Technology and Human Values

Catalog description

Three lecture. Explores the relationship between technological development and individual and social values in the Western World from ancient times through the present. Includes technologies connected with a variety of areas, such as medicine, printing, agricultural production, work, ethics, art and architecture. Students will be able to: gather, interpret and evaluate evidence; develop skills in analyzing and synthesizing information; provide an environment which values factual and rational interchange; develop skills which will enable them to become aware of faulty reasoning; develop skills in flexible and creative thinking; successfully complete the writing component to pass the class; pursue the above objectives through all of the following: frequent discussions encouraging students to develop skills in critical listening, thinking, and interacting; written discourse both in class and out of class; at least one oral presentation; writing assignments of increasing difficulty; a minimum of 2500 instructor-evaluated written words, including at least one paper of 1500 words, with two or more additional papers totaling at least 1000 words; at least one paper revised according to instructor comments and suggestions. describe the development of selected technologies over time, and the impact of these developments on humanistic values; employ a variety of approaches to the discussion of issues surrounding the development and implementation of selected technologies; identify and analyze, orally and in writing, the moral and ethical considerations that may accompany technological innovation; explain connections between selected technologies and the effects they produce on humans as individuals, and in a social context; describe how technological innovation can change human behavior and human values; describe ways in which technology impacts the non-human world; outline some of the ways in which technology affects students’ own lives; organize information from multiple sources into a unified presentation; identify and compare different points of view or perspectives regarding specific technological innovations; design a project or presentation documenting the social and ethical implications of a selected technological development; describe how technology can produce unintended consequences; analyze sociological, ethical, historical and cultural aspects of the works. Pre/Corequisite(s): ENG 102 . General Education: Arts and Humanities