Readings and Discussion Questions

Summary: This document summarizes guidelines for reading and preparing for classes.

Contents:

• Introduction
• Texts and other materials
• How to read for this class
• Discussion questions
• Guidelines
• Mechanics

Introduction

Throughout the semester, I will assign readings from a variety of texts. You will be expected to do the assigned readings before class. During some weeks, our primary focus will be on reading and discussing foundational texts; during these weeks you will be expected to prepare discussion questions the evening before class. During other weeks, we will have guest lecturers; although discussion questions are not required, you should nonetheless do the reading before class and come prepared to ask questions.

Texts and other materials

Norman, D. A. (2002).  The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books.

A classic reflection on the relationship between how things are designed and how people use them.

Petroski, H. (1992). The Evolution of Useful Things. Vintage.

An engineer's reflection on how technology evolves. Petroski's thesis is that technology is shaped by failures.

Teich, A. H., Ed. (2006).  Technology and the Future, 10th Ed. Wadsworth.

An edited collection of articles that put forth political, philosophical, and other perspectives on technology.

We will also read a number of texts placed on eReserve through the Grinnell College Libraries.

How to read for this class

I suggest you read/skim each text two or three times. I find I am usually better off not making any notes at all during my first reading---my early notes are often beside the point as I don't know where the author is going. You will likely prefer one or the other of these strategies, depending on your learning style:

Strategy 1: Top-down

First, skim the entire text, paying special attention to section headings. Your goal is to get the gist of the work: What is it about? What claims is the author making? Second, read carefully to fill in the details in the authors' exposition and arguments. Finally, make notes with page numbers. Your notes should include the author's main points and your reactions and questions. (These will be helpful for preparing your discussion questions or reflective essay.)

Strategy 2: Bottom-up

First, read the text carefully and try to understand the details of the authors' chain of reasoning. Next, skim through the work again, this time trying to put those details together into the big picture:What is it about? What claims is the author making? Finally, make notes with page numbers. Your notes should include the author's main points and your reactions and questions. (These will be helpful for preparing your discussion questions or reflective essay.)

You may find it more efficient to combine your second and third readings.

Discussion questions

Guidelines

Discussion questions serve, well, to guide our discussion. Thus, questions should help guide us toward a productive discussion in one of two ways: It should help you and other students to understand the text, or it should lead us towards insights that go beyond the text.

Bearing these goals in mind, consider asking the following types of questions:

• questions concerning terms not adequately defined in the reading,
• questions to clarify concepts,
• questions to clarify the authors' stance,
• questions about the authors' assumptions, 
• questions concerning the motivation or necessity for ideas,
• questions about the relationship between ideas or viewpoints, and
• questions that ask us to evaluate a stance or technology in light of particular goals or human values.

Your questions should be related to the text.  Provide adequate context: it should be clear what your question is about. At a minimum, your question should include an APA-style in-line citation giving the author and publication year of the text to which you are referring. If your question is about a specific point rather than the text as a whole, cite page numbers and use direct quotes as appropriate. For this informal piece of writing, you need not provide a list of references.

Mechanics

Students should submit at least one well-thought-out question for each day on which discussion questions are required. If we read more than one article for class, you need only ask one question.  Students may submit additional questions for support and for extra credit.

Questions must be submitted via email before 8 p.m. on the evening before a discussion.  For example, if a reading is due on Friday, discussion questions should be submitted before 8 p.m. on Thursday evening. I will collate discussion questions into a document which I will then place online (accessible only to students in the class).

I will grade discussion questions on a plus/check/minus/zero scale.  Most questions will receive a check.  Particularly valuable or insightful questions will receive a plus.  Particularly trivial, awkwardly phrased, decontextualized, or otherwise inadequate questions will receive a minus. Students who fail to submit their questions on time will receive a zero.

I will drop your lowest score (including a zero) on a discussion question from the computation of your final grade.

Janet Davis (davisjan@cs.grinnell.edu)