Sept 13, 2018 Technological Adaptability: Formalizing a Vital Skill webinar with Melonie McMichael


Join us for the Technological Adaptability: Formalizing a Vital Skill webinar with Melonie McMichael.

10:30 am Pacific / 11:30 am Mountain / 12:30 pm Central / 1:30 pm Eastern

Thursday, September 13, 2018

About the webinar

We talk about it all the time, yet we have no specific word for it. We know it is a needed and valuable skill, yet we do not teach it. We see it as part of our technology skills, yet do not recognize it as a skill on its own. What is this nebulous ability that is so important to our field yet so little quantified? Technological adaptability is the ability to learn technology quickly or deal with technology issues efficiently and with confidence. A skill in and of itself that can be learned and taught, most of us are required to demonstrate this ability to excel in our field. The goal of this session is to establish the significance and application of technological adaptability to our field, to provide our field with a common language to discuss technological adaptability, and to assist the individual in assessing and expanding on their own adaptability skills.

We will be recording the webinar, so feel free to enjoy the presentation knowing that you can see the recording at a later date.

Intended Audience

The content will be introductory (e.g., > “101 level”) and will also be valuable to practitioner level attendees.

About the Speaker: Dr. Melonie McMichael

Having been in the field of technical communication for 25 years, Dr. McMichael has experience in both industry and academia. She worked as a technical communicator in Austin’s high-tech sector for over a decade, including multiple stints at AMD as well as contracting work for 3M and working as a lone writer for a small software company. She held multiple roles in the field that ranged from production through writing to print buying. In 2010, Melonie earned her PhD in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University where she taught for five years. Since 2011, she has taught at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in the Professional and Technical Writing emphasis. With over a decade’s worth of workplace experience and another decade teaching technical communication, she brings both scholarship and industry knowledge to the classroom.

Working in the field as a desktop publisher in the 1990s when technology was changing rapidly, Dr. McMichael was required to become technologically adaptable herself. After entering academia, she found that technology was seldom being taught in technical communication programs, primarily because of the changing nature of technology. Looking over her own experience, she created a course that addresses that issue and has been successfully teaching technological adaptability to professional and technical writing students for six years.

She consults on all things technologically adaptable under the company name Technodaptability, LLC.

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August 13, 2018 Lights, Camera, Action! Exploring Video Basics for Non-Production Professionals webinar with Darcy Beery and Stacy Barton


Join us for the the Lights, Camera, Action! Exploring Video Basics for Non-Production Professionals webinar with Darcy Beery and Stacy Barton.

10:30 am Pacific / 11:30 am Mountain / 12:30 pm Central / 1:30 pm Eastern

Monday, August 13, 2018

About the webinar

Given the choice between finding the user manual or googling a short video on YouTube, many users would prefer to both hear and see the information being presented, especially younger generations who have been raised with technology. The basic concepts of video production need no longer be shrouded in the the mysterious aura of Hollywood as consumer technology has become both cost effective and highly professional. If you or your company have been toying with the idea of producing videos for clients or customers, but have fretted about the costs or effectiveness of this method, take heart it is now easier and more anticipated than ever before.

We will be recording the webinar, so feel free to enjoy the presentation knowing that you can see the recording at a later date.

Intended Audience

The content will be introductory (e.g., > “101 level”) and will also be valuable to practitioner level attendees.

About the Speakers:

Stacy Barton

Feature and short film producer & director, award-winning scriptwriter, I’ve worked in various genres & screened in film festivals and on TV, at home and abroad. Holding an MFA from Syracuse University in film production, there I settled into higher-education, now proudly at MSU Denver.

Darcy Beery

After moving to Los Angeles, California Darcy worked in production management on a variety of projects including Paramount/CBS’ primetime series “JAG”, the independent feature film “Baggage” and Disney/Miramax’ “Clerks, the Animated Series” by independent filmmaker Kevin Smith.

In 2010, Darcy began teaching Technical Writing at Metropolitan State University of Denver in Denver, Colorado and became a full time Assistant Professor of Technical Writing and Editing in 2015.

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March 15, 2018 Data Analytics webinar with Ed Marsh

Join us for the Data Analytics webinar with Ed Marsh.

10:30 am Pacific / 11:30 am Mountain / 12:30 pm Central / 1:30 pm Eastern

Thursday, March 15, 2018

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About the webinar

We’re all looking for ways to improve the customer experience. A simple place to start is to use the various forms of data already generated by your content to guide your strategy and architecture. In this session, we’ll look at various sources of data – including your own Web server, Twitter, Facebook, Google analytics, and more – and see how they can improve your documentation and content strategy. We’ll also see how using support tickets can help you better tune-in to your users and create better content.

We will be recording the webinar, so feel free to enjoy the presentation knowing that you can see the recording at a later date.

Intended Audience

The content will be introductory (e.g., > “101 level”) and will also be valuable to practitioner level attendees.

About the Speaker: Ed Marsh

Ed Marsh has always been curious about technology. As a kid, he was the one who pushed buttons to see what happened. This led to some scolding, and an award-winning career as a technical writer and eLearning developer. Ed has learned the importance of breaking down silos, managing risk, and governance while working for a major financial firm in Jersey City, NJ.

In 2015, Ed created the Content Content podcast (http://edmarsh.com/podcast), interviewing technical communicators, content strategists, and other content professionals. He is experienced in, and passionate about, information architecture and content strategy. He is also the host of the LavaCon content strategy conference podcast (http://lavacon.org/blog).

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January 18, 2018 “Learning Styles and the Cancer Experience” webinar with Debbie Kerr

Join us for the “Learning Styles and the Cancer Experience” webinar with Debbie Kerr.

10:30 am Pacific / 11:30 am Mountain / 12:30 pm Central / 1:30 pm Eastern

Thursday, January 18, 2018

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About the webinar

Although the majority of the population are visual learners, most details about a medical diagnosis or treatment are delivered verbally. To exacerbate the problem, the majority of the information being delivered consists of concepts and terminology. They are difficult for doctors to explain and even more difficult for patients to understand. Learn from a real-life cancer experience of how information was presented and what could have been done to make it easier to understand and remember. Find out what we can do as technical communicators to address different learning styles and an audience that is not clearly defined.

We will be recording the webinar, so feel free to enjoy the presentation knowing that you can see the recording at a later date.

Intended Audience

The content will be introductory (e.g., > “101 level”) and will also be valuable to practitioner level attendees.

About the Speaker: Debbie Kerr

Debbie Kerr has been a technical communicator for over 30 years, a breast cancer survivor for over five years, and a lifetime expert at making people laugh. In 2016, Debbie published, When Cancer Takes Flight, which teaches patients about the cancer journey using analogies and personal stories. As a Patient and Family Advisor for Cancer Care Ontario, Debbie provides her insights to assist with the development of educational material for cancer patients, care givers, and survivors.

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December 7, 2017 “Learning Environment Modeling Language” webinar with Phylise Banner

Join us for “Learning Environment Modeling Language: The New Language of Learning Design” with Phylise Banner.

10:30 am Pacific / 11:30 am Mountain / 12:30 pm Central / 1:30 pm Eastern

Thursday, December 7, 2017

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About the webinar

Creating a vision that is shared among designers, subject matter experts, clients, and leaders is one of the fundamental challenges that content professionals must overcome. In the learning design space, many project stakeholders lack the background knowledge, experiences, or “language” to relate their vision in ways that instructional designers can effectively implement.

In this session, Phylise will introduce an easy-to-use and powerful visual learning design method called Learning Environment Modeling (LEM) — a unique visual language created to enhance communication and foster collaboration between instructional design professionals and diverse stakeholders.

During the session, you will learn how to visually communicate the correlation of specific design elements to learning results and use Learning Environment Modeling (LEM) to collaborate effectively with blended learning project teams. Phylise will talk about how to facilitate more effective communication throughout the design process, and how to use a learning environment design system and tools to remove or reduce ego-centric behaviors and attitudes during the design process.

Join us as we explore how LEM can support creative learning experience design and remove barriers to communication throughout the learning design process.

We will be recording the webinar, so feel free to enjoy the presentation knowing that you can see the recording at a later date.

Intended Audience

Instructional designers at the practitioner level, academics, students, and explorers.

About the Speaker: Phylise Banner

Phylise Banner is a learning experience designer with over 25 years of vision, action, and leadership experience in transformational teaching and learning approaches within academia and industry. A pioneer in online learning, she regularly seeks out and embraces opportunities to experiment with emerging pedagogies and technologies in order to best serve learners, and to create vibrant and engaged communities of practice. She is an Adobe Education Leader, STC Fellow, performance storyteller, avid angler, aviation enthusiast, and currently training to be a private pilot. She is also the proud owner of a 1967 Amphicar. Find out more at http://www.phylisebanner.com/

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