303 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2019
    1. Digital humanitarianism can be con-ceptualized as ‘‘the enacting of social and institutionalnetworks, technologies, and practices that enable large,unrestricted numbers of remote and on-the-groundindividuals to collaborate on humanitarian managementthrough digital technologies’’ (Burns2014).

      Burns' definition of digital humanitarianism.

      I'm not convinced that DHN groups actually work with Big Data (excepting QRCI's MicroMappers algorithm training project with SBTF). I'm not aware of any group collecting large amounts of data and quantitatively analyzing it.

    2. However, discussions of the relationship between BigData and digital humanitarianism tend to be cautiouslyoptimistic. Letouze ́(2012) the challenges facingdigital humanitarianism as falling into five broadcategories: (1) privacy, (2) access/sharing, (3) extract-ing meaning from qualitative text, (4) apophenia, (5)detecting anomalies.

      Citing Letouzé, Burns raises challenge of "extracting meaning from qualitative text."

      Get Letouzé paper.

    3. Theseunderstandings of spatial technologies build on les-sons from science and technology studies (STS)research that describes the processes by which dataand technologies come to assume and reify social andpower relations, worldviews, and epistemologies(Feenberg1999; Pinch and Bijker1987; Wajcman1991; Winner1985)

      Good summation of Bijker's and Winner's STS work

    4. Bor-rowing principles from critical GIS, technologies canbe seen to embody social norms and values (Schuurman2000; Sheppard2005), often reinforcing extant powerdynamics and social inequalities rather than disruptingthem.

      Definition of critical GIS.

    1. CTP is a key method for reflective design, since it offers strategies to bring unconscious values to the fore by creating technical alternatives. In our work, we extend CTP in several ways that make it particularly appropriate for HCI and critical computing.

      Ways in which Senger, et al., describe how to extend CTP for HCI needs:

      • incorporate both designer/user reflection on technology use and its design

      • integrate reflection into design even when there is no specific "technical impasse" or metaphor breakdown

      • driven by critical concerns, not simply technical problems

    2. CTP synthesizes critical reflection with technology production as a way of highlighting and altering unconsciously-held assumptions that are hindering progress in a technical field.

      Definition of critical technical practice.

      This approach is grounded in AI rather than HCI

      (verbatim from the paper) "CTP consists of the following moves:

      • identifying the core metaphors of the field

      • noticing what, when working with those metaphors, remains marginalized

      • inverting the dominant metaphors to bring that margin to the center

      • embodying the alternative as a new technology

    3. goal is to push design research beyond an agenda of reinforcing values of consumer culture and to instead embody cultural critique in designed artifacts. A critical designer designs objects not to do what users want and value, but to introduce both designers and users to new ways of looking at the world and the role that designed objects can play for them in it.

      Definition of critical design.

      This approach tends to be more art-based and intentionally provocative than a practical design method to inculcate a certain sensibility into the technology design process.

    4. We define 'reflection' as referring tocritical reflection, orbringing unconscious aspects of experience to conscious awareness, thereby making them available for conscious choice. This critical reflection is crucial to both individual freedom and our quality of life in society as a whole, since without it, we unthinkingly adopt attitudes, practices, values, and identities we might not consciously espouse. Additionally, reflection is not a purely cognitive activity, but is folded into all our ways of seeing and experiencing the world.

      Definition of critical reflection

    5. Our perspective on reflection is grounded in critical theory, a Western tradition of critical reflection embodied in various intellectual strands including Marxism, feminism, racial and ethnic studies, media studies and psychoanalysis.

      Definition of critical theory

    6. ritical theory argues that our everyday values, practices, perspectives, and sense of agency and self are strongly shaped by forces and agendas of which we are normally unaware, such as the politics of race, gender, and economics. Critical reflection provides a means to gain some awareness of such forces as a first step toward possible change.

      Critical theory in practice

    7. We believe that, for those concerned about the social implications of the technologies we build, reflection itself should be a core technology design outcome for HCI. That is to say, technology design practices should support both designers and users in ongoing critical reflection about technology and its relationship to human life.

      Critical reflection can/should support designers and users.

  2. Nov 2018
  3. Oct 2018
    1. About a third of 18- to 49-year-olds (32%) correctly identified all five of the factual statements as factual, compared with two-in-ten among those ages 50 and older. A similar pattern emerges for the opinion statements. Among 18- to 49-year-olds, 44% correctly identified all five opinion statements as opinions, compared with 26% among those ages 50 and older.
    2. In a survey conducted Feb. 22 to March 4, 2018, the Center asked U.S. adults to categorize five factual statements and five opinion statements. As a previous report revealed, about a quarter of Americans overall could accurately classify all five factual statements (26%) and about a third could classify all five opinion statements (35%).
    1. Critical Instructional Design is new, and as such is grounded in the work of a very few people.

      I'm interested if the conception 'Critical Instructional Design' is truly new or mere interpolation of a native concept. As far as my understanding of critical theory, from lit crit readings and study, a theory can be molded to fit any necessary unnamed reality-from the nature of the TV War... Baudrillard's 'The Gulf War Did Not Take Place' to Freudian psychoanalysis "Neuroticisms of Computer A.I." This is an excellent article to discuss critical theory in the light of a new, online iteration of the learning space meriting further research.

    1. During the visit Angela fed Paolo Spaghetti-Os and applesauce while sitting on her lap in the living room. Over the next several years, Angela missed many of Paolo’s clinic visits.

      Todo el cuadro de salud delicado de Paolo, indica un efecto directo en su salud por las condiciones de su madre. Ademas de eso, el hecho de que no recibiera el tratamiento adecuado ya que su madre no era responsable con sus citas medicas y lo alimentaba inadecuadamente es un ejemplo de ciertos procesos tanto biológicos y como psicológicos que si no ocurren en el contexto adecuado, nunca ocurrirán pues en este caso, el daño a la salud de Paolo es irreversible.

    1. For those of us on the frontline of K-12 teaching, “education as the practice of freedom” requires forthright discussion and action regarding subjects that are messy (at least in terms of their challenge to the agreed narrative and the cultural status quo) and this messiness can potentially make people uncomfortable, confused, upset, angry, and even potentially confrontational or worse, violent. Administrators and teachers and colleagues generally do not want to embrace the concept of education as the practice of freedom if it means rocking the boat too much.
    2. Dissimilarly, in Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks urges teachers to contemplate “Education as the practice of freedom” as their point of departure for praxis. A phrase originating from the work of Paulo Freire, hooks writes that “education as the practice of freedom” will come easiest “to those of us…who believe that our work is not merely to share information, but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.” Transgressive education and disruptive thinking therefore begin with the soul, and not the prospective career opportunities, of students.
    1. not unlike that of the medical industry, where the needs of patients (clients) are met by a process-driven model.

      To what extent is the writer's analogy to the medical industry persuasive?

    2. It would allow lawyers to concentrate on higher-order tasks such as crafting legal strategies, interpreting and applying the relevant parts of the law to complex situations and perhaps most importantly, maintaining the human connection for a profession which is critically about relationships.

      What are the assumptions in the writer's argument?

    3. While machines and algorithms are indeed coming for tasks currently being performed by lawyers, these tasks tend to be labour-intensive and/or low-value and/or process driven.

      Is this the first time that such a transformation has taken place? Can you think of other historical cases where labour-intensive, low-value, or process-driven work has been automated?

    4. the final call will have to come from the human in the loop.

      Do you agree that AI is incapable of decision-making, and that a human will always have to make the final call? Why or why not? How might this vary in different fields, including the ones you are interested in pursuing?

    1. improve female representation in the senior leadership

      What are the pros and cons of focusing on representation in the leadership?

    2. If we can achieve gender balance in the most visible public offices of the land, the rest of the country will follow.

      Do you agree that the writer's proposals will be effective in achieving gender equality? Why or why not? What other ideas do you have for achieving gender equality?

    3. Most notably, the Cabinet today comprises 16 men and only three women - even though for more than 10 years, the number of women graduating from universities has outnumbered male graduates.

      Do you find the writer's evidence convincing? What are the the strengths—and limitations—of her evidence?

    4. Sadly, these patriarchal attitudes prevail today.

      Do you think this is a fair claim? What examples of patriarchal attitudes can you think of in Singapore?

      You may include photos, videos, or hyperlinks.

    5. sex

      How do you think the context of democratic socialism and gender are linked?

    6. Until 2005, the Civil Service provided medical benefits to the families of male civil servants, but not female civil servants. Under the Women’s Charter, only wives can get maintenance from their spouses, not husbands. Paternity leave was only instituted in 2013.

      What assumptions do each o these policies reveal? Do you agree with these policies? Why or why not?

  4. Sep 2018
    1. Until 2005, the Civil Service provided medical benefits to the families of male civil servants, but not female civil servants. •Under the Women’s Charter, only wives can get maintenance from their spouses, not husbands.•Paternity leave was only instituted in 2

      What assumptions do each of these policies reveal?

    2. If we can achieve gender balance in the most visible public offices of the land, the rest of the country will follow.

      Do you agree that the writer's proposals will be effective in achieving gender equality? Why or why not? What other ideas do you have for achieving gender equality?

    3. . Most notably, the Cabinet today comprises 15 men and only four women -even though for more than 10 years, the number of women graduating from universities has outnumbered male graduate

      Do you find the writer's evidence convincing? What are the the strengths—and limitations—of her evidence?

    4. Sadly, these patriarchal attitudes prevail today.

      Do you think this is a fair claim? What examples of patriarchal attitudes can you think of in Singapore?

    1. These authors argue for methodological pluralism, which the originator of critical realism, Roy Bhaskar, critiqued as relativist (he argued instead for methodological specificity, in which the nature of the research subject suggests the type of methodology used, rather than a pluralistic situation in which one can choose a methodology at one's whim).
    2. critical realism is based on the assumption, contra Hume, that facts lead to values. These authors call this the "naturalistic fallacy".
    3. what is less often noticed is the manner in which values are often “fact”-laden. For better or worse, values have a “factual” element to them which is grounded in certain ontological accounts about the nature of social world, such as an account of persons or social relations. This means that, in principle, values are open to empirical investigation and critique.
    4. Critical realists hold that is possible for social science to refine and improve its knowledge about the real world over time, and to make claims about reality  which are relatively justified, while still being historical, contingent, and changing.
    5. being realists about ontology and relativists about epistemology, we must accordingly assert that there are criteria for judging which accounts about the world are better or worse.
    6. Critical realists are concerned with mapping the ontological character of social reality: those realities which produce the facts and events that we experience and empirically examine.
    1. End-Users

      Because Grafoscopio was used in critical digital literacy workshops, dealing with data activism and journalism, the intended users are people who don't know how to program necessarily, but are not afraid of learning to code to express their concerns (as activists, journalists and citizens in general) and if fact are wiling to do so.

      Tool adaptation was "natural" of the workshops, because the idea was to extend the tool so it can deal with authentic problems at hand (as reported extensively in the PhD thesis) and digital citizenship curriculum was build in the events as a memory of how we deal with the problems. But critical digital literacy is a long process, so coding as a non-programmers knowledge in service of wider populations able to express in code, data and visualizations citizen concerns is a long time process.

      Visibility, scalability and sustainablitiy of such critical digital literacy endeavors where communities and digital tools change each other mutually is still an open problem, even more considering their location in the Global South (despite addressing contextualized global problems).

  5. Aug 2018
    1. And when sites like DC Gazette share stories about people who allegedly investigated the Clinton family being found dead, the stories go viral and some people believe them. Again, these stories are not true in any way.

      The first think I thought about while reading this is the Petress article, and how this is an example of individuals not using critical thinking. Often times people believe wrong information without even fully understanding it in the first place.

    1. But it’s step three, according to Dr. Brewer, that is most important if you want to make the shift sustainable in the long term: Make a deliberate, conscious effort to recognize the difference between how you feel when caught up in self-criticism, and how you feel when you can let go of it.“That’s where you start to hack the reward-based learning system,” Dr. Brewer said.
  6. Jul 2018
    1. For one, much of the new research centers on U.S. politics and, specifically, elections. But social networks drive conversations about many other topics such as business, education, health, and personal relationships. To battle bad online information, it would be helpful to know whether people respond to these sorts of topics differently than they respond to information about political candidates and elections. It also would be useful to know whether myths about certain subjects — for instance, a business product or education trend — are trickier to correct than others.
    1. (Dunne, 1999). The call has influenced movements such as Critical Design (Dunne and Raby, 2001), Design Fictions (Bleecker, 2009) and Design for Debate (Dunne and Raby, 200

      Unclear as to how these movements differ:

      Critical Design Design Fiction Design for Debate

  7. Jun 2018
    1. Critical Digital Literacies

      I am more and more drawn to the work of Damon Centola on the spread of 'behaviors' through networks. I would like to substitute "behaviors' for literacy and begin to apply Centola's work in the classroom. He has a new book coming out on Monday and I have put a talk of his on Vialogues so that we can annotate that: https://vialogues.com/vialogues/play/44449

      Aside: When an annotated space reaches a critical mass I think we need summary behaviors or further highlighting and notification procedures. Kevin has already done so in one post. We might call these emergent writing or emergent behaviors.

  8. May 2018
    1. They can enable individuals to reflect on the personal and social impact of new technologies, and provide a provocative, speculative, and rich vision of our technological future that avoids the clichés of consumerist-oriented industrial design.

      Although this article emphasized the difference between critical design and critical making, the later being more process oriented and involving information systems than only physical objects I wish the author could have illustrated that with an example. How to make a digital object critically? How to think of UI design patterns critically? All the tacit knowledge a UI and UXer is expected to have in order to get hired and that they use everyday. If the aim of critical making of information systems concern is to uncover the embedded values in software and the process of designing of software than it also needs to question the industry jargon and process which forms the lived experience of designers everyday.

    2. Critically engaged language can do detailed surgery on a topic, but critical objects can hit like an emotional sledgehammer if thoughtfully implemented.

      Also they give an opportunity to create work, professsions, hobbies. Entire groups of people can organize their time and energies around the creation and maintenance of that object. Communities could willingly decrease the complexity of their needs by negotiation of values in objects in order to create lower thresholds to economic participation

    3. reflection on unconscious values embedded in computing and the practices that it supports can and should be a core principle of technology design

      Yes but how? What if one doesn't even have the vocabulary and lived experience to identify that value and it's influence?

    4. Ratto wanted the term to act as glue between conceptual and linguistic-oriented thinking and physical and materially based making with an emphasis on introducing hands-on practice to scholars that were primarily working through language and texts, such as those in the fields of communication, information studies, and science and technology studies
  9. Mar 2018
    1. Critical realism is not an empirical program; it is not a methodology; it is not even truly a theory, because it explains nothing. It is, rather, a meta-theoretical position: a reflexive philosophical stance concerned with providing a philosophically informed account of science and social science which can in turn inform our empirical investigations. We might think of this in terms of three layers: our empirical data, the theories that we draw upon to explain our empirical data, and our metatheories—the theory and the philosophy behind our theories.While critical realism may be a heterogeneous series of positions, there is one loose genetic feature which unites it as a metatheory: a commitment to formulating a properly post-positivist philosophy. This commitment is often cast in the terms of a normative agenda for science and social science: ontological realism, epistemic relativism, judgmental rationality, and a cautious ethical naturalism.
    1. However, taking a more critical stance we need to challenge that underlying assumption - what do we value about education that needs to remain in place?

      CRITICAL THINKING

  10. Feb 2018
    1. Unlike The Waste Land, Moulin Rouge!’s allusions are only rarely critical; the closest it comes to social commentary is in the use of Nirvana’s dark hymn to the ennui of consumerism, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ as the Moulin Rouge’s rich male customers enter the club.

      What are the functions allusion besides layering? I think there is something important about the critical function that occurs in this use of allusion. Fitzgerald was a moralist describing the evils of capitalism and American society, so the use of Trimalchio as Gatsby is a critical allusion.

  11. Jan 2018
    1. justifying a complex conclusion to a problem by understanding, evaluating, and discussing the significance of the assumptions, limitations, interpretations, and validity of the evidence.

      one def of critical thinking

  12. Nov 2017
  13. Oct 2017
    1. afocusontheanticipatoryandthefuturesuchthatmoreemphasisisgiventopredicting,intervening,andmanagingconsequencesratherthanunderstandingcauses;andthemoreeasyandsuccessfuladoptionandadaptionofdatatodifferentfieldswithlittlerisk

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. Looking at statistics on course management site (e.g., CourseSpaces or Moodle)

      The only LMS that are present at UVic is (arguably) Moodle. Thus, I recommend rephrasing this to read 'Looking at statistics on CourseSpaces (see this page for more details)' And hyperlink to the Moodle.org resource about Quiz result statistics.

    1. Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.

      According to this definition of critical thinking, we can infer that critical thinking requires a deep thought process, and it forces one to intensely elaborate on whatever is being asked to think about/write about/discuss

  14. Sep 2017
    1. Matt Ratto (2011) defines "critical making" as a combination of critical thinking and material production. His contribution for the current discussion is: if critical makers can "reintegrate technical and social work and thereby innovate both" (p. 258). Design appears a fertile inroad for thinking about empowerment and politics, as particular genres of technology are created through complex social, economic, and cultural processes, leading to literacies that can be drawn on and reconfigured (Balsamo, 2011 ). DiSalvo's (2009) notion of critical making involves users in the design process through practices such as tracing and projection, resulting in the creation of new publics. This was later developed into "adversarial design" (DiSalvo, 2012), which confronts the politics of technologies of objects with an intent to encourage participation. Rafi Santo's (2011, 2013) "hacker literacies" similarly positions hacking as enabling critical thinking within a framework of media literacies.

      Rafi Santo's (2011, 2013) "hacker literacies" similarly positions hacking as enabling critical thinking within a framework of media literacies.

    1. While technology has loomed large in these accounts, several scholars argue that this shift toward participation extends important possibilities for posi-tively influencing daily life (Jenkins, 1992, 2006; Shirky, 2010). Others question the ability for a universal “participation” within new media cultures, suggesting people require adequate social and psychological resources, including time, for engagement (Irani, 2015; Turner, 2009).

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. Organizations such as Code for America (CfA) rallied support by positioning civic hacking as a mode of direct partici-pation in improving structures of governance. However, critics objected to the involve-ment of corporations in civic hacking as well as their dubious political alignment and non-grassroots origins. Critical historian Evgeny Morozov (2013a) suggested that “civic hacker” is an apolitical category imposed by ideologies of “scientism” emanating from Silicon Valley. Tom Slee (2012) similarly described the open data movement as co-opted and neoliberalist.
  15. Jul 2017
    1. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, online reading may require even greater amounts of higher-level thinking than offline reading. In a context in which anyone may publish anything, higher-level thinking skills such as critical evaluation of source material become especially important online.

      Yes this is a big one. Even otherwise intelligent adults take online writing at face value without reading laterally.

    1. elop a multi- dimensional analysis of modern society; one which would not just describe the ways things appear to be but would penetrate beneath accepted views and offer a decisive challenge to the most powerful beliefs and values of early capitalist socie

      With the goal of uncovering the power structures in society and the true meanings of "common knowledge", Marx did a historical analysis of the society with consideration of the physical, social, political and economic environments in that society.

    2. evelopan ·overall theory of the history, politics and economy of modern capitalist socie

      Taking into consideration the specific historical moment, its political, economic and social process and accompanying structures and relations when considering an event, phenomena, action etc.

  16. Jun 2017
    1. Critical pedagogy is organized around the struggle over agency, values and social relations within diverse contexts, resources and histories. Its aim is producing students who can think critically, be considerate of others, take risks, think dangerously and imagine a future that extends and deepens what it means to be an engaged citizen capable of living in a substantive democracy.
  17. Mar 2017
  18. oup.silverchair-cdn.com oup.silverchair-cdn.com
    1. Robinson,P. (1994).TheTranscriptionof Primary TextualSourcesusing SGMI.Oxford: Office forHumanitiesCommunication

      Gray lit.

  19. oup.silverchair-cdn.com oup.silverchair-cdn.com
    1. Duggan, H. N. (1994). Creating an electronic archive of Piers Plowman.http://j efferson.village.virginia.edu/piers/report94.html

      ONly gray literature

  20. Feb 2017
    1. As an ethical and political practice, a public pedagogy of wakefulness rejects modes of education removed from political or social concerns, divorced from history and matters of injury and injustice. Said’s notion of a pedagogy of wakefulness includes “lifting complex ideas into the public space,” recognizing human injury inside and outside of the academy, and using theory as a form of criticism to change things.[xxv] This is a pedagogy in which academics are neither afraid of controversy or the willingness to make connections that are otherwise hidden, nor are they afraid of making clear the connection between private issues and broader elements of society’s problems.
  21. Jan 2017
    1. Fake news is just squatting in one part of one building in an entire landscape of neglect and corruption; evicting them will make no difference to the blight.
    1. A new form of information manipulation is unfolding in front of our eyes. It is political. It is global. And it is populist in nature. The news media is being played like a fiddle, while decentralized networks of people are leveraging the ever-evolving networked tools around them to hack the attention economy.
    2. The techniques that are unfolding are hard to manage and combat. Some of them look like harassment, prompting people to self-censor out of fear. Others look like “fake news”, highlighting the messiness surrounding bias, misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. There is hate speech that is explicit, but there’s also suggestive content that prompts people to frame the world in particular ways. Dog whistle politics have emerged in a new form of encoded content, where you have to be in the know to understand what’s happening. Companies who built tools to help people communicate are finding it hard to combat the ways their tools are being used by networks looking to skirt the edges of the law and content policies. Institutions and legal instruments designed to stop abuse are finding themselves ill-equipped to function in light of networked dynamics.
    1. Children are indoctrinated into this cultural logic early, even as their parents restrict their mobility and limit their access to social situations. But when it comes to information, they are taught that they are the sole proprietors of knowledge. All they have to do is “do the research” for themselves and they will know better than anyone what is real. Combine this with a deep distrust of media sources. If the media is reporting on something, and you don’t trust the media, then it is your responsibility to question their authority, to doubt the information you are being given. If they expend tremendous effort bringing on “experts” to argue that something is false, there must be something there to investigate.
    1. The problem isn’t the fake news itself, as much as the historical consciousness that allows so many to willingly believe it with no skepticism.
  22. Oct 2016
    1. Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;

      Every institution around the UE is trying to develop in a critical sense the main goals of the different subjects. In fact it doesn't makes too many differences between all this goals we have already read there: proficency and fluency, cross-cultural connections, managing information, etc. So the main point of this read is, in our opinion, to show the proper features to have as a complete citizen of the 21st century along literacy as a part of a common project.

    1. This bold claim has led design and critical scholars to hotly debate if participants have a technological ideology imposed on them, or if thinking with technologies enable new civic perspectives.

      Pueden estar ocurriendo ambas. La pregunta sería cuándo ocurre cuál. Unas pistas pueden estar del lado de la alfabetización crítica (Freire, Data Pop).

  23. Sep 2016
    1. EA principles can work in areas outside of global poverty. He was growing the movement the way it ought to be grown, in a way that can attract activists with different core principles rather than alienating them.
    2. Effective altruism is not a replacement for movements through which marginalized peoples seek their own liberationAnd you have to do meta-charity well — and the more EA grows obsessed with AI, the harder it is to do that. The movement has a very real demographic problem, which contributes to very real intellectual blinders of the kind that give rise to the AI obsession. And it's hard to imagine that yoking EA to one of the whitest and most male fields (tech) and academic subjects (computer science) will do much to bring more people from diverse backgrounds into the fold.
  24. Jul 2016
    1. Critical making, as envisioned by Ratto in 2011, was much more focused on the constructive process of making as opposed to building an artifact. While critical design is focused on building refined objects to generate critique of traditional industrial design, critical making was initially conceived as a workshop framework with the final prototypes existing only as a remnant of the process [19]. Critical design, on the other hand, tends to be focused on building objects that document well, with the artifacts themselves challenging concepts like optimization, efficiency, social norms, and utopianism. Critical design is object-oriented; critical making is process-oriented and scholarship-oriented: “Critical making emphasizes the shared acts of making rather than the evocative object. The final prototypes are not intended to be displayed and to speak for themselves” [19]. Ratto’s emphasis is on using hands-on techniques to augment the process of critical thinking about information systems, while Dunne and Raby’s critical design is primarily focused on building photo and video props for the construction of a speculative narrative to help us rethink designed objects and consumer culture.
  25. May 2016
  26. Apr 2016
    1. Google's hiring formula. Stripped down by looking at the numbers. Some key points -- it doesn't favor GPA or schools one graduated from. It does favor problem-solving ability, but not in the old Fermi problem way. Questions are now real questions related to the roles that they will fill. Why? Because Fermi Problems can be coached.

    1. Education is no longer viewed as a public good but a private right, just as critical thinking is devalued as a fundamental necessity for creating an engaged and socially responsible populace.

  27. Mar 2016
    1. and I must always let that stirring call me to critical practice in my teaching.

      Being stirred, being called - these require being open, permeable and thus, vulnerable. This is where we lay aside our armor of credibility and create space for the unknown, unanticipated to enter. This is emotional work and for many of us, scary work. There are many reasons for academia to cloak itself in layer upon layer of credibility, rigor and firm hierarchies. To suggest that love inspires you to be in fact more critical in your practice, defies the logic of the academy. This is part of what I find so compelling here: turning established assumptions on their heads. I have more to say about callings but will save for another space & occasion. (But Gregg Levoy, Callings. 1999.)

  28. Feb 2016
    1. In Silicon Valley, this divide is often explicit: As Kate Losse has noted, coders get high salary, prestige, and stock options. The people who do community management—on which the success of many tech companies is based—get none of those. It’s unsurprising that coding has been folded into "making." Consider the instant gratification of seeing "hello, world" on the screen; it’s nearly the easiest possible way to "make" things, and certainly one where failure has a very low cost. Code is "making" because we've figured out how to package it up into discrete units and sell it, and because it is widely perceived to be done by men.
  29. Jan 2016
    1. It also means deciding against the technology use if the answer to either question is no.

      The process the teachers engaged in is a great example of critical thinking.

  30. Jul 2015
    1. I began to wonder if by merely assessing the mechanistic aspects of cataloging work we were missing out on an opportunity to include broader social concepts in our assessment and planning processes

      yes, this! I'm really interested in this

    1. cf. actor-network theory

      Actor Network Theory is a powerful framework under which we can understand complex socio-technical assemblages. To justify using it through an extreme reductionist interpretation that "critical theory = absolutism" doesn't seem to do it justice.

    2. If you think everybody answers the same way, you may be an advocate of critical theory.

      I do not think a single person I know who has read any amount of critical theory or even agreed with it would really think that people would ascribe universal values onto words and not understand that value systems are historically and socially inflected. They might, as do Adorno and Horkheimer, consider the holocaust to be an absolute moral evil, but if that's something that Lyotard is here supposed to free us from, I don't quite know what we gain.

    3. So how can you be beyond critical theory, given that it generally aims “to explain and transform all the circumstances that enslave human beings?“

      I think the definition that you give of critical theory here, from the Stanford encyclopedia, is just wrong. Adorno's /Negative Dialectics/ begins, for example, with an epigraph that rejects the totalities that you here ascribe to Critical Theory: "The whole is the false", thereby countering Hegel's Absolute.

  31. Mar 2015
    1. Beloved friends, these things are of critical importance. For anyone who enters into a so-called “spiritual path” must eventually face and deal with their deep need for forgiveness, which is an expression of the soul’s deep desire to be forgiven. For there is no one who walks this plane who has not been touched by the poison of judgment.
    1. What does it mean to be an “item” or “computational object” within this collection? What is such a collection?

      This is a great example of the type of critical thinking involved in scholarly digital building—often such projects include hard thinking about the exact nature of scholarly objects. Patrick Murray-John has a fantastic article that further discusses “where the theory is” when scholars design and build (Theory, Digital Humanities, and Noticing). The penultimate paragraph in particular lists some of the critical questions that arise out of designing for an “item” in a digital archives platform.