Computers and Society explores the history and impact of modern technology on everyday human life, considering its benefits, drawbacks, and repercussions. Particular attention is paid to new developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the issues that have arisen from our complex relationship with AI.
An anthology of writings by thinkers ranging from Freeman Dyson to Bruno Latour that focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values and how these may affect the future. Technological change does not happen in a vacuum; decisions about which technologies to develop, fund, market, and use engage ideas about values as well as calculations of costs and benefits. This anthology focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values. It offers writings by authorities as varied as Freeman Dyson, Laurence Lessig, Bruno Latour, and Judy Wajcman that will introduce readers to recent thinking about technology and provide them with conceptual tools, a theoretical framework, and knowledge to help understand how technology shapes society and how society shapes technology. It offers readers a new perspective on such current issues as globalization, the balance between security and privacy, environmental justice, and poverty in the developing world. The careful ordering of the selections and the editors' introductions give Technology and Society a coherence and flow that is unusual in anthologies. The book is suitable for use in undergraduate courses in STS and other disciplines. The selections begin with predictions of the future that range from forecasts of technological utopia to cautionary tales. These are followed by writings that explore the complexity of sociotechnical systems, presenting a picture of how technology and society work in step, shaping and being shaped by one another. Finally, the book goes back to considerations of the future, discussing twenty-first-century challenges that include nanotechnology, the role of citizens in technological decisions, and the technologies of human enhancement.
"A fateful conceptual gap separates the policy makers and managers charged with promoting technology, and the risk and technology assessors responsible for controlling it. This hampers the effective use of many new technologies, and prevents the development of others. The strategy of constructive technology assessment (CTA) addresses this gap through facilitating societal learning processes, and proposing a shared responsibility for the promotion and control of new technologies." "Combining analysis of both cases and concepts, Managing Technology in Society confronts the underdevelopment of innovative potential for achieving goals of wealth, sustainability and safety. Factors that block change, as well as conditions for successful learning are identified in a wide-ranging selection of cases that encompass biotechnology, clean technologies, information and medical technologies. The contributors build on the convergence of recent theories on technical change within economics, sociology and the history of technology, to offer suggestions for CTA action, and so create a new paradigm of managing technology in society."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The social, political and technological implications of the information revolution are the focus of this textbook. It explores the major social and technological issues surrounding the introduction of information technology (IT) into everyday life; presents historical and comparative perspectives on the social and technological processes involved in the uses of, control of and access to IT; and critically examines the assumptions underpinning technological development. Divided into five sections, each with a detailed introduction, the book provides a comprehensive overview of information technology, and its implications for all of us. Contributors place the debates around IT in an international context, illustrating the imp
The use of computers in education allows us to convey instructions or ideas by all means. Globalizations of the entities comprising the learning processes are ............
Describes the changes brought on by computers, detailing the ways in which workplaces in various industries have been affected and the new skills that employees must now acquire as a result of ever-evolving technology.
For more than 40 years, Computerworld has been the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide. Computerworld's award-winning Web site (Computerworld.com), twice-monthly publication, focused conference series and custom research form the hub of the world's largest global IT media network.
This book examines the unfolding cultural and organizational impact of computers on human society. Through this analysis, it discusses the role of information technology in people's lives, interdependence between the society and its computer creations, and expectations in the information society.
This book presents some of the results from the second stage of lEA's study of Computers in Education (CompEd). lEA, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, conducts international comparative studies focussing on educational achievement, practices, and policies in various countries and education systems around the world. It has a Secretariat located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. lEA studies have reported on a wide range of topics, each contributing to a deeper understanding of educational processes. The CompEd study is a project that sheds light on the way computers have been introduced in education and on how they are being used across the world today. The study proceeded in two stages with data collected for stage 1 in 1989 and for stage 2 in 1992. Results from both stages have been published in a variety of publications. This book reports about a special part of the study. Student achievement and school processes come into being in the context of the structure and the policies of national (or regional) education systems. The variety found in the CompEd results led us to ask how much might be explained by differences in these national or regional contexts. That is the reason the CompEd study took the initiative to invite the countries participating in the study, as well as some other countries that have had interesting developments in the domain of educational computers, to write a chapter describing their policies and practices regarding computers in education.
Technology is not value-free; nor does it exist in a vacuum. It needs a social basis - technology is affected by society and influences it. Technology, Values, and Society illustrates this using an examination of cross-cultural case studies representing simple, intermediate, and complex societies. Certain forms of technology exist when conducive values and structures sustain them. However, this relationship is not one-way. Technological changes do precipitate social and value changes. It is impossible to sustain egalitarian values in a society involving technology based on hierarchical relationships. Understanding this connection is vital if we are to keep some control over the way in which technology affects us. This revised edition brings the topic to life for both faculty and students.