M-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications

Ellis Pratt of Cherryleaf was kind enough to use my blog as an example in his latest STC Notebook article. It's a good article, too, even without the mention of my website! Do read this article--it's good reading. 

Thanks, Ellis! :-)
--techcommgeekmom 

This is a great article by Joel Kline, who is someone I met and chatted quite a bit with at the STC Summit. Joel makes an excellent case here on how social media and websites should be used cohesively. In the end, it's still about knowing your audience! A must read!
--techcommgeekmom 

Check out the last listing on this article for "low unemployment" degree--it mentions tech comm! As RJ Jacquez would say, this bodes well for technical communication. :-)
--techcommgeekmom 

There are good points made on both sides of this argument in this article. As the mother of a special needs child, cursive is not for everyone. While my son has learned cursive, he doesn't prefer it, and his keyboarding skills are improving all the time. While I can write in cursive just fine, I find that I'm the opposite of the little girl in the story who won a cursive writing award. She felt that her creativity came out more with cursive. For me, that could be further from the truth, and I think it's the same with my son. Because my keyboarding skills have gotten better and better over the years, I am able to express myself much better when using a keyboard, as my thoughts come out more quickly than if I was using any kind of handwriting. I find this to be true with my son. Additionally, as voice-activated technology gets better and better, that might even replace keyboarding as an option more and more. 

As one person in the article said, just because we don't use Roman numerals all the time doesn't mean that we shouldn't learn math. Handwriting is all about interfaces, and technology changes those interfaces. I mean, if we didn't have print letters, we'd be still be reading handwritten texts from the monasteries of medieval times, and we wouldn't have the widespread global literacy rates that we have as compared to hundreds of years ago! Time will tell what impact current technology will have on literacy and creativity. 

--techcommgeekmom

Darin Hammond has done it again. If you haven't noticed, he's becoming one of MY favorite bloggers. This article truly explains why I do what I do, and why he does what he does. It's totally correct its point. We don't do it for the money (although that would be nice to be making a living doing what we do--maybe someday, Darin!), but for the sheer thrill of sharing and bringing together a community. I'm learning a lot from his blog--go bookmark it in your browser now (after bookmarking this one)!

--techcommgeekmom

Darin Hammond hits it on the head again! I have written in the past about how I thought I was a sub-standard writer because I couldn't write the kind of flowery language that was required of me in school, and yet it turns out that I was on the right track with what came instinctually to me all along. Thanks for the reinforcement, Darin! This is truly what technical communicators need to keep in mind, and it's what we need to teach our children so that they can be better professional writers, no matter what field they enter. 

--techcommgeekmom

RJ Jacquez it at it again--reminding us that the mobile revolution is not over yet! These stats are very important, because it shows that mobile technology isn't a fad or going away anytime soon. While m-learning is an important factor, I'm starting to see how mobile is going to impact all aspects of life's documentation and content. I hope to write more about that soon. 
--techcommgeekmom 

This one comes from @ProEdit by way of @edudemic.  Even though I might not be writing many academic/professional papers these days, I think it's good to know how to do these citations properly. The world is changing where content does come from social media, so it's important to know how to do such citations. 

--techcommgeekmom

This is why I love iPads so much. I think it opens up whole new worlds not only for non-verbal autistics like the boy in this story, but also those who are verbal, like my high-functioning son. I still believe that tablets--especially iPads--are still the tools that will help the most with aiding special needs kids communicate and participate in society. 

--techcommgeekmom

I am all too familiar with the concept of neurodiversity, even before learning about the movement due to my son's issues. My father, now a retired educator, was fascinated with "learning styles' as they related to the concepts portrayed in this article, and the issues I had in school, as well as those my son has now, make me fully aware of this. 

Those who are in e-learning, m-learning and tech comm should read this article. It helps to provide a mental framework for understanding who needs to be reached in a broad audience, and how different methods can be beneficial in the output of content. 

--techcommgeekmom

A great article from Scott Abel. It's amazing to think that content strategy just isn't thought about much, yet it truly needs to be the backbone of all information output. I can attest from my own experiences at various companies that this is true, or it's not done as fully as it should be. I know I'm trying to do my part at the job I have right now to get people think about content strategy for various microsites that I work on. 

Great information to think about!

--techcommgeekmom 

My friend, Ben Woelk, posted this on Facebook. This is a great promotion for technical communicators! Hoping to make the big bucks myself one day!
--techcommgeekmom 

This TechWhirl article by Jacquie Samuels is completely on target, from what I can see. Everything she says here encompasses so much of what I was hearing from the buzz both at the STC Summit and what I hear online. Excellent, excellent summary. This is the direction all tech comm brains should going towards.

--techcommgeekmom

I am so thrilled to see this! This is exactly the sort of thing that m-learning is about. Somebody finally got the memo! Okay, I'm sure that somebody else out there got the memo too, but this is exactly what many m-learning evangelists have been preaching about for more than a year. Look at that mobile interactive learning! It's awesome! Think of all the applications! 

In my imagination, this is where we should have always been going with m-learning, especially when it comes to engineering maintenance of any kind. How many how-to videos have you seen? This is just a variation of that, but takes it to a new level. Kudos to this company--keep it up! 

--techcommgeekmom

This great article was brought to my attention by my new friend, Joel Kline, who I met at STC Summit '13. It definitely is something that I can see being a next step. The question is, how do you think it will affect technical communications? I imagine it will have a big impact once the technology is actually there. 

--techcommgeekmom

This article comes to us courtesy of @AMAnet. For anyone who says that there are no such things as learning styles, I respectfully disagree. When you work with children or adults who have learning difficulties, these learning styles become much more apparent, and one learns not to take these cognitive instincts for granted. I know I don't!
--techcommgeekmom