Discussing Difference in Computer Science Networks Class (2021)
Linda Epps
For my instance of DSJ course CNST 115, A+ Software Essentials, I plan to have the students look at technology and how it has impacted social justice in 5 different assignments. I hope that these assignments will enable students to have a voice, be able to empower students, through writing as well as discussion, to question unjust situations in their lives or in the lives of those around them. I feel if we can help students examine inequalities, they should be able to answer some of the following questions for each one of my assignments:
Five Questions:
- Who makes decisions and who is left out?
- Who benefits and who suffers?
- Why is a given practice fair or unfair?
- What is required to create change?
- What alternatives can we imagine?
Through answering these questions, students can start to recognize injustice existing at the micro and macro levels.
Considering our course is primarily focused on hardware and the technology industry and how hardware is designed, developed and implemented throughout multi-billion-dollar organizations, I am going to play off technology over the last decade.
My first assignment for the DSJ course would be as follows:
Technology for the last several years has impacted social justice in various ways; for this assignment we are going to take a closer look at how technology impacts social justice in this century.
Online hate crimes, harassment, and discrimination are increasing.
For example, in 2020, we saw an increase in the number of reported online hate crimes and harassment targeting Muslims, Chinese, immigrants, and LGBTQ people, as well as groups working to protect reproductive rights and strengthen racial justice. At the same time, Internet and other communication technologies are being used to promote the online radicalization and organization of hate groups.
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- I plan to provide students with a few different websites, and I would like for them to research one to two hours the provided websites, looking for statistics that measure reporting of hate crimes via online websites
- Students will then formulate, metrics, graphs, statistics, on the increase over the last five years we have seen in social media and online hate crimes
- Students will then answer the five questions for all the assignments listed above for each one of their provided responses
- Students can use external resources or information which they find online if it is cited properly
- A Rubric will be used for grading this assignment
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