Author: TechCommGeekMom

Here’s another example of how 3D printing is the "wave of the future", and that it’s going to be a skill that many people will need to learn in order for manufacturing progress. (In other words, stuff like this shows that learning 3D printing should be in school curriculums, along with coding!) Check it out!

–techcommgeekmom

Shawn Prenzlow is someone I hadn’t heard before, but when the Content Wrangler and Content Rules hosted a talk by her today, I was glad that I sat in. The idea of thinking about the differences between different "styles" of English is a predominant topic in content strategy these days, and it was interesting to hear Shawn talk about her own experiences at Microsoft.  This is a great article, which is supplemented with the webinar/interview that I checked out today, which is found at:
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/8975/101459

If you have an interest in "International" or "Standard" English, or even with translation and localization, you should definitely read this.

–techcommgeekmom 

More availability to internet conduits and competition will help drive down prices and make access more…accessible to the masses. It’ll be interesting to see how Google Fiber works out!

–techcommgeekmom

My friend Craig Cardimon posted this, and pointed out #2 in the article. 

I think it truly depends on the job if it’s low-stress or not. My last job, essentially doing the same thing, was very high stress, to the point that I thought I was having heart condition issues. My job now–similar job, but definitely significantly less stress involved, and I hope I can stay at this job a long time. High stress job–low paying. Low stress job–pays almost twice as much as the high stress job, plus I get to work primarily from home.  

In the end, I think a lot of it has to do with the workload and the attitudes of the company, especially towards all of its workers, contractors or employees, and having realistic expectations. But I think that’s probably true of any job. 

–techcommgeekmom

This is a very hot topic to me.  When I took a proposal writing course last summer, I chose to write a (fake) proposal seeking funding for initiatives to teach 3D printing at my son’s school.  While doing the research on STEM curriculum initiatives to support my project proposal, there were a lot of articles about the UK curriculum changes to add more STEM topics to school curriculums starting at the kindergarten level, including the basics of computing and coding. I agree with this article that I don’t understand why bigger initiatives aren’t being brought to the forefront to make this happen in the US–or anywhere, for that matter. It was just a little bit of coding that I had learned as a child, and a little bit that I learned as an adult that helped me get to where I am today. I am not a developer, but I understand how computing works, and that helps me immensely as a technical communicator.  

Having a digital education doesn’t mean only understanding how to use a laptop or tablet. It means also understanding how it works, and how to make it work–or at least have an understanding of how it works enough to respect what full-fledged developers do. If any country is going to get ahead, it needs to start now. 

I grew up when personal computers were just becoming mainstreamed. I remember my father bringing home an Apple II from work, and I learned some BASIC to draw pictures and such. I didn’t learn elementary HTML until 15+ years later–and that was 17 years ago. My son is very used to having computers around him due to having computing parents. He thought one of his friends was "poor" because they didn’t have a laptop or desktop out for everyone to use, or at least each person didn’t have their own, like we do. (For my husband and I, we both brought our own desktops/laptops into the relationship, and then inherited another machine we let our son use. So, no, we aren’t rich. LOL).  But he’s very used to being around computers. Not all kids have this advantage, and yet in this day and age, they should. 

So, BRAVO to the UK for its forward thinking and initiative. It’s going to be a big adjustment, and it’ll be a lot of work to keep up with ever-moving technology, but it’ll be advantageous to its student population in the end. The rest of the world needs to catch up. 

–techcommgeekmom