Author Archives: Stephen Petrina

MA Defence: Vicente Regis, 10:00 am, Tuesday September 13, 2022

Posted on September 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
Master of Arts
(Media & Technology Studies Education)
Vicente Regis
Tuesday September 13, 2022 @ 10:00
Scarfe 2108 + Zoom

Interpreting Experts’ Perspectives on Philosophizing Media And Technology for Children and Youth

EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Supervisory Committee:
Prof Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor (Media & Technology Studies)
Prof Jillianne Code (Media & Technology Studies)
External Examiner:
Prof Paula MacDowell (University of Saskatchewan) 

ABSTRACT
This research addressed the problem of children’s and youth’s philosophical perspectives on media and technology (M&T) through the exploratory expert interview method. Four experts in philosophy education, technology education, and media literacy were interviewed, offering their insights into how philosophical capacity in children and youth manifests and evolves. The study focused on three research questions: 1) What are experts’ perspectives on what it means for children and youth to philosophize M&T? 1a) What are experts’ perspectives on the relationship between this philosophical capacity and media and digital literacy? 1b) What are experts’ perspectives on how philosophizing M&T can be integrated into the school curriculum? Drawing from the writings of Dewey (1920, 1949), Deleuze and Guattari (1991/1994), Petrina (2020), Pigliucci (2014), de Vries (2016) and Weischedel (1999), the theoretical framework understands philosophizing as a creative activity based on argumentation, concept creation, and reflection. Committed to analyzing and critiquing any aspect of reality, philosophizing transpires through the exploration of conceptual space. Mitcham’s (1978, 1994) typology of technology structures the reflection regarding how students perceive M&T. One over-arching theme, and four core themes organize data analysis and findings: Philosophizing as Perspective Expansion encompass Emergent Questions, Metaphor, Critique, and Ethics. All three research questions are explored within the overarching and four core themes. These themes in philosophizing M&T are articulated in terms of how they represent deep transformations in children’s and youth’s perspectives in symbiosis with experience and intellectual growth, which I described as Philosophizing as Perspective Expansion. Expansion of perspective means increasing or transforming the interconnected compound of ideas one relies on to decide how to act facing a complex issue. This transformation occurs through the following elements: emergent questions, critique, and metaphorical reflections that include wonder, mythical interpretations, and metaphysical discussions. Hence, in conversation with the four experts, this research sought points that crystallize connections between knowledge fields central to the philosophy of M&T for children and youth.

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Posted in Children, Critique of M&T, Curriculum, Philosophy of M&T for Children & Youth

STEM Education in Canada

Posted on June 17, 2022 | Leave a comment

Just uploaded “Status and Trends of STEM Education in Canada” to my Academia.edu account: Canada is at various crossroads and one of these is STEM education. The Canadian government anticipates that STEM will be a catalyst for economic and cultural change. After a decade of federal policies and funds for STEM education, there is little to show in K-12 schools and teacher education programs. The vast majority of non-profit, private sector, and professional society policy recommendations reinforce the federal government’s lead. This chapter provides a critical analysis of challenges, policies, practices, and trends in STEM education in Canada. The chapter primarily focuses on K-12 STEM education and teacher education and tangentially on postsecondary STEM education.

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Posted in Curriculum, Design, Interdisciplinary, STEAM

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Charlene Chong, #UBC MA Defence: Sexuality Education and Socialization for British Columbia’s Youth and the Increasingly Influential Role of Social Media: For Better or Worse?

Posted on April 27, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
Master of Arts
(Media & Technology Studies)
Charlene Chong
Exam Date & Time: Thursday April 28, 2022 @ 3:00
Exam Location: Scarfe 2108 + Zoom
Sexuality Education and Socialization for British Columbia’s Youth and the Increasingly Influential Role of Social Media: For Better or Worse?
EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Supervisory Committee:
Prof Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor (Media & Technology Studies)
Prof Jillianne Code (Media & Technology Studies)
External Examiner:
Prof Sandra Scott (Environmental & Science Education)

ABSTRACT
A flawed and inadequate school-based sexual health education in Canada leaves adolescents both unhappy and unequipped to care for their health. To help fill these sexual health gaps, they turn to other avenues, one being social media. However, these experiences of sexual socialization via social media are understudied. As such, this convergent mixed-method design with an emphasis on the qualitative explored sexual health education, in school and social media, through the perspectives of adolescents. Data were collected through anonymous surveys and three themes emerged from analysis: 1) Variety of topics in school-based sexual health education; 2) Various ways of obtaining information; and 3) Using social media to gain a sense of belonging. Youth in this study were interested in learning a variety of sexual health topics yet found their school-based education at best, failed to either reflect this interest, or at worst, made participants feel uncomfortable and shameful. Two significant ways sexual health information was shared were through friends and social media. Friends and social media were a supportive approach and space to discuss curiosities and share experiences with the added facet that social media can also inadvertently introduce youth to unfamiliar content. For youth, particularly marginalized adolescents like LGBTQ2IA+ youth, social media and its online community proved critical in discovering and forming their own sexual identities – helping to gain a sense of belonging. However, social media can be incorrect, and ineffective at connecting all users to appropriate sexual health content. While social media can be used in conjunction with school-based education, the findings suggests that at this time, it cannot be a stand-alone solution. It is thus, considerably crucial that school-based sexual health education be changed and improved to be comprehensive and inclusive.

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Posted in Case Study, Media, New Media, Sexuality Education, Social Media, STEAM, Technology, Technology Studies

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Stella Maris Namae, #UBC PhD Defence: Status and Use of Information Communication Technology in Uganda Secondary Schools: Teachers’ Competencies, Challenges, Dispositions, and Perceptions

Posted on June 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

THE FINAL ORAL EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(CURRICULUM STUDIES)

Stella Maris Namae

Monday June 29, 2020
Zoom

Status and Use of Information Communication Technology in Uganda Secondary Schools: Teachers’ Competencies, Challenges, Dispositions, and Perceptions

ABSTRACT: This study explored teachers’ competencies, dispositions, perceptions, and challenges in selected secondary schools in Mbale district of the Republic of Uganda. Two research questions were investigated: 1) What do teachers in Uganda perceive to be the necessary ICT competencies and dispositions in the high school curriculum? 2) What do teachers perceive as challenges to implementing ICT in curriculum and instruction? Within a sequential explanatory mixed methods research design, 243 teachers were surveyed and nine were interviewed and observed in classrooms. Exploratory factor analysis loaded six significant factors: (1) Computer use as competency indicator (α = .89); (2) Communication enhancement (α = .76): (3) Effective mediator of teaching and learning (α = .73); (4) Drafters and preparatory tool (α = .72); (5) Performance indicator (α = .64); and (6) Computer-centred pedagogy (α = .59). Computer use as competency indicator was the best predictor of the teachers’ perceptions. Qualitative thematic analysis yielded six major themes: (1) Competencies in ICT Use Depend on Training Received; (2) ICT Use is Enhanced by Teacher Characteristics or Identity; (3) ICT Use Depends on Availability of ICT Infrastructure; (4) ICT Use is Beneficial to Lesson Planning and Instruction; (5) Teacher Collaboration through ICTs has Implications for Performance; and (6) ICT-enhanced Pedagogy Requires Extra Effort and Time. Teachers indicated their competencies were hampered by the lack of technology training and adequate trainers. Teachers also indicated: resources in general were needed at the schools to enable them to integrate ICTs; and IT departments were sometimes hindrances to their efforts to adopt technology. Teachers also agreed that at times they did not use technology because it would take too much time. Implications for practice and policy touch on six main areas: (1) Enhancing classroom uses of technology; (2) providing technology training; (3) providing technology infrastructure and resources; (4) providing time; (5) modifying the school curriculum; and (6) adopting technology plans for schools. Findings suggest the Uganda government needs to commit significant funding to equip schools with resources. At the same time, findings indicate that availability of technology resources does not guarantee teacher change or student learning.

EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Chair:
Prof Maureen Kendrick (Language and Literacy Education)
Supervisory Committee:
Prof Samson Nashon, Research co-Supervisor
Prof Stephen Petrina, Research co-Supervisor
Prof Sandra Scott
University Examiners:
Prof Ali Abdi
Prof Jillianne Code

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Posted in Educational Technologies, Teachers, Technology

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David Wray, #UBC MA Defence: Message Me when You Land: Tourism and Hospitality Students’ Distance Relationships with Friends, Family, and Devices

Posted on April 16, 2020 | Leave a comment
The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
Master of Arts
(Media & Technology Studies)
David R. Wray
Exam Date & Time: Thursday April 23, 2020
Exam Location: Zoom
Message Me when You Land: Tourism and Hospitality Students’ Distance Relationships with Friends, Family, and Devices
EXAMINING COMMITTEE 
Supervisory Committee:
Prof Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor (Media & Technology Studies)
Prof E. Wayne Ross (Curriculum Studies and Social Studies)
External Examiner:
Prof Jillianne Code (Media & Technology Studies)
ABSTRACT
This qualitative study addressed the problem of maintaining relationships via creative and routine uses of Multimedia Devices (MMDs). Twelve participants were recruited from a private college in Vancouver, which specializes in tourism and hospitality education for international students. Interviews focused on their uses of MMDs in creating and maintaining relationships with family and friends. The study addressed three research questions: 1) In what ways do international students utilize MMDs to maintain relationships with family, friends, and the devices themselves? 1a) How do the students maintain relationships at home, school, and online, while fostering newer, more immediate relationships? 1b) How do the students maintain relationships with media and technology (M&T) devices and apps? For analysis and interpretation, the theoretical framework draws on Hinde’s (1976a, 1976b) research into relationality and on Goffman’s (1974) caution of the collusion of technology in changing relationships. Findings are organized around four themes: Shifting Time and Space Constraints, Necessity vs. Habit, Online Identity, and Influence and Marketing. Within each theme, one, two, or all three questions are explored. The participants post memes, photos, and videos to their social media but do not always keep up their relationships with family and friends directly, though they said most of their significant relationships had not faltered. Participants were hard pressed to say that their personal technology use was a bad thing, though they consistently expressed how it would get in the way of experiencing real life in the moment. The participants have their technologies on them and interact with them on a regular basis, but their views on MMDs extend from necessity to habit. This research has implications for the process of intercultural relationship building among students, as it takes the pervasiveness of M&T into account. Given current conditions of life, play, study, and work, implications are placed in context of Covid-19. How this sample of international students interacts and depicts themselves online suggests the strengthening of some relationships while keeping others at a comfortable distance, but still near, nonetheless. Educators of all levels should be aware of how students create, maintain, and destroy relationships via MMDs
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Posted in Communication, Covid-19, Critique of M&T, Media, New Media, Social Media

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Jennifer Jing Zhao #UBC PhD Defence: Design of a 3D Virtual Learning Environment for Acquisition of Cultural Competence in Nurse Education #UBCEDCP

Posted on September 23, 2019 | Leave a comment

The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Curriculum Studies)

Jennifer Jing Zhao

Tuesday September 24, 2019, 4:00 pm
Room 200 of the Graduate Student Centre (6371 Crescent Road)

Design of a 3D Virtual Learning Environment for Acquisition of Cultural Competence in Nurse Education: Experiences of Nursing and Other Health Care Students, Instructors, and Instructional Designers

ABSTRACT: This study investigates how a 3D virtual world or learning environment facilitates nursing and other health care students’ acquisition of cultural competence. The study specifically explores the experience of students, instructors, and instructional designers in a 3D virtual learning environment designed specifically for this research. The research questions are: 1) What are the experiences of instructional designers and instructors in a simulated immersive learning environment of a 3D virtual world for the acquisition of cultural competence for students in nursing and other health related fields? 2) What are the experiences of students in a simulated immersive learning environment of a 3D virtual world for the acquisition of cultural competence? The design of the 3D world and analysis of data draw on a framework based on Deweyan and Confucian theories of experience. The theoretical framework suggests that learning is best supported through affordances for continuity and interaction, which are essential when designing, integrating, and evaluating simulation and immersion in 3D virtual worlds. Design-based research (DBR) and user experience (UX) methodologies are employed to explore the experience of students, instructors, and other participants. A taxonomy of experience (ToE) established by Coxon (2007) guides qualitative data collection and analysis in this study. Users’ data were distilled through nine steps to help experiences to be “seen” and to make abstract concepts comprehensible and visible. The findings include seven themes distilled from the data: Simulation for 3D learning environments is best: 1) grounded in real-world contexts; 2) shaped through holistic design; 3) designed for embodiment; 4) designed for interactivity; and 5) designed for continuous experience; 6) 3D learning environments should take the complexity of the technical interface into account; and 7) Design for the acquisition of cultural competence should take the users’ experience and knowledge into account. Implications include: 1) Conceptualization of “designer as host” and hospitality through Chinese understandings of guest-host relations; 2) Consideration of virtual experience overlooked within Deweyan and Confucian pragmatism.

EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Chair:
Prof Guofang Li (Language and Literacy Education)
Supervisory Committee:
Prof Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor
Prof Hsiao-Cheng Sandrine Han
Prof Francis Feng
University Examiners:
Prof Marlene Asselin
Prof Samson Nashon

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Posted in Communication, Design, Design-Based Research, Instructional Design, Pedagogy, Technology, Technology Studies, User Experience, Virtual Worlds

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Sharon Doucet #UBC MA Defence: Redistributing the Teacher: An Analysis of Technology Enabled Teaching in Medical Education #bced #UBCSTS

Posted on October 23, 2018 | Leave a comment

The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS
(Science & Technology Studies)

Sharon Doucet, B.A.

REDISTRIBUTING THE TEACHER: AN ANALYSIS OF TECHNOLOGY ENABLED TEACHING IN MEDICAL EDUCATION

Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 9.00 am
BUCH D319

ABSTRACT: Educational technologies (ETs) are increasingly used in undergraduate medical education to train the next generation of doctors. However, once introduced to a learning environment, ETs can have intended and unintended consequences. Current research in medical education frequently renders these ETs as simple tools to be used by teachers, and ignores their unintended effects on the learning environment. This thesis employs actor-network theory (ANT) to chart the distribution of teaching from human to ETs to determine: 1) In what ways are the properties or roles of the teacher distributed across advanced learning technologies (ALTs) in medical education? 2) In what way is this distribution acknowledged among teachers within medical education discourses? Discourse analysis methods were used to analyze a selection of twenty-five medical education research and practice articles drawn from the PubMed database (2007-present). The distribution of teaching to ETs, specifically ALTs, in these articles is extended through time and space, teaching context, and content, and modifies human teaching. Acknowledgement of this distribution was evident in faculty members’ or teachers’ concerns of being displaced or overshadowed by ALTs. Human teachers and nonhuman ET teachers ought to be considered partners. Once introduced, the nonhuman ETs become socially embedded and their participation requires continued attention and critique. Finally, when examining the effectiveness of ETs’ role in a learning environment, scholars should consider the ways in which their inclusion was deliberate, transparent, and accepted by other actors within the network.

EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Prof Stephen Petrina (Supervisor) (Curriculum & Pedagogy / STS
Prof Robert Brain (Chair) (History / STS)
Prof Barry Mason (Cellular & Physiological Sciences / Medical Education)

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Posted in Case Study, Curriculum, Educational Technologies, Instructional Design, Pedagogy, STS, Teachers, Technology, Technology Studies

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Kesiena Chris-Iwuru #UBC MA Defence: Youth Perspectives on #Cyberbullying and Social Media Platforms #bced

Posted on January 15, 2018 | 1 comment

Kesiena Chris-Iwuru, BSc, MSc

Masters of Arts in Media & Technology Studies Thesis Defense

YOUTH PERSPECTIVES ON CYBERBULLYING AND SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: TEEN AGENCY, INTERACTIVITY, AND SOCIAL COGNITION

Friday January 19, 2018, 10:00 am, Scarfe 2108

ABSTRACT: This research examines how social media platforms have reconfigured traditional notions of social interaction and specifically how a sample of youth view these platforms in light of problems with cyberbullying. The research design included two primary questions: 1) How do social media platforms reconfigure social interaction and means by which youth perceive and understand these platforms? 2) What role does social cognition play in youth perspectives of online identities and interactions in relation to cyberbullying? The participants included nine Grades 10-12 students (4 males and 5 females), aged between 16-21 years. The research site was an independent high school located in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Actor-network theory and optimal distinctive theory (Brewer, 1991; Latour, 2005) formed the theoretical perspective for analyzing, discussing and the presentation of the research study findings. Data were collected through ethnographic techniques, including observations, artefacts (documents, etc.), and interviews.

The findings from this study indicate that the ubiquitous mode of interaction within these spaces deviates from traditional norms, with resulting consequence that impact users’ ability to perceive telepresence. The manner in which social media spaces are understood is largely influenced and informed by the predominant collective, where the self is seen as undefined and enacted in context-specific processes. The findings also indicate that interactions, perception, and mode of responses to conflict situations are based on previous experiences and currently held notions of what constitutes appropriate online behaviour. The implications and significance of the research findings have relevance for educators on how best to engage and understand teenagers in these spaces, with new and effective measures to examine instances of conflict and antisocial behaviour online. For social media companies and startups, it provides an insight into the nuanced mode and context of interaction prevalent within these platforms and the resulting impact on how individuals, the collective, and the platform itself all exert influence on each other.

  • SUPERVISOR:  Dr. Stephen Petrina
  • COMMITTEE MEMBER:  Dr. Franc Feng
  • THESIS EXAMINER:  Dr. Samson Nashon
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Posted in Cyberbullying, Design, Media, New Media, Social Media, STS, Technology, Technology Studies

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Yu-Ling Lee #UBC PhD Defence: Designing TechnoTheologies #bced

Posted on May 5, 2017 | Leave a comment

The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Curriculum Studies)

Yu-Ling Lee

Wednesday, May 10, 2017. 12:30 pm
Room 207, Anthropology and Sociology Building,
6303 Northwest Marine Drive

DESIGNING TECHNOTHEOLOGIES: ETHICS, PEDAGOGIES, AND SPIRITUALITIES IN MAKER ACTOR-NETWORKS

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to understand how religion and spirituality matter in the consumer use, design, and engineering of media and technology. Specifically, the research questions were: 1) What role do ethics and values perform in maker and hacker networks? 2) How are ethics and values integrated and manifested throughout the design process in maker or hacker networks? 3) What are the routines, rituals, and subjective well-being of participants in the maker or hacker design process? The research setting was the designers in the maker community in Vancouver and technologists associated with Code for the Kingdom in Seattle. All designers and technologists in Vancouver and Seattle have independent projects at various levels of collaboration. I recruited seven participants affiliated with the Vancouver maker community for in-depth analysis of their design process. In Seattle, I recruited two hackers who participated in Code for the Kingdom, a Christian organization that hosts hackathons for altruistic and religious purposes. Their focus on innovation, design methodologies, and critical making allowed me to discern their values and ethics through their design process. These participants have different perspectives on religion and spirituality, which make their technotheological networks complex. Case studies facilitated in-depth examination of makers and hackers as the main actors of our inquiry. The use of video in dialogue with ethnographic inquiry allowed for nuance, discerning complexities, and giving form to expression in designing technotheologies. Conceptually, the research is framed by actor-network theory (ANT) and value sensitive design (VSD), enabling the study to discern how participants discover, design artifacts, make meaning, develop values, and maintain a sense of the good life and well-being, emotional and spiritual. Findings indicate that among the makers and hackers, technotheological networks articulate specific values alongside technological creations, practices, and personal ways of being. In their own unique ways, these makers and hackers inquire into the materialized morality and design phases of ethically responsible decision making processes. Conversely, the non-human actors express their own values within technotheological networks. My role as a techno-theologian helped facilitate competing value claims by positing a normative focus and by temporarily opening black boxes.

EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Chair:
Prof Richard Young (Counselling Psychology)

Supervisory Committee:
Prof Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor (Curriculum Studies)
Prof E. Wayne Ross (Curriculum Studies)
Prof Francis Feng (Curriculum Studies)

University Examiners:
Prof Kerry Renwick (Curriculum Studies)
Prof Brian Wilson (Kinesiology)

External Examiner:
Prof Matt Ratto

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Posted in Case Study, Curriculum, Design, Hacker Culture, Maker Culture, Media, STS, Technology, Technology Studies, TechnoTheology

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PhD defence, Jenny Arntzen “Teacher Candidates’ Imaginative Capacity and Dispositions Toward Using ICT in Practice”

Posted on November 23, 2015 | Leave a comment

Congratulations Jenny!

The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY
(Curriculum Studies)

JENNY ARNTZEN
B.F.A., Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, 2003
M.A., The University of British Columbia, 2007

Friday, November 20, 2015, 12:30 pm
Room 200,  Graduate Student Centre

Teacher Candidates’ Imaginative Capacity and Dispositions Toward Using ICT in Practice

EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Chair: Dr. Deborah Butler (Special Education)

Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Samson M. Nashon, Research Supervisor (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Stephen Petrina (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. E. Wayne Ross (Curriculum Studies)

University Examiners:
Dr. Marlene Asselin (Language and Literacy Education)
Dr. Peter Gouzouasis (Curriculum Studies)

External Examiner:
Dr. Ann-Louise Davidson
Concordia University

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the relationship between instructional discourses in a pre-service teacher education program and teacher candidates’ subsequent plans to use ICT in their professional practice. Teacher candidates’ dispositions, in terms of comportment and composure, were seen as indicative of the quality of their relationship with ICT. Teacher candidates’ manifestations of these dispositions, in terms of ICT imaginative capacity, were seen as indicative of the characteristics of their use (what they had the capacity to imagine and the capability to implement). Manifestations of dispositions were described as displays of ICT imaginative capacity.

The setting for the study was a post-baccalaureate two-year teacher education program in a large regional university in western Canada. Participants in the study were comprised of a thirty-eight member cohort of teacher candidates in the first year of their two-year program. A sub-group of teacher candidates was self-selected from the cohort and participated in a research intervention.

This study adapted a social constructivist theoretical framework complemented by an enactive analysis of social interactions examining communicative events from the teacher education program. An interpretive case study methodology collected data from teacher education classes, teacher candidate questionnaires, and focus group discussions. These three datasets were analyzed and interpreted to explore relationships between instructional discourses and teacher candidates’ dispositions toward using ICT.

Findings document teacher candidates’ dispositions toward using ICT as demonstrated by their capacity to imagine using ICT and their capability to implement these imaginings in practice. Conclusions suggest a need for further research into “ecologies of learning”. Recommendations also include a need to investigate instructional discourses with regards to developing ICT imaginative capacity and imaginative capability. The need to develop imaginative capacity extends beyond when, where, why, how, or what ICT teachers learn to use in practice.

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Posted in Communication, Teachers, Technology, Technology Studies

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A #History of the Critique of #Technology: A response to @LatourBot #sts

Posted on May 3, 2015 | Leave a comment

I wrote a history of the critique of technology as a response to Latour’s “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?” There have been few, if any, adequate responses to Latour’s ground-breaking essay. This is my second response to Latour and concurs to a degree with his thesis. My first response (“The New Critiquette“) was also a history but offered a defence of critique, or rather an analysis of the critique of critique.

This new response to Latour is the opposite of the first. I wanted to write something resourceful, something we didn’t already have. Now we have a working history of the critique of technology.

It’s big history in that it extends over an expansive historical scale (550 BCE-present) and geographic scope. I tried to be inclusive, attending to questions of gender for instance, but realize there are omissions. It’s a work in progress. I wrote nearly each paragraph as a mini-essay of sorts, meaning that it has it’s own integrity as a case study. Each of these mini-essays gives an empirical example; they demonstrate critique or criticism of media and technology at different times in different places.

The chapter sets up a series of theses, not the least of which is that the critique of media and technology has run out of steam.

If critique barely changes a thing, including youth consciousness, what is its utility? Most critiques of media and technology are instrumental by definition and intended to have an effect or make a difference. If it has been enough for criticism and critique to offer a counter to progress narratives, then how effective has this been? Has the critique of media and technology run out of steam, as Latour (2004) suggests? If out of energy drawn from the steam age, should critique be retrofit to run on light and signals? Meantime, the trend in vaping may conceivably pressurize critique enough to sputter into the future. Is the critique of media and technology over time sufficiently prejudicial or probative? Instrumental or terminal?

I had great fun writing this and have an idea of what to do next with it. It’s most immediate setting is as a chapter in Critique in Design and Technology Education, edited by P. John Williams and Kay Stables. Thank you to Kay and John, who invited me to write this. I also thank Belinda von Mergenson, David Barlex and Marc de Vries, who gave superb feedback along with other colleagues at a conference in Marseille and workshop in Sausset les Pin. The conference and workshop were hosted by Jacques Ginestiè, his wife Marjolaine, and team from Marseille University.

Sausset les Pin Workshop

Sausset les Pin Workshop

That was tremendous fun as well. And yes, despite the beauty of the tranquil setting on the coast, we did work! Merci.

Sausset les Pin Workshop

Sausset les Pin Workshop

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Posted in Critique of M&T, Media, STS, Technology, Technology Studies, Theology

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Critique of Media & Technology Workshop #yreubc #hwl #ices

Posted on April 28, 2015 | Leave a comment

CRITIQUE OF MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOP 

Wednesday, April 29, 2015
10:20-12:00     Scarfe 1209
Year of Research in Education event #yreubc

CRITIQUE OF MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY

Stephen Petrina
University of British Columbia

This workshop focuses on the Critique of Media & Technology. The first part of the workshop includes a presentation and discussion on a forthcoming chapter. The second part of the workshop focuses on the process of researching and writing with special attention to philosophical and historical research 2.0 and narrative. How can we or ought we write a (big) history of the critique of media and technology?

The chapter begins with the spiritual critique of media and technology and proceeds historically through cultural criticism and social, psychic, ontic, and identic critiques. Differentiated from the spiritual critique that precedes, cultural criticism of media and technology emerges in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as a mode of describing and depicting the mechanical arts. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, spiritual critique is displaced through a rejection of religion and theology as sources of modern authority. With spiritual ground undermined, social, psychic, ontic, and identic critics of media and technology compete for defensible ground for leverage. The history of critique is a search for ground. This chapter historicizes the critique of media and technology as well as critique as a practice that has run out of steam. “Critical distance” from or “free relation” to media and technology— a seductive orientation since the 1940s— has been instrumental in critique’s gradual decline. The critique of critique has quickened the decline. The conclusion questions the short-term future of machinic critique and long-term renewal of spiritual critique.

Download the Critique of Media & Technology chapter

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Posted in Critique of M&T, Design, HWL Forums, Interdisciplinary, Media, STS, Technology, Technology Studies, Theology

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Paula (PJ) MacDowell’s PhD final oral exam @ Empowering Girls as Change Makers in Maker Culture: Stories from a Summer Camp for Girls in Design, Media & Technology

Posted on March 16, 2015 | Leave a comment

You are invited to
The Final Oral Examination
For the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Curriculum Studies)

PAULA (PJ) MACDOWELL
B.Ed, The University of Regina, 1995 MET,
The University of British Columbia, 2007

Monday, March 16, 2015, 12:30 pm
Room 200, Graduate Student Centre
Latecomers will not be admitted

Empowering Girls as Change Makers in Maker Culture: Stories from a Summer Camp for Girls in Design, Media & Technology

EXAM DETAILS
1. Exam Time: 12:30 PM on Monday, March 16, 2015 (Please arrive 5 minutes early, so the exam can begin promptly).
2. Exam Location: Room 200 of the Graduate Student Centre (Koerner Building, 6371 Crescent Road).

EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Chair:
Dr. Sandra Mathison (Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology)
Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Franc Feng (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Sandra Scott (Curriculum Studies)
University Examiners:
Dr. E. Wayne Ross (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Laurie Ford (School Psychology)
External Examiner:
Dr. Ann Marie Hill
Faculty of Education
Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how girls develop new affinities towards and capabilities in media and technology. Thirty co-researchers, girls aged 10-13, were recruited into 101 Technology Fun, a series of summer camps with learning labs in animation, game design, movie production, and robotics programming. The design studio setting, created by the How We Learn (Media & Technology Across the Lifespan) collective, offered girls their own makerspace to explore media and technology. A novel methodology was developed, the Tween Empowerment & Advocacy Methodology (TEAM), which emphasizes relational ethics through artifact production, storymaking, mind scripting, invention, and imagination. Highlighting the importance for youth voices to be recognized and given influence in the academic research concerning their lives and learning circumstances, the findings focus on the catalytic or generative artifacts and “little stories” (e.g., Lyotard’s petits récits) revealing the co-researchers’ experiences and expressions of girlhood-in-interaction-with-technology (the key unit of analysis).

This research addresses artifacts as they relate to stories made or examined by the team members, including our concerns, needs, talents, inspiration, literacy, and volition. The artifacts, such as music videos, robotic amusement park, and the momME alternate reality game, are catalytic for storymaking and, symmetrically, the stories are catalytic to artifact production and sharing. Four distinct yet interrelated elements characterize our fieldwork and designworks:

(1) agency (girls having influence and power)
(2) ingenuity (girls being clever and inventive)
(3) self-interpretation (girls making sense and significance)
(4) self-efficacy (girls judging their technological capabilities).

Findings underscore the statement that it is not really a question of whether girls like to design (most do), as much a matter concerning how, when, and why they learn to become innovators, leaders, and producers of media and technology (thereby overturning traditional gender and generational stereotypes). Indeed, how a group of female youth story changes in their sense of technological self-efficacy, self-interpretation, ingenuity, and agency is one of the most important contributions of this study. Questions, both guiding and emergent, are articulated in artifact and text to motivate further scholarly inquiry, action, and advocacy, thereby generating more opportunities for girls to participate in, design, make, and transform technology culture.

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Research stories: A graduate forum #hwl #yreUBC #UBC #bced

Posted on November 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

RESEARCH STORIES: A GRADUATE FORUM

 How We Learn Media and Technology (across the lifespan)
Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy
University of British Columbia

Wednesday, November 19, 2014
10:00-11:30     Scarfe 1209
Year of Research in Education event

GIRLS DESIGNING GAMES, MEDIA, ROBOTS, SELVES, AND CULTURE
Paula (PJ) MacDowell
University of British Columbia

This research involved 30 co-researchers, girls aged 10–13, who were recruited into 101 Technology Fun, a series of intensive research camps offering learning labs in game design, video production, and robotics. Utilizing design-based and participatory techniques, including artifact production, mind scripting, and storymaking, this research examines how girls, through their artifact making and designerly practices, story themselves and express their understandings of technology. Highlighting the importance for girls’ voices to be recognized and given influence in research concerning their lives and learning circumstances, findings focus on the catalytic or generative artifacts and “little stories” that reveal how a team of girls analyze their experiences of girlhood-in-interaction-with technology.

MIGRANT MEXICAN YOUTH IN THE PACIFIC NORTWEST
Mike D. Boyer
Boise State University

 What are the stories of migrant, undocumented Mexican youth, as they struggle with language and acculturation in the English-speaking rural Northwest? As Michael Boyer describes, his own study of a set of such stories takes as its starting point narratives written and illustrated by students in his grade 7-12 ESL classroom some 10 years ago. Of course, these stories subsequently diverge as they continue to the present, and as these former students, now adults, connect back to their earlier experiences and reflect on the relation of these experiences to the present. The collection and investigation of these stories, new and old, and their relationship to past realities and future possibilities offers startling insights into the experiences of those othered and marginalized as “immigrant Hispanic children” in America. At the same time, it also entails the creative combination or a range of narratological, political and cultural categories and modes of analysis.

DESIGNING THINGS, PRACTICES AND CONCERN FOR THE GOOD LIFE
Yu-Ling Lee
University of British Columbia

 This research examines the complex relationship between design, the sacred and online learning, framed by matters of concern. It is the culmination of a yearlong ethnographic research project in the lives of Christian undergraduate students in Vancouver. Focal concerns in the form of things and practices have disclosive power if they are designed for the good life. The task of the designer, then, is to purposefully move away from matters of fact towards matters of concern. The interviews were open-ended and based on a loosely structured set of questions about faith background, Internet usage, online spiritual experiences, and other factors. Conversations and participant observations were then analyzed as matters of concern.

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