Professor Greg Downey
Spring 2009
4191F Helen C. White Hall
(classroom in the SLIS library)
Thursday 9am-11:30am

In this course we will explore issues relating to "digital divides" in the US and around the world in terms of awareness of, ownership of, access to, use of, and purpose in using various information and communication technologies across socially-constructed boundaries of age, class, gender, race/culture/ethnicity, political geography, urban/rural geography, language, and occupation.

Topics will include: theories of uneven geographies; historical examples of information divides; current empirical data on various digital (and socio-economic) divides; arguments over the increased use of new media technologies in work, education, and entertainment; visions of information utopias and dystopias; and the ongoing "analog divide" in terms of access to older, more basic forms of information technology.

Grading

Attendance and participation are crucial.  Class will meet for one session each week, involving both lecture and discussion.  Students are expected not only to attend class but also to participate in class discussion.  While a small number of class absences are inevitable, you can't get a top grade in this class if you don't attend and speak up regularly.

Online participation is crucial. Each week you will be expected to participate in an online discussion weblog and wiki, either by posting information on the required readings to the weblog, by presenting supplementary materials to the wiki, or by reading and responding to these postings.

We do lots and lots of reading in this course.  Enough said.

You will summarize and discuss one of the required readings in front of the class.  This will involve writing up a 250-word summary of the reading on the weblog, giving an oral summary of the reading in class (5 minutes) and presenting a question for us to spend 10 minutes discussing (the question may be drawn from another student's comments on the weblog). 

You will participate in a group project to locate and present supplementary materials to the class.  This will involve meeting with your group, locating outside materials which may be of interest to the class, summarizing/linking/uploading those materials to our class wiki so others may see them, and presenting/discussing those materials during a 45-minute class session.

There will be a final review project. Each student will be expected to complete a final analytic review of an outside book dealing in some way with information technology and equality/equity/justice issues.  (The choice of book is up to you but please clear it with the professor first if you have a question about whether it fits with the subject of the class.)  Students will be graded on both the written project (due at the end of finals week) and on their in-class presentation of this project. Your paper should be no less than 10 pages long, double-spaced.

Grading breakdown.  Students will be graded on overall class participation including attendance, tardiness, and contribution to in-class discussion (20%), quality and quantity of participation in online weblog (20%), individual summary of a required reading during class discussion (20%), group presentation of supplementary materials (20%), and final project including presentation and writeup (20%).

Texts to purchase

There is a single xeroxed course reader for this class, available from ASM Student Print in the new "Lucky 777" building on University Avenue.  UW-Madison students may also download required and optional readings as PDF files (you will need your standard UW NetID login and password).  However, you will be expected to bring a printed copy of each week's reading to class.

NB: These articles were not chosen to be “unbiased” texts. Rather, I have picked these readings with three goals in mind: they are readable and interesting while still scholarly; they are relevant to current events; and, often, they are polemical in that they argue for a particular interpretation of the world which you may choose to agree with or to disagree with.

Special needs

McBurney Center

Persons with disabilities are to be fully included in this course. Please let me know if you need any special accommodations to enable you to fully participate. I will try to maintain confidentiality of the information you share with me. To request academic accomodations, please register with the McBurney Disability Resource Center.

Academic honesty

Misconduct Guide

Academic honesty requires that the course work a student presents to an instructor honestly and accurately indicates the student's own academic efforts. If you are unsure about what qualifies as academic dishonesty, please consult the Academic Misconduct Guide for Students.  Two points in particular to keep in mind:

• copying or paraphrasing material from books, articles, or web pages without proper quotation and citation is plagiarism
  
  
• copying or paraphrasing material from fellow students is plagiarism

Please remember that any plagiarism may be sufficient grounds for failing a student in the entire course.

Classroom respect

The UW-Madison is committed to creating a dynamic, diverse and welcoming learning environment for all students and has a non-discrimination policy that reflects this philosophy. Disrespectful behaviors or comments addressed towards any group or individual, regardless of race/ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion, ability, or any other difference is deemed unacceptable in this class, and will be addressed publicly by the professor.

Military call-ups

We recognize that those students serving in the armed forces may be called to active duty at any time.  The university has posted guidelines for students who are called to duty detailing options for withdrawing from, dropping, or completing courses.  In general, students called to military service may receive credit for this class if leaving after the midway point of the course, at the discretion of the instructor, based on the student's earned grade up to the time of departure.

About the instructor

Greg Downey <gdowney @ wisc.edu> is an associate professor with a 50 percent appointment in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a 50 percent appointment in the School of Library and Information Studies.  His teaching and research both center on the history and geography of information and communication technology and the often hidden human labor behind it.

Downey joined the UW faculty in 2001. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in computer science from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, an M.A. In liberal studies from Northwestern University, and a joint Ph.D. in history of technology and human geography from the Johns Hopkins University. Before coming to Madison, Downey spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geography and the Humanities Institute at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

His industry experience as a computer analyst includes three years at the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago, and three years at Roger Schank’s Institute for Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. He has held short-term volunteer positions with both the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago and the Community Information Exchange in Washington D.C. And he used to draw a daily comic strip when he was an undergraduate, believe it or not.

Downey's first book, Telegraph Messenger Boys: Labor, Technology, and Geography, 1850-1950, was published by Routledge in 2002.  His second book, Closed captioning: Subtitling, stenography, and the digital convergence of text with television, was published by Johns Hopkins in 2008.  He is currently working on his third book, a history and geography of library labor and technology in the US over the 20th century.

Discussion 

More news on the "lunch divide"

I recently read a newsletter that ties into a discussion we had earlier in the semester on the "lunch divide" and issues of inequity surrounding free lunch programs. The following link is to a blog discussing State Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-MO)'s views on a summer food program in Missouri. Davis serves as the chairwoman of the Missouri House Special Standing Committee on Children and Families and was quoted in her June newsletter as saying 'Hunger can be a positive motivator.' As Lee Fang points out in the blog, Davis actually extols the hidden benefits of child hunger.

According to Davis, laid off parents should just try homecooked meals rather than going out to eat. Her simplistic analysis of poverty, obesity, work, and the family has left me speechless. To top things off, she's a lawmaker! As the recession continues on and more people are faced with hunger, keep in mind Davis's advice: "If you work for McDonald's, they will feed you for free during your break."

Calendar 

Jan 22, 2009

WEEK 01

Why study digital divides and differences? 

Classroom

• Introduction to the course
• Introduction of professor and students
• Schedule individual student discussions of required readings
• Divide up into student groups for presentation of supplementary materials
• Discuss final review project
• Learn how to use weblog
• Learn how to use wiki
• Discuss basic concepts around the digital divide.
• Film: "Crossing the divide - Creating a high-tech workforce" (2000); 60 min.

Online

• After class you will receive an emailed invitation to register with our class weblog at lis640.blogspot.com. Follow the instructions to sign up with Blogger.
• Introduce yourself on the weblog (preferably with a nice photo).
• Post a comment on someone else's introduction.
• You will also receive an invitation to register with our class wiki at lis640.pbwiki.com
• Create a page for yourself on the wiki (preferably with a nice photo).

Required reading

• None.  Purchase the reader for the course this week.

Jan 29, 2009

WEEK 02

Debating diversity, equity, and social justice 

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings.
• Group Gryffindor presents supplementary materials: Examples of national and local news articles from this week that deal with issues of equality, equity, and social justice (not necessarily about technology). 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Gryffindor post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Heather Boushey and Christian E. Weller, "What the numbers tell us," in James Lardner and David A. Smith, eds., Inequality matters: The growing economic divide in America and its poisonous consequences (The New Press, 2005), 27-40; 15 pages.
• Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel, "The picture: Growing economic insecurity and inequality," in Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Security (New Press, 2005), 38-64; 25 pages.
• Julian Lamont, “Distributive justice,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1997); 15 pages.
• Michael Jonas, "The downside of diversity: A Harvard political scientist finds that diversity hurts civic life. What happens when a liberal scholar unearths an inconvenient truth?" Boston Globe (05 August 2007); 5 pages.

Optional reading

UW-Madison students may download these optional readings as PDF files (you will need your standard UW NetID login and password). 

• Frank Levy and Peter Temin, "Inequality and Institutions in 20th century America," Working Paper 13106, National Bureau Of Economic Research (May 2007).
• Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz , "Decreasing (and then Increasing) Inequality in America: A Tale of Two Half-Centuries," National Bureau of Economic Research (May 1999); 30 pages.
• Claude Fischer, "The good life," Boston Review (Nov 2008); 5 pages.
  

Feb 05, 2009

WEEK 03

Discovering the digital divide

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings
• Group Ravenclaw presents supplementary materials: Personal computer advertisements, contrasting those from the present day with those that appeared before 1985.  Be prepared to talk about the intended uses of (and audiences for) each machine. 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Ravenclaw post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Joseph C. Donohue and Manfred Kochen, "Community information centers: Concepts for analysis and planning," in Manfred Kochen and Joseph C. Donohue, eds., Information for the community (Chicago: American Library Association, 1976), 7-18; 10 pages.
• Robert Kominski, "Computer use in the United States: 1984" (US Department of Commerce, 1988); 10 pages.
• National Telecommunications and Information Administration, US Department of Commerce, Falling through the net: A survey of the ‘have nots’ in rural and urban America (Jul 1995); 5 pages.
• National Telecommunications and Information Administration, US Department of Commerce, A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age (Sep 2004), pp. 3-16; 15 pages.

Optional reading

• Manuel Castells, "The new American dilemma: Inequality, urban poverty, and social exclusion in the information age," in End of millennium (1998), 129-149; 20 pages.
• US Congress (106th), House of Representatives, Committee on Small Business, “The digital divide: Bridging the technology gap,” hearing before the Subcommittee on Empowerment, Washington DC, 27 July 1999, serial no. 106-25 (Washington, DC: US GPO 2001), 1-33; 30 pages.
  

Feb 12, 2009

WEEK 04

Defining the digital divide

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings
• Group Hufflepuff presents supplementary materials: Latest and greatest data on the digital divide. 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Hufflepuff post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Ted Nelson, "Introduction," Computer Lib (1974), 1-4; 5 pages.
• Ronald D. Doctor, "Information technologies and social equity: Confronting the revolution" JASIS (1991), 216-228; 13 pages. 
• Lisa J. Servon and Marla K. Nelson, “Community technology centers and the urban technology gap,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25:2 (2001); 10 pages. 
• Amanda Lenhart et al., "The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look At Internet Access And The Digital Divide," Pew Internet & American Life Project (April 16, 2003); 46 pages.

Optional reading

• Pippa Norris, “Understanding the digital divide” and “Social inequalities” in Pippa Norris, Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 26-38, 68-92; 35 pages.
• Shane Greenstein and Jeff Prince, "The diffusion of the internet and the geography of the digital divide in the United States," Working Paper 12182, National Bureau Of Economic Research (April 2006); 50 pages. 

Feb 19, 2005

WEEK 05

Analyzing the digital divide

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings
• Group Slytherin presents supplementary materials: Responses of local libraries to the digital divide. 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Slytherin post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Leah A. Lievrouw and Sharon E. Farb, “Information and equity,” ARIST 37 (2003), 499-540; 40 pages.
• Laura D. Stanley, “Beyond Access: Psychosocial Barriers to Computer Literacy,” Information Society 19 (2003), 407–416; 10 pages. 
• Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Mary Stansbury, "Redefining the digital divide," in Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide (Georgetown, 2003), 1-14; 15 pages.
• Jan A. G. M. van Dijk, "A framework for understanding the digital divide," in The Deepening Divide: Inequality in the Information Society (Sage 2005), 9-26; 15 pages.

Optional reading

• Jan van Dijk and Kenneth Hacker, “The digital divide as a complex and dynamic phenomenon,” Information Society 19 (2003), 315-326; 10 pages.
• Peggy S. Meszaros, "The Wired Family: Living Digitally In The Postinformation Age," American Behavioral Scientist 48:4 (2004), 377-390; 15 pages.
  

Feb 26, 2009

WEEK 06

Divides of community, school, and education

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings
• Group Beauxbatons: Presentation of supplementary materials on the topic. 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Beauxbatons post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Richard D. Kahlenberg, "The return of 'separate but equal,'" in James Lardner and David A. Smith, eds., Inequality matters: The growing economic divide in America and its poisonous consequences (The New Press, 2005), 54-64; 10 pages.
• Jane Margolis, "Technology rich, but curriculum poor," in Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing (MIT 2008), 27-49; 20 pages.

Optional reading

• Theodore Roszak, "The hidden curriculum: The chimera of computer literacy," in The cult of information: The folklore of computers and the true art of thinking (1986), 47-71; 25 pages.
• Christian Sandvig, “Public Internet access for young children in the inner city: Evidence to inform access subsidy and content regulation,” Information Society 19 (2003), 171-183; 10 pages. 
• Michael W. Apple, “Is the new technology part of the solution or part of the problem in education?” in Teachers & texts: A political economy of class & gender relations in education (New York: Routledge, 1986), 150-174; 25 pages.
• Ann P. Bishop, Tonyia J. Tidline, Susan Shoemaker, and Pamela Salela, “Public libraries and networked information services in low-income communities,” Library & Information Science Research 21:3 (1999), 361-390; 30 pages.

Mar 05, 2009

WEEK 07

Divides of race, ethnicity, and culture

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings
• Group Durmstrang: Presentation of supplementary materials on the topic. 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Durmstrang post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Byron Burkhalter, “Reading race online,” in Marc A. Smith and Peter Kollock, eds., Communities in cyberspace (New York: Routledge, 1999), 60-75; 15 pages.
• Lisa Nakamura, "Head-hunting on the Internet: Identity tourism, avatars, and racial passing in textual and graphic chat spaces," in Cybertypes: Race, ethnicity, and identity on the Internet (Routledge, 2002), 31-60; 30 pages.

Optional reading

• U.S. Senate, 107th Congress, 2nd session, "S. 414, Digital divide and minority serving institutions," hearing before the subcommittee on science, technology, and space of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Feb 27, 2002); 75 pages.
• William Julius Wilson, “The declining significance of race,” in The declining significance of race: Blacks and changing American institutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 144-154; read also 1998 interview with Wilson conducted by PBS Frontline; 20 pages. 
• Peggy McIntosh, “White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack,” from White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies, working paper 189, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women (1988); 5 pages.

Mar 12, 2009

WEEK 08

Divides of gender, sexuality, and family status

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings
• Group Gryffindor: Presentation of supplementary materials on the topic. 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Gryffindor post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Jennifer S. Light, "The digital landscape: New space for women?" Gender, Place & Culture 2:2 (1995), 133-147; 15 pages.
• Susan Carol Losh, “Gender, educational, and occupational digital gaps 1983-2002,” Social Science Computer Review 22:2 (2004), 152-166; 15 pages.

Optional reading

• Paulina Borsook, "The memoirs of a token: An aging Berkeley feminist examines Wired," in Lynn Cherny and Elizabeth Reba Weise, eds., Wired Women: Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace (Seal Pr Feminist Pub, 1996).
• Ruth Perry and Lisa Greber, "Women and computers: An introduction," Signs 16:1 (1990); 30 pages.
• Juris Dilevko and Roma Harris, "Information technology and social relations: Portrayals of gender roles in high tech product advertisements," JASIS 48 (1997); 10 pages.

Mar 19, 2009

WEEK 09

CLASS CANCELLED FOR SPRING BREAK.

Mar 26, 2009

WEEK 10

Divides of workplace, occupation, and income

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings
• Group Ravenclaw: Presentation of supplementary materials on the topic. 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Ravenclaw post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Tamara Draut, "The growing college gap," in James Lardner and David A. Smith, eds., Inequality matters: The growing economic divide in America and its poisonous consequences (The New Press, 2005), 89-101; 10 pages.
• Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane, “How computers change work and pay,” in The new division of labor: How computers are creating the next job market (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004), 31-54; 20 pages.

Optional reading

• Susan Hanson, “Reconceptualizing accessibility,” in Donald G. Janelle and David C. Hodge, eds., Information, place, and cyberspace: Issues in accessibility (Springer, 2000), 267-278; 10 pages.
• Jon Goss, “ ‘We know who you are and we know where you live’: The instrumental rationality of geodemographic systems,” Economic Geography 71:2 (1995), 171-198; 25 pages.

Apr 02, 2009

WEEK 11

Divides of nation, language, and development

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings
• Group Hufflepuff: Presentation of supplementary materials on the topic (OLPC computer). 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Hufflepuff post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Manuel Castells et al., "Wireless communication and global development: New issues, new strategies," in Mobile communication and society (MIT Press, 2007), 215-243; 30 p.
• William J. Drake and Rikke Frank Jorgensen, "Introduction," in Rikke Frank Jørgensen, ed., Human Rights in the Global Information Society (MIT Press, 2006) , 1-49; 50 pages.

Optional reading

• Nancy Birdsall, "Inequality Matters: Why globalization doesn’t lift all boats," Boston Review (March 2007); 10 pages.
• Daniel Dor, “From Englishization to Imposed Multilingualism: Globalization, the Internet, and the Political Economy of the Linguistic Code,” Public Culture 16:1 (2004), 97-118.
  
  

Apr 09, 2009

WEEK 12

Questioning the digital divide

Classroom

• Student presentation of required readings
• Group Slytherin presents supplementary materials: Make a case for the argument that the digital divide does not exist and/or should not concern us. 

Online 

• If you are presenting a required reading, post a 250-word summary of this reading to the class weblog before class meets this week. 
• Group Slytherin post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Benjamin M. Compaine, “Declare the war won,” in Benjamin M. Compaine, ed., The digital divide: Facing a crisis or creating a myth? (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001), 315-335; 20 pages.
• Neil Selwyn, “Apart from technology: Understanding people’s non-use of information and communication technologies in everyday life,” Technology in Society 25 (2003), 99-116; 15 pages.
• Carsten Fink and Charles Kenny, “W(h)ither the digital divide?” info 5:6 (2003); 10 pages.
• Jane Margolis, "Technology policy illusions," in Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing (MIT 2008), 117-132; 15 pages.

Optional reading

• Gisle Hannemyr, “The Internet as hyperbole: A critical examination of adoption rates,” Information Society 19 (2003), 111-121; 10 pages.
  

Apr 16, 2009

WEEK 13

Addressing the digital divide

Classroom

• (No student presentations of required readings this time ... we'll just discuss.)
• Groups Beauxbatons and Durmstrang each present supplementary materials: Make a case for the argument that the digital divide does exist and propose a solution. 

Online 

• Groups Beauxbatons and Durmstrang post your material to the class wiki as well.
• All other students need to make at least one substantive comment to one of these weblog or wiki postings — a question, a critique, an insight, or anything else of use. 

Required reading

• Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Mary Stansbury, "Beyond the divides: Toward opportunity and equity," in Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide (Georgetown 2003), 116-139; 20 pages.
• Mark Warschauer, “Conclusion: The social embeddedness of technology,” in Technology and social inclusion: Rethinking the digital divide (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), 199-216; 15 pages.
• Jan A. G. M. van Dijk, "Inequality in the information society" and "Inequality in the network society" in The Deepening Divide: Inequality in the Information Society (Sage 2005), 131-161; 30 pages.
• John B. Horrigan, "Home Broadband Adoption 2008: Adoption stalls for low-income Americans even as many broadband users opt for premium services that give them more speed," Pew Internet & American Life Project (July 2008); 30 pages.

Optional reading

• Susannah Fox, Janna Quitney Anderson, and Lee Rainie, The future of the Internet (Washington DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2005); 50 pages.
• Anthony G. Wilhelm, “Leveraging sunken investments in communications infrastructure: A policy perspective from the United States,” Information Society 19 (2003), 279-286; 10 pages.

Apr 23, 2009

WEEK 14

Student presentations

Classroom

• Student presentation of book reviews (15 minutes each)

Online

• Please post a 250-word description of the book you are reading for your final review, and some initial thoughts on the book
• Please comment on at lease one fellow student's post.

Apr 30, 2009

WEEK 15

Student presentations (continued)

Classroom

• Student presentation of book reviews (15 minutes each)

Online

• Please reply to this question in a 250-word blog post: Is there a digital divide, and if so, what should be done about it?
• Please respond to at least one other student's answer to this question.
  

May 07, 2009

WEEK 16

Student presentations (continued)

Classroom

• Student presentation of book reviews (15 minutes each)

PLEASE TURN IN YOUR FINAL 2,500 WORD PROJECT
BY THE LAST FRIDAY OF FINALS WEEK