Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Batec: Broadening Advanced Technological Education Connections, Deborah Boisvert

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

BATEC brings together cross-sector stakeholders from education, industry, and the community to collectively build a seamless and robust education-to-workforce pathway among students underrepresented in IT fields, including women, those from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, and students with disabilities.

Technology Goes Home Evaluation – Executive Summary, Donna H. Friedman, Michelle Kahan, Tatjana Meschede, Consuela Greene

Center for Social Policy Publications

Technology Goes Home (TGH) is an innovative program designed to bridge the digital divide by bringing technology into low-income families’ homes. This Boston Digital Bridge Foundation (BDBF) program strives to prepare adults for employment opportunities and to help children improve academic performance by offering computer training and equipment to families in Boston neighborhoods and schools. Classes are offered in groups, with parents and children learning together in order to strengthen families and build community as well as skills. Neighborhood programs are operated in six communities through Neighborhood Technology Collaboratives, coalitions of community-based organizations. These coalitions select participating families, and provide …

A Case For Implementing An Electronic Document Managament System (Edms), Scott D. Seiler

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

We live in a world where documentation and record keeping are considered not only necessary but also essential. This documentation produces and unprecedented amount of paperwork. Keeping track of this volume of paper is a task of monumental proportions. Faced with this task, I sought to sell the idea of an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) to the senior staff of the governmental agency that employs me. Participation in the Creative Critical Thinking Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston, has afforded me the opportunity to formulate an implementation scheme to accomplish this. Included in my synthesis project are the …

Addressing The Inadequacies Of Information Available On The Internet: The Prospect For A Technical Solution, Alan I. Goldman

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In the past ten years the Internet has been the carrier and transmitter of vast amounts of information. Most of it has never been subjected to peer review or even casual review and has therefore been the source of misinformation. Additionally, there is need for more researchers to utilize critical thinking techniques of evaluating the credibility of sources.

This paper chronicles my critical and creative thinking processes and results regarding these three areas of the information problems that are prevalent on the Internet. The first area is the problem of bad, biased or incorrect information including hoaxes and scams. I …

20 Questions Toward Better Thinking: A Look At Internet Based Learning, Robert B. Mendelsohn

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

New technology and good teaching practices must be combined to produce the most up-to-date and effective Internet-based learning. Critical and creative thinking techniques incorporated with technological enhancements will stimulate better comprehension of a variety of resources including in Internet-based learning. Two key concepts of critical and creative thinking that I focus on are Metacognition and Frame of Reference. Metacognition is the self-awareness of one’s thought process. It includes knowing why one makes decisions, what factors contribute to a choice, and why the opposite decision was not chosen. While most people disregard or ignore metacognition it can have numerous positive effects …

Democracy, Technology And The Civil Rights Project, Caesar L. Mcdowell, Marianne S. Castano

Trotter Review

Democracy has been defined as "a political system in which the whole people make, and are entitled to make, the basic determining decisions on important matters of public policy." While the United States is often touted as the world's leading proponent of democracy, many U.S. citizens find themselves unable to engage in one of the central acts of democracy—creating public voice through public engagement. Public engagement in the United States is constrained by our inability to talk through our shared, complementary and divergent values. This lack of public engagement and our inability to speak in a "public voice" is also …

Technological Revolution And The Black Studies Curriculum: A Course Proposal, Abdul Alkalimat

Trotter Review

A technological revolution is changing the world. The computer is fast becoming the universal tool in all aspects of work, production and communication, and innovations in bio-technology are fast transforming agriculture and health. The main impact of this technological revolution has been to restructure the economy, both the centers of accumulation as well as the labor process. It is also restructuring the methods by which people communicate, form and maintain communities. In general, the objective basis of social life is being fundamentally changed.

This essay proposes a basic course that not only focuses on the technological revolution, but should be …

"Who Is A Scientist?": Effects Of An Intervention To Change Students' Ideas About Science And Scientists, Lauren A. Foley

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Advocates for improving science literacy have focused much attention on the negative impressions about science and scientists held by many Americans. The image of scientists as 'nerdy' bespectacled men in laboratories has been related by some researchers to people's lack of interest in pursuing science. This thesis analyzes one component of a program aimed at changing that stereotype. The Science-By-Mail (tm) program at the Museum of Science in Boston was designed to give students a more inclusive image of scientists. Central to the program was the creation of pen-pal relationships between students in grades 4-9 with scientists who did not …