Information Technology & Informatics 04:189:103

Course Introduction & Overview

Philosophical & Intellectual Underpinnings

Approaches to Learning

September 2003

Your Instructors

Sergio Chaparro

Catherine Smith Teaching assistant

Information Technologyand Informatics

Overviews the principal theoretical and social themes across the ITI major

Takes a people-centered, social perspective

Provides opportunities for consideration of elective studies and career choices

Prerequisite for applying to the ITI major

ITI 103: Information Technologyand Informatics

Intellectual course: MINDS ON

NOT

Technical course: HANDS ON

The Odyssey of 21ST Century

1968: Stanley Kubrick film: “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Houston Chronicle 06/23/99: “A Different Space Odyssey” Earth Space to Universal

Space to Digital SpaceMarketing Week 01/14/00:

“E-topia or Cyberspace Oddity”

The Odyssey of 21st Century

Chicago Tribune 01/01/01: “Our Odyssey Continues: From Sydney to Chicago, World Celebrates Free of Y2K”The Independent (London) 12.30.00

“A Grace Oddity – Original sin is back; Our technological skills grow constantly, and yet we fail to make equivalent moral progress – Which is why even secularists are wondering again about evil”

The Context of ITI Major

School of Communication, Information and Library Studies– Interdisciplinary view of communication, media and

information;– Professional focus: leading careers in industry;– Communication and information processes– Institutions and technologies central to creation,

transmission, storage, retrieval and use of information;– Impact of information on individual,social,

organizational, national and international affairs.

People – Technology - People:

Connecting with information Interacting with information

Utilizing information

People as creators, recipients,users, intermediaries

The Context: T2P P2P

Societal Transition

Gernot Wersig (1990)

BACK-TO-KNOWEDGE DIRECTION

An information culture founded on understanding the relationship of

information, people, senses, space, technology and time.

HIGH-TECH CAREERS:Star-Ledger

Technical Support SpecialistWeb Analyst and DesignerIT Project ManagerManager, Lab Systems TechnologyManager, Computer-Assisted Learning Environment

E-Business Technical Project LeaderTechnical ArchitectSystems AnalystClient/Server DeveloperHelp Desk AnalystKnowledge ManagerJava Trainer

HIGH-TECH CAREERS: QUALITIES

Strong customer relationship and people focus, team-building, project management skills in a fast-paced, fast changing, dynamic work environmentKnowledge of technical, organizational and social aspects of information technologiesStrong technical background: programming, systems, softwares, web literaciesExcellent written and verbal communication skillsEngagement and adaptability

HIGH-TECH CAREERS: QUALITIES

“This position requires innovative, creative thinkers with excellent communication skills and a strong technical background”

“This position requires a strong technical background, excellent communication skills and a proven record of success; … must be able to build and manage multiple teams in a fast-paced environment”

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF TECHNOLOGY

Where to now?

What should everyone in this course know about information technology in order to use it more effectively now and in the future?

How would this be demonstrated?

Your Learning?

Three Kinds of Knowledge Needed

Foundational Concepts

Contemporary Skills

Intellectual Capabilities

Foundational Concepts

Basic theories, principles and ideas of I.T., organizations, people, and information that underpin technology and its use

Raw material for understanding new information technology and its use as they evolve

The “how and why” that provide insight to opportunities and limitations

Foundational Concepts

The role of information / communication technologiesCurrent theorizing about information technology: technological determinism, social construction of technology, technological utopia and dystopiaSocial dimensions, impacts and issues of computerization: social informaticsInformation, disinformation,misinformation: Making sense of the cyberworldInformation behavior and human-computer InteractionRace, gender and technology: access, equity, and the digital divideManaging the technological environmentInformation intelligence: asset or liabilityImplications for professional information work

http://www.pathfinder.com/TIME/cloning/dolly1.html

Dolly: An Unsettling Breakthrough

Dr. Ian Wilmut, Roslin Inst.

Dolly is a carbon copy of her biological mother; a laboratory counterfeit so exact that she is in essence her mother's identical twin.

http://www.globalchange.com/clonech.htm

Health risks from mutation of genes - an abnormal baby would be a nightmare come true.

Emotional risks - child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother.

Risk of abuse of the technology

Recover someone who was loved Infertility - give birth to "yourself", your own twin Eugenics - an attempt to improve the human race.Megalomania - a desire to reproduce one's own qualitiesSpare parts Assisting medical researchJust curiosity

Wired February 2001

"[opposition to cloning] is just another form of racism, [amounting] to discrimination against people based on another genetic trait--the fact that somebody already has an identical DNA sequence." Nathan Myhrvold (former Microsoft CTO turned biotech investor)

Stem Cell Research

The collision of science, information technology,

morality, and politics

Stem Cell Research

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/stemcell/

On one side: the best hope for finding cures for debilitating diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

On the other side: stem cell research considered to be the taking of a human life, because embryos must be destroyed to harvest the stem cells.

Is there space for humans and

humanity in this age of technocentrism?

Questions of Life

YOUR EYES AS PASSPORTDeveloped by Eye Ticket Corporation with Iridian Technologies in NJ.Uses iris-scanning technology to identify travelersIris has 240 unique areasRequires initial enrolment and iris scanningInfrared captures image of iris encoded as 512 byte code; Travelers go through camera and image is coded and matched to existing file

Discovery of Longevity Gene

Research suggests that there is a region of the DNA structure that

harbors some sort of gene conferring longevity.

What are the social, economic consequences of living till 2000

Targum, 09/06/01

The Digital Divide

“A society which is fractured, not along

racial or economic lines and not by war, famine

or religion, but by information or, more specifically, people’s

ability to gain access to it”

Gender & Communication Issues

SOCIETAL TRANSFORMATIO N

Computer couture?

Are we designers of technology, or

designing technology to

redesign the nature of nature and

humanity?

SEE

www.scottevest.com

Social Informatics

A working conception of social informatics is that it identifies a body of research that examines the social aspects of computerization. A more formal definition is “the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of information technologies that takes into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts.”(Kling, 1999)

ADAPTABILITY ENGAGEMENT

Intellectual Capabilities

Ability to apply information technology to complex and sustained situations in the workplaceEncapsulate higher-level thinking in the context of information technologyThink abstractly about information and its manipulation

Some Components in Intellectual Capabilities

Engage in sustained reasoning and debate

Analyze, synthesize, critique, reflect

Manage complexity; test a solution

Manage problems in faulty solutions

Organize and navigate information structures and evaluate information

Collaborate; communicate to other audiences

Expect the unexpected

Anticipate changing technologies

Think about information technology abstractly

My Role

iinformationalformationalfacilitator & guidedirectorsounding boardparticipant ….

My Expectations

ebeing prepared for classesactively engaging with ideas: analytical, critical, reflectivebeing in class and sharing ideaslearning together

Requirements

Notify Sergio if you are unable to attend any class, and an acceptable reason must be given (illness, misadventure). I operate on the assumption that you have made a time commitment to ITI 103 – other events in your life(that includes relationships and/or sleeping habits, okay?) that you control do not take precedence. Learning is your primary reason for being here.Success is in ITI 103 is more than hard work. It is hard work in the right direction.