Engl 421 Techno-Literacies

At times it might seem like the liberal arts are out of sync with a society becoming ever more dependent upon science and technology. Perhaps you have heard folks wonder about the value of a humanities degree. How, for example, does the study of Greek Literature or Latin American politics compare to degrees that prepare students to code software programs or redesign rocket boosters?

This course tackles these questions head on, exploring the critical role that the humanities play in our high tech, networked society. We’ll investigate how the technologies we use every day are deeply entangled with human languages, narratives, values, and social practices. In particular we will use the concept of “literacy,” traditionally reserved for thinking about reading and writing practices, to examine how we understand, talk about, and ultimately use technologies. We’ll ask what it means to be a literate user of digital, networked technologies and develop strategies for facilitating preferred interactions with technology.

Importantly, this class blends critical and applied course activities and projects. In addition to using your humanities training to analyze contemporary technology and communication about technology, you will also develop your abilities as a technologist and technical communicator. At the end of the quarter, you will be able to showcase a range of technical communication objects, from an individual tech literacy narrative, to a class-produced web resource, to a group-authored twitterbot. 

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Home page: MIT+150: FAST (Festival of Art + Science + Technology): FAST LIGHT — Man studying alone on his Macbook at the library, Chris Devers, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0