Individual Intellectual Production

ETEC 511: Foundations of Educational Technologies

Objective

The objective of this assignment was to creatively reflect on my critical understanding of a foundational issue of technology: Digital Labor. Without such understanding, the use of technology could be detrimental and counterproductive, especially in a serious and sensitive area as education.

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Reflection

The amount of readings and their level of complexity was truly remarkable and had a substantial impact on my awareness and technology consumption habits. Finding the right form and medium for this individual intellectual production was a challenge that I did not take lightly. I wanted this to be truly original, creative, and as the assignment requirements dictate, a balance between fun and informative. I am glad to say I succeeded in my endeavors. The choice of a comic strip helped convey my reflections on the required readings in a succinct and engaging way. My future efforts, I hope, will be focused on how the issue of digital labor (along with other serious issues such as attention economy, algorithmic bias, and global media convergence) could be alleviated or solved altogether and how I can play my part in that. Significant scholarly work that I reflected upon in this artifact includes Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence by Kate Crawford (2021) in which she exposes how the worldwide networks supporting AI technology are causing harm to the environment, reinforcing inequality, and contributing to a move towards non-democratic governance. This was a tremendously paradigm-shifting read to me. It directed my attention to the dark side of technology use and alerted me to the importance of being a responsible user of technology in areas I haven't considered in the past. 

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Goal Alignment

This artifact aligns with Goal 3 as it enabled me to understand a critical tec issue and motivated me to try to innovate a solution for it.

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Metaphor Alignment

It fits within my metaphor because in editing, the editor cannot fix certain errors or suggest corrections for things that don't work unless they fully understand that kind of error [e.g. developmental (types of characters, plot holes), line editing (stylistic matters like description and flow), copy editing (grammar, spelling, & punctuation)] and are experienced in fixing it. In this intellectual production, I did something similar. I developed a good understanding of a critical issue in order to try and innovate a solution for it.