Diversity, Community, and Technology: A Workshop for New and Veteran Teachers of Technical and Professional Communication

Background

Many teachers new to Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) have backgrounds in rhetoric, composition, or literature. Differences between TPC and other writing-intensive curricula can generate productive distinctions. Although TPC functions in organizational, professional, and workplace environments, it often intersects with those humanistic impulses. These are important contexts, while pressing "what-can-I-do-Monday-morning?" issues such as assessment, classroom management, and textbook selection compete for daily, practical attention.

This workshop recognizes the boundaries that mark TPC work and the field's intersections with humanistic values, while providing the pragmatic planning tools teachers need in order to imagine, design, and deliver their TPC courses and programs.

Workshop Framework

We provide materials, assignments, syllabi, and scenarios framed by practical constraints using three areas that we find to be of pressing need in teaching TPC:

• Teaching Technical-Professional Communication in a Diverse Classroom 
• Community Literacy and Service Learning as Sites for Non-Academic Communication Teaching and Learning
• Web 2.0: Building Community and Seeing Process through Web Technologies

Workshop Schedule

Following a brief overview, participants will join one of three subject areas, and working within the framework, will develop classroom management strategies and assignments. Our format ensures that participants may participate in each of three workshops:

Introductory Speaker:
Michael Moore provides an overview of the session and briefly discusses the TPC frameworks