Teaching Assignment: Social Constructivism
Teaching Assignment: Social Constructivism
In theory, this assignment matches up with Susan Douglas’s book, but in practice I would probably have students read a much shorter essay from The Social Shaping of Technology, or one of its successors.
Goal: To get students to think about the many determining forces that inform technology practice. This could also be turned into a lesson about technological determinism, policy, materialism, or various other relevant areas of discussion depending on where the teacher places emphasis.
Procedure:
1. Have the students pick out the social factors that shape the development, production, adoption, and use of the technology in question. Make appropriate lists on the blackboard.
2. Using the same categories from the lists on the blackboard, have them brainstorm the same determining factors for an example technology as a class. This could be anything from toothbrushes to cell phones. Prompt them to dig deep into the less obvious connections between factors like cultural norms, manufacturing, and advertising.
3. Divide the class into smaller groups. Assign each group a technology relevant to the class, and then challenge each group to come up with as many determining factors as they can for their assigned technology. Set this up as some sort of friendly competition.
4. Make each group present their findings and allow the class to discuss/argue omissions, etc.
Adaptation: This assignment could be easily made into a writing assignment. Applying the social constructivism approach to a technology could be turned into anything from a short response paper to a long research paper. The same assignment procedure could also be used to teach any multi-faceted concept beyond the theme of technology.