STAS 325 L01
Technology within Contemporary Society

Fall 2008
Lectures, discussion TR 15:30 - 16:45

ST 126

Instructor:	Cooper H Langford
Office Location:	SA 023
Office Phone:	403 220 3228
E-Mail:	chlangfo@ucalgary.ca
Web Page:	See course Blackboard
Office Hours:	TR 13:30 to 15:00

Additional Information

I am happy to meet students outside official office hours. (I may have to miss some because of meetings.) Send an email suggesting two times that work for you and I will reply with an appointment.  

Course Description

This course will examine a series of key questions about technology in our lives. Examples will include the following:

• Does technology control us?
• Does it lead to sustainable abundance or ecological crisis?
• Through technology do we work more or less, better or worse?
• Is technology leading to cultural uniformity or diversity?

These questions do not have unambiguous answers and the course will invite you to analyze aspects of them and develop your own perspectives aided by insights from lectures and reading drawn from several disciplines.

Objectives of the Course

The key objective of the course is to stimulate thinking about the roles of technology in contemporary society and how society shapes the technology and those roles. This will provide an opportunity to enhance skills in analytic thinking as well as written and oral communication. 

Textbooks and Readings:

David E. Nye Technology Matters: Questions to Live With, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006. (paperback)

The textbook chapters are not long. Additional reading found on the course Blackboard will accompany each topic to give a different perspective and you will need to use library and internet resources for the term project.    

Assignments and Evaluation

In addition to lectures, the course will have a series (approx. 7) of short group assignments based on a discussion of an issue related to one of the questions. The assignments will be developed from discussion in class and written in class, but there will be a very short preparatory assignment for each. These short in class group papers will count for 15% of the course mark.

 

There will be a term test with both short answer and essay questions tentatively scheduled for November 6^th. It will count for 15 % of the course mark.

 

There will be a term project assignment based on analysis of a current or recent controversy involving the uses of a technology and the perspectives of the major stakeholder groups. Normally these will be completed as group work with four participants. The results will be presented briefly in class near the end of term and a project report (written or multi-media) will be due on the last day of classes. The presentation will count for 10% of the term mark and the report for 25%.

 

The final examination will include both short answer and essay questions and will count for 35% of the course mark.

It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of each submitted assignment.
Note: Please hand in your essays directly to your tutor or instructor if possible. If it is not possible to do so, a daytime drop box is available in SS110; a date stamp is provided for your use. A night drop box is also available for after-hours submission. Assignments will be removed the following morning, stamped with the previous day's date, and placed in the instructor's mailbox.

Registrar-scheduled Final Examination:  Yes


Policy for Late Assignments

Assignments submitted after the deadline may be penalized with the loss of a grade (e.g.: A- to B+) for each day late.

Writing Skills Statement

Faculty policy directs that all written assignments (including, although to a lesser extent, written exam responses) will be assessed at least partly on writing skills. For details see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/info. Writing skills include not only surface correctness (grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc) but also general clarity and organization. Research papers must be properly documented.

If you need help with your writing, you may use the Writing Centre.  Visit the website for more details: www.efwr.ucalgary.ca

Grading System

The course is based almost entirely on qualitative work by students. The grading system employed throughout is the official University of Calgary letter grade system of A+ to F. These translate on the grade point scale as (A+) A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, B- = 2.7, C+ = 2.3, C = 2.0, etc. On assignments within the term, the grade of A+, which is reserved for work in the top 5% of accomplishments in this and similar courses, will be assigned the grade point value of 4.3 for purposes of calculating averages and assigning overall grade.

 

Plagiarism

Using any source whatsoever without clearly documenting it is a serious academic offense. Consequences include failure on the assignment, failure in the course and possibly suspension or expulsion from the university.

You must document not only direct quotations but also paraphrases and ideas where they appear in your text. A reference list at the end is insufficient by itself. Readers must be able to tell exactly where your words and ideas end and other people's words and ideas begin. This includes assignments submitted in non-traditional formats such as Web pages or visual media, and material taken from such sources.

Please consult your instructor or the Writing Centre (SS 106, efwr.ucalgary.ca) if you have any questions regarding how to document sources.

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability who may require academic accommodation, it is your responsibility to register with the Disability Resource Centre (220-8237) and discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of the course.

Students' Union

For details about the current Students' Union contacts for the Faculty of Communication and Culture see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/su

"SAFEWALK" Program -- 220-5333

Campus Security will escort individuals day or night -- call 220-5333 for assistance. Use any campus phone, emergency phone or the yellow phone located at most parking lot booths.

Ethics

Whenever you perform research with human participants (i.e. surveys, interviews, observation) as part of your university studies, you are responsible for following university research ethics guidelines.  Your instructor must review and approve of your research plans and supervise your research.  For more information about your research ethics responsibilities, see

The Faculty of Communication and Culture Research Ethics site: http://www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/ethics

or the University of Calgary Research Ethics site: http://www.ucalgary.ca/research/compliance/ethics/info/undergrad/

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

 

Details of the tentative schedule are to be found on the course Blackboard.