ETHICS for Media Psychology |
Part II: Assessing the Ethical Impacts of Media and Technology
-> Week 5- Assessing Technology (June 5 - 11 - 2017)
Competencies and QuestionsEssential questions: What are the ethical implications of media and technology use? How can we “see” the media and technology that have become so much a part of our normal environment that they have become invisible to us? That is, how do we, in McLuhan's terms, make it "figure" rather than "ground," given that it has become part of our invisible mediascape? How do we become deTECHtives, so we can critically assess technology's effects? What specific questions do we ask about technology or media in order to understand its impacts, proactively and reactively? How do we conduct an actual technology assessment?
Competency focus this week Typically, most competencies are addressed in some way in each week's material. However, each week focuses on some competencies more than others. This week's competencies are identified below: Objectives for this week:
Optional Activity - Playing the Innovation GameIn this activity, participants overlap three elements (two technologies and a goal) to produce a new technology and/or service. They begin by combining two technologies and asking "What new service or technology would this produce?" The image shows connecting a Wii with the Internet, which could produce... Bowling leagues at a distance? Dancing with a friend far away?
Next, we combine a goal. Here we add the professional goal of physical therapy, which yields... someone wielding a Wii and sending the information to a remote therapist? Golfing with a Wii, and receiving advice from your physical therapist and a golfing coach, both of whom are hundreds of miles away? |
Content and ActivitiesOverview
We need to "rewind" and remember what life has been like during the past two decades with regard to integrating media and technology into the way we live, learn, work and play. By and large, we have treated technology as though it were invisible. We like it that way. The unspoken understanding is that "we just want to use it; don't bother us with how it works or what impacts it might have on society or the environment." While there is certainly value in this approach, the price we have paid is that we have deliberately made technology so invisible that we can't see it to question it. As a result, we can't begin to think of the ethical implications of media until we see it clearly; until, in McLuhan's terms, it becomes figure rather than ground. Your materials this week are all about this trend, as well as how to reverse it. This unit builds on what we began with our studies of McLuhan. In large part, it represents my attempts to make the theories of McLuhan more generally accessible to the public. This week is focused on understanding and applying the 7 characteristics of media and technology explored in pages 111-121 of Digital Community, Digital Citizen. In particular it is focused on helping you use "the deTECHtive process" to help you understand how to evaluate the impact of media and technology. Read
View These videos are intended to remind you of the continual evolution of technology that changes how we think and live.
Assignment
Produce an in-depth technology analysis of either:
Moodle media and ethics topic of the week
The student Moodle leader this week will find something in the news to discuss. Moodle Questions, Postings:
Your contributions to the conversation. Each week make one major posting and respond to three colleagues' postings. |