Digital technology has never been more pervasive in western society and yet the general public is often ignorant of the extent of the issues and the technology involved; for example, legislation to address a politically ‘hot’ issue can have widespread and unforeseen ramifications. This course addresses some of the most pressing and pertinent issues in this realm from social, moral, ethical, legal & technical standpoints. We explore such topics as digital music (has the ipod killed the CD or is the future digital?), social software (new community building or addictive menace?), and internet information (is the internet a goldmine of useful knowledge or is free information just a dangerous delusion?) to name just a few. This course has an accent on writing and students make use of social software tools such as blogs (aka weblogs) to write research and opinion pieces and to comment on each other’s work. Alumni and other guests are invited to play a part by commenting on student’s work and making other contributions to the course.
Posted by markp at March 16, 2005 01:32 PM | TrackBack