Assignment:
The final project is a presentation for an imaginary technology conference called in order to evaluate the impact of technology on culture. Students will pose questions of cultural concern in regard to new or emerging technologies and answer these questions in a multimedia presentation that uses scholarly research. The project will be completed in stages throughout the course and shared with the class in the final week. Students choose a new or emerging technology and ask the following questions about it (from Neil Postman, Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century):
1. What is the problem for which this technology is the solution?
2. Whose problem is it?
3. Which people and what institutions might be most seriously harmed by a technological solution?
4. What new problems might be created because we have solved this problem?
5. What sort of people and institutions might acquire special economic and political power because of technological change?
6. What changes in language are being enforced by new technologies, and what is being gained and lost by such changes?
Students answer these questions by doing research in the UMUC library. At least six scholarly sources must be employed to answer the questions.
Part 1: Project Topic
This is a six part project which you will build upon throughout the session. For Part 1 of this six part project, choose a technology to question in your final project in preparation for your presentation at a hypothetical Online Technology Conference and answer the following questions about it:
• What is it?
• Why did you choose it?
• At this point, what do you think the answers will be? Why?
• What steps will you take to answer the questions?
• What obstacles (if any) do you see in your way to answering the questions?
Your responses should be at least 300 words, and include at least three bibliographic references which are cited in your text. Text, notes and references must follow MLA style guidelines (Times New Roman and size 12 font, 1 inch margins), and should be carefully edited and proofed for standard use of English.