CD 143 Technologies of the Self - Fall 2002
Thursdays 8:40-11:30am
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development
Curriculum Lab
Prof. Marina Bers Marina.Bers@tufts.edu 627-4490
Substitute: Claudia Urrea
TA: Jason Kahn
Students: Haruna Tada, Diana DeLuca, Audrey Philatre, Sun-Hee Park, Laura Boudreau, Josh Golin, Tena Maree Johnson
Course Description
This course explores how new technologies have an impact in the way we think about identity and the way we construct our sense of self and community. Particular attention will be paid to how children and teenagers might use these technologies in their developmental quest. Computers are not only instrumental machines but also psychological tools that evoke questions about who we are, where do we come from and where are we going. During the course students will become both users and designers of such technological tools, ranging from multi-user virtual environments to robotics. Through the semester students will read and discuss materials from a wide variety of sources such as educational technology, developmental psychology, human computer interaction and artificial intelligence. The three hour long class will be divided into a first part devoted to theoretical issues, and a second part or design studio, a hands-on workshop in which students will experiment with new technologies. Students from a wide range of disciplines are encouraged to enroll. The goal is to have a group with expertise in the areas of child development, education, computer sciences and engineering. Enrollment is limited to 15 students.
Required assignments:
- Readings. All students are expected to do the readings, and to participate in discussions of the readings in class. Students will purchase a reading packet.
- Class discussions and provocative issues. Class time will be organized as discussions, not lectures. To help get discussions started, each session two students will be asked to summarize the readings and describe one question or issue that they found particularly provocative in that week's reading. They will e-mail it to the class mailing list a day before so everyone can prepare for the discussion. They will also post it in their personal homepage with a link to the class web-site.
- Design studio. Students will work individually and in teams to try out different software, use on-line documentation tools and design interactive projects. These experiences are aimed at connecting the readings and the theory with hands-on practice. Students will demonstrate their projects and document them on-line.
- Web-site documentation: Students are expected to become familiar with on-line authoring tools. Through the semester they will create their personal web-pages and they will link to them their learning experiences, their projects’ documentation and their papers.
- Mid-term paper (Due October 10): Students will write a short paper (6 pages maximum) describing how a new technology is already having an impact, or might have an impact once it is fully developed, in young people’s notions of identity.
- A design project (Due November 21): Students will present a design prototype for a piece of software or hardware to be used as a technology of the self in an environment such as the home, a museum, a hospital, a school, a community center, etc. In the proposal they will specify what are the goals of the technology (what does it help people learn or explore?), how it could be used (in which context? by which professionals? what kind of knowledge should these professionals have?) and how will it be evaluated (how will you measure its success and failure? What research questions it might spin of?).
- Final paper (Due December 12): Students will choose a technology of the self (either one that we've looked at in class or one that they designed themselves or one that they ‘d like to explore in depth) and will write a paper containing a) a personal narrative (how it helped them explore a particular notion or aspect of the self?), b) an observation/interview (how it helped someone else?), c) a research proposal (how can we study the way this technology has an impact on identity construction?)
Day 1 (Sept 11): Introduction and course overview
Design studio: Students will start to make their own personal web pages..
Day 2 (Sept 12): Technologies of the Self
Foucault, M. (1988) Technologies of the Self : A Seminar With Michel Foucault. (excerpts) Univ. of Massachusetts Press.
Ong, W. (1988) Orality and Literacy : The Technologizing of the Word (excerpts). Routledge
Turkle, S.(1984) The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit ("Introduction" and "Chapter 1: Child Philosophers: Are Smart Machines Alive?"). NY: Simon & Schuster
Design studio: Completion of personal web pages and documentation of the thought process on how to decide which aspect of the self to share with others.
Assignment due:
1. Class presentation
2. Students will show their personal websites
Day 3 (Sept 19): Re-thinking the self in the light of new technologies
Gergen, K (2000) The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. (Chapters 1 and 3)Basic Books.
Minsky, M (1986) "The society of mind" (Chapters 1 and 4). NY Simon & Schuster.
Turkle, S. (1995) Life on the screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. (introduction, Chapters 1, 7, 10 --see notes at the end of package) NY: Simon & Schuster
Design studio: (working in groups) Identify websites and other technologies that support this vision of the self Assignment due: 1. Class presentation
Day (Sept 26): The learning self: constructionism
Papert,S (1987) Computer Criticism vs. Technocentric Thinking. In Educational Researcher (vol. 16, no. I)
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (introduction and chapter 1). NY: Basic Books
Resnick, M., Bruckman, A., & Martin, F. (1996). Pianos Not Stereos: Creating Computational Construction Kits. Interactions, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 41-50.
Papert, S (1993) The Children's Machine: Re-thinking school in the age of the computer (Chapter 7)NJ: Basic Books
Children and Computer Technology: Analysis and Recommendations. The Future of Children Vol 10, N 2- Fall/Winter 2000.
Logo tutorial
Design studio: Students will make a Logo project
Assignment due:
1. Class presentation
Day 5 (Oct 3): The social self: virtual communities
Rheingold, H. (1993) The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub. "Introduction" and "The Heart of the Well,"
Nine Principles for Community Design by Amy Jo Kim
Turkle, S. (1995) Life on the screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (Chapters 4 and *). NY: Simon & Schuster.(excerpts)
Bruckman, A, (1998) Community Support for Constructionist Learning Journal CSCW 7:47-86, 1998
The Palace Study http://www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber/palacestudy.html
Design studio: Surfing:
-
The Palace
- Virtual communities to TBD
Assignment due:
1. Class presentation
2. Students will show their logo projects
Day 6 (October 10): The design of technologies of the self
Weizenbaum. J (1976) Computer Power and Human Reason:From Judgment to Calculation(Introduction and Chapter 10)SF:Freeman & Co
Bers, M. (2001). "Identity Construction Environments: Developing Personal and Moral Values Through the Design of a Virtual city." Journal of the Learning Sciences. Vol 10 No.4 pp 365-415.
Donath. J. (1998). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community In M. Smith and P. Kollock (eds.) Communities in Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
Berman, J & Bruckman, A (2001) The Turing Game: Exploring Identity in an Online Environment." Convergence, 7(3), 83-102, 2001.
Design studio: Designing and inhabiting the virtual world Zora
Assignment due:
1. Class presentation
2. Mid-term paper
Day 7 (Oct 17): Avatars
Design Studio: Students will use Zora to design a city to explore aspects of the self
Day 8(Oct 24): The healthy self: technology and mental health
The CMU Homenet study by Robert Kraut et al.
Howard Rheingold's response to the Homenet study
DeMaso, D; Gonzalez-Heydrich, J.; Erickson, J; Grimes, V, Strohecker, C "The Experience Journal: A Computer-Based Intervention for Families Facing Congenital Heart Disease". JAACP
Bers,M., Gonzalez-Heydrich,G., DeMaso, D. (2001) " Identity Construction Environments: Supporting a Virtual Therapeutic Community of Pediatric Patients undergoing Dialysis". In Proceedings of Computer-Human Interaction (CHI’01) ACM.
Bers, M.; Ackermann, E.; Cassell, J.; Donegan, B.; Gonzalez-Heydrich, J.; DeMaso, D.; Strohecker, C.; Lualdi, S.; Bromley, D.; Karlin, J. (1998) "Interactive Storytelling Environments: Coping with Cardiac Illness at Boston's Children's Hospital" In Proceedings of Computer-Human Interaction (CHI’98) ACM, pp. 603-609.
Suller, J. The cyberpsychology of cyberspace (excerpts)
Design studio: Exploration of websites TBD
Assignment due:
1. Class presentation
Day 9 (Oct 31): The narrative construction of self: interactive storytelling
Bers, M., & Cassell, J. (1998). Interactive Storytelling Systems for Children: Using Technology to Explore Language and Identity. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 138-215
Murray, J (1997)Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace(Chapter 2). MIT Press.
Cassell, J. and Ryokai, K. (2001). "Making Space for Voice: Technologies to Support Children's Fantasy and Storytelling." Personal Technologies 5(3): 203-224. [Abstract] [postscript] [PDF]
Don, A (1990) Narrative and the Interface. In The art of human-computer interface Ed. Brenda Laurel. Addison-Wesley
Design studio:
RENGA:
http://renga.www.media.mit.edu/renga/story/
http://renga.www.media.mit.edu/wise/
http://www.ktb.net/~pacranch/storyteller1.html
Assignment due:
1.Class presentation
Day 10 (Nov 7): The digital divide
Resnick, M., Rusk, N., and Cooke, S. (1998). The Computer Clubhouse: Technological Fluency in the Inner City. In Schon, D., Sanyal, B., and Mitchell, W. (eds.), High Technology and Low-Income Communities, pp. 266-286. Cambridge: MIT Press.
The Silver Stringers project: senior citizens producing on-line newspapers
Jenkins, H. (1988) "Complete Freedmom of Movement":Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces". In Cassell, J & Jenkins, H. From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games (excerpts) (MIT Press)
Design Studio: guest sepaker Eleonora Badilla-Saxe "Digital Nations".
Day 11 (Nov 14): Technological objects to explore aspects of the self
Bers, M. & Urrea, C (2000) "Technological Prayers: Parents and Children Working with Robotics and Values" In Robots for Kids: Exploring New Technologies for Learning Experiences. Edited by A. Druin & J. Hendler. NY: Morgan Kaufman, pp. 194-217.
Breazeal, C. Robots for social interaction MIT Artifical Intelligence Lab
Picard, R "Affective computing" MIT Media Laboratory
Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Rocheberg-Halton (1981) The Meaning of Things. (excerpts) Cambridge University Press.
Almqvist, B (1994) Educational Toys, Creative Toys. In Toys, Play and Child DevelopmentEd. by J. Goldstein. Cambridge University Press
Design Studio: Robolab project in groups(see Center for Engineering Outreach Education at Tufts, Robolab tutorial)
Day 12 (Nov 21): Design project
In class presentation of design projects
Assignment due:
1. Presentation of RoboLab project
Assignment due:
- Class presentation
- Turn-in Design project
Day 13 (Nov 28): No classes. Thanksgiving.
Day 14 (Dec 5): Final presentations.
1. Final paper due December 12