Room 42

In this episode, we will be exploring genres, media and platforms with Dr Carolyn Miller. Dr Miller is particularly interested in discovering how genres originate and how they shape the ways we think, perceive, act, and communicate.Dr Carolyn Miller is SAS Institute Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric and Technical Communication, Emerita. She is the founding director of NC State’s Ph.D. in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media, and of the M.S. in Technical Communication; she also proposed and taught the first graduate courses for the M.A. option in Rhetoric and Composition, Dr Miller served as Director of Professional Writing and as coordinator of the undergraduate concentration in Writing and Editing (now Rhetoric and Professional Writing). She established and directed the Center for Communication in Science, Technology, and Management and co-directed its successor, the Center for Information Society Studies.  Her professional service includes terms on the governing boards of the American Society for the History of Rhetoric, the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the MLA Division on the History and Theory of Rhetoric and Composition, and the Rhetoric Society of America. She is a past president of the Rhetoric Society of America and was editor of Rhetoric Society Quarterly. She has served on the editorial boards of College Composition and Communication, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and Written Communication.When we name things—trees or tennis or smiles—we are categorizing recognizable patterns: plants, sports, expressions. In categorizing entertainment, we use genre names like thriller, science fiction, or hip-hop to think about film, literature, or music. Genres also describe everyday categories of communication, like thank-you notes, obituaries, or challenge videos, as well as professional communication like progress reports, specifications, and user manuals. Genres are the names we give to the shared patterns of communicative interaction. They are cultural patterns of getting things done together. Calling something a genre involves an assumption that other people will recognize it in the same way, that there’s some social agreement and social utility to sharing that recognition. Digital media have spurred increasing interest in genres because of the possibilities for doing new kinds of things. We did new kinds of things after the invention of the printing press, the telephone, the radio, and probably all communication media. These are the kinds of questions I’ve been exploring: How do genres shape the ways we think, perceive, act, and communicate? How do they affect our resources and constraints as communicators? Where do new genres come from? How do people come to these shared recognitions? How do the social functions of new media emerge from the specific capabilities and limitations of the technology? How are new genres related to old genres—the conventions and habits of expression and interaction that are sedimented in familiar patterns of communication? 

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss how electoral spaces serve as one avenue for technical and professional communicators to demonstrate discipline-in-practice. Isidore K. Dorpenyo is an Associate Professor of Professional Writing and Rhetoric at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He received BA in English at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana (2008) and the MS in Rhetoric and Technical Communication at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI (2013) and his PhD in Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture at Michigan Technological University (2016). His research focuses on election technology, international technical communication, social justice, user experience, public (civic) engagement, and localization. He is the author of the book: User-localization Strategies in the Face of Technological Breakdown. Isidore has co-guest edited two special issues: technical communication, election technology and civic engagement for Technical Communication and enacting social justice in technical communication for IEEE. He has published in Technical Communication Quarterly, Community Literacy Journal, the Journal of Business and Technical Communication, and the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication.A conversation about the intersections among technical communication, election technology, and civic (public) engagement will reveal most of the issues that technical communicators are interested in, namely, social justice, public engagement, user experience, usability, document design, data, visualization, algorithms, localization, etc. This topic remains relevant because our electoral spaces have proven to be the breeding ground for social injustice. If you are in the US, think about the 2020 elections and its many issues; if you are in Ghana, think about the electoral space since 1992. A conversation like this helps to expand the scope of technical communication beyond organizations. Technical communicators in the field can expand the horizon. For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/how-technical-communication-intersects-with-technology-and-civic-engagement/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss how an English Professor ended up in a chicken coop. A humanist, a social scientist, and a nitrogen/ammonia scientist specializing in flow across air, soil, and water systems walk into a poultry house... What happens next?Marybeth Shea teaches advanced composition at the University of Maryland. These courses include professional and technical writing where she typically instructs scientists and engineers in science writing, writing about the environment, and special sections under design for data analysis and computer science students. She has also co-taught special courses on big data and visualization. Recently, Shea developed a gateway course for medical humanities with colleagues in history, languages and literatures, and philosophy. She also consults with scientists – particularly environmental science teams – about communicating their findings for policy.What can an environmental humanist offer to specialized interdisciplinary environmental science for policy deliberation? Scientists use scientific methods; many humanists use stasis theory, a method used by scholars to work on the human dimensions of wicked problems, such as the environmentally destructive ammonia pollution from poultry production on the Delmarva Peninsula. The choices that poultry farmers make can be a large part of the solution to reducing the ammonia pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. But how do you convey the science and the choices in the most effective way? Human values and viewpoints are central to decision making and those are best understood with humanities and social science tools, like Q-Methodology (Q). Using Q, you can probe human subjectivity and gain a deeper insight into priorities and decision making of your audience. In this session, we’ll talk about how humanistic cartoons on cards helped make clear these farmer’s attitudes to themselves, to scientists, and others. Learn how to communicate effectively to the people who hold the power of change; how to craft information that helps them understand the science behind the results of their choices; and how changes can help solve environmental challenges while maintaining their priorities. For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/how-humanities-studies-can-help-scientists-communicate-their-findings/ 

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss the recent trend in risk communication to rely on realism and simulation as a way to communicate a variety of risks. Dr. Daniel P. Richards is an associate professor and associate chair of English at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. He also serves as Chair of ACM SIGDOC. His research focuses on environmental rhetoric, risk communication, the public understanding of science, and the politics of higher education. His most recent project—a project funded through the Department of Defense—applies UX and rhetorical approaches to political negotiation between military readiness and renewable energy development. His work has appeared in Technical Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Contemporary Pragmatism, and several other journals and edited collections. His most recent edited collection, On Teacher Neutrality (2020), is available through Utah State UP.In terms of sea level rise, there has been a trend towards visualizing the effects of water inundation in mainly coastal communities as a way to facilitate understanding and generate action and awareness. Rhetorically, this makes sense. But do we know enough about whether or not realistic visualizations are more effective than less realistic ones? or just data? Are the downsides to using realism, or simulation and, if so, what are they? We discuss how to test these assumptions by applying user experience research to sea level rise visualization tools.For transcript, links, and show notes:  https://tccamp.org/episodes/simulation-or-realism-to-facilitate-understanding-and-generate-action/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss the ways accessible technologies and curriculum are impacting pedagogy and how programs are preparing students for professional spaces beyond their institutions. Dr. Casey McArdle is the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University. He directs the undergraduate programs: Experience Architecture (an undergraduate user experience degree housed in the Arts and Humanities), Professional and Public Writing, and a Minor in Writing. His research is centered around user experience, instructional design, technical communication, rhetoric and writing, accessibility, project management, and online writing instruction. His latest publications include “Finding a Teaching A11y: Designing an Accessibility-Centered Pedagogy” appearing in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, which he co-authored with Kate Sonka and Dr. Liza Potts. His book, Personal, Accessible, Responsive, Strategic: Resources and Strategies for Online Writing Instructors, which he co-authored with Dr. Jessie Borgman, won the 2020 Computers and Composition Distinguished Book Award. The book was followed by their edited collection, PARS In Practice: More Resources and Strategies for Online Writing Instructors. These texts were inspired by the website he co-founded with Dr. Borgman, The Online Writing Instruction Community (owicommunity.org), created in 2015 as an open resource for contingent faculty struggling to find support for teaching writing online.We discuss how using an admin role can better connect faculty (instructors) and students (learners) with innovative spaces that create equitable learning environments while also modeling such practices to be used post graduation.For transcript, links, and show notes:  https://tccamp.org/episodes/how-accessible-technologies-impact-teaching-methodologies-and-practice/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss Laura Gonzales’ forthcoming book, Designing Multilingual Experiences in Technical Communication and how technical communicators can collaborate with translators, interpreters, and multilingual community members to conduct research that is both ethical and justice-driven. Dr. Laura Gonzales is an Assistant Professor of digital writing and cultural rhetorics in the Department of English at the University of Florida. She earned her PhD in Writing and Rhetoric with a concentration in digital rhetoric and professional writing from Michigan State University in 2016. Laura is the author of more than 30 peer-reviewed articles, books, and edited collections focused on issues of language diversity, community engagement, and technical communication. She is the current chair of the Diversity Committee for the Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication and the co-chair of the 2021 Association of Teachers of Technical Writing Conference. Laura is also currently collaborating with multiple community groups and organizations on the design of technical information related to COVID treatment and prevention in Indigenous languages. The book, Designing Multilingual Experiences in Technical Communication, traces Laura’s research with multilingual communities across multiple countries. She discusses how technical communicators can collaborate with translators, interpreters, and multilingual community members to conduct research that is both ethical and justice-driven. This discussion will help technical communicators answer questions such as:How do we conduct research with communities who speak languages other than English?How do we encourage feedback and participation from communities who speak multiple languages?How can technical communicators contribute to the design of multilingual information?What does it mean to design a multilingual experience in a technical communication research context?Why does language matter in technical communication research? For transcript, links, and show notes:   https://tccamp.org/episodes/designing-multilingual-experiences-in-technical-communication

In this episode, Sean Williams explains the critical role that technical communication, working at the edge of marketing, public relations and science communication, plays in environmental action.Sean D. Williams, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Technical Communication and Information Design  (TCID) department at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. TCID is the only stand-alone technical communication department in Colorado, and currently partners with major companies on projects ranging from user experience design to cybersecurity research to designing professional development courses in engineering writing.Sean’s research has taken many forms over the years, beginning with information architecture in complex web environments to social media in technology start-ups and user experience design for 3D virtual reality. Most recently, his work focuses on user experience design in environmental communication, where his central focus is understanding how best to communicate science to drive personal conservation behaviors and public policy changes. His new book, Technical Communication for Environmental Action, (SUNY Press) due out in fall of 2022 investigates this question in detail and presents essays from 12 notable scholars who write about the intersections of environmental communication, science, and social justice.In addition to his work in the academic sector, Sean has been a founder or co-founder of four technology start-up companies, and he has consulted extensively with industry clients on a range of projects that include electronic health care records, intranet redesign, corporate training design, and usability assessments of mobile cybersecurity software. In this episode of Room 42 we discuss Sean’s recent research with water companies to describe the critical role that technical communication can play for environmental action and how technical communication might work at the edge of marketing, public relations and science communication. He will also reflect on recent advances in technical communication that connect issues of social justice and environmental justice, specifically with respect to how we use, allocate, and access water.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/how-technical-communication-can-impact-climate-change/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss why Professional Communication and Translation is more than written language. Dr. Rosário Durão is an Associate Professor at New Mexico Tech (NMT) where she teaches courses in Visual Communication and Graphic Design, International Professional Communication, Design Thinking for Innovation Lab, Branding and Social Media, to name a few. She received her PhD from the Open University, Portugal, with a specialization inTranslation Studies. Her dissertation was on “Scientific and technical translation: Proposal for training multicompetent translators specialized in producing scientific and technical documentation from English to Portuguese.” Rosário is currently completing the Graphic and Digital Design Certificate program from Parsons School of Design. She was the founding editor of Confluências, an e-journal dedicated to technical and scientific translation between 2003 and 2006, and the, also digital, connexions •  international professional communication journal between 2013 and 2018. She coedited connexions with Kyle Mattson from the University of Central Arkansas from 2014 to 2018. From mid 2014 to the end of 2018, she also coordinated the multinational VISTAC - Visualizing Science and Technology Across Cultures research project at NMT.Communication is always between people, no matter how many tools and technologies mediate it, and that, if it is to work, communication must truly meet the needs, expectations, and contexts of the people receiving it. She will also share some ways for researchers and instructors to be more in sync with the world around us, in particular (a) observing professionals in their workplaces (what they do throughout their days, the tools they use and how they use them, the role of sketching, designing, body language, as well as their role and interactions with video, blog posts, slideshows, graphs, document layout, communication design, and many other visual components), (b) understanding how individual and group cultures and nationalities shape the way people think and deploy verbal-visual language, especially the visual component, and (c) making sure that every one of us has as high a level of visual literacy as written, oral, electronic, and nonverbal—both theoretical and, most importantly, practical —for only then can we truly understand and convey the evolving role of visuals in communicating science, humanities, technology, engineering, arts, and business between people within specific languages, cultures and nationalities, and across different languages, cultures and nationalities.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/professional-communication-and-translation-its-more-than-written-language/

In this episode of Room 42 the conversation will range in unpredictable ways across questions about our built symbolic environment, drawing on Dr Charles Bazerman's textual historical, quantitative, qualitative and theoretical inquiries.Charles Bazerman is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Education at the University of California Santa Barbara. As a teacher of writing he started to wonder what writing was and how they learned to do it. One thing led to another and he began investigating what kind of writing people actually needed to do in their lives; what their writing accomplishes; what forms of writing have made possible the advance of science, technology and domains of knowledge; how writing has changed society since its invention; how writers develop over their lifespans; and what happens to them as people as they develop as writers. Such questions led him into many corners of writing which he gradually came to see within a larger architecture of our social arrangements and communicative infrastructure, but still wondering what writing is, how people learn to do it, and what impact it has on people and society.  Among his books are Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Research Article in Science; The Languages of Edison’s Light; and A Rhetoric of Literate Action. He has concluded that we live and navigate our way in a built symbolic environment. This built symbolic environment has become more extensive, enduring, and dense in the last five thousand years since the invention of literacy. Since then, reading and writing have transformed who we are and are becoming, as individuals and communities. Further, successful living in the contemporary world has come to depend on our skill in writing ourselves into the built symbolic environment, either directly or indirectly. This resource of skill in writing, however, is not equitably distributed, reinforcing disparities in being able to assert interests and power within the communicative infrastructure of society.  It is, therefore, imperative that all are given the opportunity to become more knowledgeable, skilled, and intentional about the literate world so as to be able to make successful rhetorical choices and participate more fully within the built symbolic environment.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/the-built-symbolic-environment-words-to-live-by/ 

In this episode, Diana Awad Scrocco discusses how to improve the transfer of expertise and expert knowledge to new learners.Dr. Diana Awad Scrocco is an Associate Professor of English at Youngstown State University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in professional and technical writing, writing pedagogy and research methods, and healthcare communication. She is currently the director of the Professional and Technical Writing Program. Before coming to Youngstown State University, she earned a Ph.D. in Literacy, Rhetoric, and Social Practice from Kent State University and collaborated with Joanna Wolfe at Carnegie Mellon University to establish the first communication center on the campus.Dr. Awad Scrocco’s recent research has appeared in Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, Journal of Argumentation in Context, and Communication and Medicine. Her 2012 article in Teaching English in the Two-Year College titled, “Do You Care to Add Something? Articulating the Student Interlocutor’s Voice in Writing Response Dialogue,” examines how written teacher comments on student drafts can encourage student writers to consider plans for revision; this article won the 2013 Mark Reynolds TETYC Best Article Award. Currently, she is working on a project exploring how experienced tutors support novice tutors while using an innovative tutoring model at the Carnegie Mellon writing center. Her article titled, “What’s Your Plan for the Consultation? Examining Alignment Between Tutor-Supervisor Session Plans and Tutor-Writer Session Conversations” is currently under review.Although Dr. Awad Scrocco conducts research in a range of academic and professional settings, including the composition classroom, writing center, and teaching hospital, the common thread running through these research contexts is expert-novice interaction and feedback. For instance, an article from her dissertation research on preceptor-resident physician conversations in a teaching hospital analyzes how expert physicians draw on common lines of argument to explicate notions and engage novices in clinical deliberation. Another publication from this study investigates how expert physicians actively engage novices in clinical decision-making by using guided, open-ended questions, proposals, and assessments. Dr. Awad Scrocco’s research suggests that expert feedback across diverse contexts includes some common features, providing insight into how experts can engage novices in learning irrespective of the teaching environment.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/improving-communication-between-experts-and-novices 

In this episode, we sit down with a group of very talented and tenured editors. They share what it takes to make an editor and the impact the role has in enhancing and elevating the overall quality of the entire team. Sure, they know grammar and punctuation and they can spot errors with a keen well trained analytical eye. But they also see the big picture of the overall content strategy and how it works with the corporate strategy. They have a fine-tuned ear for language and make sure that content created by many sounds as unified as content created by one. The versatility of a seasoned editor goes far beyond just editing, this person can be a big asset to your team.If you care about accuracy, consistency, and clarity, and if you want a stronger writing team, then you must have an editor on your team.We talk with Edna Smith, Li-At Rathbun, Sherri Leah Henkin, Kelly Schrank and Dr. George Hayhoe. For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/why-do-we-need-an-editor-on-the-team/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss teaching and research that have orbited the intersection of technical and professional writing and user experience throughout Bill’s 20-year career. Dr. Bill Hart-Davidson is a Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Composition from Purdue University. Bill is also a Senior Researcher in the Writing in Digital Environments Research Center. He is a co-inventor of Eli Review, a software service that supports writing instruction and co-founder of Drawbridge, a learning technology company.Major themes in his research include improving feedback cultures as a means to see better outcomes in learning in clinical and public health. Bill's work explores the ways feedback, revision, and reuse can be trained and/or automated using machine-learning technologies. In his most recent book, RhetOps: Rhetoric and Information Warfare, he and Jim Ridolfo explore how state and non-state actors leverage digital rhetorical practices to weaponize and use it in campaigns of disinformation. Bill's current work in health services shines a light on the bright side of communication and includes a multi-site clinical trial evaluating a combined patient activation, shared-decision making and m-health intervention and its ability to reduce risk in patients. In this trial, all the interventions, all of the new "medicine" are changes in communication practices. The results so far are fascinating.  For transcript, links, and show notes:  https://tccamp.org/episodes/communication-is-the-medicine

Partnering for Inclusive LanguageIn this episode of Green Room 42, practicing professionals from technical and professional communications fields come together to discuss how inclusive language impacts their work. We share some common mistakes and some of the ways we can partner to develop Industry-wide standards for Inclusive Language with helpful lists and positive alternatives. Janice Summers and Liz Fraley speak with Larry Kunz, Steven Jong, Karsten Wade, and Dr. Lucía Dura. For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/words-have-meaning-partnering-for-inclusive-language/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss  the vast challenges of designing, conducting, analyzing, and delivering outcomes of projects that cross national borders. Dr. Nancy Small is an Assistant Professor of English and the Director of First Year Writing at the University of Wyoming. She joined UW as a tenure-track faculty in 2016, after 25 years on the teaching faculty at Texas A&M. The last six of those were spent at the branch campus in Qatar. Her work has been published in journals such as Peitho: Journal of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric & Composition, the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, and the Journal of Usability Studies as well as in scholarly books about transnational and intercultural issues such as The Routledge Handbook to Communication and Gender and Western Higher Education in Asia and the Middle East: Politics, Economics, and Pedagogy. Her monograph, Feminist Sensemaking through Storytelling: USAmerican Women in Qatar, is based on ethnographic research of the white expatriate community during her six years living and working in the Middle East. Her current projects include an article on reading handmade material artifacts as textual memoirs of their erased makers, and a book-length project on rhetoric, place making, and public memory in the USAmerican West. In support of this last project, she received a spring 2021 fellowship with the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research.Dr. Bernadette Longo is an associate professor in the Department of Humanities at New Jersey Institute of Technology. She is the author of Spurious Coin: A History of Science, Management, and Technical Writing (SUNY Press, 2000), Edmund Berkeley and the Social Responsibility of Computer Professionals (ACM Press, 2015), and Words and Power: Computers, Language, and U.S. Cold War Values (Springer Press, forthcoming 2021). She is the co-editor of Critical Power Tools: Technical Communication and Cultural Studies (SUNY Press, 2006) and The IEEE Guide to Writing in the Engineering and Technical Fields (IEEE Press, 2017). Dr. Longo has also written and presented numerous journal articles and conference papers. She currently enjoys life by a small lake in New Jersey.Nancy and Bernadette have witnessed first hand the legal, practical, and ethical challenges that emerge even during activities that seem relatively simple and straightforward. They will share a sampling of the stories of difficulties technical and professional communication (TPC) researchers and practitioners have faced, their strategies for navigating those challenges, and their reflections over how their projects changed or even failed. In this episode of Room 42, we’ll hear about their book, "Transnational Research in Technical Communication: Realities and Reflections,” a collection of stories from the trenches.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/strategies-for-navigating-transnational-projects/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss complexities in internal corporate communications. Eric James discusses identity, work, and wellness and the role communication plays in workplace health/lifestyle promotion and managerial control. We look at workplace wellness as a model for communication with content consumers. Dr. Eric P. James has always been good at asking questions, often seeing multiple-sides to complex issues. Eric is an Associate Professor in the Communication Studies Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He researches issues relating to workplace wellness, organizational identity, and control. He asks questions about the consequences of the ever-present creeping arm of managerial control. He has been published in a variety of outlets including the Journal of Applied Communication Research and Management Communication Quarterly.With workplace wellness growing in popularity throughout the corporate landscape, it seems almost more rare for an organization not to have employee wellness practices. With more and more employers adopting wellness and fitness for their employees, we discuss the implications and consequences of workplace wellness using white-collar and blue-collar case-studies and various “extreme” cases of workplace health/lifestyle promotion. We discuss the role of our employer in maintaining the health of employees. We explore the relationship between work, worker identities and wellness and the role that communication plays in all of it.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/are-your-best-intentions-causing-harm/ 

In this episode of Room 42, we discuss how to best understand how people communicate, coordinate, and collaborate at work. Clay Spinuzzi is a professor of rhetoric and writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He studies how people organize, communicate, collaborate, and innovate at work. Spinuzzi has conducted multiple workplace studies, resulting in several articles and four books: Tracing Genres through Organizations (MIT Press, 2003); Network (Cambridge University Press, 2008); Topsight 2.0 (Urso Press, 2018); and All Edge (University of Chicago Press, 2015). He blogs at spinuzzi.blogspot.com.For the last 25 years, Clay Spinuzzi has been conducting qualitative investigations into how people work. Using a qualitative case study approach based in sociocultural theory, Spinuzzi has studied the work of software developers, traffic safety workers, telecommunications workers, freelancers, SEO specialists, and early-stage technology entrepreneurs. Spinuzzi has conducted these investigations using an approach called topsight, which involves collecting qualitative data (observations, interviews, documents and other artifacts), then modeling relationships among them. The result is a robust audience analysis in which investigators better understand the people, tools, and objectives of a given organization as well as places where these people, tools, and objectives conflict or just don't match. This approach is the topic of his book Topsight 2.0, an easy-to-use guide for practitioners and students who want to understand information flow in organizations. In this episode of Room 42, we'll discuss Spinuzzi's research approach, drawing examples from his many studies.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/audience-analysis-through-relationship-modeling 

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss the semantic shift from user to human which has created a space in which the people, the audiences, that we create content for have more depth and diversity than those of us in technical communication used to focus on. Dawn M. Armfield, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Technical Communication in the Department of English where she teaches usability, user experience, research methods, visual communication in technical communication, instructional design, travel writing, and prototyping. Her research focus is on human-centered design in emerging, immersive, and embodied technologies with a focus on empathy and ethics. She has published in interdisciplinary fields with emphasis in emerging technologies, visual communications, online collaborations, and educational technologies. Her most recent publication is a co-authored chapter, “Human-centered content design in augmented reality.”​ Prior to becoming a professor, she was an instructional technologist, systems analyst, project manager, and web content developer.In order to create spaces, documents, and environments that appeal to that diversity, we need to look at the ways people connect with one another, the problems that arise in those connections, and the solutions that we can deliver. By incorporating empathy and ethical studies into our practices, we can create information for real humans rather than monolithic audiences.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/ethics-and-empathy-in-technical-communication 

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss discursive affordances, network-building, and cultivating fan bases! Social media technologies are often considered a marketing tool in the Technical Communications community. Dr. Huatong Sun (huatongs@gmail.com) is Associate Professor of Digital Media and Global User Experience Design at University of Washington Tacoma. She studies how to design and innovate for usable, meaningful, and empowering technology to bridge differences in a globalized world. Book author of “Cross-Cultural Technology Design” (2012) and “Global Social Media Design” (2020) from Oxford University Press, she writes for pubic media including Fast Company and The Conversation, speaks at SXSW, STC, UXPA, CHI, and ATTW, and offers workshops at local SIGs and international conferences. Thinking about some tools as being only for marketing limits our ability to take into consideration the transformative power to restructure our networks and build new platforms globally that are inclusive. Huatong Sun discusses some of her transnational fieldwork findings elaborated in her recent book “Global Social Media Design.” We review the iterations of her course “social media”, that she has been giving for the past eight years and  discuss the strategies of splicing networks and cultivating fan bases with social media technologies that are globally robust, i.e., designing for inclusivity by engaging cultural differences and nourishing differences into the design resources.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/what-social-media-means-for-technical-communicators

In this episode, we discuss  how readers define documentation quality is being used by technical communication departments around the world to collect meaningful and actionable feedback, and provide reliable methods and metrics for measuring documentation quality. Yoel Strimling has been spinning straw into gold for over 20 years, and currently works as the Senior Technical Editor/Documentation Quality SME for CEVA Inc. in Herzelia Pituach, Israel. Over the course of his career, he has successfully improved the content, writing style, and look and feel of his employers’ most important and most used customer-facing documentation by researching and applying the principles of documentation quality and survey design. Yoel is an STC Associate Fellow, a member of tekom Israel, and the editor of Corrigo, the official publication of the STC Technical Editing SIG.For the past seven years, Yoel has been researching these questions. As a practicing technical editor, he doesn’t always have time available to investigate what readers want. But as a “reader advocate”, he feels that it is critical that technical communicators have solid and empirical evidence to help them do their jobs better.As technical communicators, we put a lot of time and effort into creating the highest-quality documentation we can. We write because we want to help our readers do the tasks they need to do or understand the concepts they need to know. But what do we mean when we talk about “documentation quality”? What do our readers mean when they talk about it? And is it the same thing we mean?For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/what-does-documentation-quality-really-mean-and-how-do-we-improve-it/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss Audio Description. Audio Description is the remediation of visual media, such as photographs, into audible media, primarily for the benefit of people who are blind or have low vision. Dr. Brett Oppegaard, Ph.D., University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, researches digital media at intersections of technical communication, disability studies, mobile technologies, digital inequalities, and journalism. He teaches about news literacy, multimedia production, media accessibility, and media entrepreneurship, including within his two primary areas of scholarly expertise: Locative Media, or place-connected media, and Audio Description, which is the remediation of visual media into audible media for people who are blind or have low-vision. He worked for more than a decade as a staff newspaper writer, including as an arts critic, in the Portland, OR, area. He also has worked with a variety of publications since then, primarily as a freelance writer. He has been the Undergraduate Chair of UH’s Journalism Program since Fall 2019. His research has been supported by the U.S. National Park Service, the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, and Google, among others.Research about this topic is complex and interdisciplinary, opening many fertile paths of inquiry, from multiple perspectives. Those include research related to compositional strategies, description genres, mediums, media technologies, reception studies, social inclusion, health benefits, etc.As a part of this research, Dr. Oppegaard hosts Descriptathons, which are hackathon-like events, bringing people together to learn about Audio Description basics, practice Audio Description, create audio-described public products, such as audio-described brochures, and simultaneously creating research data about Audio Description processes and products that can be analyzed and reported upon.For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/how-audio-description-improves-accessibility-for-visual-media/