TEC154 2010S, Class 36: Solar Energy (Discussion)

Overview:
* Putting the Fun in Dysfunctional
* Goals of paper reviews.
* Lessons from Swartz.
* Relating readings: What's relevant?
* What is a computer?

Admin:
* Drafts due (electronic form).  I realize that many of the drafts are rougher than you (or I) would like.
* Assigning reviewers - Remember: Reviews are due Wednesday.
* Reading for Monday: Ceruzzi (in Teich).
* Reading for Wednesday: "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush (distributed electronically).
* Congratulations to our class member now in PBK

Why do group work when it's likely that some groups will have major
problems?
* Helps students build communication skills - You have to communicate
  with a group to write an essay
  * When your groupmates fail to communicate, you fail.  Yay!
* In academe, which is the only place that matters, lots of work is
  done collaboratively
  * Well, not in the humanities, but ...
* Constructivism: Learn from doing ("I'm not going to tell you how to
  make your group work; you can figure it out on your own.")
  * Petroski in action!  Learn from failure!
* In real life, your success is dependent on other people; you will
  be working in groups in the future
  * You need to learn now how to deal with bozos, while you still
    have nice bozos around.
* Theoretically, there's more pressure not to blow off a group project
  * "Eh, we can do this together in twenty minutes"
  * "Eh, that guy on the Sociology SEPC can do all the work; I'm heading for Lonnski's"

Ideally, a group produces a better paper
* There are potentially multiple perspectives; we see multiple sides
* Different people bring different talents: Some people come up with
  ideas, some write well, some bring the chips
* Logistics
* Faculty are evil

Presentations: Ten Minutes
* Monday and Wednesday of H*ll week
* Monday
  * Sports protective equipment
  * Land-line phones
  * Cell phones
  * Wireless video game controllers
* Wednesday
  * Birth Control
  * Electroconvulsive therapy
  * Household appliances
  * Ethanol

Goals of Paper Reviews
* What do you think the thesis is?
* What are the main strengths of the paper?
* What are the main weaknesses of the paper?
  * With suggestions for improvement
    Not "Your transitions suck" but "As you make the move from the
    electrocution danger in photovoltaics to the stunning beauty of
    the sun, you might consider adding something like 'But there's more
    than danger to photovoltaics ...'  Better yet, you might put the
    "stunning beauty of the sun" section elsewhere in the paper, such
    as in the "irrelevant comments to pad out the paper" section."
  * Identify weaknesses in the argument and suggest ways to make it
    better.  "In writing about black & white film, you neglected to
    address the raw power inherent in the color binary.  Take a look
    at the paper by Eisenstein on this.  In the paper, he suggests
    that because black & white are such a contrast to the everyday
    color that most of us experience, we tend to interpret them as
    more metaphoric than concrete."
* Talk about the big picture, not about small issues  
* Remind the authors about lenses they might use
* Don't tell us things that are obvious: 
  "Hmmm ... if you don't put in citations, you might be meeting the
   folks on CAS"

* Can we use "track changes" in doing our reviews?
* Can we print it out?
* What form do we want?
  * Do whatever seems best to you as a reviewer and most helpful
    to the authors.
  * Remember that you need to turn in two copies!  One for the group
    and one for the prof

Small groups:
* Identify three broad lessons we can take from Swartz
* Who are three authors/lenses we might apply to photovoltaics?
  (That is, what are three questions we might ask about the impact
  or whatever of this technology?)

Questions for J
* Cost?

Lessons from Swartz ; Ways to view other technologies
* Green technology is not always cost-efficient 
  Example: The panels are only 15% efficient; it costs research
    money to make it efficient
  Cost to installing
* "You get what you pay for" - The more you put into it, the more
  efficient it is
* How do technologies compete?
* How do markets get created for new technologies?

Lenses
* What would Schumacher say about this technology, particularly
  given the lack of efficiency
  * Getting the most happiness out of the fewest resources
    * There's a potential
* What would Winner say? - What political structure or group of 
  people does this support?
  * It's democratic.  It frees people from the evil centralized
    corporate structures.
  * But expensive, so perhaps not so democratic
* What would Berry say?