Jason W. Ellis and Olga Menagarishvili will lead a discussion on digital literacy and social media issues for technical communicators in this week’s seminar.
How does digital literacy in general and social media more specifically figure into the Technical Communication classroom? Should we challenge our Technical Communication students to be more mindful of the use of online technologies considering the erosion of private/workplace boundaries? How might we approach, teach, and assess student use of social media as a technical communicator? We aim to address these questions and other questions that you might have in this week’s Technical Communication seminar. Through discussion and interactive exercises, we hope to form new approaches to address issues of digital literacy and social media use in the Technical Communication course.
Before arriving to our seminar, please upload one technology-literacy related assignment that you have used or plan to use this semester to T-Square > Brittain Fellows > Resources > TechComm Digital Literacy Assignments.
In addition to preparing for the seminar by completing the readings listed below, we ask that all members bring a laptop to our meeting for the interactive exercises.
Required readings:
Kastman Breuch, Lee-Ann. “Thinking Critically about Technological Literacy: Developing a Framework to Guide Computer Pedagogy in Technical Communication.” Teaching Technical Communication: Critical Issues for the Classroom. Ed. James M. Dubinsky. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 481-499. Print.
Lanier, Clinton R. “Analysis of the Skills Called for by Technical Communication Employers in Recruitment Postings.” Technical Communication 56.1 (February 2009): 51-61. IngentaConnect. Web. 31 August 2012.
Rife, Martine Courant. “Technical Communicators and Digital Writing Risk Assessment.” Technical Communication 54.2 (May 2007): 157-170. IngentaConnect. Web. 31 August 2012.
Swarts, Jason. “Technological Literacy as Network Building.” Technical Communication Quarterly 20.3 (2011): 274-302. Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 30 August 2012. (Please skim and focus on the result tables and conclusion–we can let this essay inform our general discussion on technological literacies.)
Online resources for student exercises:
Wolfram|Alpha Personal Analytics (for Facebook)
The Open University Privacy Game
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