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STC Education Committee
Goals and Objectives for 2001-2002 (and Beyond)
Priority Statement: The Education Committee has lost a number of
active members this year, and others have committed a significant part of their
efforts to Chapter-level officerships. Accordingly, the committee will focus
on its top-priority objectives in 2001-2002, deferring other objectives to subsequent
years as necessary. The top priorities are sustaining our momentum on the
high school competition and the Pellegrin scholarships, supporting the
professional development of chapter members, and expanding our instructional
outreach into the classroom.
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Overall Goals |
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- Sustain the high school technical writing competition and lay the
groundwork for the addition of an online category in 2002-2003
- Support the local educational community in improving classroom instruction of writing
- Support the Society’s strategic goals and objectives on educational outreach
- Continue the Melissa Pellegrin Memorial Scholarship program at UCF
- Support educational and professional development for Orlando Chapter members
- Survey interest in instituting a mentoring program pairing UCF students
with chapter members and, if interest so indicates, develop and implement such a program
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Specific Objectives |
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Scholarship Program
- 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
- Distribute 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
- Increase efforts to promote scholarships at UCF
- Continue mail-outs for non-UCF “Techie” awards for excellence in technical
communication that were initiated in 2000-2001. If no applications are
received (as was the case in 2000-2001), discontinue this part of the scholarship
program in 2002-2003.
High School Competition |
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- Continue the high school technical writing competition in Central Florida,
extending the breadth in number of schools participating
- Hold and augment the existing base in Seminole County, reestablish our
base in Orange County, and establish beach-heads in Volusia, Osceola, and Brevard.
- Increase classroom visitations, both to promote the competition and in
conjunction with our instructional outreach initiative (below)
- Open the competition to eighth grade students who are enrolled in an
English or Science class that carries ninth grade credit
- Expand involvement of private schools
- Continue to expand the competition into a state-wide event (phased growth
over multiyear period) by working with other STC Chapters in Florida
- Coordinate with the SpaceTech Chapter, to increase involvement by
Brevard County schools
- Include Florida High School’s online students statewide
- Work with the Suncoast Chapter to extend the competition into the
Tampa area in 2001-2002.
- Develop guidelines and judging criteria to support addition of an online
category to the competition in 2002-2003
- Sustain and augment industry patronage of the competition
- Apply for a Society grant in Spring ’02 to support further growth of the
high school competition in 2002-03 and the addition of an online category
- Increase the level of publicity on the high school competition, especially
within the chapter membership.
Instructional Outreach to Support Local Educational Community in Teaching Writing |
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- High Schools:
- Provide expert assistance to the area high school English teachers as they
implement secondary-level technical communication courses, on a demand basis
- Visit area middle schools, high schools, and colleges in response to
instructor requests to make presentations on technical communication to students.
- 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, Osceola)
- Colleges:
- Make presentations relating to technical communication to classes at UCF and
other colleges/universities
- In so doing, promote the Pellegrin scholarships at UCF and the Techie awards at
other institutions
Support to the Society's Educational Outreach Initiative |
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- Reapply for a Society grant to develop an online "turnkey" PowerPoint briefing on
the basic principles and applications of technical communication (which will also
serve as a briefing package for high school visits). Reduce the amount of the grant
requested by eliminating the laptop computer and desktop projection device. Recommend
to the Administrative Council that the chapter acquire a desktop projection device
both to support chapter meetings and to support the instructional outreach initiative.
- Support STC's Practical Communication Committee in its outreach to secondary school
instructors and seek its endorsement of the grant proposal
- Beta test the briefing in high school visits, refine, and share with the Practical
Communication Committee in accordance with Society's 2000-2005 Strategic Plan,
Objective 3.2.4
- Leveraging the online briefing, establish a Web-based tutorial for high school
instructors, including an annotated online bibliography of Web-based resources on
technical communication
- Publish an in-depth, fully researched article in Technical Communication detailing
how a chapter-level education committee can provide educational outreach to its
community and support the professional development of its membership (follow-up to
progression sponsored by Education Committee at the 47th International
Conference in Orlando)
- Work with the Society's Strategic Planning and Vision Committee to develop/refine
specific objectives, strategies, and tactics in support of the goal area on educational
outreach.
Support to the Educational and Professional Development of Chapter Members |
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- Continue the tradition of potpourri-style, panel-forum chapter meetings
("Washlines VII") presenting lessons learned at the 48th Annual Conference in Chicago,
in August 2001.
- Post notes from the 48th Conference on the Education Committee Web page
- Post professional development materials periodically on the Orlando Chapter listserv
- 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.
- Publicize the annual undergraduate and graduate scholarships from the Society for
which Chapter members may apply
- Draft a selection process for awarding matching funds to chapter members for
professional development, in return for information sharing with the chapter
(e.g., conference fees, software)
Mentoring |
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- Work with UCF and within the Chapter to establish a formal mentoring
program pairing UCF students, as well as entry-level technical communicators,
with expert practitioners within the Chapter membership
- Survey technical communication students at UCF and the chapter membership to
assay the level of interest in the mentoring program
- Establish guidelines and procedures to govern the mentoring program and orient
both mentors and mentees in those procedures in kicking off the program
- 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
Communications and Publicity |
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- Work jointly with the Administrative Council, the newsletter editor, and the
Chapter Web site administrator to publicize and promote committee activities (e.g.,
awards and scholarship presentations, the high school competition, fund-raising for
the scholarship fund) within the Chapter and the Society. Provide regular news
updates and periodic in-depth articles on committee activities to the chapter
newsletter and the chapter listserv.
- Continue to maintain and administer the Education Committee portion of the
Chapter Web site, in anticipation of rapidly increasing requirements and throughput
rate as well as tight schedules
- Send out press releases on scholarships and high school contest awards to the
Orlando Sentinel, to college and high school newspapers, and to other media as appropriate
- Distribute STC literature in response to requests from interested parties and
follow up as appropriate to help build our chapter membership
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