Metaphor, frame, and nonverbal communication: an ethnographic studyof a technical writing classroom

Professional educational philosophers C.A. Bowers and D.J. Flinders (1990) describe the classroom as an ecology comprising interrelated linguistic and cultural patterns that determine how information is communicated in the classroom. their classroom ecology model centers on the observation of three interconnected areas: the metaphors that the teacher and the textbook use to introduce students to the formal and informal curriculum, the manner in which the teacher frames student expertise and classroom relationships, and the nonverbal communication between teacher and students. Using Bowers and Flinders' model, a technical writing class taught by a teacher who emphasizes relationships, understanding and acceptance, and collaboration was studied. The teacher's metaphorical language, framing of instruction and student relationships, and nonverbal language are shown to reflect a rhetorical approach to technical writing, a caring approach to teaching, and a supportive, community environment for learning. This ethnographic study provides a snapshot of how one teacher defines technical writing and how he answers the question of how is should be taught     

Genre knowledge and teaching professional communication

Recent years have seen increased attention to the examination of the genres that people use in professional communication. C. Berkenkotter and T.N. Huckin's book “Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication” (1995) is an important contribution to this discussion. Their view of genre has important implications for the teaching of professional writing. Their view gives us an insight into the ways in which people both acquire and use genre knowledge as they participate in the knowledge-producing activities of their field or profession. It shows us how important the process of genre acquisition is in the learning of disciplinary genre knowledge. Linguistic knowledge is necessary for effective communication, but it is not sufficient for writers to achieve their goals. Just as important, writers need to understand the underlying views, assumptions and aims of a field. They need control of the rhetoric through which they are expressed. They also need to understand the history, knowledge and expectations of their particular area, and to locate their writing clearly within the context of this work. The notion of genre can provide students with the tools for both recognizing and adapting to the changing genre landscapes that their professional lives will travel across. While we cannot hope to predict all of our students' possible future genre needs, we can help them ask questions of texts, of contexts, and of themselves, so they can produce and understand the kinds of texts which they need to control in their professional lives     

Studio courses: How information technology is changing the way weteach, on campus and off

Over the last decide, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute studio classroom model has been applied in various engineering, science, mathematics, and other courses, both at Rensselaer and at other campuses. The studio classroom was designed to provide an interactive learning environment that incorporates the advances in computing and communication and builds upon the cognitive science research on how people learn. In many cases, the studio course replaces the large enrolment course, combining lecture, rectitation, and laboratory into one interactive faculty that is as comfortable as it is high tech. The introduction of the studio courses has led to a better learning environment for both the students and the faculty members. Attendance in classes and student evaluations both improved. To some extent the studio classroom works to change the focus from the lecturer to the student. It requires that the student take some of the responsibility for the learning process. The studio classroom was recognized by the Theodore Hesburgh Award, the Pew Prize, the Boeing Award, and other honors     

基于Matlab的分岔理论互动式教学设计

分岔理论是"混沌与分形"课程中的重要部分,其涉及的概念较为抽象,对数学基础要求较高,工科学生一般较难理解。本文分析了分岔理论教学重点和难点,充分考虑了分岔理论的教学特点和工科研究生的知识结构,提出利用Matlab工具深入讨论分岔理论的互动式辅助教学。该教学方式将抽象的概念形象化,有助于加强学生对相关概念的理解,从而提高该课程的教学效果。     

Knowledge transfer across disciplines: tracking rhetorical strategies from a technical communication classroom to an engineering classroom

This article presents findings from an empirical study investigating the transfer of rhetorical knowledge, defined as audience awareness, sense of purpose, organization, use of visuals, professional appearance, and style, between the technical communication and the engineering disciplines. Various data collection methods were used to examine the skills and rhetorical knowledge students learned in a technical communication course and determine whether or not students relied on that knowledge as they completed writing assignments in an engineering course. Also examined was the effect of workplace experiences on shaping students' rhetorical knowledge. This study indicated that students did appear to transfer rhetorical strategies between different contexts, and those strategies were learned in the workplace as well as the classroom.     

Meeting Minutes as a Rhetorical Genre: Discrepancies Between Professional Writing Textbooks and Workplace Practice Tutorial

Unlike experienced collaborators, student teams often attempt to collaborate without effective documentation of meetings. This tendency may be exacerbated by professional writing textbooks, which rarely mention minutes in their chapters on collaboration and provide ineffective examples of meeting minutes that follow a parliamentary style of minutes rather than the action-oriented style that is the norm in most workplace settings. Interviews with three engineering managers are supported by published research in professional communication to show how meeting minutes are essential to projecting a team forward by solidifying consensus and holding individuals accountable for actions. A short exercise designed to teach students how effective minutes function as a management tool is presented along with observational evidence of the exercise's effect on student team practices in both professional writing and computer science team projects     

A technical writing curriculum that brings art and science together

The author discusses the University of Central Florida's technical writing program, which has unusual ways of presenting technical subjects while emphasizing writing and literature. Students learn about science from the English instructors, and they also learn English from scientists by studying the writings of Lewis Thomas, Isaac Asimov, Michael Faraday, Thomas Henry Huxley, and many others. Because the program is English-oriented, the students get a broader view of science, and they learn how to make art and science work together in technical communication     

Industry-university cooperation: a way to stem the loss of freshman engineering students

Each academic year more than 100 engineers from the Phoenix metropolitan area participate in the freshman engineering program at Arizona State University either as technical consultants or as jury members for the semester design competition. Although this program requires the use of consultants and judges, the benefits of the joint effort extend far beyond these important functions. The freshman engineers are provided an opportunity to talk to practicing engineers on a personal and informal basis and at a time when their own ideas about engineers and engineering are still very hazy. The combination of faculty and experienced engineers working together with students on a common project, with each of the participants contributing in his area of interest and specialization, has established a spirit of mutual understanding and respect.     

探讨电子技术在通信发展中的作用

近年来,随着电子信息产业的快速发展,电子技术及通信工程专业作为电子技术和信息技术相结合的一门学科,对于学生的综合能力水平要求也相对比较高,同时在学生的实践能力及创新能力上也更加的重视,在通信的发展过程中,怎样才能更好的利用电子技术使行业进步,以成为我们学习和考虑的重要问题.本文通过对通信发展的现状进行了分析,并提出了电子技术在通信发展中的应用策略.     

Preparing technical communication students to play a role on the translation team

Technical communicators need to be prepared for the challenges of international communication. This tutorial focuses on the need for technical communication faculty to prepare students to be skilled intercultural communicators and to play a role on the translation team. The tutorial begins with a discussion of the importance of writing for translation in the international workplace and then presents specific assignments designed to instruct students in intercultural communication and give them experience writing for translation. In addition to introducing students to the cultural issues that impact the creation of documentation for international audiences, these assignments also serve to reinforce core skills recognized as vital to professional success in the field of technical communication. Taken together, these assignments can be used as the basis for a course in international technical communication. An appendix to the tutorial includes numerous resources available to faculty who want either to develop a course in international technical communication or to include some of the assignments in existing technical communication courses.     

Genre, rhetorical interpretation, and the open case: teaching theanalytical report

Analytical reports, being one of the most difficult genres to teach in a technical writing course, are best taught through the “open case” method. Open cases take advantage of the fact that students are already situated in a workplace environment, the college campus. Engineering students can use the genre to impose order on this chaotic environment, conducting various forms of research on engineering-related campus issues. A process for developing open case assignments is provided     

日本东京大学工学院电气、电子、信息三学科课程介绍

详细介绍了日本国东京大学工学院电气工程系的电气、信息和电子三个专业的本科生、硕士生、博士生的课程设置情况,并对东京大学电气工程系的培养方案进行了评述。     

基于Matlab的分岔理论互动式教学设计

分岔理论是＂混沌与分形＂课程中的重要部分。本文分析了分岔理论教学重点和难点,充分考虑了分岔理论的教学特点和工科研究生的知识结构,提出利用Matlab工具讨论分岔理论的互动式辅助教学。该教学方式将抽象的概念形象化,以Matlab作为师生交流的媒介,增强学生的主动性,有助于加强学生对相关概念的理解,从而提高该课程的教学效果。     

Self-selective multi-objective robot vision projects for students of different capabilities

Over the last decade or two, project experience has received increasing attention in engineering education. Many engineering departments now use projects as a central part of their education course. In mechatronics education, for example, the techniques and knowledge of several different disciplines need to be synergistically combined, and students acquire practical skills by participating in various interdisciplinary projects. However, it is not easy for an instructor to manage a project efficiently, particularly if the project is assigned to upper year college students because they can have significantly different levels of ability. To overcome this problem, we propose a multi-objective project scheme. A project is arranged to have multiple small objectives with different difficulty levels, and each student selects one objective that he or she thinks can be achieved – there is a trade-off between the difficulty level of an objective that a student selects and the maximum score that he or she can obtain. The instructor’s evaluation and advice can then be given to students according to their individual capabilities (which is implied by the selected objective). In this way, every student can actively participate in the project, and the approach enables most students to produce successful results. The proposed project management scheme can be implemented in a parallel or serial structure. Both structures were tried with robot vision projects for junior students majoring in Electronic Control Engineering at Daegu University, South Korea. We found that the project scheme provides enhanced engineering education as well as increased student engagement and motivation.     

Redefining collaboration through the creation of World Wide Websites

The paper argues that virtual communication spaces such as the World Wide Web (WWW) offer unique opportunities for collaboration within technical writing classrooms. Three common types of project scenarios are identified, along with the discourse communities and collaborative relationships that are supported and emphasized by each project scenario. A technical writing assignment is described that emphasizes the benefits of students collaborating within the WWW, an emerging, real world discourse community. In describing this assignment, we redefine collaboration to include activities used by WWW site developers and designers     

Public policy and technical communication across the curriculum atthe Colorado School of Mines

Many engineering students are unprepared to address public policy issues because their education is fragmented: they tend to focus narrowly on technical solutions to closed-end problems in engineering and science courses, and they do not see how technical communication relates to either engineering or public policy. A multidisciplinary approach to professional communication which addresses this fragmentation is discussed. In the four-semester engineering practices introductory course sequence (EPICS) program, students learn professional communication skills by working in groups on `real world' projects for which industry and government professionals serve as clients. These open-ended problems involve numerous nontechnical constraints, including a variety of public policy issues. Communication skills and the important connections among competent technical analysis, effective communication, and effective policy formation are reinforced and extended in the policy analysis course and senior design sequence, where students are required to consider and articulate the public policy implications of complex technological projects     

Asynchronous learning networks: an information-technology-basedinfrastructure for engineering education

This paper describes the state of the art in the field of asynchronous learning networks (ALNs). Widespread adoption of ALN methods is expected to transform the way engineering education is conducted. Information-technology-enabled communication and dissemination capabilities are likely to impact the economics of engineering education, access to engineering education,the roles of faculty and students, timing and methods of education, the development of students' technical and communication skills, and the ways that traditional engineering students and lifelong learners interact with industry and alumni     

The effects of tutor expertise in engineering writing: a linguistic analysis of writing tutors' comments

Writing tutors often have very little or no expertise in conventions of engineering writing. In this study, I examine the topics and politeness strategies of tutors' comments, investigating how non-expertise in engineering writing decreases the effectiveness of tutors' interactions with engineering students. I show how the three non-expert tutors gave inappropriate advice and often stated their advice with certainty. I also show how a tutor with expertise in engineering writing gave specific and useful guidance to her tutee and built rapport with him as well. I outline how writing tutors could be trained to help engineering students better.     

A project-based approach to teaching research writing to nonnative writers

It is commonly accepted that writing instruction should meet the specific needs of writers and that students in scientific and technical fields benefit more by learning to write to match the requirements of their specific fields. A variety of models for writing classes have been proposed to meet these needs, from genre-based approaches to courses targeting specific disciplines to general courses serving a heterogeneous group of students from many disciplines. Although persuasive arguments can be made for discipline-specific writing courses, many writing courses for nonnative writers at U.S. universities operate with two key constraints. First, monetary and curricular limitations mean that students from a variety of disciplines are placed in the same course. Second, these courses are staffed by instructors who, while well-prepared in addressing language needs of nonnative writers, may know very little about the content and conventions of engineering and science. This paper discusses a writing course which works within these constraints and has been developed for graduate students who are early in their program of study. In the course, groups of students carry out an original research project as a vehicle to learn professional writing conventions common to research papers in a variety of scientific and engineering fields. In addition, students analyze written conventions in published articles within their fields to raise awareness of how general conventions are worked out in their individual disciplines. General principles for the course are discussed, and samples of successful research topics are provided.     

Distributed desktop conferencing system with multiuser multimediainterface

A distributed multiparty desktop conferencing system (MERMAID) and the architecture on which it is based are described. This architecture, called group collaboration support architecture, is a framework for assisting geographically separate group members to work together at the same time or at different times, efficiently and effectively, by means of computers and electronic communications equipment. The distributed desktop conferencing system provides distributed participants with an environment for holding conferences. This system is implemented by using ISDN (integrated services digital network), widely connected Ethernet, and UNIX-based engineering workstations with electronic writing pads, image scanners, video cameras, microphone-installed loudspeakers, etc. The system provides participants with a means of sharing information in such multimedia forms as video images, voice, text, graphics, still images, and hand-drawn figures