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Projects in Social Impacts of Technology
Informatics 163
Tu-Th 11 to 12:20
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ICS 180
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| General Description |
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The objective of the course is to provide practical
experience in researching social and organizational impacts of technology. Emphasis
will be placed on conducting ethnographic research, writing, and presenting.
- First, you will learn about how
to design an empirical study. Even though, you have learned some of this in
161 and 162, this practicum will help you engage that material in real-life
empirical work.
What question are you trying to answer? How should
you approach the answer? What other factors do you need to consider in the
design of your study?
- Second, you will learn how to gather
data about people’s social and cultural needs.
Techniques will include interviewing people, including
designing questions that allow people to provide you with appropriate information,
observing humans doing various tasks and activities to learn about how they interact
with computers. These techniques will build on the work you did in the library
last quarter. We will also discuss other types of techniques that allow you
to collect other types of useful data such as biographic information and other background
information. For each technique you will learn what types of question it can
answer, how to go about using it, and how does it influence your study design.
- Third, you will learn how to analyze
the data that you collect.
Analysis is the process of taking the data that you gather
and turning into a systematic set of findings that let you make claims. For
example, analysis lets you say whether a system is effective for the users or whether
software needs to work a certain way in order to meet the needs of potential users.
We will learn how to perform analysis on the types of data that you’ve just learned
how to collect.
The goal of this class is to provide you with an introduction
to how to use empirical methods.
At the end of this class you should be able to design a study
that allows you to take a research question and answer it using appropriate data
collection and analysis techniques.
Gillian R. Hayes
- Office: Donald Bren Hall, 5072
- Phone: 949-824-1483
- Email: gillianrh
[at] ics [dot] uci [dot] edu
- Office Hours: Wednesdays from 11 to 12 or by appointment in DBH
Jahmeilah Richardson
- Office: 5099 Donald Bren Hall (or in the Tech Garden)
- Email: jarichar [at]
ics [dot] uci [dot] edu
- Discussion: Mondays 12-12:50
- Office Hours: Wednesdays 2 to
3
Books
Required:
Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis
by John Lofland, David
A. Snow, Leon Anderson, Lyn H. Lofland
Optional:
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
The Ethnographic Interview by James P. Spradley
Articles
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