Computational Literacies (Autumn 2024)

Abstract

This course introduces key concepts from computing and provides critical and analytical skills for students to engage with a range of computational formats, artifacts, and genres of technical communication. The course enables students to navigate complex technical challenges and meaningfully participate in debates regarding the management of IT. Students learn to understand technical challenges in computing within in organizational, historical, and cultural context. The course is at an introductory level and is well-suited for students with limited or no technical background.

Description

This course equips students with computational literacies to understand organizational challenges faced in the management of large-scale IT systems and to meaningfully participate in debates regarding the political and ecological implications of IT systems. The course introduces key computational concepts used in the analysis and implementation of IT systems. Students will learn to navigate technical aspects of computational systems and IT work including the terminologies, methodologies, and artifacts used in the development of IT systems. The course will incorporate historical, cultural, and material perspectives on computing to understand how the technological stack that supports contemporary computational systems emerged and to contextualize current controversies within long-standing debates in computing as an academic discipline and labor sector. Students will learn about organizational and infrastructural challenges that emerge at different layers of the technological stack over the lifetime of computational systems from design and development to long-term maintenance and ends-of support, including challenges that arise due to processes such as continuous change, scaling systems, technical debt, obsolescence, breakdown, and failure. Through hands-on exercises students will develop skills to contextualize debates and challenges by locating and analyzing a variety of primary and secondary sources related to specific instances of IT systems implementations. Students will acquire skills in source criticism – considering genre, form, authority, and point of view. They will develop a basic understanding of how various genres of technical communication emerged historically, are crafted and used by technical actors, and mediate the management of IT work. Students will learn a variety of analytical methods that can be applied to these different genres to empirically explore how technical actors deploy them in their work. Finally, students will also playfully engage these genres to reflect upon how to intervene discursively and materially into the complex challenges and debates of today’s IT landscape.

Formal prerequisites

Intended learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to:

• Critically and playfully engage with a range of different genres of technical writing and organizational media (e.g., tech forums, use cases, software diagrams, technical reports, bug reports, user documentation, programming environments) used in organizing IT development work or in the production and use of computational systems.
• Contextualize computational concepts, software terminology, and technical communication genres as they are applied by a range of actors, (including IT practitioners, computer scientists, academic researchers, software developers and engineers, IT regulators, tech journalists, NGOS, and other decision-makers) in relation to specific instances of IT systems.
• Select relevant sources and appropriate analytical methods to empirically explore how technical actors participate in ongoing and/or historical debates regarding the production and use of IT systems.
• Discuss organizational and infrastructural challenges faced by actors whose work interfaces with the technological stack over the lifetime of IT systems from design and development to long-term maintenance and ends-of-support.
• Reflect upon computing as a cultural, historical, and material phenomenon in the context of long-standing debates regarding the production and use of IT systems and their political and ecological consequences.

Learning activities

Reading:

Students are expected to read texts beyond the syllabus including primary and secondary sources, such as code, use cases, technical forums, and analyses by NGOs, academics, or journalists. These readings support the construction of individual portfolios and exam source lists. They facilitate exploration of enduring discussions in IT system management and empirical analysis of large-scale IT implementations.

Engage with a range of technical genres and artifacts:

Students will become proficient in various technical genres and artifacts, such as developer forums, use cases, software diagrams, reports, change requests, programming environments, documentation, and code, through coursework. They will learn to identify these genres, understand their utility in managing, developing, and maintaining large-scale IT systems, and analyze them empirically from diverse perspectives. Additionally, students will experiment with these genres for technical communication and intervention, fostering critical reflection.

Independent analysis and reflective writing - Build a portfolio:

Students will create individual portfolios containing examples of technical writing, software artifacts, and organizational media from real-world large-scale IT systems. Each portfolio entry will feature a source selected by the student for its relevance to explore challenges or debates in specific IT system contexts. Each entry also includes independent reflections that draw upon the student’s chosen approaches to answer analytical questions provided by instructors. Requirements for portfolio entries, e.g., analyzing technical terms or discussing use cases, will be specified at the course's outset. Through their portfolios, students demonstrate their ability to recognize genres within organizational practice, select appropriate methods for contextual analysis, and engage in critical reflection.

Conduct Peer review:

Students will engage in peer review sessions to evaluate their peers' portfolio entries periodically throughout the term. Peer review serves as a practice ground for assessing technical writing and offering feedback, enhancing students' ability to communicate their arguments effectively. 

Technical learning:

Students will become acquainted with a variety of tools and resources such as glossaries, GAI (Generative Artificial Intelligence) tools, tech/developer forums, programming environments (e.g., GitHub), to help them understand and contextualize technical jargon, organizational tools, and IT methods.

Participate in hands-on exercises

Students’ active participation in exercises is integral to the course's skills training. Students bring their own source materials for portfolio development, engaging with Teaching Assistants who guide hands-on application of analytical methods such as the walk-through method, semiotic analysis, close readings, problematization, and critical technical practice. These exercises directly support the completion of individual portfolios and exam source lists by initiating and discussing student work.

Attend Lectures:

Students will attend lectures where they will be introduced to and discuss: a) key computational concepts as theorized in academic discourse, b) long-standing debates and cases of IT breakdown, failure, obsolescence, etc., and c) analytical approaches examining computing from cultural, organizational, and/or material perspectives to explore political and ecological implications. Lectures may also facilitate discussion and initiation of students' coursework to support their exercises and mandatory activities.

Build source list repository for exam:

Students collaborate to develop a shared repository of source lists for the exam. These lists will identify instances of large-scale IT systems showcasing ongoing debates or controversies, or examples of obsolescence, breaches, breakdowns, or failures. The purpose of these source lists is to aggregate various sources, both primary and secondary, across different genres to provide empirical context and multiple perspectives on debates and failures. Students contribute to these lists by sharing entries from their individual portfolios and participating in peer review

Mandatory activities

Mandatory:

To be eligible for the exam, students must complete the individual portfolio and the required peer review. Detailed requirements for the portfolio will be specified at the start of the course including the number and type of entries and the question prompts for reflections. The portfolio will be submitted at 2-4 specified deadlines during the semester for mandatory peer review and revised based on feedback. The final portfolio will be appended to the exam hand-in.

Make up mandatory:

Students submitting the portfolio by the make-up deadline, (who have missed key deadlines during the term), will be asked to provide a written (max 6 page) review for a selection of texts (12-18 pp) in place of the mandatory peer review.

The student will receive the grade NA (not approved) at the ordinary exam, if the mandatory activities are not approved and the student will use an exam attempt.

Course literature

The course syllabus includes texts that introduce key computational concepts (e.g., the cloud, platform, interface, technological stack) and empirically explore specific IT systems in terms of their material and historical conditions, political and ecological implications. These texts help students develop an understanding of organizational challenges faced in the management of large-scale IT systems over their lifetime, historical labor dynamics in computing fields, and long-standing debates and controversies over IT management. They also exemplify multiple analytical approaches to IT systems and computational media including cultural, organizational, and material analysis to contextualize IT systems, debates, and failures.

Student Activity Budget

Estimated distribution of learning activities for the typical student

• Preparation for lectures and exercises: 30%
• Lectures: 15%
• Exercises: 15%
• Assignments: 20%
• Exam with preparation: 20%

Ordinary exam

Exam type:
C: Submission of written work, External (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
C11: Submission of written work

reexam

Exam type:
C: Submission of written work, External (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
C11: Submission of written work

Time and date

Ordinary Exam - submission Mon, 6 Jan 2025, 08:00 - 14:00