Titles and Short Descriptions of the Six Social Impact of Technology Cases
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Case 1: The Aborted Introduction of the French Electric Car The political, economic, and technological successes and failures associated with the attempt to radically alter the social structure of French society during the 1970s through what was intended to be a major innovation: the development and deployment of an electric car. Case 2: The UTOPIA Project: Computers Unions, and Printing A recent research project known as UTOPIA (which is a Swedish acronym for "training, technology, and products from a skilled worker's perspective") that attempted to allow trade unions a role in the design and implementation of new printing industry technologies. Case 3: Jehovah's Witnesses and Blood Transfusion The impact on the health-care community resulting from the rejection by the Jehovah's Witnesses of the medical technology associated with blood transfusions. |
Case 4: Privacy and Computer Data Banks Personal, legal, financial, social, and ethical issues related to the
increasing reliance of modern society on massive computer data bases
storing extensive information on millions of people. Case 5: High Technology, Automation, and the Worker A new generation of highly automated factories provide high
productivity and manufacturing quality with low labor costs and pose the
question: How long will it be before no people are required in plants of
this type? Case 6: The Dilemma of the Artificial Heart The debate on human subject research employing the artificial heart. |
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Note: This table origininally appeared in the Journal of
Educational Computing Research, Vol. 12(4), p. 308, copyright ©
Baywood Publishing Co. Reprinted with permission.
Representative Items from Epistemic Beliefs and Preferences Instrument
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1. Learning works best when students are told exactly what they are supposed to learn and what they have to do. Everything should be made explicit to students. 2. For better learning to occur complex systems should be broken apart and the individual components should be studied in detail. 5. I have a preference for simplicity and orderliness. Whenever possible, I prefer not to encounter complex concepts in school (although I deal with complexity when I have to). 12. One learns more when the learning process is organized and directed by experts. 19. Learning works best when students are left with a lot of flexibility as to what should be learned and how they should go about learning it. Students should figure things out for themselves; they should be independent learners. 25. When I try to understand something complex, I try to think on many different levels and from many different perspectives. 30. Learning works best when it is directed by the learner. 36. There tends to be a lot of heterogeneity within the parts of any whole system. Many parts are not like the whole. Uniformity of explanation throughout a system, while nice, is not essential. |
Short-Answer and Knowledge Synthesis Essay Scores
Treatment Group |
Session 2 Short Answer |
Session 4 Short Answer |
Session 2 Knowledge Synthesis Essays |
Session 4 Knowledge Synthesis Essays |
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Control: Free Hypertext Exploration M SD n |
49.36 12.66 25 |
49.90 12.02 25 |
7.00 2.47 25 |
6.88 3.17 25 |
|
Learner Selected Thematic Criss-Crossing M SD n |
52.90 12.20 19 |
50.70 9.88 19 |
6.42 2.96 19 |
6.37 3.42 19 |
|
Guided Thematic Criss-Crossing M SD n |
45.52 17.46 25 |
37.53 10.27 25 |
6.40 2.93 25 |
6.92 3.30 25 |
Problem-Solving Essay Scores
Treatment Group |
Session 1 Problem-Solving Essay |
Session 2 Averaged Problem-Solving Essay Score |
Session 4 Averaged Problem-Solving Essay Score |
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Control: Free Hypertext Exploration M SD n |
6.58 3.08 25 |
9.04 1.93 25 |
8.66 2.92 25 |
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Learner Selected Thematic Criss-Crossing M SD n |
6.11 1.94 19 |
8.50 1.83 19 |
8.34 2.89 19 |
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Guided Thematic Criss-Crossing M SD n |
5.64 2.71 25 |
9.18 2.68 25 |
8.50 2.48 25 |
Figure 1. Sample screens from the Aborted Introduction of the
French Electric Car case. Top screen shows text in a case section and bottom
screen shows the overlaid display of the Theme List and commentary for the
Technological Efficiency theme.
Figure 2 Sample screens from the Dilemma of the Artificial
Heart case. Top screen shows text in a case section and bottom screen shows
the overlaid display of the Theme List and commentary for the Technological
Efficiency theme.
Figure 3. Screen for the Guided Thematic Criss-Crossing
condition with a session 2 study question, themes selected for the question, and
list of hypertext links to case sections containing the themes.
Figure 4. Screen for the Learner Selected Thematic
Criss-Crossing condition with a session 2 study question, themes available
for the learner to select for the question, and list of hypertext links to case
sections containing the learner's selected themes.
Figure 5. Screen for the Free Hypertext control condition with
a session 2 study question and list of hypertext links to case sections.
Figure 6. Mean short answer scores of percent correct by treatment
group for session 2 and session 4.
Figure 7. Mean knowledge synthesis essay scores by treatment and epistemic beliefs and preferences (EBP) groups.
Last updated September 20, 1996. Copyright © 1996 Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). All rights reserved.