Held: Monday, 3 March 2014

Back to Outline 18 - Human Factors (3). On to Outline 20 - Mid-Semester Exam, Part One.

Summary

As we get ready for the mid-semester examination, we review what we've considered so far, and how we will approach technology in the second half of the semester.

Related Pages

• Mid-Semester Review Sheet
• Sample Mid-Semester Examination: Short Questions
• Sample Mid-Semester Examination: Essay Questions
• EBoard (Source) (HTML) (PDF)

Overview

• Quick summary: Where we've been.
• Quick summary: Where we're going.
• Exam format.
• Terminology.
• Exam questions.

Administrivia

• No note takers this week!
• Only two students submitted possible questions for the exam. Those students will receive extra credit.
• Next week we have a visit from James Lee in English. He'll be talking about his work in the digital humanities.
  • Do I have volunteers to summarize the main points? I'll still do my best to take notes.
• Extra credit:
  • Convocation noon Wednesday, JRC 101.
  • Institutional identity chat, noon Thursday or noon Friday, location TBD.

Quick summary: Where we've been

• Explored a variety of perspectives
  • Mostly from what might be called a "social science" perspective (from Technology and the Future)
  • A deeper exploration of an engineering perspective (from To Engineer is Human)
  • A deeper exploration of a different kind of human-centric perspective, which we might call a design perspective (from The Design of Everyday Things)
  • Some technology-specific details (from readings for various visitors)
• Explored two (or more) long-standing technologies
  • Stone tools
  • Food

Quick summary: Where we're going

• We will primarily work with the ideas we've developed in the context of a wide variety of technologies and related issues.
  • Humanistic: "Digital Humanities"
  • Scientific: Biotechnology
  • Cultural: Biopiracy
  • Economic: Intellectual Property
  • Economic: Entrepreneurship
  • Humanistic: Papermaking
  • Humanistic: Theatre
  • ?: Social Media
• We'll "cap off" the semester with presentations on your papers.

Exam format

• See materials distributed last Wednesday.

Terminology

• You may find it useful to identify some terms that you've encountered this semester and make sure that you understand the ways in which they are commonly used.
• I note at least two categories:
  • Terms that everyone thinks they know, but may not have thought deeply (e.g., technology, engineering)
  • New terms (e.g., technological determinism, affordance)

Your questions

• What questions do you have in preparation for taking the exam?