Workshop 9

Questioning Technology as an Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Experience

Date: March 22, 2014

Time: 8:30am to 4:30pm, Agenda

Place: Celis 008 to 009

Presenters: Hector Huyke, Christopher Papadopoulos, and Marcel Castro Bios

Promotion: Flyer

Presentation: Slides

Reading material: What is Appropriate Technology?

Course material

Syllabus: Here

The workshop

  • As part of the project "The Convergence of Science and Culture: Expanding the Humanities Curriculum at UPRM", which is sponsored the National Endowment for the Humanities, the course INTD 3990 Alternative and Appropriate Technologies: Technology for Whom? Technology for What? was created and delivered during the first semester of the 2013-14 academic year. This workshop will provide an interactive discussion of the content, methods, and assessment results from the class. In particular, the workshop will explore

    1. A key motivating exercise conducted in the class
    2. What Appropriate Technology means and how to build a course around this topic
    3. How interdisciplinary inquiry - ranging from philosophy to technical literacy - was incorporated to critically examine Appropriate Technology
    4. The interdisciplinary skills developed by students, ranging from writing critiques in essay form to estimating physical quantities
    5. Transformational experiences expressed by both students and faculty

    The workshop will be particularly useful to the following audiences:

    1. Faculty interested in teaching interdisciplinary general education courses
    2. Faculty seeking to enrich their disciplinary courses with interdisciplinary methods
    3. Administrators supportive of interdisciplinary general education courses
    4. All concerned with how technology impacts society, quality of life, and wellbeing

    National Endowement for Humanities