas teachers emphasize passive voice and personalization. The two groups differ often and significantly.

Gerson, Sharon J. and Steven M. Gerson. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Surveying the City of Bits: Community, Commerce and the Virtual University

In contemporary business texts corporate sponsored on-line communities are described as central to the commercial development of the Internet, and to the imagined future of narrowcasting and mass customization in the wider world of marketing and advertising. My paper outlines a history of how on-line community has been represented within models of e-commerce. It critically examines the arguments, narratives and rhetorical strategies drawn on within contemporary business texts to represent on-line community. The paper also examines some of the connections that are emerging between commercial on-line community development, and commercial models of on-line education. My paper explores how many of the same organizations, strategies, and ways of representing on-line communities and community resources associated with corporate sponsored on-line communities are being reproduced in models of on-line education. I argue that strategic alliances ought to be made between academics and various community groups.

Werry, Chris. EServer (1999). Articles>Education>Online

Sustainable Practices in Distance Education    

We are engaged in distance education because our graduate program is committed to responsible instructional practices in the computer age. As humanists, our efforts in this relatively new area are primarily energized by opportunities to revisit basic educational assumptions, test the social claims made about distanceeducation, and prepare future teachers who can operate both effectively and judiciously in online environments. From our perspective, departments that foreground the values of the profession will find distance education tobe a productive site for literacy education, one that can even influence the shape of resident instruction in positive ways.

Selber, Stuart A. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Online

Taking Cues from the Culture: The Case of Network Earth    

This article explores the design choices for 'Network Earth,' a museum exhibit that introduced the general public to computer networks and related issues. The exhibit was one of three studied in a larger research project to develop a grounded model of design for learning in museums. Network Earth was developed by a team that had neither formal training nor academic credentials usually associated with museum exhibits. Although the design process and some of the general goals were similar to those at other sites studied and in the literature, certain practices differed. The team excluded historical objects, let donors influence content, and used different terminology. These differences appear to be cultural. With a limited affiliation with the occupational culture of museum exhibit design, the Network Earth team made choices that were more consistent with the culture of high technology, the subject of the museum and the industry that provided most of its financial support.

Carliner, Saul. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2000). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Task Support, Reference, Instruction, or Collaboration? Factors in Determining Electronic Learning and Support Options    

Describes the theory of situated learning, which underlies the selection of a form for supporting performance. Suggests how to apply this concept to the selection of forms.

Gery, Gloria J. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Education>Genre

A Teacher's Perspective: An Interview with George Hayhoe

A lot of faculty feel threatened by distance learning because they think that it’s going to displace them. If a University’s view of courses is 'canned courses', then the instructor is no longer needed. In theory, the University can capture a professor’s intellectual property once and offer the course as often as the University wants to without any further compensation to the professor. To me, canned courses are not graduate education anyway. I guess watching a tape lecture is better than nothing at all. Of course, you can read books and get the ideas if that’s all you want, but to me graduate education is more than just reading books. The major experience is the exchange of ideas between instructor and students. I don’t think videotaping or HTML-izing lectures gives you that.

Hayhoe, George F. STC Online Information SIG (1998). Articles>Education>TC

Review: The Teacher-Researcher: How to Study Writing in the Classroom

The latest NCTE book list indicates that The Teacher-Researcher should interest English instructors at all levels. In fact, Myers’s “global purpose is to promote the development of teacher research among K-12 teachers by providing examples of different ways teachers can study writing in their classrooms,” mainly for assessment purposes (1). Although JAC readers may profit by applying some of Myers’s work in their research, The Teacher-Researcher as a whole is too eclectic and superficial. Because Myers sometimes treats details in his exposition rather cavalierly, he may confuse his primary audience as well.

Hagge, John. JAC (1987). Articles>Reviews>Education

Teaching a Distance Education Version of the Technical Communication Service Course: Timesaving Strategies    

The author has taught a distance education version of the undergraduate technical communication service course at Boise State University since 1997 and shares the strategies he has found to decrease the time instructors spend teaching online, thereby enabling them to use the time they do have to enhance their students' online experience. These strategies are distributed among four areas: management of collaboration, presentation of course material, grading, and interaction with students. For each one, the author presents the problems that may occur and approaches to resolving them. The article addresses a number of concerns expressed in the scholarly literature on distance education and is informed by surveys given to five sections of the author's course taught between 2001 and 2003. Interspersed through the article is an overview of some of the current research and commentary on distance education of particular interest to those teaching the technical communication service course via the Internet.

Battalio, John T. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2006). Articles>TC>Education>Online

Teaching a Visual Subject and Facilitating Interaction  

This panel segment focuses on facilitating interactivity and teaching a visual subject matter in a distance (satellite) learning environment.

Keyes, Elizabeth. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Visual Rhetoric>Collaboration

Teaching a Workshop on Sentence Diagramming  

Demonstrates how sentence diagramming can be an effective writing tool and offers tips on how it should be taught.

Jennings, Ann S. Intercom (2002). Articles>Education>Editing>Grammar

Teaching about Plagiarism in the Age of the Internet  

Things have changed since I began teaching research writing ten years ago. I used to require students to use at least one electronic source; now, I require that students use at least one paper source. Students used to start their search at the card catalog; now they log onto the Internet. Of course, the change has been gradual, but I have begun to ask what this shift from paper to electronic sources means to academic integrity.

Klausman, Jeffrey. NCTE TETYC (1999). Articles>Education>Writing>Plagiarism

Teaching and Practicing Teamwork in Industry and Academia  

The purpose of this paper is to help educators and trainers design realistic working environments for team writing assignments and, thus, to prepare students to function on high-performance teams in the workplace. This paper describes differences and similarities between academic and industrial team working environments. It focuses on the kinds of tasks teams are asked to perform, the time and other constraints under which teams operate, the types of considerations that go into selecting people to participate in a team, the members' expectations about teamwork, the rewards used to recognize effective teamwork, and the role of the manager or course instructor. This paper offers suggestions to address some of the key challenges.

Kleid, Naomi A. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Collaboration>Workplace

Teaching as Performance in the Electronic Classroom  

New developments in online educational technology have a profound effect on notions of intellectual property. Theories of the social construction of technology explain the extremely unstable nature of new technologies. Walter Ong’s theory of the alphabet effect provides insight into the ways in which knowledge changes as media of communication change. Shoshana Zuboff’s ideas on how managerial knowledge is transformed by technology help us understand how certain kinds of knowledge resist being textualized. These ideas help us understand the effects of new teaching technologies in terms of a long–standing struggle between two views of knowledge: knowledge as performance and knowledge as thing.

Brent, Doug. First Monday (2005). Articles>Education>Online

Teaching Business and Technical Writing in China: Confronting Assumptions and Practices at Home and Abroad    

In light of growing interest in technical communication around the world, cross-cultural teaching opportunities may challenge basic assumptions about teaching and learning for both teachers and students. A faculty-development project in the People's Republic of China illustrates various ways facilities, educational practices, and worldviews from each side of the exchange require significant compromise. A negotiated, student-centered classroom environment may be a significant strategy for instruction in such settings.

Dautermann, Jennie. Technical Communication Quarterly (2005). Articles>Education>International>Technical Writing

Teaching Business Communication: Ethical Issues  

There has been a growing awareness of unethical practices being utilized by corporate CEOs, managers, and other members of upper management for gain of income or power. Advances in information technology have contributed significantly when making the public aware of wrong doings. Emerging from these real world cases are opportunities to prepare business communication students with transferable communication skills designed to circumvent technological mishaps and/or unethical practices. This paper will discuss how an assignment focusing on ethics and information technology can be used to help students develop their code of ethics regarding professional communication and behavioral practices.

Nealy, Chynette and Carolyn Ashe. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Ethics>Business Communication

Teaching Business Communication in Singapore    

What is the primary focus of business communication teachers in classrooms in which English is not the native language of students? Do they concentrate on strategies for improved professional and interpersonal communication skills, or do they direct most attention to purely language issues? These questions have become more important because the number of nonnative English students in business communication classrooms in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and so forth is increasing and because English is becoming more important for business and education in many Asian and African countries. This article outlines some of the language-related problems that occur when teaching nonnative speakers business communication and calls for a drive to address the issue of acceptable language usage in this context.

Goby, Valerie Priscilla. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (1999). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Asia

Teaching Civic Responsibility Through Service Learning  

Service-learning pedagogy can help develop both writing skills and civic responsibility by involving students in writing projects for nonprofit organizations. This linking of the classroom and the world beyond merges theory and practice, allowing students to serve their community while applying and testing the effectiveness of their classroom learning. Most important, service learning makes students aware of the power of writing on the job and of their own ability to make a difference when they use their skills for the benefit of a cause greater than themselves.

Sutliff, Kristene. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Education>Service Learning

Teaching Communication Skills  

Communication skills training can be a hard sell among busy engineering students, but as professionals they won't get far without it. In fact, communication skills are the lifeline of any career. Carleton University has found a way to get the message across.

Artemeva, Natasha and Aviva Freedman. Engineering Dimensions (2000). Articles>Education>Communication

Teaching Corporate Communication Skills Through an Industry-Based International M.B.A. Program  

The International M.B.A. Program at the University of Memphis exemplifies corporate/educational cooperation. It focuses on international business theory and practice, excellent oral and written communication skills, computer skills, and a required internship in the student’s second language. Through the internship and other strategies, educators model the goal of working closely with industry to make students marketable in the global community. Both native and nonnative speakers of English master a second language in order to communicate effectively in international business settings.

Connors, Patricia E. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Business Communication

Teaching Critical Thinking in The Technical Writing Class  

It is probable that the Technical Writing course provides for upperclassmen the most intensive and extensive experience with written English that they will have during their undergraduate education. Traditionally, the course has bridged the world of work and the world of school. We instructors try to prepare our students for on-the-job professional writing, and it would seem that this objective is met through the special goals of the course: writing to particular audiences, using precise language, mastering formats, and using graphics. Such observable skills are valuable: indeed, Green and Nolan indicate, in their piece in the recent 'Education' issue of Technical Communication, that the fundamental requirements of an entering technical communicator's job are writing, editing, and researching. Yet, what are we to make of the prediction that Paul V. Anderson cites in that very same issue, that the advent of more highly sophisticated computer software will eliminate up to 75 percent of the present jobs in technical communication, rendering entire categories of jobs obsolete? We must teach, then, in addition to these surface writing abilities the deep structure reasoning skills that nourish them, those skills that are highly esteemed by business, industry, and academia.

Meyers, G. Douglas. JAC (1985). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing