Technology and Society

Description of Course Goals and Curriculum

This course analyzes how technology intersects with various facets of society: politics, identity, economy, and future. The first week is about frameworks for understanding tech systems then the rest of the class gets into the themes. The organization of the class is roughly chronological, with more about current events later in the class. The goal is to use the frameworks to talk about current events and connect the themes.

Learning From Classroom Instruction

In lecture Dr. Reinecke gets excited about the topics and tries to get student involvement with a couple of reading quizzes and asking questions to the entire hall. He just gives an overview of the readings so it’s good to complete them before lecture. Precept is focused on answering discussion questions that are given in the syllabus and which you are required to write a post about weekly before your precept. Precepts are participation based so you just need to come ready to answer questions.

Learning For and From Assignments

The reading quizzes test surface understanding of the texts so it’s very important to cite authors and the lectures that you got material from. The midterm and final exams are basically a more indepth form of the reading quizzes, requiring application of themes from the readings and being sure to cite where ideas come from. The final project/podcast is about creatively presenting information about a topic of your choosing and analysing it with the themes learned in class. A good project will show how your issue relates to all of the big themes of the class.

External Resources

This class translated decently online because Dr. Reinecke and the preceptors were very available for Zoom office hours and made sure that everyone checked in with them. There are some non-mandatory readings which might be helpful for personal enrichment and understanding topics further.

What Students Should Know About This Course For Purposes Of Course Selection

This class is definitely a lot of fun and a good intro to some topics in sociology. It’s necessary for the Tech and Society certificate but even if you aren’t getting it you can do well by asking questions and being sure to cite the material. I’d recommend this class to anyone with interest in tech and social issues!