Administering Teacher Technology Training  

The collection of materials included here are designed to assist those, who for the first time, find themselves administering and developing an ongoing program for training teachers to use technology in the composition classroom.

Carnegie, Teena A.M., Amy C. Kimme Hea, Melinda Turley and David Menchaca. Kairos (2003). Articles>Education>Technology>Writing

Collaborative Configurations: Researching the Literacies of Technology  

Discusses the electronic literacies of individuals from other countries who travel to the United States to study at colleges and universities in this country.

Hawisher, Gail E. and Cynthia L. Selfe. Kairos (2002). Articles>Education>Technology

Integrating New Technology into Technical Communication Curricula  

An increasing number of articles are appearing in communications journals calling for the need for instruction in new technology in the classroom. However, there are several obstacles in integrating new technology, such as Iack of teacher experience, lack of equipment, and adjusting the curriculum. To successfully integrate new technology into the curriculum, technical communication educators need to cooperate with other departments, make themselves available for training, and decide on which courses will integrate which technologies.

Campbell, Jennifer. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Technology

Life-Long Computer Skills

Schools should teach deep, strategic computer insights that can't be learned from reading a manual.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Education>Technology

Technical Versus Non-Technical Students: Does Emotional Intelligence Matter?    

Intellectual Quotient (IQ) has long been considered in education as the deciding factor in a person's success but have we overlooked emotional intelligence (EI) in determining one's success in life? In my attempt to reexamine the acceptance of EI, I studied the difference in EI between different groups of undergraduates in Singapore in terms of their field of study, gender and university. The sample comprised undergraduates from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS), with a fair mix of gender and field of study. From their responses to an EI questionnaire, it was found that there was no significant difference in EI between undergraduates who study technical and nontechnical courses, as well as between undergraduates of NTU and NUS, although male undergraduates achieved higher EI scores than female undergraduates.

Poon Teng Fatt, James. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Technology>Emotions

Technology and the Learning/Teaching Divide  

When we put to one side technological responsibilities, we miss an important opportunity to build communities of workers and scholars.

Selfe, Cynthia L. and Richard Selfe. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Technology

Technology and the Rise of the For-profit University

The traditional university is all things to all people, but it is primarily a place for professors to learn, to study, and yes, to teach. The teaching follows the traditional model of pouring knowledge into the heads of obedient students. This is a teacher-centered model of education, one that has repeatedly been shown to be inferior. Aristotle showed how learning can be an exploration. Pundits ever since have continually rediscovered active ways of engaging the mind. The university has resisted, for these other ways were not conducive to the comfortable life of a teacher. And anyway, it didn't feel like teaching. But today, education remains one of the last remaining labor-intensive activities, and it is pricing itself out of the marketplace. Worse, it does so using a methodology known to be deficient. Enter technology.

Norman, Donald A. JND.org (2002). Articles>Education>Technology

Tools Training for the Technical Communicator

When we started our training room at Ace Communications, the goal was to offer hands-on training in the tools of the trade for technical communicators. Even though there is continuity in the core tools used in the profession, there is enough evolution in the design and application of these tools to warrant ongoing training, even for experienced users. The experience of running both a training business and a consulting/staffing business points out that the most successful technical communicators combine extremely strong inter-personal skills with ongoing tools training.

Ace, Mark. STC Williamette Valley (2002). Articles>Education>Technology>Software

Using Virtual Reality in Education  

Virtual Reality is a three-dimensional, computer-generated, simulated environment where data is literally transformed into things we can see, feel, and even touch. Virtual reality has significant implications in many areas such as business, industry, entertainment, and most importantly for educators, education. We have a responsibility to learn more about this new technology and investigate uses for our students. Then we need to encourage the continuing research, development, and implementation of virtual reality environments for educational purposes.

Rudin, Judy E. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Technology

Working in the Liberal Arts/Technology Borderlands

One border that technical and professional communication (TPC) programs straddle constantly is that between the liberal arts and technology. We struggle to find ways to do justice to both as we prepare our students to enter these professions.

Allen, Nancy J. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Technology

The Education of Geeks and Freaks

if Post Secondary Educators don’t change their attitude towards you—and soon—you are going to find it really hard to find trained staff for your businesses.

Green, Tom. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Education>Technology>Multimedia

Critical Engagement with Technology in the Computer Classroom    

This article proposes a model for critically engaging technology in technical communication graduate curricula. While computers and writing studies concentrates on academic writing, the development of the field provides a model for engaging technological issues in professional and classroom contexts. Technical communicators have an ethical as well as intellectual responsibility to engage the interface between technology and culture. This article describes one example, a graduate class in information architecture, as a model for engaging the nexus of literacy, technology, and culture.

Salvo, Michael J. Technical Communication Quarterly (2002). Articles>Education>Technology

A Technology Transfer Model for Program Assessment in Technical Communication    

In this article we seek to reframe accountability by means of an emphasis not on auditing but on student performance, not on the development of databases but on the creation of reflective practice. We attempt to demonstrate one model of program assessment that focuses on student performance as the center of a reflective assessment framework that can act as a technology transfer model for the diffusion of program assessment knowledge.

Coppola, Nancy W. and Norbert Elliot. Technical Communication Online (2007). Articles>Education>Assessment>Technology Transfer

Situated Software

I'm seeing is a change in the software ecosystem which, for the moment, I'm calling situated software. This is software designed in and for a particular social situation or context. This way of making software is in contrast with what I'll call the Web School (the paradigm I learned to program in), where scalability, generality, and completeness were the key virtues.

Shirky, Clay. Shirky.com (2004). Articles>Education>Programming>Technology

Tech-Rhetters Go Back to Grad School

A while ago, I queried the techrhet mailing list for suggestions. I asked: Which five technical/technological skills (beyond the basics of e-mailing and word processing) would you make absolutely sure you had under control at the start or the end of the PhD process? Here are the responses.

Whipple, Bob, Jr. Bedford-St. Martin's (2009). Articles>Education>Technology>Rhetoric