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Co-manager’s report Q3 2017

By Lori Meyer

Hi, IDL SIG members and friends.

This is an exciting time for technical communicators. The greater number and variety of jobs in both techcomm and instructional design is encouraging. Our vibrant SIG chapter is as active as ever, and we have the recognition to prove it: In 2017, we were named an STC Platinum community!  We want you to stay with us in 2018 and continue to be part of our value-adding, award-winning community. And if you haven’t joined us yet, we invite you to become a new members in 2018!  

Here are some examples of how you can benefit from being an IDL SIG member:

  • Our quarterly newsletter, IDeal: Design for Learning, provides an in-depth look at the topics of interest to technical communicators and instructional designers, provides member profiles, and offers useful articles about the tools and technologies that are helping us grow as professionals.
  • Our SIG web site provides valuable information about what is happening in our community, as well as in STC and the profession. We welcome contributions from our members!   
  • You can attend the STC annual Summit conference at member rates, attend our SIG annual business meeting and breakfast, and meet your SIG leaders and fellow SIG members. Summit 2018 will be held May 20 – 23, 2018, in Orlando, FL. Find out more about Summit at http://summit.stc.org.

I recently completed 33 years of membership in STC, and am grateful to be part of a community of professionals who have become my colleagues, friends, and teachers. I hope you will see STC’s staying power in YOUR professional life as well…and that you will say Yes to renewal in 2018!  For more information about STC membership in general, visit the membership page on the STC web site at http://stc.org,  and click Join or Renew along the top navigation bar. When you join or renew, be sure to choose IDL SIG as one of your communities. Note: If you choose Gold membership, your membership dues automatically include ALL SIGs.

If you have any questions or concerns about your membership, please feel free to contact us at manager@sigidlsig.org. We love talking about STC and our SIG, and would be happy to answer any questions you have, or guide you to resources you need.

On behalf of our more than 400 SIG members, thank you for being part of STC and our SIG. We look forward to having you as a member in 2018!

 

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Secretary’s Column Q3 2017

By Marcia Shannon

Membership in the IDL SIG is one of the best avenues to sharpening your skills and honing your craft. It may have been summer in the Northern Hemisphere, but the learning didn’t stop for us. In August, Phil Havlik presented his  “Digital Citizenship in an Online World” webinar. Chuck Campbell gave us  “Create Presentation Handouts That People Will Actually Use”. If you did not attend, the recordings are available free to everyone.

In September, we moved from Adobe Connect to GoToMeeting for the monthly meeting. Among other benefits, the GoToMeeting platform works well with headphones and provides space for participants to be seen via webcam. We were too shy to use that feature at the last meeting – maybe we’ll try it during the October meeting.

All SIG members are welcome at the monthly meetings on the third Thursday, 7:30 p.m. (Eastern). With elections coming up, now is a good time to get acquainted with candidates and explore how you can participate in the SIG.

STC Membership Annual Renewal is now open. The STC and IDL SIG are stronger when we have a wide and committed membership, so encourage your colleagues to join both. Ask if your employer will subsidize some or all of the cost; you and your company will find that the benefits of membership are well worth the cost.

 

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Student Outreach Competition 2017

By Sylvia Miller

We are inviting  graduate and undergraduate students to submit essays to our 2nd Student Essay Competition. We are encouraging students  to become published before graduating. Here some competition details:

  • Both undergraduate or graduate students may submit an original article to us about some aspect of instructional design.
  • If we choose to publish it in our newsletter, IDeaL: Design for Learning, the student receives a complimentary STC student membership, which includes membership to the IDL Special Interest Group (SIG).
  • Students do not have to be enrolled in a program related to instructional design to submit an article.
  • If the evaluation panel deems the work to be of possible value to the STC’s Technical Communication Body of Knowledge (TCBOK), the panel, with the student’s permission, will submit the work to the TCBok for consideration.  If the article is  included in the TCBOK, he or she earns an additional year of STC/IDL membership (or an equivalent award if they no longer qualify for student membership because they’ve graduated).

Once published, students can link to their article from their résumé and on their LinkedIn profile page, gaining an edge in becoming employed after graduation. See our Q1 2017 and Q2 2017 newsletters for examples of articles by students who have already taken advantage of this program.

The entry packet with more information is available at: http://www.stcidlsig.org/students/youcanbepublished/ .

 

The deadline for submissions is December 10, 2017.

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October 12, 2017 “Your Brain on Powerpoint: Better Presentations Through Science” with Robert Hershenow

Join us for “Your Brain on PowerPoint: Better Presentations Through Science” with Robert Hershenow.

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

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Register on Eventbrite.

About the webinar

The last twenty years have brought tremendous advances in our understanding of the human brain, much of which can be applied to learning. In this webinar we’ll explore what goes on in our heads when we design, create, deliver, and view a slideshow presentation, with focus on maximizing audience engagement and information transfer. Expect a lively, entertaining session with time for Q&A. A handout will be provided.

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

Those who create and deliver presentations to live audiences.

The content will be introductory (e.g., > “101 level”)

About the Speaker: Robert Hershenow

Robert Hershenow has worked in tech comm for more than twenty-five years. He is a self-described PowerPoint evangelist and past co-manager of the IDL SIG. He lives happily in the San Francisco Bay Area where he plays music and can ride his bike to work (exercise is good for the brain!).

Register on Eventbrite.

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The Saturday Series from the STC Puget Sound Chapter

Join the STC Puget Sound Chapter for their Saturday Series of webinars, free to members.

Find out more and register on their site http://www.stc-psc.org/the-saturday-series/

Overview

The Saturday Series are three, free, online introductory sessions to help new Tech Comm graduates or those returning to the workforce after an extended absence, gain some knowledge and exposure to common tools they are expected to know and use in their work. These tools are not generally taught in any technical communication program and yet they are important for new communicators to be familiar with when beginning a new position.

When: They are held on the 3rd Saturday of each month from Sept-Nov.

Time: 10 am- 12 noon PST (or earlier)

Format

There are no books, PPT slides, or other materials, which is why the training is free. The format for these session will be as follows:

  • Review the tool in general and discuss its basic uses
  • Demonstrate how to perform basic tasks
  • Review best practices when appropriate
  • Q&A regarding the content covered
  • General Q&A regarding the tool

Long Term Plans for Saturday Sessions

If these sessions prove to be successful, (they are well attended and reviewed), we’ll continue to hold them and try to involve other trainers who want to donate their time in this format. For the first three sessions, Lin Laurie will donate her time as the  presenter/trainer.

Each class is approximately 2 hours or less and consists of an informal formal of a demonstration of a series of tasks and then open Q&A for the remainder of the scheduled time.

  • September 23rd Session 1: Introducing the latest version of SnagIt. SnagIt is a low cost, screen capture, mobile capture, and video recording tool on the market with a price-point under $50. It is so sophisticated it can take the place of most of what Adobe PhotoShop would do for the average tech communicator’s needs. Did you know you could create custom profiles and add settings like borders, image size reductions, and more so you can quickly take images without having to tinker with them? Or that you could set up SnagIt to copy your screenshots directly into a Word or other document (with borders) so you can skip a lot of repetitious and boring steps on the way to getting beautiful screenshots? Learn the best ways to use the tool, create your own customized profiles to suit your needs, automatically generate standard screen shots with boarders and other effects, convert batches of graphics, customize your workspace, and more. Also learn some basic best practices regarding how to take good screenshots, good border settings, and general good habits.
    Even if you’re an experienced SnagIt user, this course is guaranteed to teach you some new tricks! Register here.
  • October 21st Session 2: Introducing SharePoint. SharePoint is a collaborative environment that allows teams to share and manage documents across internet and intranets, and is popular in most companies. Learn how to navigate around in it, how to check files in and out, delete and add files, and some of its other basic functionality. This session will show you some other skills that will help you when you first use SharePoint. You should take this class if you’ve never seen a SharePoint site or if you want to increase your understanding of how they function. Register here.
  • November 18th Session 3: Learn to use Word like a Boss! Transform your basic Word skills into mastery.
    Learn to generate a table of contents based on built-in styles, use styles, move styles between documents, add ctrl keys to styles, and much more. If you have been using Word for years but can’t auto-generate a table of contents or can’t change the look of your document by making a change to one style (basically 1-click) then you should attend this class! In addition, we’ll be doing some work with the index and TOC and showing you why you should turn off paragraph markers when you generate these items, and much more. This will be a jam-packed session! Register here. 

Trainers Note: I used to teach Advanced Word at a junior college for five years and I found that about 20% of the students who took that class were not of an advanced level. They confused the length of time they used Word with the level of user that they were. But if you use a tool repeatedly for 1 year or 20 but never advance in your understanding of the tool, you never become an advanced use, just an experienced beginner. That goes for any of the sessions above. If you have used SnagIt, for instance, for years but never advanced beyond basic screen capturing, then you should check out the class.

These classes will be open to STC National so you will need to sign-up quickly using Eventbrite, and because seating is limited, if you decide that you can’t attend, please release your ticket so someone else can attend in your place.

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