From Word Processing to Datatizing: How Close or Far Are We from the Frontier of Knowledge?

1. From Word Processing to Datatizing:How Close or Far Are We from the Frontier of Knowledge? Baotong Gu Georgia State University bgu@gsu.edu Computers & Writing Conference Lubbock, TX, May 2006

2. Research Question • Overriding question: what and how do we teach about technology? • Rationale: we’ve already answered the question of why, but not really what and how. • A Problem: a tendency to pursue cutting-edge/high-end technology • The Effect: over emphasis on technical proficiency • The Cause: equation between technical proficiency and digital/electronic literacy

3. Defining Literacy Computer Literacy Skills required to use the computer Digital/Electronic Literacy “the practices involved in reading, writing, and exchanging information in online environments as well as the values associated with such practices—social, cultural, political, educational.” --Selfe, Cynthia and Gail E. Hawisher. (2002). "A historical look at electronic literacy: Implications for the education of technical communicators."Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 16, 3. pp. 231-276.

4. Key Aspects of Digital Literacy • Technology is part of literacy. • Literacy exists within a complex cultural ecology of social, historical, and economic effects. • Race and class are important factors in acquiring digital literacy. • TC programs need to value and teach both emerging and fading literacy practices. • Technical communicators need to teach themselves emerging forms of electronic literacy. • Access to computers and to the acquisition and development of electronic literacy must be understood as a vital, multidimensional part of a larger cultural ecology. --Selfe and Hawisher, 2002, pp. 260-269

5. Current Pedagogical Practice • Teaching writing skills (genres, rhetorical context) • Teaching about the profession (current practice, industry standards, etc.) • Teaching software applications (desktop publishing, web design, servers, databases) • Teaching the rhetorical use of software applications (using software effectively to serve your purposes)

6. Problems with Pedagogical Practice? • Focus on writing and writing technology • Confusing means with end • Writing and writing technology mistaken for an end rather than a means • Teaching software, the medium, seen as a means • Literacy, the real end, getting neglected • Little reflection on the use of technology • Too much focus on technical proficiency --Hart-Davidson, Bill and Steve Krause. (2004). "The future of computers and writing: A multivocal textumentary." Computers and Composition, 21, 1. pp. 147-159.

7. What Now? Content Management as a Possible Solution • What is content management? • the “process of collecting, managing, and publishing information to whatever medium you need” (Boiko 2005, p. xv). • how information is created, stored, represented, and accessed most effectively and efficiently within any given organization. • What are content management systems? • software that “provides a platform for managing the creation, review, filing, updating, distribution, and storage of structured and unstructured content” (White 2002, p. 20) • Software that allows to “datatize” text, separate form from content, and make it possible to search, sort, and repurpose information on the fly

8. Content Management Approach:New Roles of Technical Communicator • An epistemic perspective on technical communication • A re-conception of the notion of authorship and the writer/reader relationship (Erin Smith) • A re-conceptualization of writer’s role: from the creator of content to the manager of information • New roles for technical communicators: member, manager, owner, reviewer, in addition to graphic designer, code developer, content manager, and usability/accessibility expert (Kuralt and Williams)

9. Content Management Approach:Promises and Requirements • Managerial capabilities • Collaborative relationships • More balanced power between technical communicators and their managers (Sauer and Warnick) • A shift from creation of content to its delivery • The need to teach students how to analyze the technological situation and then select the most appropriate technological strategies: to discover technology’s limitations, to interrogate tool availability within and without an organization, and to articulate alternative software selections (McShane)

10. Content Management Approach:Challenges • The rhetorical choice of one data structure over another (Karl Stolley) • Decontextualized chunks of content and challenges to the conventional rhetorical expertise of technical communicators (Rebekka Andersen) • New technology transfer and localization practices • The potential conflict between developing “content as discrete blocks of information” and developing “text as coherent, unified passages” (Gattis)

11. Content Management: Critical Steps Step 1. Understanding Your Situation • Your organization’s needs • Your customers’ needs • Your information • Your process of publication and distribution • Technology

12. Content Management: Critical Steps Step 2. Designing Your Information Model • Breaking information down to elements (sections, paragraphs, sentences, etc.) • Single sourcing your information and storing in databases for content reuse • Designing information products (brochures, user guides, online tutorials)

13. Content Management: Critical Steps Step 3. Designing/Selecting Your CMS (Technology) • Authoring tools • Content management tools • Content delivery tools

14. Content Management: Critical Steps Step 4. Datatizing Your Information (Building Metadata) • Establishing a data system • Labeling, cataloging, and describing your data • Organizing your data for • Quick retrieval • Easy content reuse • Status tracking

15. Content Management: Critical Steps Step 5. Repurposing and Rhetoricizing Your Content: The End Product • Converting your structured, datatized content into a contextualized, user-centered information product • Appropriating information for customers’ needs (Adapted from “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy” by The Rockley Group. http://www.asponline.com/enterprisecontent.pdf.)

16. Pedagogically Speaking… Traditional Assignments • Feature oriented • Lack of a task orientation • Task oriented • Lack of concern for user needs and context variables • User centered • Lack of a strategic vision about the process and information needs, such as content reuse and version updating

17. Pedagogically Speaking:Two Different Approaches Sample 1—A traditional web design project Sample 2—A web design project informed by a content management approach Sample 1—A traditional web design project Sample 2—A web design project informed by a content management approach