In class this week, small groups attended 20 minute one-shot workshops on a variety of topics. The topics our group covered include algorithms that automate some government decisions, ethics of corporate actors, the ethics of digital libraries, and creating our own code of ethics. All of these subjects definitely caught my attention in one way or another.
While I was aware that some decisions have been automated by algorithms, I had never thought of how these algorithms could pose possible discriminatory problems. The example that this group used determined the response to possible domestic issues in New York, but many of the factors considered were out of the control of the individual being monitored, which led to a disproportionate number of people with lower socioeconomic statuses being investigated for potential abuse. This particular workshop above the others really stuck out to me due to the discussion we had following our activity about how best to address these types of practices as a community.
The discussion in How People Learn about expert teaching from various disciplines made me really connect with the reason that I got interested in history so late in life. I had a professor that taught “perspective history” as a way to engage her students. Instead of being someone who focused on facts and dates, she provided opportunities to connect with historical events by using stories from various people of differing genders, races, lifestyles, and socioeconomic statuses to allow more relatable lectures, which, for me, made it easier to learn about the complexity of history. I feel that approaching this chapter by giving stories was also critical, because it showed how these teachers were more relatable. In the opening of the chapter, it is stated that great teachers are more than teaching methods and content knowledge, but this was enhanced by providing stories about how certain teachers are truly more than the expected connections that people think of when they think of great teachers.
I chose to watch a UX-related webinar for this week and evaluate it. I am not very familiar with the way that people in this profession approach their work. I found a webinar that addressed “10 Research Guiding Principles” from two women that have made a career in user experience. What I found extremely helpful about this was that they are really principles that can be applied to everyday life in general. While I really liked the talk, this webinar seemed to lack in the way of interaction with participants and failed to provide adequate time to answer participant questions and assess what they had learned. To me, it seemed to run more like an informational podcast with visuals. While I found it compelling and appreciated the ability to relate some of the things I knew back to a profession I know very little about, I think that the presenters could have done a better job of engaging their audience instead of just talking at them for an hour.
Raven K 
In what ways did the webinar you watched fail to engage the viewers? Did they run out of time for question and answer and just cut it off? Was there any opportunity for participants to interact with each other, or was it solely in asking the presenters questions?
I also really like the method you talked about in your history class. That sounds really fun and also sounds like a good way for students to create bridges from their own knowledge (and, in this case, experiences) to new knowledge.
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I agree that your history teacher’s method was really interesting to read about. I feel like I remember stories about real people a lot better than dates and stand alone facts in history. When I’m able to connect to someone through a story I can imagine that person and their experiences become more relatable. One thing that I love about connecting to people through history is realizing that even with huge cultural and technological differences, people haven’t really changed.
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They ran out of time for questions, I believe they answered about 2 or 3 well. I believe that there was engagement with participants following the webinar, to those who had registered, from the sounds of it, questions would be answered and sent out to everyone. But, there was no transcript for the webinar or further details about what happened following the live airing, so I truly don’t know the level of engagement.
I really appreciated that approach to history, and it led me to pursue that as an undergrad and a graduate student. By building history in that way, you connect more, clearly, but you also see that there is so much more going on then what you believed. It really made me rethink an entire subject I had grown to loathe, all because of one professor.
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I think you make a really great point about the importance of stories, and how stories are important across fields. I feel like (but don’t have any hard evidence that) people sometimes forget that stories and teaching styles can be important for subjects like math that often do have “right answers”. Even if the practice problems students work with have right and wrong answers, the way the teacher approaches the material, and the “story” behind that approach, makes a huge difference to students.
Also, related to algorithmic bias: a research at the MIT Media Lab published an interesting study earlier this year that showed that facial recognition software is much more likely to misidentify gender presentation in people with darker skin and people who present as female. Reported in the New York Times here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/technology/facial-recognition-race-artificial-intelligence.html. Original paper here, although I can’t claim to fully understand all the intricacies of their methodology: http://proceedings.mlr.press/v81/buolamwini18a/buolamwini18a.pdf.
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It’s kind of meta that you mentioned the stories that were presented in this Chapter helped you better understand the point of what it was trying to say, and ALSO that your history professor shaped your understanding of history with the “stories” of different types of people and their perspectives. I agree with both sentiments. Providing stories helps take the material you’re learning from “vague and abstract” to specific, and more importantly, possible. Stories show us that their methods have actually been done, and they provide evidence that the methods worked, in a narrative form, instead of just statistical results. Stories give us examples to follow (or not to follow).
Also, side note, I had a similar experience with my webinar in which it felt like an informational podcast with pictures and words. But mine was just a book list, so even worse to try to sit through (I may have skipped ahead through some parts).
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I love this idea you bring up of “perspective history”! It seems to me that this could be a really cool way for teachers to get students started with using archival materials–especially now that there are so many digitized materials available in open access format on the web. It’s awesome that this way of teaching is what got you into history, too. A great example of how inspiring teachers can really shape a student’s trajectory.
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The archival thing is a great point! In this way, a lot of primary sources get brought in, so you are learning about the archival system in a more abstract way even if you don’t realize it or have a specific project that requires it in the course.
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