Overview

• Preliminaries.
  • Admin.
  • Questions.
• About the final.
• Work since break.
• The subject matter of this course.
• End-of-course evaluation.

Preliminaries

Admin

• No note takers today (other than Sam)
• Distributed: Sample final examination
• I haven't seen any followup to my comments on your papers or edits.
  • In many cases, you are expected to do another edit and to make sure to Cc me on that edit.
• I will accept late questions on readings until Friday of finals week.
  • Partial credit.
• The schedule has been rearranged slightly. It looks like we'll have two presentations on Friday. So, we're doing the wrapup class today.
• A few groups have asked to have until next Monday for their papers. I don't like having an exam and a paper due the same week, but I've said yes. Do any other groups want the Monday option?

Questions

Plans for Wednesday and Friday

• Wednesday

  • Audio
  • Airport security
  • In-car tech

• Friday

  • Digital photography
  • Voting machines
  • Plus: A bit of final review

The Format of the Final

• 20 short-answer questions. similar to the questions on the first part of the mid-semester examination.
• Four categories: Student projects, Post-break technologies, A new reading, and "Miscellaneous".
• You may bring one double-sided sheet to the examination. Can be hand-written or computer generated or both.
• If you want to type your answers on a computer, you may do so. I will provide an electornic version of the exam on a memory stick.

What We've Done Since Break

• Technologies
  • Biotechnology (Robertson)
  • Patents, IP, and Innovation (Graham)
  • Bioprospecting and Biopiracy (Roper)
  • Futuring, Revisited and Hypertext (Rebelsky)
  • Paper (Trimmer and Running)
  • Theatre (Thomas)
  • Social Media (Yoose)
• Student-presented Technologies
• Readings
  • A host of technology-specific readings (I'll generally look for big themes, rather than precise details)
  • Launching the Innovation Renaissance
  • "As We May Think"
• Developed a few new perspectives
  • More considerations of social implications (Roper, Yoose, Robertson)
    • For the individual
    • For different cultures
  • We need to think beyond the Western perspective [Sam notes that he'll find a way to ask a question about this on the final, if just "What did Tyler suggest in class 40?"]
  • Technology is not just there, it is owned by people, which means that they can limit its use
  • The interaction between technology and its audience, particularly in the arts
  • What are the incentives to innovate. (A challenge to Petroski's "Engineering is a natural human endeavor.")
  • Incentives are potentially biased (e.g., to large companies).
    "All incentives are political"
  • Even something as apparantly simple as theatre has evolved significantly and uses a lot of technology.
    
    • A lot of technology is behind the scenes. [Hmm ... another potential question.]
  • Where does responsiblity lie when a technology fails (and it will), or causes adverse effects for others?
  • What is lost when a new technology takes over? E.g., when we give up on traditional papermaking or traditional biologies.
  • Disconnect from nature that seems to happen as technologies advance.

The Subject Matter of the Course

I think of this course as having three main subject matters

Individual technologies - To talk about technology, you need to have thought about and understood particular technologies

Lenses - We need to know more than how a technology works, we need to consider its effect and milieu

• Too many to list
• I hope that after you leave this course, whenever you encounter a new technology, you ask yourself some of the questions these lenses reveal.

General - I expect that every Grinnell course should help to enhance your learning and thinking skills

• Identifying key points in readings
• Synthesis - Applying an idea from one context to another
• The power of collaboration
• Whether you like it or not, being able to think on your feet is an important skill

End of Course Evaluation

• Fill it out.
• A volunteer will turn it in to the Science Division Office.