Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

HUM210 asks big questions: What kind of technological world do we live in, and how does it impact us as individuals, communities, and a globe? Where do we think we’re headed? Is that where we want to go? And if not – how do we get to where we want to end up? This is intended to be a seminar-style course; students are expected to be collaborators of course content, participating in the development and leadership of class sessions. 

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

1. Analyze existing technologies, how they are depicted in popular cultures, and how we relate to them.

2. Contrast culturally grounded philosophies of technology through the inspection of scholarly and popular sources.

3. Appreciate technology as a tool for both social change and social disruption to distinguish between possible, probable, and desired endpoints of technological development.

4. Use effective communication skills by speaking, listening and writing to explore various social impacts of technology.

The SAC expects that instructors will assess student learning throughout the term using a variety of methods.  The SAC encourages instructors to consider the following in determining the achievement of course outcomes:

• Regular attendance, and leadership, of synchronous seminars

• Analyze primary and secondary sources of information

• Examine and discuss musical, literary or visual arts and support views in writing

• Participation in, and contribution to, all large and small group discussions and activities

• Submission of discussion forums, response papers, and exercises

• Working collaboratively in large and small groups

• Individual or team oral presentations/facilitation of seminars

• Capstone project on the impact of technology, for example on health and wellbeing or social organization

• Investigative essay on the impact of technology, for example on marginalization, privilege, and/or power dynamics

Competencies and Skills:

• Critical and creative thinking

• Connect past and present events

• Problem solving

• Work collaboratively with others

• Clearly articulate thoughts orally and in writing

• Close examination of primary and secondary sources, both scholarly and popular

• Critical examination of popular culture and depictions of technology

• Synthesis of thought

Themes:

• The Digital Divide and the impact this holds on participation in technological development;

• The nature of Social Problems and Wicked Problems

• Popular culture and depictions of technology

• Mental health and emotional wellbeing of modern technology both on active users, and passive exposure

• Technology’s impact on groups (marginalization, privilege, & power) throughout the modern world

• Influence of technology on societal values, religious ideals, social order, & organization

• Environmental implications of technology, data centers, and human expansion

Concepts:

• Digital Divide

• Participation vs Partaking in technology

• Religious pluralism (belief systems)

• Self-understanding (world views)

• Colonialism and imperialism

• Wage slavery

• Common motivations for technological development: Power, Profit, Convenience, Status, Distraction, Hubris, & Fear;

• Alternate motivations for technological development: Inclusivity, Empathy, Abundance, Planetary Survival and Continuance, Creativity, Pleasure, Collaboration & Cooperation

Issues:

• Domestic and commercial slavery

• Ethnicity, gender and socio-economic class

• Inter- and intra-ethnic cooperation and conflicts

• Use and misuse of technology

• Contemporary values as related to modern technology

• Colonialism and its ongoing impact, contrasting Afrofuturism and Asian cultural dynamics to occidentalist processes

• Offshoring of critical thought to generative MLAI