Course Description
Impact of technology on society and culture. Included is the investigation of positive and negative aspects of various technologies, with specific attention to the technology education curriculum.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
In consultation with the instructor of the course, the graduate
student will propose and prepare a scholarly work that
demonstrates their knowledge of the course content and related
policies and practices.
Athena Title
TECH & SOCIETY
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ETES 5010/7010
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
We will explore these issues through the following objectives: 1) Identify and describe technology issues that are impacting or have impacted society.
Topical Outline
The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary. 1) Welcome/Introduction to the Course 2) Does Improved Technology Mean Progress? 3) Technopoly: The Broken Defenses 4) Technological Momentum 5) Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer 6) Technology and the Tragic View 7) Can Technology Be Humane 8) Feminist Perspectives on Technology 9) Do Artifacts Have Politics? 10) Can Technology Replace Social Engineering? 11) The Role of Technology in Society 12) Technology: The Opiate of the Intellectuals 13) Technological Politics As If Democracy Really Mattered 14) Mid-Course Evaluation 15) Buddhist Economics 16) In the Age of the Smart Machine 17) Electronic Privacy in the Twenty-First Century 18) The Wisdom of Repugnance 19) The Year 2000: A View from 1967 20) Great Expectations: Why Technology Predictions Go Awry 21) Being Digital 22) Being Analog 23) An Unforeseen Revolution: Computers and Expectations, 1935- 1985 24) Computer Ethics 25) The Dark Side of the Genome 26) And Baby Makes Three - or Four, or Five, or Six 27) Defining the Family after the Genetic Revolution 28) Black Futurists in the Information Age 29) One Hundred Seven Assumptions about the Future 30) Technological Impacts Paper 31) Packing Tips for Your Trip (to the Year 2195) 32) Integrating Impacts into the Curriculum
Syllabus