Jeremy Huston
Killingsworth, M. J. "Technical communication in the 21st century: Where are we going?" Technical Communication Quarterly, 8 (1999):165-174.
This is one of three essays about the history/future of tech comm in TCQ in Spring '99. I call dibs on Kynell for next week (seeing as it plays well with Connors) but Staples is fair game.
If the links don't work, sorry. I'm trying to hard code them.
Using the framework of works of science fiction, Killingsworth claims that evaluating our beliefs and future desires in TC keeps us from hubristically defining the future in dangerous/harmful ways. Understanding of our myths (these beliefs for the future) will prepare us for the future better than subscribing to the myths themselves. He discusses the a myth he identifies as current (as of 1999) in the TC community: immediate communication. He defines this as the instantaneous and flawlessly lucid communication between sender and receiver without being bound by time or distance. He criticizes this viewpoint by arguing that technology does not necessarily improve things without some loss on another level; it is safer to say that things change instead of categorically improving. He states that immediate communication runs the risk of isolating users of technology. Killingsworth also goes on to state that if we were able to perform mind-to-mind communication without the intermediary of language, semiotic research shows that thought itself is symbolic, making that aspect of the myth untennable as well. To conclude, he argues that science fiction literature can be used as a viable way to teach students aspects of TC in the classroom.
I thought this was a good one for this week, considering our discussion in class about how technology is beginning to isolate us (which Killingsworth anticipated here) and how we try to understand/define TC and its future given the messiness of language and rhetoric that we have to use to implement it. And he cites LeGuin a lot, if you're into that sort of thing.
Jeremy,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fascinating article. I'm interested mostly in the possibility of using science fiction as a pedagogical framework for technical communication -- what sorts of things does the author suggest take place in the classroom? Do you find them viable? Though it’s not really transferable, I’ve in the past successfully used genera; creative writing techniques in the composition classroom. I’m thinking this would involve similar notions. I’ve always thought students are easily excited by creative work in a more formally-structured class – though the skills learned aren’t always the same, it at least wakes them up to more formal topics a teacher may be covering in class.
The discussion of immediate communication is also quite interesting. If this article was written in 1999, I wonder how this viewpoint on technology might work now. I also am interested to know more detail about how immediate communication might "isolate" users when it also, at times, seems to allow us to connect in ways and with people we'd never probably imagine a few decades ago. I'm going to have to read this one -- thanks, Jeremy.