Fall 2017  |  WRIT 3371W Section 001: Technology, Self, and Society (17393)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Discussion
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/05/2017 - 12/13/2017
Tue, Thu 11:45AM - 01:00PM
UMTC, St Paul
Ruttan Hall B42
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Cultural history of American technology. Social values that technology represents in shifts from handicraft to mass production/consumption, in modern transportation, communication, bioengineering. Ethical issues in power, work, identity, our relation to nature.
Class Description:
In this course we will study the cultural history of technology, examining the ways machines and technical processes have impinged on and influenced people's lives in the United States over the last two centuries. In the U.S. we have repeatedly re-organized our habits and thinking around new technologies, in an assimilative process most often described as "progress??a term with mostly positive connotations. Yet deep ambivalence has been a common response to technological advance. A new tool promises us a greater reach but also threatens familiar ways of living and thinking. Since any big technological development thus challenges the values of a culture, part of our work in this course will be to investigate the ethical dilemmas associated with innovation. In an effort to focus the large and unwieldy subject of technology, we will concentrate for much of the semester on three limited but still large categories?transportation, energy, and communication?all three of which have significantly influenced our experience of space and time in North America. Texts will include history, theory, literature, and film. You will be asked to complete all assigned readings, post to the course web log, participate in class discussions, write weekly essays in response to the readings, and give a presentation in class on a particular technology (of your choice).
Grading:
65% Reports/Papers
15% In-class Presentations
20% Class Participation
Class Format:
30% Lecture
60% Discussion
10% Student Presentations
Workload:
10-50 Pages Reading Per Week
25 Pages Writing Per Term
11 Paper(s)
1 Presentation(s)
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/17393/1179
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
22 January 2014

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