News: Education, Professional Development, Research and Theory, ER SIG, STC

STC has an RSS news feed for continuing news: http://www.stc.org/rss/newsfeedreader.asp.

Silicon Valley Chapter education news

August 26. Tiffani Crawford, Education Programs Manager of the Silicon Valley chapter, reports news of the chapter's continuing education programs, STC educational programs, and many other items of interest to practitioners and educators alike. Visit the chapter's August, 2005 newsletter pages for Tiffani's column, "STC Silicon Valley Education Programs News."

Two days dedicated to advancing your career: the STC Training Program

August 14. The STC Training Program is a new learning venue designed for today's professionals and scheduled for October 20 to 21. Plan to attend and enroll in one of the five, concurrent two-day courses covering information needed to advance your career in technical communication. The five two-day courses, described in detail at www.stc.org/training, cover the following subjects:

Integrating technology in the classroom

In an audiocast on ZDNet, "Integrating technology in the classroom," Cornelia Brunner, associate director of the Center for Children and Technology at the non-profit Education Development Center, says today's teachers are not really prepared to teach all computer skills, especially thinking-related skills and media literacy, because the teachers themselves have not been trained in those skills. Topics covered are: how technology is being used in classrooms; how to use computers in more meaningful ways; using technology to teach collaboration; and what types of technology to buy.
http://itpapers.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=139351&promo=200010 (requires registration). from Mariko Nakanishi via the CICSIG list. Posted July 2005.

East Bay Chapter STC Education Activities

The East Bay Chapter has a newly formed College Liaison Committee headed by Gwaltney Mountford. www.ebstc.org/newsletter/0505/chptr_activities2.htm.

The chapter also has a literacy outreach program, which brought technical communication and high school science students together this spring. www.ebstc.org/newsletter/0505/chptr_activities.htm. Posted July 2005.

Membership report

In September 2005, 37 new members joined the Education and Research SIG. As of September 30, the SIG has 740 members.

In August 2005, 22 new members joined the Education and Research SIG. As of August 31, the SIG had 705 members.

In July 2005, 14 new members joined, and as of July 31 the SIG had 683 members.

In May and June 2005, 50 new members joined the Education and Research SIG. As of June 30, the SIG had 669 members, up from 651 members on May 31.

High school team wins awards for technical writing and the design

A team of students from a West Phoenix high school has won a competition for design and performance of an underwater robot, placing first ahead of MIT. The competition is usually among colleges, but the high school students entered because they wanted the challenge. Their technical report also won the first place award. The whole story is reported at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/robot_pr.html. Posted May 2005.

Academic Community forming in STC

Tommy Barker is leading an effort to organize an Academic Community within STC. Tommy conducted two sessions to gather ideas at the May, 2005 STC Annual Conference. One session focused on education and the other on research. Output from those sessions will be posted on this site. If you would like to participate please contact Tommy Barker, thomas.barker@ttu.edu. Posted May 2005.