Meet the Future: Leveraging Multimedia for Professional and Educational Outreach  

This article, as well as the conference presentation, recounts the trials, tribulations, and ultimate triumph of a dedicated research team in the Orlando Chapter and at the University of Central Florida who parlayed an $8K STC Special Opportunities grant into 55 minutes of fully narrated, animated multimedia in support of the chapter’s and the Society’s outreach initiative to secondary education. The grant was performed by current and former technical communication students at UCF, under the oversight of Dr. Dan Jones and Dan Voss. Four research assistants contributed to the project: Cindy Hauptner, Bob Stultz, Suzanne Shomate, and John Donovan. Cindy and Bob created the immortal Shanna the Hip and Dan the Nerd.

Hauptner, Cindy, Bob Stultz, Dan Jones and Daniel W. Voss. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Multimedia

Meeting Student Needs by Incorporating a Career Planning Lab into a Managerial Communication Course: A Case Study  

This case study documents how a small business school, as part of a strategic planning initiative to improve career services, added a career planning lab to an existing managerial communication course. The lab guides students through a series of self-directed activities such as reading assignments, worksheets, Internet site visits, and completion of instruments. The process results in a summary document and a targeted resume that are reviewed during a one-on-one meeting with the school’s academic advisor and graded for course credit. The study includes a summary of student evaluations along with reflections on lessons learned.

May, Gary L. Association for Business Communication (2005). Articles>Education>Business Communication

Meeting the Challenges of Grading Online Business Communication Assignments  

Marking and grading assignments submitted in an online environment require the use of different methods than the traditional on-campus counterpart. The best method to accomplish this marking and grading depends on personal preference and the accessibility of various hardware and software choices. These choices include printing and hand marking papers, using word processing software, Adobe Acrobat software, or specialty software designed specifically for marking writing assignments. Each of the choices has advantages and disadvantages.

Jennings, Susan Evans and Melane Z. McCuller. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Online

Mentoring the Next Generation: Ethics and Professionalism for Engineers  

Freshman engineering students are bombarded with classes in chemistry, physics, math and other highly technical and demanding courses. This intense schedule leaves little time for learning other important subjects critical to future engineers such as ethics and professionalism. The College of Engineering and the Writing Program at the University of California Santa Barbara offer a unique sequence of courses that meet general education requirements while also addressing the development of ethics and professionalism in future engineers by using a combination of case studies, practical applications and readings.

Kryder, LeeAnne G. and Janet L. Mizrahi. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Ethics>Engineering

Merging Business Communication with Technology: Developing Successful Multimedia Modes for Distance Delivery  

Learning no longer has to depend solely on text resources when learners have access to multimedia resources and developing technologies. The lecture is now encapsulated and available for replay and, like a novel, provides the user with direction not just destination. This paper highlights how technology adds value to the academic learning experience/environment for business communication with a focus upon televised courses, streaming videos, instant messaging and Web-based resources. Implications for the learning experience are: (1) oral and written language use become more dynamic; (2) learner outcomes are audience- and message-centered; and, (3) content instruction is analytical.

Fortune, Mary F. and John J. Staczek. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Multimedia

Messages from Josefa: Service Learning in Mexico    

The article discusses service learning in a women's natural health clinic in Josefa Dominguez, Mexico. The author also discusses how students in writing classes can learn from community service and learning.

Clark, Gloria. LLAD (2000). Academic>Education>Service Learning>International

Messy Problems and Lay Audiences: Teaching Critical Thinking Within the Finance Curriculum    

This article investigates the critical thinking difficulties of finance majors when asked to address ill-structured finance problems. The authors build on previous research in which they asked students to analyze an ill-structured investment problem and recommend a course of action. The results revealed numerous critical thinking weaknesses, including a failure to address the client's problem, use analytical tools systematically, construct rhetorically useful graphics, or translate finance concepts and methodologies into lay language. The present research aims to understand more deeply why students struggle with ill-structured problems. Using think-aloud protocols, audiotaped interviews, and other strategies, the authors explore causes of finance students' difficulties and suggest strategies for addressing them. The results suggest that the homework tasks typically given them, such as quantitative problem sets using algorithmic procedures, do not prepare them to confront ill-structured problems requiring disciplinary arguments aimed at specified audiences. Research further suggests that teaching audience adaptation--especially for nonexpert audiences--is helpful in promoting critical thinking.

Carrithers, David, Teresa Ling and John C. Bean. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Financial>Business Communication

Mixed Nuts: Atypical Classroom Techniques for Computer Science Courses

Unlike lecturing and giving homework, these unorthodox techniques can also keep students attentive and target preferred learning styles. This article presents some experimental and anecdotal evidence to support the theory that the use of these techniques improves students' learning in an introductory Computer Science (CS) class.

Stamm, Sid. ACM Crossroads (2004). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

The Mobile Web Explained  

With already over three times the number of mobile phones on the planet than desktop or portable computers the Web was destined to go mobile. For developers versed in standards-compliant markup the most immediate and obvious opportunity to render an existing site for the mobile web is via a the addition of and alternate stylesheet.

Search and Go (2007). Articles>Education>Wireless Web

Models in Algebra and Rhetoric: A New Approach to Integrating Writing and Mathematics in a WAC Learning Community      

This paper documents an ongoing experiment designed to integrate the teaching of college algebra and college rhetoric and writing at Montgomery College in Conroe, Texas. These are the first two college-level math and English courses that students take within the college's core curriculum. Our approach focuses on the concept of models and model building and might be easily adapted to a variety of math and writing classes. We believe we have maintained the necessary rigor of both disciplines while providing a foundation which links them.

Heckelman, Ronald J. and Will-Matthis Dunn III. LLAD (2006). Articles>Writing>Education

Modified Information Theory: A Tool for Analyzing Classroom Communication  

Information theory began as a mathematical study of the process of communication. Originally associated with telecommunications, information theory proposes that information is the number of messages required to completely reduce the uncertainty of the situation. To apply this postulate to telecommunications, Shannon and Weaver developed a model which describes the communication system as a source formulating a message consisting of signals to be transmitted over a channel (where they are distorted by noise) to a receiver.

Miller, Jefferson D. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

More on Education for Technical Communicators

For most readers of TC-Forum, technical communication is an activity undertaken by dedicated technical communicators, for whom writing, editing, illustrating, or page-making is their chosen vocation. Yet there is also a much larger community for whom technical communication is only a secondary activity, although it remains an essential part of their work.

Blicq, Ronald S. TC-FORUM (1998). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Moving from Knowledge-Based to Performance-Centered Learning  

Combining training and documentation departments was the first step in one organization's move to true support for its clients' performance. This paper explores some of the success factors of that move and examines briefly two projects that exemplify how successful performance-centered learning support can be developed.

Hillegas, Julian and Alice Preston. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Moving Instruction to the Web: Writing as Multi-Tasking      

This study evaluates the effectiveness of presenting Web-based assignments within the technical communication service course. Current research on using the World Wide Web (Web) and Internet as a teaching resource investigates online writing courses, Distance Education (DE), and hypertext authoring. The literature indicates good reasons for moving instruction to the Web, but there is little description of why this migration is needed in terms of the kinds of learning achieved through Web-based writing, nor is there much specific discussion of what type of useful instructional space can be built with the Web. This study is intended to provide support for centering more instruction within the environment of the Web. This article describes a study using a Web site designed for technical communication instruction. It defines the types of learning students experienced when using the site and presents samples of student work representing a wide range of skill development, both traditional and digital, that support moving instruction to the Web in immediately useful ways.

Kramer, Robert and Stephen A. Bernhardt. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Online

Moving to the Public: Weblogs in the Writing Classroom

Given that students have access to the Internet, weblogs can easily replace traditional classroom uses of the private print journal. While weblogs are normally public, free tools such as Blogger can be used for private, expressive writing.

Lowe, Charles and Terra Williams. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Education>Content Management>Blogging

Mutant Education

Up goes that hand and out pops that dreaded can-opener of a question: 'Why aren't we learning programming in this class?' A litany of responses begins to unfold in my now Prozac-pleading brain: Because it's not graphic design; because it's too specialized; because graphic designers won't be doing it or shouldn't be doing it because they'll end up as hacks if they do it and the profession will go to hell; or because it's another program - maybe even a department-unto itself. I'm feeling queasy. It used to be so simple, so clear: We knew what graphic design was and what it wasn't.

Sandhaus, Louise. AIGA (2004). Articles>Education>Graphic Design

Mutual Support: CAC Programs and Institutional Improvement in Undergraduate Education      

Writing- and communication-across-the-curriculum programs often develop as independent initiatives focused on improving students' writing and/or speaking by incorporating these activities into coursework and helping teachers to use them more effectively in their instruction. However, there is now much anecdotal evidence of the conditions that work against the cultivation of cross-curricular programs: faculty complacency; the weakening of a program's original spirit; reduction or elimination of funding; and the continued avoidance of involvement by some programs, administrators, or faculty (see White).

Anson, Chris, Michael Carter, Deanna P. Dannels and Jon Rust. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing

Just as the nature of and expectation for literacy has changed in the past century and a half, so has the nature of writing. Much of that change has been due to technological developments, from pen and paper, to typewriter, to word processor, to networked computer, to design software capable of composing words, images, and sounds. These developments not only expanded the types of texts that writers produce, they also expanded immediate access to a wider variety of readers. With full recognition that writing is an increasingly multifaceted activity, we offer several principles that should guide effective teaching practice.

NCTE (2004). Articles>Education>Writing

Needle - Haystack + You: How Undergraduates Search and Use the Internet  

This paper considers the current trends in information literacy in higher education and presents some of the results of a survey of in-coming college freshmen that sought to measure their information literacy in the area of Internet use. The twenty-question survey gathered responses from 1,184 students in a total population of 2,345. The data sought to determine students’ patterns of Internet use, their attitudes toward the reliability of information that they found via the Internet, and their competencies in structuring an Internet search and evaluating the data retrieved. The complete results and their implications are still being analyzed. Preliminary data analysis demonstrates that although many students self-report that they are advanced in their Internet expertise, they could benefit from systematic and cumulative information literacy instruction and be tutored in the important difference between research in a traditional library and research on the Internet.

Stern, Caroline M. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Education>Search>Online

New Accessible Web Design Program at Northeastern University

Web accessibility is a hot topic, and now there is a brand new place to gain the knowledge and credentials you need to succeed in this increasingly important field. Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts-- already well known for its technical writing program-- is now offering a graduate certificate program in Interactive Design. This new program, one of the first in its kind, focuses specifically on topics surrounding web accessibility and design for interactive media of all kinds.

Gardner, P.J. and Lori Gillen. Usability Interface (2003). Academic>Accessibility>Education

The New Frontier: Conquering the World Wild Web by Mule  

This article offers a close examination of the effects that teaching hypertext markup language (HTML) has on students’ perceptions of class goals in a networked composition classroom. A networked classroom that requires students to send documents using a file transfer protocol (FTP) by command line and view the World Wide Web with a textual browser shifts the emphasis of the class from writing to coding. Helping students to identify a balance between computer technology and writing goals becomes essential to a successful classroom.

Gresham, Morgan. Computers and Composition (2000). Articles>Education>Computers and Writing

Notes Toward a Socially Informed Pedagogy for Computer Documentation    

This article extends Johnson-Eilola's main argument and then, using a thought experiment, examines an extended example of its implications. The experiment follows a student who learns how to produce technical communication artifacts following the philosophy that informs most technical communication classes and that leads to production of the functional but not conceptual systems Johnson-Eilola critiques. The article concludes by recommending changes in overall curricula and in individual courses that would better educate communicators to account for the social implications of their work

Selber, Stuart A. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Education>Documentation

Nurture Your Inner Expert  

Teich, STC's second vice president, advises technical communicators to develop in their professions by continuously setting goals and pursuing knowledge.

Teich, Thea. Intercom (2002). Careers>Education>Continuing

“Observable Objects”: Assessing a Study of Instructors’ Grading

We asked TAs who were using a common assignment sequence to turn in student papers responding to a prompt which asked for the analysis of information in a piece by Clifford Geertz.  We invited departmental instructors to read four unmarked papers and to grade them using the citeria for evaluation that had been given to the students and used by their instructors. These criteria were customized for the assignment from a one-page list of course criteria, not unlike the “outcomes” document recently published by the WPA.  Our idea was simply to see the grading by TAs, lecturers and tenured faculty.   We put the grades on a chart, which showed that there was not perfect consistency of grading for any one paper.  Some were very close, but some papers received a wide array of grades.  The departmental review took place just after we had collected these data, and we shared with the reviewers this interpretive but uninterpreted document.

Quandahl, Ellen. Lore (2001). Articles>Education>Assessment