April 5th

The Future of Technical Communication
Albers

“…practically all technical communicators consider technology essential to their jobs. Interestingly, except for single sourcing and content management, they all tend to simply accept the technology without considering how it shapes how technical communicators interact.”

That is both understandable and baffling. Where is that keen objective critical thinking us Liberal Arts majors are supposed to have? Eh.

“…there is a strong resistance to teaching tools. Because the tools change so rapidly, the practicality of teaching specific tools is suspect.”

Even though later on in this paragraph Albers and I seem to see eye to eye on this issue I must comment. I see this as one issue I can relate to his school’s students about. How incredibly foolish these teachers Albers speaks of come across. Yes, technology or tools change and rapidly even but the basic ideas behind them all are related. Learning these tools and technologies are just as relevant to the educational foundation that any theory course would provide in any liberal arts program or TC program. The students can get exposure to things they may never heard of before; things that employers want job candidates to know – and they can learn and grow on their own as these tools and technologies change. It is all about getting experience and exposure developing the tools to adapt and learn away from the classroom, right? Heck, our views on a lot of science, theory, literature, pedagogy, et al have altered over time and generations, right – so where is the uproar over that?

The point of any program that is not vocational training is, or ought to be, about laying a foundation of education – broad enough even to serve as a jumping off point where the student can independently grow and gather experience.

Technical Communication in the 21st Century
Killingsworth

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The Future of Technical Communication
Giammona

There may not be a future for technical communication as I learned last week. It’s unfortunate.
I am a dinosaur and I am not yet 30 years old. I remember a time without the internet and I still buy cds and own vinyl – and yes, I believe in reading, writing and editing skills. I must not use technology in the same fashion as my fellow Gen-Xers or Gen-Yers (whichever generation label I fall under). All of this doom in gloom in 2002? This is so far a very gloomy read. No offense Neil Perlin, but I like artsy cubicle but I agree if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work.
If the point of this is to encourage it just makes things more uncomfortable. If reading this is to be a sober reminder of the future then it has worked. Excuse me while I slit my wrists and update my resume.