[ATTW-L] 2025 Tech Comm and AI 2.0 proceedings are now online

[Mark C.]

Hi,
 With the excellent editing of Bremen Vance, we've put the video from the
2025 Teaching Tech Comm and AI symposium online


2025 Artificial Intelligence and Teaching Technical Communication 2.0
Generated with Gemini

Keynote Session |
How Technical Communicators May Work Safely within the ‘Fog’ of Emerging
GenAI Ethics
Speaker: Geoffrey Sauer

In his keynote last year, Stuart Selber offered an “AI Manifesto for Tech
Comm Programs,” presenting five arguments why technical communicators
should use, study, and teach GenAI technologies. This paper quite agrees
with Selber, but in 2024 we have also seen influential calls which
disagree–one example being Jennifer Sano-Francini et al.’s “Refusing GenAI
in Writing Studies.” Bryan Alexander, a scholar who researches digital
humanities, warned recently on social media that scholars seem quite
divided about GenAI, possibly into irreconcilable factions.
We have all seen in the past decade how factionalism can negatively impact
civil debate. This paper will discuss some reasons why technical
communication scholars must take seriously the importance of GenAI,
emerging critiques of GenAI, and will suggest how understanding the
underlying technology may resolve nascent conflict, and enable positive and
productive scholarship for everyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wndkRbbR8sg&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=1

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Getting the most out of AI

Preparing Technical Communication Students for Careers in AI: Large
Language Model Fine-Tuning
Jamie Littlefield
This presentation will explore how technical communication instructors can
further prepare students for careers fine-tuning large language models.
Drawing on my professional experience developing thousands of fine-tuning
datasets for xAI’s latest large language models as well as insights from
academic research, I will outline the key competencies required for
LLM-related careers, including data annotation, prompt engineering, and
textual analysis. I will also propose curriculum adaptations that integrate
AI-related tasks, such as creating annotated datasets, interpreting user
intent, and analyzing the rhetorical impact of AI outputs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGbt3GDoKVE&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=2

Making AI Visible: AI transparency using technical communication
Nupoor Ranade
Because of their constantly evolving nature and disciplinary complexity,
documenting AI technologies is challenging and often handled by engineers.
In this presentation, I argue that technical communicators, with their
audience analysis and experience design competencies can help in making AI
technologies visible to relevant users. My research is aimed at developing
a practical method of implementing a core tenet of AI ethics – AI
transparency, is both quantitative (ensuring all aspects of AI algorithms
such as machine learning are covered) and qualitative (ensuring that the
research outcomes address the needs of multiple audiences’ motivations,
needs and opinions) ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U16s9lYJIpg&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=3

Perspectives about the role of AI in assistive technology with implications
for TPC pedagogy
Zsuzsanna Palmer
The proposed presentation will report on preliminary results from an
interview-based study with 20 users of the screen reader software, JAWS.
The presentation will not only summarize users’ impressions of how the
screen reader software incorporates AI but will also explain interview
participants’ overall attitudes towards AI in other areas of life such as
education and transportation.Using quotes and themes identified in the
transcripts of the interviews, different user perspectives will be outlined
to support a deeper understanding of serious user concerns especially as
some of the AI systems deployed to aid the disabled can inadvertently bring
bodily harm to their users.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryWpyKbBEdE&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=4
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Classroom pedagogies and Activities

Redesigning the Technical Communication Service Course for Gen AI
Stuart Selber and Eric York
We discuss changes to the service course that can help technical
communication teachers and program directors address the challenges and
opportunities posed by Gen AI. Our approach retains what we already know
about running a service program and teaching its courses, but identifies
new directions for teaching students how to approach content that is
generated by AI robots. We also discuss policy changes that we might want
to include in course syllabi. Building on our prior research comparing
technical instructions written by humans and robots, we attempt to use some
of the more well-regarded prompt-engineering strategies to see whether and
how they can improve upon the technical instructions AI produces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Jrzp7G2JY&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=5

Fostering Ethical and Engaging Student Research in Technical Communication
with NotebookLM
Codi Renee Blackmon
This presentation demonstrates how NotebookLM—a self-contained AI
platform—can be used to guide undergraduates through ethical, iterative
research in technical communication courses. By introducing a scaffolded
assignment sequence built around curated source material, I show how
NotebookLM helps students practice responsible information-gathering,
rhetorical analysis, and inclusive writing strategies. The core of this
approach lies in placing human-critical thinking at the forefront. By
focusing on a single, cohesive assignment sequence, I provide a clear
roadmap for technical communication instructors seeking to integrate AI
responsibly.


Means, Motive, and AI? : Renegotiating Genre and Embracing AI in the
Technical Writing Classroom
Justin Cook
In this presentation, I will describe a gamified technical writing activity
that combines artificial intelligence (AI), rhetorical genre studies, and
collaborative problem-solving. Inspired by Hunt a Killer board games, this
project immerses students in a fictional murder mystery where they analyze
AI-generated technical documents to identify genre conventions, detect
critical clues, and solve the case. The assignment introduces common
deliverables in Technical and Professional Communication (TPC), while
fostering critical thinking, genre flexibility, and ethical AI literacy. I
will demonstrate that AI-generated texts are both heuristic tools and
practical challenges, supporting experiential learning and engagement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9f66pfrJ8s&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=7
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Getting the most out of AI

AI vs. Human Teachers: A Comparative Study on Student Writing Feedback
Mohamed Yacoub, Met’eb A. Alnwairan, Said Rashid Al Harthy, Abdullah S.
Darwish, Youssef Yakoub
This research study evaluates and compares the grading and feedback
provided by human teachers and artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT on
student writing. The study involves collecting a diverse set of student
writings, which are assessed independently by human educators and ChatGPT.
By analyzing and contrasting the results, the research explores the
effectiveness and reliability of ChatGPT in grading and providing feedback,
offering insights into its potential integration into educational settings
to support teachers in assessing student writing and delivering
constructive feedback. The findings reveal that human feedback offers
students a deeper understanding of writing patterns through metalinguistic
commentary on genre elements, sentence structure, and stylistic choices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JBe-TE8EtQ&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=8

Demystifying AI: Foundations, Training, and Professional Impact for
Technical Communicators
Bremen Vance, Geoffrey Sauer, Guisseppe Getto
As artificial intelligence (AI) systems become increasingly integral to
technical communication, understanding their core processes is essential
for educators, practitioners, and researchers. This panel explores the
foundations, technical intricacies, and professional implications of AI
systems. We focus on training AI systems through fine-tuning, human
reinforcement, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). The discussion
will be structured across three perspectives: Why technical communicators
must grasp AI’s mechanisms to remain effective educators, designers, and
collaborators; a deep dive into the processes of AI training, fine-tuning,
human reinforcement, and RAG; and how these AI processes are reshaping the
workflows and skill sets of technical communicators.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztpyQ8DiwTA&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=9
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Recentering Technical Editing: Human-Machine Collaborations in the Age of AI
Lance Cummings, G. Edzordzi Agbozo, Colleen Reilly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_2MdgjL784&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=10

Panelist 1: “Redefining Technical Editing in the Age of AI”
This speaker will examine how technical editors are evolving from
traditional editing roles to become “content designers” who work with AI
systems on both backend development and frontend refinement. They will
discuss how editors are developing new competencies in machine
collaboration, writing workflows, ethics, and usability when working with
AI tools.

Panelist 2: “Navigating Concerns and Opportunities: Technical Editors’
Experiences with AI”
This speaker will share findings from interviews with technical editors and
writing professionals about their experiences with AI tools. This
qualitative research reveals key concerns about ethics and accuracy.
However, editors are also finding creative ways to leverage AI,
particularly for ideation, simplifying complex information, and
collaborative problem-solving. The speaker will detail how the technical
editors we interviewed are developing new workflows that maintain human
oversight while taking advantage of AI’s capabilities for routine tasks and
creative brainstorming.

Panelist 3: “Pedagogical Approaches to AI-Assisted Writing”
This speaker will share examples of classroom implementations of AI writing
tools in technical communication courses. Using sample approaches and
assignments from both technical editing and professional writing classes,
this panelist will demonstrate how instructors are helping students develop
critical awareness of AI capabilities and limitations through hands-on
activities with tools like plain language bots and editing assistants.

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Shifting roles, Skills, and Identities

Reimagining Expertise: AI as a Co-Author in Technical Communication
Workflows
Shiva Mainaly
Drawing on theories of posthumanism (Hayles, 1999) and distributed
cognition (Hutchins, 1995), this paper argues that AI’s integration into
technical communication workflows has created a symbiotic relationship
between humans and machines, where expertise is no longer the sole domain
of the human professional. This raises critical questions: How do we
attribute authorship if AI can independently produce viable outputs? What
becomes of the technical communicator’s role when their expertise is
entangled with machine intelligence? This paper explores how professionals
navigate this new paradigm through a qualitative analysis of case studies
from industry practices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkuN6OBQvVc&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=11

Technical Writer or Prompt Writer? How Generative AI Is Revolutionizing the
Field of Technical Communication
Fatima Zohra
This presentation theorizes that the role of the technical writer is
transforming into one of a skilled prompt engineer by demonstrating how
variations in prompts result in different generated outputs – and why this
necessitates that technical writers encompass the knowledge of strategic
prompting techniques. Existing scholarship has established that reframing
input prompts in Large Language Models (LLMs) to extract desired responses
– known as “prompt tuning” – poses several ethical concerns (Giray; Bevara
et al.; Tian et al.).
[video withheld at request of presenter]

“Knotworking” with Generative AI: A case study of AI-assisted UX design in
Figma
Gustav Verhulsdonck and Jialei Jiang
This presentation will discuss a case study of how students used Figma, a
user experience (UX) design program, together with AI-assistance through a
number of AI tools. The ability to use GenAI tools in Figma creates
pressing questions on the process of design in TPC, with consequences for
how we teach with Generative AI. For example, GenAI tools in Figma can help
generate wireframes, suggest content, create assets such as buttons,
images, color palettes, and act as a design partner by giving design
recommendations, thus asking us to rethink multimodal composition as a
process (Jiang, 2024).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsIjJKXeYuw&list=PLXwgQlnMl4-voo5tOiM_mfoYvkqUSZ8XI&index=12
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