Technology and Human Values Reaction Paper
Order ID 53563633773 Type Essay Writer Level Masters Style APA Sources/References 4 Perfect Number of Pages to Order 5-10 Pages Description/Paper Instructions
My guess is you’ve never considered a relationship between technology and democracy except maybe to think about electronic voting (and more recently, its hacking vulnerabilities.)
Your readings include two classic articles by Richard Sclove and by Langdon Winner and a more recent article from Issues in Science and Technology. Winner and Sclove introduce the relationship between technologies and organizational structures. Each structure has its own corresponding democratic implications. The more current article by Jones and Reinecke will look at the history of democratizing efforts.
Before I go on, I want to share the definition that I like for political process. I think it’s relevant. According to political scientist Harold Laswell, the political process is “the process by which it is decided who gets what, when they get it and how they get it.” The opposite is also true. Since there are hardly ever enough resources to go around, the decision of who gets what will most likely, by default, decide who doesn’t get what. (When? Last or never.) And notice this definition doesn’t say anything about government. Workplaces have politics, as do families and friend groups. Keep that in mind as you consider these articles.
In the Winner article it’s the story of urban planner, Robert Moses, and his bridges that gets me cranked up. Robert Moses had a vision for the Greater New York City area that was very car-centered. He also wanted beautiful public beaches on Long Island. But didn’t want ALL of the public there.
To get from NYC to these beaches, the road (parkway) he built detoured around the estates of the wealthy but cut the property of many farmers in half, often ruining them. (He called his roads parkways to avoid a public approval process.) The technology he used to discriminate was bridges. He used low-clearance bridges (one is pictured in the banner for this module) to keep out busses, that is, public transportation. The ironic thing is he never learned to drive. He always had a driver.
In the Sclove article, I’m struck by the story of running water coming to Ibieca. I like running water but I never thought about its isolating effect until reading this article. I don’t want to go back to the village washbasin to do my laundry but I am concerned about our diminished civic life. Likewise with air-conditioning, small porches and neighborhoods without sidewalks…
Let’s also think about the Rudi Volti definition of technology: “Technology is a system based on the application of knowledge, manifested in physical objects and organizational forms, for the attainment of specific goals.”
To me the most important take-away from these three pieces is that technologies, once created and adopted establish systems for use. Any system likely benefits some people more than others. What do we need to consider as we adopt new technologies or create new systems for existing technologies to encourage democratic access? That’s the key question. Here are the specifics to which you are to respond in your paper.
DIRECTIONS: FOR EACH OF THE THREE ARTICLES, BEFORE RESPONDING TO THE PROMPT, BRIEFLY SUMMARIZE AND IDENTIFY THE MAIN THEME OF THE ARTICLE. Title each section with the authors’ last name(s). Don’t forget to substantively reference the articles when responding to the prompts.
Winner Prompt: Apply Winners ideas about democratic (flexible) technologies to the system that has developed around our car-driven (no pun intended) society. Go back to Module 3. In a lecture for that module, the class and I talked about the pros and cons of cars. Some of those pros and cons had to do with the system that has been established in which our automobile society operates. Before cars, cities were “walking cities.” That means that people had to live close to where they worked, worshiped and shopped.
Often that was close to family, also. Your “world” was smaller when you lived in a “walking city” but you also had more face-to-face interaction on the way. Today most cities are organized around cars. It is difficult, unless you live in someplace like NYC where more than half the residents don’t have cars, to be truly independent without a car. 1) Talk about the system established by automobile drivership. 2) Who has benefitted? Who has been harmed? 3) What would the challenges be to changing to a system based more on public transportation and trains like they have in Europe? (This is not a question about Robert Moses and his bridges, but you can take some cues from that story.)
Sclove Prompt:
1) How are “things” that are isolating less democratic? (The underlying question is, why is isolation bad for democracy?)
2) What’s the role of technology in both isolating us and bringing us together? Use examples from the Sclove essay to show a more democratic use and a less democratic use of the same technology and its system.
Jones and Reinecke Prompt: 1) How should we define success for infrastructure? Explain why by discussing an example from the article. 2) What is our role as citizens in making sure that everyone in our country has access to quality infrastructure?
RUBRIC
QUALITY OF RESPONSE NO RESPONSE POOR / UNSATISFACTORY SATISFACTORY GOOD EXCELLENT Content (worth a maximum of 50% of the total points) Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. 20 points out of 50: The essay illustrates poor understanding of the relevant material by failing to address or incorrectly addressing the relevant content; failing to identify or inaccurately explaining/defining key concepts/ideas; ignoring or incorrectly explaining key points/claims and the reasoning behind them; and/or incorrectly or inappropriately using terminology; and elements of the response are lacking. 30 points out of 50: The essay illustrates a rudimentary understanding of the relevant material by mentioning but not full explaining the relevant content; identifying some of the key concepts/ideas though failing to fully or accurately explain many of them; using terminology, though sometimes inaccurately or inappropriately; and/or incorporating some key claims/points but failing to explain the reasoning behind them or doing so inaccurately. Elements of the required response may also be lacking. 40 points out of 50: The essay illustrates solid understanding of the relevant material by correctly addressing most of the relevant content; identifying and explaining most of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology; explaining the reasoning behind most of the key points/claims; and/or where necessary or useful, substantiating some points with accurate examples. The answer is complete. 50 points: The essay illustrates exemplary understanding of the relevant material by thoroughly and correctly addressing the relevant content; identifying and explaining all of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology explaining the reasoning behind key points/claims and substantiating, as necessary/useful, points with several accurate and illuminating examples. No aspects of the required answer are missing. Use of Sources (worth a maximum of 20% of the total points). Zero points: Student failed to include citations and/or references. Or the student failed to submit a final paper. 5 out 20 points: Sources are seldom cited to support statements and/or format of citations are not recognizable as APA 6th Edition format. There are major errors in the formation of the references and citations. And/or there is a major reliance on highly questionable. The Student fails to provide an adequate synthesis of research collected for the paper. 10 out 20 points: References to scholarly sources are occasionally given; many statements seem unsubstantiated. Frequent errors in APA 6th Edition format, leaving the reader confused about the source of the information. There are significant errors of the formation in the references and citations. And/or there is a significant use of highly questionable sources. 15 out 20 points: Credible Scholarly sources are used effectively support claims and are, for the most part, clear and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition is used with only a few minor errors. There are minor errors in reference and/or citations. And/or there is some use of questionable sources. 20 points: Credible scholarly sources are used to give compelling evidence to support claims and are clearly and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition format is used accurately and consistently. The student uses above the maximum required references in the development of the assignment. Grammar (worth maximum of 20% of total points) Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. 5 points out of 20: The paper does not communicate ideas/points clearly due to inappropriate use of terminology and vague language; thoughts and sentences are disjointed or incomprehensible; organization lacking; and/or numerous grammatical, spelling/punctuation errors 10 points out 20: The paper is often unclear and difficult to follow due to some inappropriate terminology and/or vague language; ideas may be fragmented, wandering and/or repetitive; poor organization; and/or some grammatical, spelling, punctuation errors 15 points out of 20: The paper is mostly clear as a result of appropriate use of terminology and minimal vagueness; no tangents and no repetition; fairly good organization; almost perfect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage. 20 points: The paper is clear, concise, and a pleasure to read as a result of appropriate and precise use of terminology; total coherence of thoughts and presentation and logical organization; and the essay is error free. Structure of the Paper (worth 10% of total points) Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. 3 points out of 10: Student needs to develop better formatting skills. The paper omits significant structural elements required for and APA 6th edition paper. Formatting of the paper has major flaws. The paper does not conform to APA 6th edition requirements whatsoever. 5 points out of 10: Appearance of final paper demonstrates the student’s limited ability to format the paper. There are significant errors in formatting and/or the total omission of major components of an APA 6th edition paper. They can include the omission of the cover page, abstract, and page numbers. Additionally the page has major formatting issues with spacing or paragraph formation. Font size might not conform to size requirements. The student also significantly writes too large or too short of and paper 7 points out of 10: Research paper presents an above-average use of formatting skills. The paper has slight errors within the paper. This can include small errors or omissions with the cover page, abstract, page number, and headers. There could be also slight formatting issues with the document spacing or the font Additionally the paper might slightly exceed or undershoot the specific number of required written pages for the assignment. 10 points: Student provides a high-caliber, formatted paper. This includes an APA 6th edition cover page, abstract, page number, headers and is double spaced in 12’ Times Roman Font. Additionally, the paper conforms to the specific number of required written pages and neither goes over or under the specified length of the paper. GET THIS PROJECT NOW BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK TO PLACE THE ORDER
CLICK ON THE LINK HERE: https://www.perfectacademic.com/orders/ordernow
Also, you can place the order at www.collegepaper.us/orders/ordernow / www.phdwriters.com/orders/ordernow
Do You Have Any Other Essay/Assignment/Class Project/Homework Related to this? Click Here Now [CLICK ME] and Have It Done by Our PhD Qualified Writers!!