Handbook of Technical Communication

International audienceThe handbook "Technical Communication" brings together a variety of topics which range from the role of technical media in human communication to the linguistic, multimodal enhancement of present-day technologies. It covers the area of computer-mediated text, voice and multimedia communication as well as of technical documentation. In doing so, the handbook takes professional and private communication into account. Special emphasis is put on technical communication based on digital technologies and its standardization in system development. In summary, the handbook deals with theoretical issues of technical communication and its practical impact on the development and usage of text and speech technologies

Personal Wayfinding Assistance

We are traveling many different routes every day. In familiar environments it is easy for us to find our ways. We know our way from bedroom to kitchen, from home to work, from parking place to office, and back home at the end of the working day. We have learned these routes in the past and are now able to find our destination without having to think about it. As soon as we want to find a place beyond the demarcations of our mental map, we need help. In some cases we ask our friends to explain us the way, in other cases we use a map to find out about the place. Mobile phones are increasingly equipped with wayfinding assistance. These devices are usually at hand because they are handy and small, which enables us to get wayfinding assistance everywhere where we need it. While the small size of mobile phones makes them handy, it is a disadvantage for displaying maps. Geographic information requires space to be visualized in order to be understandable. Typically, not all information displayed in maps is necessary. An example are walking ways in parks for car drivers, they are they are usually no relevant route options. By not displaying irrelevant information, it is possible to compress the map without losing important information. To reduce information purposefully, we need information about the user, the task at hand, and the environment it is embedded in. In this cumulative dissertation, I describe an approach that utilizes the prior knowledge of the user to adapt maps to the to the limited display options of mobile devices with small displays. I focus on central questions that occur during wayfinding and relate them to the knowledge of the user. This enables the generation of personal and context-specific wayfinding assistance in the form of maps which are optimized for small displays. To achieve personalized assistance, I present algorithmic methods to derive spatial user profiles from trajectory data. The individual profiles contain information about the places users regularly visit, as well as the traveled routes between them. By means of these profiles it is possible to generate personalized maps for partially familiar environments. Only the unfamiliar parts of the environment are presented in detail, the familiar parts are highly simplified. This bears great potential to minimize the maps, while at the same time preserving the understandability by including personally meaningful places as references. To ensure the understandability of personalized maps, we have to make sure that the names of the places are adapted to users. In this thesis, we study the naming of places and analyze the potential to automatically select and generate place names. However, personalized maps only work for environments the users are partially familiar with. If users need assistance for unfamiliar environments, they require complete information. In this thesis, I further present approaches to support uses in typical situations which can occur during wayfinding. I present solutions to communicate context information and survey knowledge along the route, as well as methods to support self-localization in case orientation is lost

Multiliteracies in the Classroom: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Approach to Teachers\u27 and Students\u27 Perspectives Toward Integration of Technology

An increased number of students graduating from high school lack college and career readiness skills to earn credit in entry-level college courses or begin a career in an entry-level position. Many schools across America have prepared to address students\u27 college and career readiness with the adoption of Common Core State Standards. Twenty-five teachers and 92 students participated in this dissertation study conducted at a high school (grades 10-12) in the southern United States. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain teachers\u27 and students\u27 perspectives toward the integration of technology that enhances multiliteracies in the classroom. An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was used to guide this study. Data were collected from surveys to describe teachers\u27 and students\u27 beliefs, perceived barriers, and technology skill levels associated with multiliteracies enhanced by technology in the classroom. Descriptive statistics and independent t-tests were used for analysis of the quantitative data. Open thematic coding and axial coding were used for analysis of the qualitative data. Teachers\u27 and students\u27 interviews and classroom observations were used to further explain, clarify, and enhance the data collected from the surveys. Data results indicated that teachers and students strongly support the integration of technology in the classroom. Teachers and students indicated a statistically significant difference in technology skills associated with Social literacy and multimedia. Teachers perceived time as the most significant barrier to integrating technology into the classroom; students viewed the school filter as the most significant barrier. Teachers viewed the role of technology as a tool to support students\u27 cognitive development, to obtain and maintain students\u27 attention, to facilitate administrative tasks, and to facilitate and promote students\u27 college and career readiness. Students viewed the role of technology as a tool to gather information from the Internet and to enhance students\u27 cognitive learning processes

Transparency, Accountability, Aid and the European Union

In the midst of the international development agenda, two concepts have recently emerged, transparency and accountability. These concepts represent ideas, which have shaped the current direction in which development has been managed. Recent international agreements and partnerships, including the Paris Declaration for Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action, have mentioned transparency and accountability as principles that may create greater aid effectiveness. In a time of austerity, development aid has come under pressure to create results. Transparency and accountability are concepts that may allow for an efficient use of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). Large donors of ODA shape the development agenda. Yet, many developed nations face questions from citizens regarding finances. The European Union (EU) has provided an example of integration and coherence within development policies. EU Member States and the EU are large donors of ODA. However, the austerity measures have caused a need to re-examine the way in which development aid is spent. Transparent and accountable policies may create effectiveness and efficiency within the deliverance of ODA. By examining the EU and EU Member States, the relevance of transparency and accountability may be understood. This thesis attempts to divulge the complex relationships between transparency, accountability, co-operation and the EU. Furthermore, primary data has been collected on the levels of transparency and accountability within the EU and EU Member States. The role of co-operation and partnership for these actors provides a greater understanding of the perspectives towards development aid. Transparency and accountability may allow for responsibility and trust to occur within co-operative efforts in implementing development aid. The relevance, purpose, and operationalisation of the concepts are central to this research

Web design discourse and access : a case study of student entry into a web design Discourse in the Multimedia Technology programme at CPUT

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-117).This thesis represents an instance of my engagement as a reflective practitioner to explore how access opportunities into a web design Discourse can be enhanced. The study is located in the Multimedia Skills subject which is part of the Certificate in Multimedia Technology at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. In describing student entry into a web design environment, insights into academic literacy practices within the multimedia and web design environment are provided. The theoretical concepts of Discourse, interest, intertextuality, literacy, acquisition and learning are used to ground the conceptual framework of the study, while an interpretative case study is utilized as research methodology. Using the notion of recontextualisation, how the professional Discourse of web design was appropriate into the curriculum of the Multimedia Skills subject and the Multimedia Technology programme is described. This analysis identifies a core identity distinction between web designers (who have a strong visual focus) and web developers (who foreground technical competencies) which is supported by the subject focus in the programme. The research considers two key data sources, personal websites and semi-structured interviews. These account for student performances in and meta-knowledge of the web design Discourse and reveal evidence of how Discourses were reflected in student design decision-making in their personal websites. The differential experiences of student access to the web design Discourse prompt the consideration of how learning and acquisition activities could be used in the classroom to facilitate more balanced performance and meta-knowledge expression

Supplemental Instruction. Volume 1 : Digital Technologies

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Innovation and change in the 1999 NSW HSC English syllabus: Challenges and problems

The purpose of this doctoral research is to analyse the 1999 NSW HSC English syllabus through the lens of its reception and implementation, to produce an account of the theoretical changes that are embedded in the syllabus documents and the impact that these changes had on selected stakeholders. The findings made about the 1999 HSC English syllabus are discussed in relation to Hunter’s genealogy of the functions of schooling (1993), to explore the desired purposes of schooling reflected in both the English curriculum, and in stakeholder’s attitudes. Using grounded theory methods in a qualitative approach to exploring the experiences of teachers at two schools through interview and observation data, as well as an analysis of the reactions represented in the public through newspaper publications from 1995-2005, core categories of experience and concern are identified relating to the implementation of the mainstream mandatory courses in English for the HSC. These core categories are used as a basis for a content analysis of key extracts of the English syllabus, with the finding that curriculum changes such as the inclusion of visual texts and language modes constituted an important theoretical shift in the content and objectives of English as a school subject. Also, while some challenges faced by stakeholders are seen to arise from problematic constructions of English in the syllabus itself, other tensions can be seen to be based on the particular demands of the local school contexts, and intensified by pressure from largely negative newspaper portrayals of English teachers and curriculum