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STC Education Committee
Goals and Objectives for 1999-2000
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Overall Goals |
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- Support the 47th Annual STC International Conference
- Expand the high school technical writing competition
- Support the local educational community in improving classroom instruction of writing
- Preserve and expand a robust scholarship and excellence award program
- Identify, pursue, and potentially
subsidize various avenues of educational and professional development
for Orlando Chapter members
- Continue to provide professional and academic mentoring
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Specific Objectives |
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International Conference
- Rally behind Chapter and
national STC leaders to ensure a successful conference
- Sponsor a progression explaining
how an education committee can support education in the local education
community as well as the professional development of its Chapter members,
covering the following 6 topics:
- Committee charter, operating procedures, and communication
- Scholarship program
- High school writing competition
- Instructional support
- Mentoring
- Professional development
- Promote the upcoming conference
with Chapter members by continuing a tradition of chapter meetings ("Washline"
format) presenting lessons learned at the 46th Annual Conference
in Cincinnati
- Post notes from the 46th Conference on the Education Committee Web page
Scholarships |
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- Continue long-term capital
investment to maintain and build the Melissa Pellegrin Memorial Scholarship
Fund as a self-sustaining endowment that will pay for scholarships in the future
- Publish an informational
flyer to honor Melissa’s memory and to support fund-raising for the
endowment fund that bears her name at UCF
- Continue to provide undergraduate
and graduate Pellegrin scholarships to outstanding technical communication majors at UCF
- Continue to provide financial
support to the professional development of technical communication faculty
at UCF
- In lieu of the excellence
awards hitherto submitted to technical communication students at Valencia
and Seminole Community Colleges, establish a competitive scholarship
open to all Central Florida community colleges (five-county area) that
offer technical communication
- Establish competitive undergraduate
and graduate scholarships open to all Central Florida colleges and universities
that offer degree programs in technical communication or the equivalent
(e.g., communications technology).
High School Competition |
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- Continue the Central Florida
High School Technical Writing Competition, further increasing the number
of entries, with the long-term goal of expanding to a statewide competition
- Hold and augment the existing
base of support in Orange and Seminole counties and expand the contest
into Volusia, Brevard, and Volusia counties
- Coordinate with the SpaceTech Chapter,
to increase involvement by Brevard County schools
- Sustain and augment industry patronage of the competition
- Bring the competition online by establishing a Web page
- Apply for a Society grant
in Spring ’00 to support further growth of the high school competition in 2000-01
- Increase the level of publicity
on the high school competition, especially within the chapter membership.
Support of Local Educational Community in Teaching Writing |
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- Given the opportunity, reenergize
our support to the Orange County Schools initiative to improve writing
instruction in vocational programs by providing inservice training in
technical writing to instructors
- Make contact with the Orange
County Chapter of the National Council of Teachers of English regarding
its next annual conference and, if appropriate, participate*
- Expand the teacher training
effort into other counties (e.g., Seminole, Volusia)
- Provide expert assistance
to the area high school English teachers as they implement secondary-level
technical communication courses, on a demand basis
- Establish a Web-based tutorial
for high school instructors, including:
- An annotated online bibliography of Web-based resources on technical communication
- A listserve or chat room to encourage professional networking
- An online PowerPoint
briefing on the basic principles and and applications of technical communication
(which will also serve as a briefing package for high school visits)
- An annotated online
bibliography of Web-based resources on technical communication
- A listserve or chat room to encourage professional networking
- An online PowerPoint
briefing on the basic principles and and applications of technical communication
(which will also serve as a briefing package for high school visits)
- An annotated online
bibliography of Web-based resources on technical communication
- A listserve or chat
room to encourage professional networking
- An online PowerPoint
briefing on the basic principles and and applications of technical
communication (which will also serve as a briefing package for high
school visits)
- Support Mark Hanigan's Society-level
initiative to increase STC's support to secondary education throughout
the U.S. and Canada
- Support STC’s Practical
Communication Committee in its outreach to secondary school instructors
* The June '99 Orange
County NCTE conference, co-sponsored with the Central Florida Writing
Project, was entitled "Teaching Teenagers to Write: When Theory Meets
Reality." We learned of the 1999 event too late for us to become
involved, but this conference offers an attractive (high ROI) potential
forum for years to come.
Support to Chapter Members |
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- Continue to sponsor and,
if necessary, financially subsidize special skills training sessions
for chapter members, such as the JoAnn Hackos presentation in July '99
- Investigate the acquisition
of reusable assets for the chapter (e.g., building a library of books,
CD ROMs, videotapes, shareware). Report results and make recommendations
to the Administrative Council. If so directed, implement.
- Survey the membership to
determine its opinions on offering direct financial support to individual
chapter members who apply for assistance to support their educational
and professional development. Report results and make recommendations
to the Administrative Council. If so directed, implement.
Note: This would clearly require development of a formal application/selection
process.
- Publicize the annual undergraduate
and graduate scholarships from the Society for which Chapter members may apply
Mentoring |
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- Continue to promote the
academic growth of technical writing students (e.g., granting interviews
for technical writing projects, addressing technical writing classes,
critiquing student portfolios)
- Work towards a career forum
for a select audience of high school students with an aptitude and interest
in technical communication (use above items to leverage this objective)
- Continue to assist other
STC chapters concerning the roles, objectives, and strategies of the
Education Committee, including sponsoring a progression at the 47th STC Conference
Other |
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- Work jointly with the Administrative
Council, the newsletter editor, and the Chapter Web "master/mistress"
to publicize and promote committee activities (e.g., awards and scholarship
presentations, the high school competition, fundraising for the scholarship
fund) within the Chapter and the Society, within area educational institutions,
and within the general community; provide periodic updates on committee
activities to the chapter newsletter
- Update and expand our World Wide Web site
- Distribute STC literature
in response to requests from interested parties and follow up as appropriate
to help build our chapter membership
- Support STC’s Special Needs
Committee, which is exploring the Society’s responsibility to identify
and assist members with disabilities in the practice of our profession
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