Category: Newsletter

by Crista Mohammed

Well folks it’s that time of year, when all STC members get antsy in happy anticipation of the the STC’s Annual Summit. The 63rd Summit (can you believe it?)  is carded for May 15-18 2016 and takes place in Anaheim, CA.

For those in the Technical Communication community, the Summit is a momentous occasion both professionally and personally. On the professional side, it marks the culmination of a year’s work and the start of another.The summit offers countless opportunities to network; to stay in touch with cutting-edge practice and research; and to interact with the rest of the STC community. On the personal side, old friends get that cherished once-a-year opportunity to reconnect; volunteers who work together virtually can meet face-to-face; and always there is the hard-won chance to kick-back or party hard ( however briefly) with like-minded folk.

Whether you’re a veteran or newbie to the STC’s Summit, here are some tips on making the most of Summit 2016:

• Read, read and read again the Summit Schedule.
• Create your individual schedule, taking account of training opportunities; presentations; meetings and social events that you MUST attend.
• Prepare a list of alternative events, should there be changes to your initial plans.
• Insert flexible time in your schedule. This will prove a godsend when you are faced with unanticipated yet fortuitous opportunities—a business hook-up or a meeting with a potential employer.
• Plan your communication. Time is short and precious: You need to distill and precisely present your ideas for each anticipated communication scenario—What will you say to a potential employer? What suggestions will you put forth at your SIG business meeting?

Of all the events, arguably the most exciting is the IDL SIG Business Meeting. Last year, the wildly creative and fun-loving IDL Management Committee held a teddy-bear themed meeting. They caught everyone’s attention and injected whimsy into otherwise very serious business!

Can you guess this year’s theme? Mum’s the word, but I’ll concede to giving you a clue. The Committee is drawing its inspiration from the great state of California. Could it be a surfing theme—with co-manager Robert Hershenow rocking a wet-suit and hunting for A-Frames? Or will it be Hollywood inspired—James Bousquet, Treasurer, as Colin Firth; Lori Meyer, Secretary, as Maggie Smith; Co-Manager, Mellissa Ruryk as Michelle Pfeiffer; and Program Manager, Viqui Dill as the stunning Meryl Streep? …

Well, you will never know, unless you go! Have a great Summit 2016!

An Article by Virginia Butler

What is Mentoring?

Mentoring is a five-course meal. The appetizer is the mentor’s self-awareness and willingness to help. The salad is the mentor’s understanding of the mentee’s journey and goals. The soup is the act of the mentor creating a supportive environment and the mentee diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating his or her own learning. The entrée is the learning process itself. Dessert is the realization that the mentor and mentee are co-learners who both benefit and grow from the relationship.

Why be a Mentor?

You should be a mentor because as Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Mentoring can be just the vitamin you need to re-energize your career.

Who can be a Mentor?

You. You’ve lived. You’ve worked. You’ve failed. You’ve been scared. You’ve trained. You’ve succeeded. Why not lend a hand to someone coming up who could really use the support? It may be your time to start giving back.

“But I’m too busy.” We all have 24 hours in a day, and our priorities are defined by the choices we make. Are you truly too busy to share your passion, make a difference in someone’s life, and leave a legacy?

“But I’m not worthy.” Nonsense! Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fears you overcame. Besides, you don’t have to be a know-it-all; you can always ask for help when you don’t know the answer. Your willingness to help will lift you over any hurdles you may face.

Who can be a Mentee?

You. You need connections. You need encouragement. You need constructive criticism. Why not knock on the door of someone who has been there before you and is willing to help? Don’t you think it’s time to stop trying to do things in a vacuum?

 “But I don’t want to bother anyone.” If asking for help makes you feel weak, needy, or incompetent, you are not alone. You are human.

“But I’m not worthy.” A false sense of modesty is not a confidence builder. You have just as much value as the person you are asking to be your mentor.

How do I Mentor Someone?

Mentoring someone is like being a tour guide. The mentor shows the mentee the way by leading or advising him or her on what’s important, what to avoid, who to meet, where to look, etc. The mentor acts as a GPS to the mentee, but in this case, GPS doesn’t stand for Global Positioning System; it stands for Goals, Priorities, and Strategy.

Steven Spielberg said, “The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.”

Mentoring can taste as sweet as hope, sound like encouragement, and feel like electricity.  It’s time to share that spark that originally led you to choose your career.

When should I sign up to be a mentor?

Do it now. The entire STC IDL SIG is holding its breath awaiting your decision! Carpe diem.

How do I Sign Up to be a Mentor?

Do the following:

1. Go to the STC Mentor Board ( http://mentorboard.careerwebsite.com/stc.)
2. Register and validate your account, or if you are a returning user, simply log in.
3. Create your Mentor and/or Mentee profile(s).
4. Search through Mentor and/or Mentee profiles and initiate contact with individuals who meet the criteria you seek.

A Book Review by Crista Mohammed

Marcia Johnston’s You Can Say that Again is a hilarious yet sobering read. Listing common redundancies, the author causes you to contemplate the humor in both the redundancies and your own writing! You wouldn’t believe how I have been second guessing my writing of this review. As a tribute to the author, not really a guise to mask my own sloppy writing (really!), I feel positively compelled to offer a review replete with redundancies. Trust that you will find them as you read my review! Moreover, so delightful is the book that it should be twice complimented! In any event, being redundant comes naturally to me—I am Trinidadian (a people known for hyperbole and super emphasis – reverse back; kill it dead and you sure you sure?).

Ms. Johnston has captured some favorites of mine—ethical obligation (a politician’s go-to phrase when trying to effect sincerity), full satisfaction (so says any sales clerk trying to offload product), and go back and re-read (so instruct I, as I command my students who really, really must read and re-read my instructions).

Beyond preferred favorites, I have learnt many a numerous thing. Who knew that there is such a thing as RAS Syndrome? I myself feel that all scientists and technologists eventually develop this syndrome and if they don’t then their job advancement is uncertain. And the La Brea Tar Pits had me Googling (sorry for making a verb out of a noun), thinking that the reference was referring to the La Brea pitch lake of Trinidad: I found out that there are tar pits around Hancock Park in Los Angeles and that La Brea means “the tar.” Therefore, the La Brea Tar Pits means the the tar tar pits. Could this be a pit of the stuff that you put on your fish?

While redundancy lends a particular color to the spoken word, professional writers (in particular) should guard against redundancy. It does make for curiously funny reading and creates an impression of professional slovenly sloppiness. Whether or not you read You Can Say that Again for pleasure (lovers of language will chuckle at the gems that lie therein), or as an easy-to-read reference to remind yourself of the grave redundancies that lurk and threaten to propagate in your writing, I am sure sure that you will find value in reading and re-reading Marcia Johnston’s You Can Say that Again.

By Elizabeth J. Allen

Adult literacy tutors play an important role in providing a learning bridge to many types of literacy skill-sets. Increasingly, adult digital literacy is imperative to being able to communicate, locate information, solve everyday problems and to advance in socio-economic status. Being fluent in the many literacies required by contemporary work and social contexts is also considered essential to cultural citizenship and social belonging (Fantin, 2013). However, the peer tutors at Literacy New Jersey, Burlington County Programs (LNJBC) are often older people with limited digital literacy skills themselves. As a result, many literacy tutors are ill-prepared for fostering the digital competency of their students. In this article, I report on a graduate-level instructional design research project that addressed the digital literacy learning gaps of adult literacy tutors at LNJBC in the fall of 2014. My study measured the effectiveness of  the digital literacy training programme, with online learning support, in enhancing the digital skills of tutors and, in turn, the digital literacy of their students.

The digital literacy workshop series included four workshop sessions offered in Burlington County, New Jersey, to address the specific learning needs of tutors in that region. An additional workshop was made available to literacy tutors from around the state at the annual Literacy for Life Conference in Trenton, New Jersey on November 1, 2014. Separate online learning support was created for the Burlington County and state workshop sessions. Students had the option to attend whichever dates and as many sessions as were convenient for them.

Data collection for this study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and the instructional design methodology was iterative. All tutors received a pre-program survey at the beginning of September 2014 to assess learning needs and skills gaps related to technology and tutoring.  A learner profile was generated from the results of the pre-training survey and informed the learning objectives, content, and program design. Tutors who wished to participate in the workshops registered with the literacy program. Prior to the beginning of the workshop series, user tests of the two course websites took place to ensure all links were working and that tutorials were paced appropriately. During workshop sessions, a passive observer took notes on the efficacy of the learning design, using a list of prompts developed from Caladine’s Learning Activities Model (Caladine, 2008). The designer made necessary adjustments to the instructional design plan after each workshop session upon reviewing her field notes and the observer’s notations. At the end of the workshop series, participants took an online survey to assess how well the program met personal learning goals, whether the skills learned during the workshop impacted their tutoring sessions with adult literacy students, and if they believed their students benefited in any way from tutor training. Additionally, the designer conducted informal participant interviews two weeks after the end of the workshop series to assess the extent to which technology had been further integrated into tutoring sessions. Overall student learning was measured by applying observer notes, researcher field notes, and evaluation of learning artifacts to Caladine’s Learning Activities Model. The study ended in early December 2014.

Student learning artifacts that arose from the digital literacy training were individual and collective in nature; and in most cases, students had a choice of projects to work on in any one workshop session. The learning artifacts that arose from the four workshops in Burlington County included two new email accounts and practice emails, four blogs with one to two posts each, three video lesson demonstrations uploaded to YouTube or Google Drive and one slideshow, two completed Skype calls, and one digital story about surviving the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia during WWII uploaded to YouTube and shared with a daughter in Israel via email. The largest workshop session in Trenton brought approximately 20 tutor participants together. Students worked on case studies and completed their own digital tutoring session ideas in pairs or small groups using the facilitator and workshop website with tutorials as learning support. Participants then shared their ideas and findings via a Google document linked to the workshop website that students could then access at a later date for additional ideas and support.

The informal interviews and post-program evaluation results suggest that participants who attended at least two workshop sessions made leaps in their confidence to create digital products that enhance their tutoring and personal lives. Statistics for the two workshop websites show students used the online learning support outside of class steadily for about a month after class. While many participants were not sure to what extent the workshops had impacted their tutoring sessions to date (as of December 2014), most were certain there would be a benefit in the future. Now that more tutors have increased their digital literacy and skills confidence at LNJBC, ongoing trainings may periodically take place as webinars and online learning modules in the future. A detailed presentation of this study can be found at http://ejaportfolio.weebly.com.

 

References

Caladine, R. (2008). Content and Interactions. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Fantin, M. (2013). Beyond babel: Multiliteracies in digital culture. In A. Cartelli (Ed.), Fostering 21st Century Digital Literacy and Technical Competency (1-6). IGI Global: Hershey, PA. doi: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2943.ch001

It is with profound sadness that we share this news.  Janice Watrous-McCabe, senior STC member and an active member of the IDL-SIG passed away on October 25, 2015 shortly after being diagnosed with cancer and just a few months after she retired from Allina Health, where she managed a group of eLearning specialists.

Speaking about her, Carol Widstrand, a former IDL-SIG Programs Manager who also worked with Jan at Allina said, “Jan was kind, compassionate, and persuasive. She would bring together a diverse group of people and keep them involved. Her evaluations of training materials were thoughtful and she always took the time to discuss why things are done a certain way in instructional design.” Jane Smith, a former IDL-SIG manager wrote, “She contributed to the e-Learning evaluation session at the conference and helped with membership mailings.  She was very knowledgeable about ID… very competent.” Jan also presented a well-received webinar, Developing a Curriculum, in May, 2010.

Jan was born on May 15, 1949 in Independence, Iowa and grew up in Waterloo, Iowa. She graduated with a degree in Education, but went to work as a sales representative for Northwestern Bell in Nebraska. She moved to the Twin Cities as Director Marketing and was part of U. S. West. After U. S. West she joined Health Partners as a technical writer and after completing her Master’s Degree in Distance Learning from Capella University, she joined Allina Health where she won the Uncommon Caring Award of Excellence.

Jan is survived by her husband Robert, son David, and sister Sarah Berner, and two huskies.