This discussion spans 4 days and is due before midnight on Thursday of week 7.
Gender Lens
Roll over each color of the lens to see important questions to answer in this discussion.
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to 1) discuss feminist theory, women's choices, race and cultural issues, and barriers related to gender and technology,
2) research current trends of women and technology of different cultures/countries,
3) analyze relationships among science, technology, and society using critical perspectives or examples from historical, political, or economic disciplines,
4) analyze the role of science and technology in shaping diverse fields of study over time,
5) articulate in writing a critical perspective on issues involving science, technology, and society using evidence as support.
Introduction
Some technology is inherently feminine (tampons, bras, nutrition products, female condoms, IUD, Midol, hair products, bikes and bike seats).
Some technology is inherently masculine (jock straps, electric shavers, condoms, Viagra, bikes and bike seats). Some technology is designed and
built by men for mostly women and some is designed and built by women for mostly men (can you think of any?).
This week you'll use the
Gender Lens to
look at Social Factors related to a Product Timeline for Lego® building blocks (see the colorful glasses....they list the Factors).
You'll explore aspects of the Lens and how those Factors help/hinder society in terms of gender and Legos.
During different stages of the product's history, what social Factors influenced it at each stage?
Was the design, production, marketing, sales, user-support, maintenance, and recycling of the product
affected by a man or women's biology, social/cultural norms, economic status, political influence, or educational influence?
1. On Monday, start viewing and reading.
View the movies then search for and listen to/read a few popular or other scholarly articles, podcasts, and videos.
In a new tab, add various search phrases to a Google, Bing, or Yahoo search bar to locate articles. Switch to the Scholar, News, Videos, and Images channels to see different results.
Students will 1) summarize the major issues, statistics, and historical significance of technology developed and/or used by women.
2) discuss cultural issues and barriers related to gender and technology,
3) interpret, compare, and draw conclusions of trends and analyze technologies via a Gender Lens,
4) analyze relationships among science, technology, and society using critical perspectives or examples from historical, political, or economic disciplines, and
6) articulate in writing a critical perspective on issues involving science, technology, and society using evidence as support.
Introduction
For this 3-week project, you'll apply what you learned about the Gender Lens timeline and social factors of LEGOS to
another product, which you'll choose below. You'll synthesize that research into the Gender Lens pages of your Wordpress site.
The research will help you achieve a level of understanding regarding personal lifestyles and how choices can change the future.
Scoring criteria
Your project will be scored by the following criteria:
Research, analysis, and your original writing on a product's Timeline Factors (11 points)
Discuss Design & Prototyping, Production, Marketing, Sales, User Support, Maintenance, and Recycling. (Refer to lens chart above.)
Define terms to help a lay audience understand the complexities of the technology.
Illustrate processes with diagrams, photos, and/or videos.
Cite research and statistics.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Research, analysis, and your original writing on a product's Social Factors (11 points)
Discuss Biological, Social, Cultural, Economic, Political, and Educational factors.
Illustrate trends with charts. (Refer to lens chart above.)
Cite research, statistics, and charts. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Project is presented in a professional manner (8 points)
Material is presented online in 3 pages of the blog site. (2 points)
Click on each of these example projects (below) to read them and get a sense of the kinds of content you'll be researching,
related to the timeline and social factors of your chosen topic. (Note that most of them are missing the required subheadlines.)
The Skateboard, Abigail Relf, 2019
Birth Control Pill, Karley Devins, 2018
Hello, Barbie, Abigail Kimbrough, 2017
The Condom, Leah Trice, 2017.
Mechanical Dishwasher, Kalie Morris, 2016.
Washing Machine, Carah Kittson, 2016.
Keurig Coffee Maker, Meghan Winkleman, 2016.
Formaldehyde by Nancy Sinha, 2016.
iRobot Roomba Vacuum, Erin Ellefsen, 2016.
Easy Bake Oven by Britani Halsey, 2016.
Roominate By Shannon Snodgrass, 2014
These topics are now off limits.
7.2 Choose a product (1 per student).
Choose one topic to cover for this project.
Get approval from the instructor right away; only one student per topic per term.
* Topics already spoken for are marked with an asterisk.
⬆ Shiftrefresh Shift-Refresh this page to see the most up-to-date list of topics.
If you are physically able, visit the product at the store or in your home or office.
If it is boxed up, ask the sales staff if there is a sample you can look at, touch, and explore.
What does it look like, sound like, feel like, act like, smell like, etc.?
Can you look inside to see its inner-worgame?
If not, find drawings and photos online to help you more fully understand the product.
7.4 Research the product's Timeline.
Organize sources using your chosen bibliography tool from the previous project.
Focus on these factors and questions:
Design & Prototyping
Was the design team primarily female or male? Who were they? Who tested it before production?
Manufacturing & Production
Who manufactures/d it and where? Are the workers in the factories primarily male or female? What are working conditions like? What materials are used?
Marketing
Was and is it marketed primarily to girls/women or boys/men?
Sales
How and by whom was/is sold and how much does it cost?
User Support
How do/did users get help and by whom?
Maintenance
What is required to maintain it? Is an expert needed or can it be done by the buyer?
Recycling & Disposal
Do all its parts need to be sent to a landfill, or can some be recycled? In what country, how, and by whom?
Next week, you'll research the Social Factors related to the product.
7.5 Consult librarians as needed.
local_library
Formulate specific questions that describe the area of research you're trying to locate so that
the human will be able to provide a targeted response. Choose more than one method of contact to ask very specific questions
(but do not ask two different librarians to answer the same question). If you don't know how to use the Library's databases, then consult with librarians to learn how!
Or start at Library Do It Yourself DIY.
"Between June 2015 and August 2017, millions of Americans were exposed to Facebook ads and posts generated by Russian operatives who sought to influence voter behavior and exploit divisions in American society on hot-button issues."
The Facebook ads Russians targeted at different groups By Dan Keating, Kevin Schaul and Leslie Shapiro. Nov. 1, 2017
In Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning (2013), Stanford University scholars determined that
most college, high school, and middle school students lack the ability to differentiate between advertisements, opinion pieces, and news articles.
This problem tends to encourage citizens to base important opinions on untrue, incomplete, and unfair articles and ads, which many call fake or alternative news.
Our ability to differentiate fact from fiction gets harder as new sources of varying quality crop up overnight and
fill our news feeds with headlines meant to attract attention rather than educate.
Overuse of sensational headlines, uncited 'facts', and unrelated photos bombard our senses and distract us from reading carefully.
In addition, political parties from around the world overfill news feeds with fake information to push their agenda,
which can persuade large groups of voters one way or another, as we have seen with Facebook and Instagram posts by Russian government officials.
To help us navigate factual, analysis, and opinion articles, refer to Vanessa Otero's Media Bias Chart, Edition 3 (below).
To place a news source in the X axis (conservative versus liberal) and the Y axis (factual, analytical, unfair),
Otero uses a metric that involves three main categories: Veracity, Expression, and Fairness.
For a detailed analysis of her method, read related blog posts at All Generalizations are False as well as
an expert review of her work (Media Quality and Bias) by Professor Max Stearns of University of Maryland Carey School of Law.
7.6 Write the research.
Write between the subheadlines on the Gender Lens pages of your Wordpress site
(to help ensure you do not write about 'whatever'.
The project objectives and the scoring criteria are driving the kinds of research and writing you do this week.
It is not open-ended.
Define terms to help a lay audience understand the complexities of the technology and note what part of the process happens in which countries.
Login to your Wordpress site and click the My Site button to get to the Dashboard.
Click on the Pages button.
Click on the Gender Lens Parent Page link to edit it.
Change the title to the name of your topic.
Remove the 'Introducing the topic of my project.' sentence.
In your own words, in a single paragraph which summarizes the technology and its contribution to society.
Embed links to inline citations so that the author's last name is hyperlinked, like this: (Smith 2016).
Click the Update button.
Click the green View button to see the page in a new tab. Check for grammar and spelling errors.
Ctrl-P (Win) or ⌘-P (Mac) to print the page as a .PDF file. Close this viewing tab.
Click the ← Back button from the Editing tab.
Click on the — 1. Timeline Factors Page link to edit it.
Under the 'Design & Prototyping' subheadline:
type your original writing about the design team.
Under the 'Manufacturing & Production' subheadline:
type your original writing about the manufacturing companies and their workers.
Under the 'Marketing' subheadline:
type your original writing about how the product is marketed to different genders.
Under the 'Sales' subheadline:
type your original writing about the how it is sold and how much it costs.
Under the 'User Support' subheadline:
type your original writing about how one learns to use it.
Under the 'Maintenance' subheadline:
type your original writing about whether it can be maintained by the user or outside experts.
Under the 'Recycling & Disposal' subheadline:
type your original writing about where it ends up.
Cite research and statistics. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Embed links to inline citations so that the author's last name is hyperlinked, like this: (Smith 2016).
Click the Update button.
Click the green View button to see the page in a new tab. Check for grammar and spelling errors.
Ctrl-P (Win) or ⌘-P (Mac) to print the page as a .PDF file. Close this viewing tab.
Click the ← Back button from the Editing tab.
Next week, you'll write the Social Factors page.
7.7 Blog about your progress on the research (5 points).
Write a paragraph that describes your chosen (and approved) topic and note your successes or problems locating required research. Did you use library resources?
Write a paragraph that describes one or more Example Project from step 7.1. What did you learn about how the project is organized?
Check grammar and spelling.
Click the Category button and choose the Gender & Technology.
Click the Publish button.
7.8 Submit the URL to your new post.
View your site live (not from the Dashboard).
Select the URL for your home page or your new Post.
Paste the URL into the Canvas assignment link for Chapter 7.
In the Canvas Discussion area:
