Overview
To address whether, in the specific case of higher education, the technologies we use and/or the way we use them aligns with our purported values.
Earlier in the course, we considered Jameson Wetmore’s story about the Amish and technology. The Amish are widely seen to be anti-technology; Wetmore’s argument is that they actually are receptive to new technologies so long as those technologies align with societal values. The implication is that, in contrast, the rest of society commonly adopts technologies that do not align with presumed societal values. … Is this true of higher education?
The prompt
Explain what you believe is the ideal model of social interaction between instructors and students in higher education.
Suppose someone asks you: what is the ideal model you have in mind regarding instructor/student interaction in college courses—interaction between instructor and student, but also, if applicable, interaction between students and other students?
This need not be an exhaustively detailed and explicated discussion. It just needs to be enough to proceed with the main part of the assignment.
Identify and discuss an educational technology that is “wrong”.
This can be either a technology that you yourself use, or which you are otherwise quite familiar with (e.g., people you know or people around you use it a lot). For purposes of this assignment, the technology is “wrong” in the sense that it enjoys widespread use, but promotes a different model of instructor/student interaction than what you consider ideal above.
Identify and discuss and educational technology that is not wrong, but does not work the way it ought to, in terms of facilitating ideal instructor/student interaction.
Describe this, and describe what would need to change for it to work the way it’s supposed to. Note that this aspect of your discussion is as much or more about how people use the technology than it is about technical maintenance, etc.
Rules of the assignment
You must be specific about the details of the use of the educational technology in question. You will be addressing a “high-level” sociological question about social interactions in higher education. But the discussion should be driven by the specifics of how we use educational technology in everyday life.
A (not mandatory) suggestion: Write your analysis brief as if you were talking to a technology officer at UC Berkeley—someone responsible for procuring/ supporting/maintaining educational technologies, and who would need to know specific details.
It is absolutely fine and expected for you to re-visit the technologies you focused on, on the earlier edu tech survey. But if you feel it is more appropriate to switch to a different technology, that is fine, too.
It may not be immediately apparent what impact a technology has on instructor/student interaction. This might well require some thought.
Declaring that the prompt is irrelevant for a technology, because the technology has no bearing on instructor/student interactions, is not an acceptable response, and will result in a very low (0) score. Either re-think the implications of a technology for instructor/student interactions … or simply choose an alternative successful/unsuccessful technology to analyze. (Or come see me to talk about things!)
If you are motivated by discussion in lecture to think about a technology you hadn’t considered before, it is fine to switch to that technology. However, doing so for the purpose of putting little effort into the assignment will not be received well.
In general, any attempt to evade engaging the objective of the assignment will negatively affect your score.
Miscellaneous rules
You are restricted to two singled-spaced pages. Use a standard, 12-point font and standard (1 to 1½ inches) margins.
There is little reason for your submission to include quotations or references. If you do include quotations or paraphrasings, then you absolutely must include citations and a list of references, using whatever convention (MLA, ASA, etc.) you favor. But, including quotations and references for the sake of doing so is not the point of this assignment. Quotations and references that seem to be done for the sake of including quotations and references and which add nothing toward the objective of the assignment will not help your score.
Although your analysis should be accurate and coherent, you are encouraged to write in a “conversational” tone. (Note the suggestion above to frame your analysis as if you were talking to a campus technology official.)