SPSU and ETCMA Department Hosts Currents Conference

Reported by Tom Burns

This year, Currents, the annual STC Atlanta chapter conference, was held at Southern Poly. The event took place at the Clair Harris Textile Center adjacent to the Atrium Building on Saturday, March 15, and the SPSU community was well represented at the conference.

Miranda Bennett, an alumna of the TCOM program, made a presentation on “Collaborative Walkthroughs” and demonstrated her expertise with XML. Dr. Barnum gave a presentation on “Building Usability into E-Learning,” which included a student-conducted usability test of WebCT Vista. Dr. McCool presented on “Intercultural Human Factors: How Figure and Ground Affects Classification,” an interesting review of cultural issues that may affect the design of websites. To encourage student participation, the Atlanta chapter offered free registration to the student volunteers, who helped out at both Friday’s workshop and Saturday’s conference.

A final presentation was made by guest speaker, Jean-Luc Dumont. His fabulous discussion of road signs from around the world was punctuated by ominous tornado warning sirens from nearby areas. Fortunately, the campus warning system did not activate, and his very entertaining presentation continued unabated.

For those who have not previously attended a Currents Conference, please consider attending next spring. This conference is a great place to become better acquainted with emerging developments in technical communication, make connections with others in the profession, and network in general. I always enjoy browsing the selection of books for sale pertaining to technical communication. Last, but not least, a continental breakfast and full sit-down lunch is included in the registration fee.

Special thanks to STC Atlanta chapter president and SPSU alumn, Al Hood, for bringing the conference back to the SPSU campus after many years absence.