Held: Monday, 20 January 2014

On to Outline 02 - What is Technology?.

Summary

Today we begin the course by considering its focus (Technology), its structure, and a few administrative details.

Related Pages

• Assignment 1
• EBoard (Source) (HTML) (PDF)

Overview

• What is technology?
• How does one study technology?
• Course structure.
• Expectations.

Administrivia

• The course Web is in a bit of a state of flux. Expect it to change a bit over the next few days.
• For Wednesday, fill out the Introductory Survey and Course Details.
  Copies distributed in class.
• For Wednesday, read Weinberg's "Can Technology Replace Social Engineering?", Berry's "Why I am Not Going to Buy a Computer", and Florman's "Technology and the Tragic View".
• You should make sure to read the instructions for responding to readings before you start the reading.
• Extra credit for tonight's MLK day talk, 7:30 p.m., JRC 101.
• I will take attendance for the first few class periods. You should also preface any comment you make in class with your name.

What is Technology?

• I start many of my classes with a simple question: What does the name of the course tell us about the subject matter?
• "Quiz" (okay, not quite a quiz): Write down a definition of "Technology".
• We'll consider your answers as a group.
• Here's what Meriam-Webster's says

1 a : the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area : ENGINEERING 2 <medical technology> b : a capability given by the practical application of knowledge <a car's fuel-saving technology>

2 : a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge <new technologies for information storage>

3 : the specialized aspects of a particular field of endeavor <educational technology>

How to Study Technology

• If we are to study technology in this course, we should consider the ways in which one generally studies things.
• Do different disciplines have different mechanisms for studying?
• Science often relies on the scientific method.
• We might study some technologies by attempting to replicate them.
  (What kind of study is that?)
• One strategy we will use to study a number of technologies:
  • Read about the technology
  • Listen to experts
  • Question experts
  • Discuss
• To employ this strategy, we will need some basic theories to ground our studies. We will intersperse studies of these theories with explorations of individual technologies.
• We build a toolkit of "lenses" through which you can analyze/view technologies.

Course Structure

• Read the Web site (as part of the first assignment).

Expectations

• Past experience: Close enough to tutorial that I'll probably still focus on some basic skills.
  • For example: I'll ask you to pull out the thesis of each reading and to describe the structure of the author's argument.
  • Some of you will clearly need that support.
  • May feel a bit simple for others. Sorry. That's a pitfall of taking 100-level classes as an upper-level student.
• See the course web for particular details.