Overview

This course explores technology and its impact on the world around us. Technology influences society and society influences technology, creating a feedback loop between them. You will critically analyze a feedback loop in this project through social, historical, and cultural approaches to technology with the aid of the four general education lenses: history, humanities, natural and applied sciences, and social sciences. From this enhanced understanding, you will be equipped to draw connections among technology, self, and society. These skills are often necessary to achieve personal and professional goals across many disciplines.

Directions

For this project, you will write a 10-page paper that examines a social, cultural, or global event where a technology plays a significant role. In the paper, you will describe your chosen technology and event, construct a thesis statement, perform a critical analysis that makes use of at least one of the general education lenses, and reflect on how your analysis can inform your personal life and experience. You will demonstrate your ability to think critically, investigate, and communicate clearly.

Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:

1. Evidence: You will use evidence to support your analysis throughout the project.
   1. Integrate reliable evidence from varied sources throughout your paper to support your analysis. Use at least two resources from the Module Resources sections of this course and two resources that you find through your own research using the Shapiro Library.
      1. It is important to draw from a more diverse pool of perspectives from varied sources to support the analysis. This is different from the Citations and Attributions rubric criterion.
      2. Reliable evidence from varied sources should be interwoven throughout the paper itself, while citing and attributing sources will be represented as APA in-text citations and a reference list at the end of your work.
      3. You will be evaluated on both criteria.
2. Technology and Event Description: In this section, you will identify and discuss the factors that shape your thesis statement.
   1. Describe a social, cultural, or global event where a technology plays a significant role. Include information such as how the event originated and what it is about.
   2. Describe the technology significant to this event. Include information such as what the technology does and how it may help influence change.
   3. Assess the societal or cultural influences of the technology involved in the event.
   4. Explain your choice of general education interdisciplinary lens for analyzing the technology and its role in the event.
   5. Construct a thesis statement that combines your event, the technology, the societal or cultural influences, and choice of general education interdisciplinary lens.
3. Critical Analysis: In this section, you will analyze your technology’s role in the event using one of the general education lenses and recommend strategies for using this kind of analysis to meet your personal and professional goals.
   1. Analyze your technology’s role in the event through one of the general education interdisciplinary lenses to determine the technology’s impact on various institutions.
   2. Analyze how social practices have been shaped by the technology involved in the event.
   3. Describe at least one limitation of the technology involved in the event that could benefit from change.
   4. Recommend strategies to address the limitations of the technology involved in the event.
   5. Assess at least two significant factors that could affect how individuals understand the role of technology in the event, such as biases, beliefs, assumptions, and/or values.
   6. Assess the benefits and challenges of critically analyzing technology in society.
   7. Recommend strategies for using this kind of critical analysis for meeting your personal goals.
      1. What might this look like in your everyday life? Consider how critically analyzing technology influence on a particular event can be used to address day-to-day responsibilities.
4. Reflection: In this section, you will describe how using critical analysis tools influences your personal experience, your field of study or profession, and how you interact with others.
   1. Describe how critically analyzing a technology’s role in an event has informed your individual framework of perception.
      1. Consider how it has altered the way you perceive the world.
   2. Describe how examining your bias may alter the way you use or don’t use certain technologies.
      1. Reflect on your own bias, then consider how an awareness of one’s bias can change how one interacts with technology.
   3. Explain how critically analyzing a technology’s role in your event can influence your field of study or profession.
      1. How can studying technology inform your understanding of the next big topic of study in your field or profession?
   4. Explain at least one way in which your analysis might have been different had you used one of the other general education lenses to analyze the technology’s role in your event.
   5. Explain how analyzing the technology’s role in your event can help interactions with those of a different viewpoint, culture, and perspective.