Informatics 161: Social Analysis of Computerization
University of California, Irvine
Fall 2011
Course Code: 37090
Instructors
Professor: Melissa Mazmanian
Email: m.mazmanian@uci.edu
Office: Bren Hall 5074
Office Hours: By appointment
TA: Meg Cramer
Email: mdcramer@gmail.com
Office: Bren Hall 5059 (LUCI)
Office Hours: Thursday: 5:00-6:00pm
Friday 2:00-3:00pm
Reader: Soyoung Lee
Email: soyongl@uci.edu
Meeting Times
Lectures:
T & Th: 3:30 – 4:50 pm
Classroom: ICS 174
http://www.classrooms.uci.edu/GAC/ICS174.html
Course Code: 37090
Discussion:
W: 10:00-10:50am
Classroom: SST 220B
http://www.classrooms.uci.edu/GAC/SST220B.html
Course Code: 37091
W: 5:00-5:50pm
Classroom: PCB 1200
http://www.classrooms.uci.edu/GAC/PCB1200.html
Course Code: 37092
Course Web Site
Course materials, including links to readings, will be available at: https://eee.uci.edu/11s/37090
You are responsible for checking this site regularly to insure that you are up-to-date with any changes in
the course. Readings will be available at least one week prior to the class session they are assigned for.
Class lectures will be posted online each week after they are presented in class.
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Overview
This course is a broad introduction of computerization as a social process. It examines the social
opportunities and problems raised by new information technologies, and the consequences of different
ways of organizing. You will learn to do a socio-technical historical analysis that analyzes the
stakeholders, expected outcomes, and unexpected consequences that emerge as new technologies
affect social structures and daily experience. Topics include: computerization as providing new ways of
“seeing”; information archiving, search and locating; privacy; environmental implications of IT; the ‘self’
in a connected world; financial markets in the information age; community based research and
informatics; and games and virtual worlds.
Policies
Add/drop: In some cases, more students may wish to add this class than we have the capacity to
accommodate. Those wishing to add must fill out an enrollment request at the first class meeting;
following departmental and university guidelines, we will establish priorities for filling any seats that
become available. Because a student who is enrolled occupies a seat that other students want, ICS does
not allow students to drop after it's too late for another student to fill that seat. Specifically, if you wish
to drop the class, you must do so by the beginning of class on Friday, October 7 or sooner.
Attendance: This is a lecture-based course with numerous in-class activities. Attendance in lecture is
mandatory. You are allowed one two absences without reflection in your final grade. Any additional
absences will result in an automatic loss of 3 points for each absence (approximately ½ of a final grade in
the course). Because attendance is expected you will not see it reflected in the breakdown of your grade
outlined below. Do not contact me or the TA if you are going to be absent. We understand that life is
complicated and issues arise – this is why 2 absences are allowed. If you are absent more than two
lecture periods your grade will suffer. No exceptions.
We will be taking attendance by sight. On the first day of class we will create a seating chart and the TA
will note absences by noticing empty chairs. If you come in late do not assume we will see you. Please
speak with the TA directly after class. If you are late 3 times it will be treated as an absence.
The course is divided into ‘waves’ for attending discussion. Each wave of students is required to attend
3 specific discussion sections (listed below). Waves will be assigned before the first discussion section(s)
on September 28. Discussion sessions will be used to engage in group-work related to the final paper.
Given the focus on group work and importance of developing a productive working relationship with
your peers, attendance in necessary discussion sections is absolutely mandatory. Unlike lecture, if you
miss any required discussion section you will be docked 6 points (AN ENTIRE GRADE IN THE COURSE). No
exceptions.
Mandatory discussion sections
First Wave
Second Wave
Third Wave
Meeting 1
9/28
10/5
10/12
Meeting 2
10/19
10/26
11/2
Meeting 3
11/9
11/16
11/30
Final Paper Due
11/18
11/29
12/9
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Respect: This class involves significant in-class discussion of topics on which you and your classmates
may have differences in opinion. Please be respectful of others at all times.
Academic honesty: Please familiarize yourself with the latest UCI academic honesty policy:
http://www.editor.uci.edu/catalogue/appx/appx.2.htm. Final will be turned in using the service
turnitin.com. Any episodes of plagiarism in the final paper will result in an automatic F for the entire
class (regardless of your past work in the course).
Technology in class: Please turn off all cell phones/pagers/etc. before the beginning of each class. Please
do not use notebook computers during class for any purpose not directly relating to this class. Please do
not instant message, tweet, or check email during class. We will be circulating and we WILL ask you to
close your computer or put away your phone. We appreciate not being put in that position.
I find using technologies while in class extremely rude. If I sense that people are becoming distracted by
facebook, email, games etc. I will prohibit all use of technology in the classroom
I have made sure that your guest lecturers are interesting, engaging, and knowledgeable. They are all
doing us a favor by visiting the class. If you use technologies to distract yourself while we have a guest
lecturer I will automatically deduct 3 points from your final grade.
Correspondence: We will send course announcements by email to the official course mailing list, so you
should check your email regularly. Note that this mailing list goes to the email address that the registrar
has for you (your UCInet ID). If you prefer to read your email on another account, you should set your
UCInet account to forward your Email to your preferred account (you can do this on the web at
http://phwww.cwis.uci.edu/cgi-bin/phupdate).
Assignments: All written assignments should use standard formatting – Times style font size 12 or
Arial/Tahoma style font size 10, 8.5x11in. paper, 1” margins. Final papers will be turned in digitally via
turnitin.com.
Total Points
98 - 100
94 - 97
91 - 93
88 - 90
84 - 87
81 - 83
78 - 80
74 - 77
71 - 73
68 - 70
64 - 67
61 - 63
60 and below
Grade
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DFail
Late Assignments: Papers that are received after 8am will have their grades reduced by half a grade
point. Papers more than one day late will not be accepted.
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Course Mechanics and Grading
Grading (Items Explained Below)
Reading Assignments: 3 points each for 11 (of possible 13) or 33% of final grade
Tech Detox Mini Paper: 15 points or 15% of final grade
Final Paper: 40 points or 40% of final grade (25 points shared grade 15 point individual effort
and assignments)
Class participation: 12 points or 12% of final grade
Total = 100 points
Course Materials: For each lecture there will be approximately 2 articles identified and some or all will
be discussed in class. All of the articles will be available electronically. You should read the articles
before coming to class on the day that they are listed. Readings can be downloaded from the course
website.
Reading Assignments: At the beginning of numerous lecture sessions you will be asked to hand in a
written reading reflection in which you answer questions about the reading assigned for that day.
Questions will be posed at the end of the prior class. Turn in your typed answers at the beginning of
class in the class period in which they are due. Late reading assignments that are turned in on the day
they are due will be docked 1 point. Reading assignments that are turned in after the due date will NOT
be counted. You should be able to answer all of the questions in ¾ to 1 page of single spaced 12 point
font text. Each reading assignment will count for 3 points – graded on accuracy, evidence of
thoughtfulness and evidence of having read the required readings. You are allowed to miss two reading
assignments.
Be careful, these points add up to a significant part of your grade.
Technology ‘detox’ assignment and mini-paper: Early in the quarter you will be asked to disconnect
from ALL technologies for a 24 hour period, preferably on a week day (CD player, smartphone,
cellphone, computer, notebook, iPad, iPod, etc.). This includes making phone calls, checking Facebook,
going online, sending or receiving email, listening to music, using word processing or programming
software, etc.). You will be given a three week window to complete this assignment. We understand
that this is going to be difficult and involve some preparation (planning ahead on homework
assignments, letting family, roommates, and friends know you will be unavailable technologically, etc.
Therefore I encourage you to begin the assignment early so if you are unable to go for a full 24 hours
without technology you have the chance to try again the next day! During your period of disconnect I
expect you to take hand written field notes about the experience. All field notes will be turned in along
with a 3-4 page paper (approximately 1000 words) about the experience. A separate information sheet
outlines the questions you should address in your handwritten field notes and final paper. Field notes
and the final paper are by 8am on Tuesday, October 18 – please email final paper to the TA and turn in
field notes in class.
Final paper: Your final paper will involve expanding on an issue presented by a different group. Details
will be discussed in class and can be found in a separate information sheet. Final papers will be
submitted in waves (tied to the waves of mandatory discussion sections). Wave 1 final paper is due on
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Friday, November 18. Wave 2 final paper is due on Tuesday, November 29. Wave 3 final paper is due
Friday, December 9. All final papers are due by 8am through turnitin.com
Class Participation: We strongly encourage you to participate in class discussion. This is an interactive
course that relies on the viewpoints and interests of a variety of students to be interesting. Your
participation grade will reflect your willingness to speak up with constructive and interesting comments.
If you have difficulty speaking in class please come speak with the instructor privately within the first
three weeks of class.
Note
These are guidelines intended to help students plan their work in this course. However, the instructor
reserves the right to make changes to this syllabus over the course of the quarter.
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SCHEUDLE
Class Date
Lecture: Thurs, Sep 22
Lecture: Tues Sep 27
Discussion: Wed, Sep 28
Lecture: Thurs, Sep 29
Lecture: Tues, Oct 4
Topic
Readings
Assignment
Introduction
What is a “socio-technical”
analysis?
MANDATORY DISUCSSION #1 – WAVE 1
Socio-technical analysis group
exercise *Bring your computer
Ray Bradbury, “The Murderer”
Technology as altering
humanity
Postman, N, "The Surrender of Culture to
Technology" Chapters 1 & 8
Reading
assignment
Sarewitz, D. The Science of Happiness
Discussion: Wed, Oct 5
MANDATORY DISUCSSION #1 – WAVE 2
Lecture: Thurs, Oct 6
Materiality and information
technologies
Lecture: Tues, Oct 11
Guest Lecture – Bill Tomlinson:
IT and (Un)sustainable Cultures
Dourish & Mazmanian, Media as Material:
Information Representations as Material
Foundations for Organizational Practice
Tomlinson, et. al, “Can More Efficient IT Be
Worse for the Environment.”
Reading
assignment
Reading
assignment
Tomlinson, IT and (Un)sustainable Cultures
Discussion: Wed, Oct 12
Lecture: Thurs, Oct 13
MANDATORY DISUCSSION #1 – WAVE 3
Guest Lecture – Paul Dourish:
Privacy in the information age
Lecture: Tues, Oct 18
Constant connectivity and the
“wired self”
Tues, Oct 18
Discussion: Wed, Oct 19
Lecture: Thurs, Oct 20
Dourish and Anderson, Collective Information
Practice: Exploring Privacy and Security as
Social and Cultural Phenomena
Reading
assignment
Kaplan, Restorative Benefits of Nature
NO reading
assignment
Boston Globe, How the city hurts your brain
TECH DETOX FIELD NOTES AND MINI PAPER DUE by 8am
MANDATORY DISUCSSION #2 – WAVE 1
Topic ideas
due
New forms of work
Reading
assignment
Vertesi, "The Mars Exploration Rover Mission"
Tietze, "When 'work' comes 'home': Coping
strategies of teleworkers and their families
Lecture: Tues, Oct 25
Discussion: Wed, Oct 26
Lecture: Thurs, Oct 27
Organizing and searching group
exercise
MANDATORY DISUCSSION #2 – WAVE 2
Objects and Information:
Organizing, searching, locating
Bowker & Star, "Sorting things out"
Is google making us stupid - Atlantic Monthly
Topic ideas
due
Reading
assignment
I can't think! - Newsweek
Lecture: Tues, Nov 1
Discussion: Wed, Nov 2
Lecture: Thurs, Nov 3
Guest Lecture - Jed Brubaker:
Social identity and social media
TBD
MANDATORY DISUCSSION #2 – WAVE 3
Guest Lecture - Meg Cramer &
Lynn Dombrowski: History of
Selections from:
Jennifer Light, “When computers were
Reading
assignment
Topic ideas
due
Reading
assignment
Page 6 of 7
computation
women”
Tom Standage, “The Victorian Internet”
Larry Cuban, “Teachers and Machines: History
of Classroom Technology”
Lecture: Tues, Nov 8
Computation as a new ways of
seeing group exercise
Discussion: Wed, Nov 9
Lecture: Thurs, Nov 10
Lecture: Tues, Nov 15
MANDATORY DISUCSSION #3 – WAVE 1
Computation as a new ways of
seeing?
Dumit, J. "Picturing Personhood" Chapt 4
Troshynski, Lee & Dourish, "Accountabilities of
Presence"
MANDATORY DISUCSSION #3 – WAVE 2
Digital finance
MacKenzie, selections from Material Markets
Beunza
Fri: Nov 18
Lecture: Tues, Nov 22
Discussion: Wed, Nov 23
Virtual worlds and games
Annotated bib
due
Reading
assignment
TBD
Reading
assignment
TBD
Reading
assignment
NO DISCUSSION
NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING
Lecture: Tues, Nov 29
Guest Lecture – Ellie Harmon:
Technologies of archiving and
memory
Tues: Nov 29
Lecture: Thurs, Dec 1
Reading
assignment
WAVE 1 FINAL PAPERS DUE by 8am
Lecture: Thurs, Nov 24
Discussion: Wed, Nov 30
Annotated bib
due
Digital finance group exercise
Discussion: Wed, Nov 16
Lecture: Thurs, Nov 17
http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_slavin_how_
algorithms_shape_our_world.html
WAVE 2 FINAL PAPERS DUE by 8am
MANDATORY DISUCSSION #3 – WAVE 3
Annotated bib
due
Robotics and humanity
Reading
assignment
Lin et. al. "Autonomous Military Robots: Risk,
Ethics and Design." Chapter 1: Preliminary
Remarks (pp 5-15) and Chapter 7: Robot
Ethics: The Issues (pp. 77-90) ONLY.
Taggart et. al "Interactive Robot in Nursing
Home: Preliminary Remarks.
Fri: Dec 9
WAVE 3 FINAL PAPER DUE by 8am
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