This Capstone Course concludes with a research-based team Course Project that starts during the first week of the session and continues throughout the duration of the course.

LAS 432 Technology, Society, and Culture

Course Project

The Capstone Assignment

Objectives

This Capstone Course concludes with a research-based team Course Project that starts during the first week of the session and continues throughout the duration of the course. It culminates with the submission of a formal, written report and presentation in Weeks 7 and 8.

For the project, students will work together in teams to identify and explore and analyze the social, cultural, political, and economic impact of an emerging or existing technology. The technology selected should have complex applications, impacts, or potential controversies when deconstructed.

Topic examples can be found throughout material covered in this course and could include, but are in no way limited to, a specific technology that intersect with one of the following ideas.

Course Projects will address the technological, historical, social, cultural, moral, and ethical issues presented by their selected topic.

Guidelines

The primary focus of this assignment is to research and assess the issues associated with a specific emerging technology. It requires that students work collaboratively on individual sections of a team paper to produce an APA formatted 20 to 25-page final paper during Week 7. Teams will also create a formal presentation of approximately 15 slides for a 20 to 25-minute presentation in Week 8.

The paper must be well researched and utilize scholarly resources (refer to the Week 7 APA Paper Template and the APA Guide tutorial found in the Writing and Research Help area (in the Introduction & Resources Module).

The final product should include the following components.

A title page, including each student’s name (individual submissions should include the submitting student’s name highlighted)

In addition, student names should appear in the header of each page to identify which specific areas of the paper individual students completed.

An abstract

A table of contents

An introduction, including a clearly defined thesis statement (roughly one page)

An historical timeline that details key predecessors and ideologies foundational to the technology that includes a written assessment on how these technologies influenced the development of the current technology (roughly two pages)

An analysis of the technology’s influence on society considering all of the following components (roughly four pages)

Social

Cultural

Political

Economic

Environmental

An evaluation of the ethical considerations associated with the technology in relation to its impact on humanity (roughly two pages)

Concluding remarks that include concrete recommendations for future development, regulation, and ethical responsibility (roughly one page)

In text citations and a reference section in APA format

Appropriate statistical graphs or visual aids to support the paper

Best Practices

Review the video tutorials found in the Writing and Research Help area in the Introduction & Resources Module.

Communicate with your professor regularly if you have any issues or questions.

Consider the following thoughts when working on the required sections of your Impact Analysis.

Social

How has this technology been received, accepted, or rejected? Why? Is it feared or favored? What is the attitude toward change? How are the developers trying to sell the technology to the general public? Look at attitudes, feelings (emotions), behaviors, personality, and the ways humans change as a result of this technology. What is being thought and why? Is the human mind impacted? How? Are interactions between people changing as a result? Who is included or excluded, and why?

Look at groups and organizations that have arisen and prospered because of this technology. Are these groups supportive or antagonist, and why? How does the technology change society, or how does society change in response to the technology? What factors in society led to the development in the first place? What do class, gender roles, race, norms, and so forth mean in this context? Who will benefit from the technology, and who might be harmed (this might also belong in ethics and morals section)?

Look at the workplace, new companies, and/or jobs created, jobs lost (or save this for the economics section). Look at roles—subgroups and people’s interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships.

Cultural

Consider the elements that comprise the culture and subcultures. Think about technologies in relation to their global impact and reach. What role does technology play in globalization? Global movements and politics? Universal ethics?

What cultural products are a result of emergent technology? How have art, music, film, and other forms of artistic expression adapted and shifted to address advances or concerns over technology, ethics, and environmental impact? How is artistic production an important mirror through which to glean insights about contemporary realities?

Political

Look at government policy, government intervention, government involvement (support or lack of support, funding), both nationally and internationally. Consider Congress, the president, the Supreme Court (decisions), the rate of change, liberalism, conservatism, legislation, litigation, and so on. What political factors are at work in the progression or regression of the technology (e.g., lobbyists, special interest groups, partisan views, vocal advocates, or spokespersons)?

What are current political debates that your selected technology intersects with? What are potential impacts and resolutions?

Economic

Consider production, consumption, costs, variables of supply and demand, corporations, private enterprise, and the impact on the nation’s economy (employment, displacement, and outsourcing). Are certain industries impacted more than others?

Look up financial projections—expectations for growth, startup companies, the stock exchange, and the like—anything related to business and the U.S. and global economies. Who are the chief players in the business environment, and what are their roles? How much has been invested in research and development? How will the price fluctuate? What economic trends are to be observed? Who will make money from the technology?

Consider the politics of development. Who is funding the research and development? Who controls the purse strings, and why? Look at foundations and charitable organizations, the outcomes, and the nature of consumers.

Be sure to use charts and tables and quantitative data in this section. Tables, figures, data, and statistics must be current, valid, and used appropriately.

Environmental

Consider such things as dangers to humans, the depletion of resources, air and water pollution, discovery before inventions, impact on wildlife and humans (health and safety), long-term and short-term effects, waste disposal, and aesthetic considerations (how the technology changes the landscape).

Consider the positive effects (savings of raw materials or fossil fuels, low environmental impact, and enhancement of the environment).

Practice makes perfect. Please be sure to practice your oral presentation to ensure that you are comfortable with the material and can stick to the time constraints.