Knowledge Objectives

The theoretical frameworks that will be covered in this unit include:

• The historical and critical study of technologies, particularly debates about their medium specificity, and the way that technologies shape cultural practices.

• Feminist critiques and reinterpretations of technology and technoscientific knowledge.

• Theories concerning the relationship between technology and subjectivity, identity and perception.

• Phenomenological and epistemological frameworks for the interpretation of technology. These ask: how does technology affect and change our concepts of time and space, the body, vision and communication, and how do technologies shape the knowledges they help produce?

By the end of this unit students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a knowledge of the history of communicati ons technologies, and be able to locate them in their social context and analyse their social effects.

• Demonstrate a productive, critical attitude towards technological development.

• Critically evaluate current technological development and the "common sense" about it, e.g. the way that technological change is represented in the media.

• Demonstrate a knowledge of and ability to critically analyse current developments in bio-technologies.

• Understand the relationship between communication, technology, and embodiment. and develop an awareness of technological effects on culture, politics and the body.
  

Skills Objectives

Students will be asked to:

• Demonstrate improved self-presentation and group-presentation skills.

• Demonstrate skills in listening and non-aggressive debate.

• Discern the arguments in a complex text, and construct a critique using examples.

• Demonstrate improved critical writing skills