Monthly Archives: September 2016

Who will own the robots?

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Illustration credit: Joost Swarte.

David Rotman’s three-part article series in the MIT Technology Review asks important questions about the effects of software and automation on the economy. Do you think that today’s rapid advances in artificial intelligence and automation foreshadow a future in which robots and software greatly reduce the need for human workers? Are we facing a future with increased disparity and inequality due to the commercialization of technological innovation? Will the rewards of new technologies go largely to the very richest, as has been the trend in recent decades?

Part I (June 12, 2013): How Technology Is Destroying Jobs
Part II (Oct 14, 2014): Technology and Inequality
Part III (June 16, 2015): Who Will Own the Robots?

How do you respond to Robert Solow’s claim that, “any decent person should find having extreme poverty coexisting in the same society with extreme wealth immoral” in regards to the increasing gap between the super wealthy and everyone else in our world?

For example, the 2014 Global Wealth Report informs: “a person needs only USD 3,650 to be among the wealthiest half of world citizens. However, more than USD 77,000 is required to be a member of the top 10% of global wealth holders, and USD 798,000 to belong to the top 1%. Taken together, the bottom half of the global population own less than 1% of total wealth. In sharp contrast, the richest decile hold 87% of the world’s wealth, and the top percentile alone account for 48.2% of global assets.”

We need to do better at intelligently managing and sharing our world’s resources. How does income inequality effect economic opportunity and innovation in our world? How do we share the wealth that technology creates? How do we create a technological world without greed? How do we work towards a prosperous technological future with human flourishing for all?

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Upcoming Workshop: Technology Education for All

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The bad news: tech classrooms lack gender diversity.
The good news: we know how to change this!

Join Paula MacDowell for a workshop that emphasizes the importance of collaborating to build a diverse technology-literate society. We will explore strategies for working together to:
* increase non-traditional enrolment
* create non-stigmatizing learning environments
* design inclusive classrooms that meet learners’ needs

Questions:
1. What do you think about when you think of gender equity in technology?
2. Why is it important to increase participation of minority groups (i.e., gender, race, class, technical ability, and sexual orientation) in technology education classes and programs?
3. Have you observed or experienced a gendering of school subjects?
4. Who or what gave you the most support in your decision to become a technology education teacher?
5. How do we challenge the persistence of gendered learning myths (or “dinosaur discourses”) in technical education contexts (Paule, 2015)?
6. What can be done to improve the enrolment of diverse students in technology education classes during elementary, secondary, and post-secondary schooling?
7. How might we recruit and retain more females into careers as technology education teachers and professors of technology teacher education?
8. How can you make inclusion possible in your classroom (with respect for human dignity, safety, and the environment)?
9. How should we shape the future of technology education for all?

Resources:
Ashcraft, C., DuBow, W., Eger, E., Blithe, S. & Sevier, B. (2013). Male Advocates and Allies: Promoting Gender Diversity in Technology Workplaces. Boulder, CO: National Center for Women & Information Technology.
Online: www.ncwit.org/maleadvocateindustry

Fenwick T (2004) What happens to the girls? Gender, work and learning in Canada’s ‘new economy’, Gender and Education, 16(2), pp. 169-185.
Online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540250310001690564

Flowers, J. (1995). Women in technology: Increasing the number of female teachers and students. WEPAN National Conference Proceedings: Women in Engineering ProActive Network, June 4-6, Washington, DC.
Online: https://journals.psu.edu/wepan/article/viewFile/57792/57480

Gray, M., & Daugherty, M. (2004). Factors that influence students to enroll in technology education programs. Journal of Technology Education, 15(2), 5-19.
Online: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v15n2/gray.html

National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science (Donna Milgram)
Online resource and forum for women in technology and trade careers to network with other women technicians and/or employers, including: job listings, e-mentoring, biographies of women role models, and WomenTechTalk an email discussion group.

Paule, M. (2015) Dinosaur discourses: Taking stock of gendered learning myths. Gender and Education, 27(7), 744-758.
Onine: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2015.1093101

Pullman, A. (2015). Emancipation, marketisation, and social protection: The female subject within vocational training policy in Canada, 1960–1990, Gender and Education, 27(7), 759-775.
Online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2015.1103840

Ritz, J. M. (2009). A new generation of goals for technology education. Journal of Technology Education, 20(2), 50-64.
Online: https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v20n2/pdf/ritz.pdf

Shannon, L. (2016). Want to encourage gender diversity? Choose your words WISEly. Computing Research News, 28(5), 7-9.
Online: http://cra.org/crn/2016/05/gender-diversity

Keeping Up with the Media

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Keeping Up with the Media is a media study guide created for teachers and students, by teachers. The authors are all practicing teachers (elementary and secondary) completing a Master of Education in Digital Learning and Curriculum at UBC. This elite team produced this guide to enhance media literacy and media education across the K-12 curriculum.

Authors: #UBCDLC3
Editor: Paula MacDowell
Publication Date: August 4, 2016
Format: Interactive, multi-touch eBook
Online: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1149612619