Old-Skool Tech: Low-Tech Responses to a New-Tech World
Authors: 
Derek G. Ross, Avery Edenfield, Rachael Jordan, Kayleigh Pears-KeatingAuthors Info & Claims
Pages 248 - 249
Abstract
No matter how digitally-mediated our world becomes, the value of person-to-person interaction remains. This brief paper considers the “old-skool” technologies we bring to bear in our teaching and practice by looking at the value of physical document design in our classes, person-to-person networks in trans health care, the complexities of interviews dealing with sexual conduct, and the value (and necessity) of in-person networking in the practice of technical and professional communication. As each author addresses their particular topic, we invite readers to consider how low-tech, no-tech, and old-tech approaches might not only support new-tech solutions to our ever-evolving technical and professional landscapes, but give us “new” ways to address evolving problems and technologies.
References
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Derek G. Ross, Dan Card, & Geoff Gimse. 2020. Teaching Design Through Micro-Assignments: Experience-Based Cases Towards Training Future Design Professionals. In SIGDOC 2020 - Proceedings of the 38th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3380851.3416745
[2]
Eva R. Brumberger. 2007. Making the Strange Familiar: A Pedagogical Exploration of Visual Thinking. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 21, 4, 376 – 401.
[3]
Jason Tham. 2021. Design Thinking in Technical Communication. Routledge.
[4]
Lydia X. Z. Brown. 2019, October 31. Making work accessible, wherever it happens. Retrieved from: https://distributed.blog/2019/10/31/making-work-accessible-wherever-it-happens/
[5]
Angelika Strohmayer, Jenn Clamen, Mary Laing, 2019. Technologies for Social Justice: Lessons from Sex Workers on the Front Lines. In 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings (CHI 2019), May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. ACM, New York, NY,USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300882
[6]
Cana Uluak, Itchuaqiyaq, Avery C. Edenfield & Keith Grant-Davie. 2022. Sex Work and Professional Risk Communication: Keeping Safe on the Streets. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 36, 1, 1-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/10506519211044190
[7]
Hal Malatino. 2020. Trans care. U of Minnesota Press.
[8]
Andrea R. Olinger. 2020. Visual Embodied Actions in Interview-Based Writing Research: A Methodological Argument for Video. Written Communication, 37, 2, 167–207.
[9]
Lisa Meloncon. 2018. Bringing the Body Back through Performative Phenomenology. In Methodologies for the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine. L. Meloncon & J. B. Scott (Eds). Routledge.
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Kathryn Yankura Swacha. 2021. Living Visual-Voice as a Community-Based Social Justice Research Method in Technical and Professional Communication. Technical Communication Quarterly, 30, 4, 375–91.
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Uma D. Parameswaran, Jade L Ozawa-Kirk, and Gwen Latendresse. 2020. To Live (code) or to Not: A New Method for Coding in Qualitative Research. Qualitative Social Work : QSW : Research and Practice, 19, 4, 630–44.
[12]
Nancy Masterie. Personal Interview with Rachael Jordan. 21 December 2023.
[13]
Be Linked Alabama. 2023. Etowah County Broadband Profile. Retrieved May 20, 2024 from https://broadband.alabama.gov/wp-content/uploads/CountyProfiles/Etowah.pdf
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Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber. 2013. Solving problems in technical communication, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Index Terms
- Old-Skool Tech: Low-Tech Responses to a New-Tech World
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Published In
October 2024
307 pages
ISBN:9798400705199
DOI:10.1145/3641237
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Published: 28 October 2024
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SIGDOC '24
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SIGDOC '24: The 42nd ACM International Conference on Design of Communication
October 20 - 22, 2024
VA, Fairfax, USA
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