Re: techwr job stats & curriculum

[Kathryn Marshall <kmarsh -at- EARTHLINK -dot- NET>]

>
> I'm curious to know what you would teach technical-writing students about
> Windows (ubiquitous), DOS (obsolescent), and UNIX (pretty much Windows-
> plus-superDOS, from the user's perspective).

I'm a former (10 year) technical writer, now marcom/instructional
design/web writer.  I've done system management, QA, support, and
training.  This is my opinion, based on my experience (which, like many
TCers, seems to broaden every day!).

To prepare these students for the current and future world, I'd skip
Windows 3.x and concentrate on  Win 95/NT.  Assuming these folks have
used a computer at school or work before, they'll know enough about Win
3.1 to get by, or they can figure it out if they know 95/NT.  By
definition, we expect TC folks to apply skills and knowledge from one
area to another.  Course time is too short and precious to spend on
"old" technology, even if it is still in wide use.

If you really want them to know how to deal with Win 95/NT in a
real-world way (which will benefit them in doing the homework for your
course), teach them some basic system configuration / administration,
such as how to set up printers, screen colors, etc.  For those who need
very basic instruction, I'd suggest pointing them to the computing
center or to an introductory computer skills course.

OO concepts are an absolute must, but not enough.  I'd suggest that
students even learn a little bit of Java programming.  Learning how to
do it is better than reading about it, and saying that one knows about
"concepts" doesn't go as far in an interview as saying one has done a
project.  OK, most of those won't become programmers.  But learning to
use Java means learning to think in an object-oriented fashion, which is
decidedly different from the skills one needs to write clearly.  But
despite industry arguing about what language will be the so-called
standard, Java is in wide use and experience with it is a qualification
that is valued.

For a nifty classroom experience, perhaps you could split your group
into smaller groups, and have each of them work on a piece of a larger
project.  You could do this over several weeks, and go through a
development cycle of planning, writing and updating a spec, designing
(and maybe usability low-fidelity usability testing) a user interface,
and adding a bit of online help. This would let give them sheltered
practice in several areas:
* being a programmer, and working on something that is different from
the project on the programmer's desk in the next cube
* having to match the interface of one group's work into another group's
work (and understanding where many bugs come from!)
* deciding on a level of detail, and prioritizing tasks
* intra- and inter-group communication
* scheduling

For the well-rounded student who wants the most opportunities in the job
market, UNIX is important to know.

If you do a class-wide Java project, you could have students choose
among 95/NT and UNIX as athe platform for various parts of the project,
and implement accordingly.  This would do two things:
* make the point that some platforms (and tools) are better than others
for certain tasks, but that the choice requires thought
* let them actually feel, and not just look at, the similarities and
differences
* demonstrate that the best understanding of platforms comes from
learning how they can work together well for a total solution, rather
than thinking of them in either-or terms.

As for DOS, I'd hope they can pick that up while dealing with Win
95/NT.  It's similar to UNIX in that users must be very explicit, and
ready to deal with arcane command.  I'd be least concerned about that.

Hope this helps,
Jane Torpie
(jstorpie -at- ultranet -dot- com)

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