Lisa D. McNair

Teaching Technical Communication in an Era of Distributed Work: A Case Study of Collaboration Between U.S. and Swedish Students

As distributed work begins to shift the nature of practice for technical communication professionals in the workplace, faculty need new frameworks to help prepare students for roles that involve negotiating, supporting, and facilitating virtual global collaboration. This paper identifies key areas of metaknowledge appropriate to these new frameworks by synthesizing a review of current scholarship on such collaborations and a case study of students participating in a cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural team project.

Activity Theory, Speech Acts, and the ‘‘Doctrine of Infelicity’’: Connecting Language and Technology in Globally Networked Learning Environments

This article draws on activity theory, politics of the artifact, and speech act theory to analyze how language practices and technology interplay in establishing the social relationships necessary for globally networked teams. Specifically, it uses activity theory to examine how linguistic infelicities and the politics of communication technologies interplay in virtual meetings, thereby demonstrating the importance of grounding professional communication instruction in social as well as technical effectiveness. That is, students must learn not only how to communicate technical concepts clearly and concisely and recognize cultural differences but also how to use language and choose media in ways that produce the social conditions necessary for effective collaboration in globally networked environments. The article analyzes two case studies—a workplace and a classroom—that illustrate how the mediating functions of language and the politics of technology intersect as mediating tools in globally networked activity systems. It then traces the implications of that intersection for professional communication theory and pedagogy.

Analyzing the intersections of institutional and discourse identities in engineering work at the local level

In this study, we examine the ways in which engineering identities are constructed through language by both student and professional engineers and their colleagues in practice. Drawing on the work of James Gee, we explore the ways that discourse both reflects and shapes engineering work, and thus engineering identity, in particular local contexts. In particular, we explore the ways multiple dimensions of identity interact in daily work by examining the ways institutional identities afforded by local contexts intersect with the discursive identities enacted in social processes. Intended as a complement to research in both science, technology, and society and writing studies that seeks general patterns of identity across engineering, this paired case study examines the ways in which engineers describe and enact their work differently in response to different local institutional and discursive contexts. Gees framework, with its attention to identities as they are constructed in specific social interactions, helps complicate discussions of engineering identity by focusing on ways engineers accept, resist, and subvert a variety of identities through language.

Towards a Pedagogy of Relational Space and Trust: Analyzing Distributed Collaboration Using Discourse and Speech Act Analysis

Distributed work is an increasingly common phenomenon in a number of technical and professional settings, and the complexity of this work requires high degrees of knowledge sharing and integration that move beyond assembly-line approaches to collaboration. Since participants in distributed-work settings rely almost exclusively on written and spoken language to mediate their collaborative relationships, professional communication faculty need educational approaches that empower students with language practices designed specifically to support effective teaming in these complex environments. To address this need, we employ discourse analysis and Speech Act Theory to identify these language practices in a case study of two cohorts of distributed, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural student teams. The findings show correlations between language practices and successful collaboration. These correlations have significant implications for teaching and practice.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Communication in Engineering Curricula: Mapping the Landscape

Communication has long been a central component of engineering curricula, but recent developments in accreditation, software, and available media, along with rapid increases in cross-functional, global, and virtual teams, have dramatically expanded the nature of communicative practice. In response, faculty in writing and communication programs that support engineers have developed a range of innovative practices. Approaches include expanded research into workplace practices, communication across the curriculum, dedicated classes, and modules tailored to individual courses. This introduction highlights both the drivers and the innovations described in this Special Issue.

An Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Design Course for Wearable and Pervasive Computing Products

This paper reports on a design experience for undergraduates in computer engineering, industrial design, and marketing that focuses on pervasive computing devices. Across a broad range of targeted application areas and user groups, many of the student designs have been wearable computers. Consequently, our course will be of interest to the wearable computing community, particularly in terms of our aim of bridging the gap between design and engineering. For the two most recent offerings of the course, we have utilized external observers and surveyed the students in order to validate the impact of aspects of our process and changes to it. This paper presents an overview of our process with both qualitative and quantitative results from these two most recent offerings.

Work in progress - flexible learning environments to improve interdisciplinary creativity and team interactions

This paper reports preliminary results from a semester-long case study of interdisciplinary student engineering design teams that use a classroom with flexible features in order to examine the impact of team interaction and flexible environment on creativity. Twenty-one students recruited from a senior-level interdisciplinary class consisted of five self-formed teams with computer engineering, marketing, communication and industrial design majors. They were tasked with a “Smart Dorm Room” design project for students with special needs. Team meetings were observed and interviews and questionnaires were administered to examine student perception of the impact of physical environment and tools as well as team interaction levels and creativity of the teams. Preliminary findings confirm the positive impact of flexible environment as well as interdisciplinary team interactions on creativity.

Special session - Applying theories of interdisciplinary collaboration in research and teaching practice

Interdisciplinary research is becoming more widespread, and the ability to function on multidisciplinary teams is one of the ABET criteria each engineering student must meet before graduation. But how can faculty more easily bridge the gaps between disciplines for themselves and their students? Through a series of fun, interactive activities, participants will explore their own past encounters with other disciplines, learn about theories that describe interdisciplinary interactions, and begin to apply some of these principles to the design of an interdisciplinary learning activity. The accompanying interactive session description (paper) describes the motivation for this approach, one theory, and one example application to designing interdisciplinary learning activities.

An Interdisciplinary Design Course for Pervasive Computing

Virginia Tech offers an interdisciplinary design course for pervasive computing products, with the goal of providing undergraduates with the interdisciplinary and technical skills required to design and develop pervasive computing devices. The course has been developed and taught by a team of faculty from three departments-Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial Design, and Marketing-and a faculty member from the Department of Engineering Education has helped develop the classs interdisciplinary teaming processes.

Self-managed teaming and team effectiveness in interdisciplinary capstone design

The purpose of this paper is to present results from an interdisciplinary design course that utilized an inquiry-based approach to guide students in producing “smart” safety equipment for firefighters. This study explores the benefits and challenges of promoting interdisciplinarity through self-managed teaming. The participants included 12 students in an interdisciplinary capstone design course, with 4 each from electrical and computer engineering, industrial design, and marketing. The course was designed so that students self-managed their teams in an inquiry-based learning mode with the objective of designing safety equipment for firefighters that utilizes “smart” technology. The researchers observed and video-recorded each class and administered the Team Diagnostic Survey and concept map activities. Results indicated that students benefited from the self-managed teaming and also encountered various challenges in this project-based course, but they were able to succeed in both product design and crossing disciplinary boundaries. Recommendations for interdisciplinary teaming pedagogy are discussed.