Critical Technology
The Critical Technology podcast (2020-2023) explored cutting edge research on the social, cultural, and political implications of new technological developments. Each episodes features an interview with a leading scholar of technology about one (or more) of their most recent publications. Initially launched as a COVID-19 pivot and funded by the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) at the University of Toronto, the podcast was produced, edited and hosted by Dr. Sara Grimes, with massive help and creative contributions from several outstanding UofT students and alumni (see credits for details). Critical Technology was nominated for a Canadian Podcast Award in the Best Technology Series category in 2023 (finalist, but not awarded), and was accepted into the Amplify Podcast Network’s Sustain Stream inaugural cohort in 2023-2024. Read the open access "postmortem" report about Critical Technology and the process of creating a podcast for academic knowledge mobilization here: https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/items/3e6d7ce3-d5ae-4c3e-a302-4ca3b52d85d4
Critical Technology
Debugging by Design Rebroadcast (interview with Dr. Deborah A. Fields)
Originally aired on April 11, 2022: Although computing technologies are now ubiquitous in much of the West and other parts of the world, there are still significant inequalities when it comes to who has access to computer science education. Powerful cultural stereotypes about who is or can become a coder persist, leading to the underrepresentation of girls and children of colour from a crucial form of digital literacy.
In this episode, Dr. Sara Grimes chats with Dr. Deborah Fields, Associate Research Professor in the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Department at Utah State University, about her research on the relationship between identity, motivation and learning how to code among tweens and teens, and how to break down stereotypes about who can code and how.
The discussion is focused on Dr. Fields’s 2021 article in the British Journal of Educational Technology: “Debugging by design: A constructionist approach to high school students' crafting and coding of electronic textiles as failure artefacts,” co-authored with Dr. Yasmin B. Kafai, Luis Morales-Novarro, and Justice T. Walker.
Type of research discussed in this episode: education research; pedagogy design and innovation; workshops; computer science education; participatory research; action research.
Keywords for this episode: constructionism; software bug; computer coding; e(lectronic)-textiles; equity in education; STEM (science technology engineering math); mischievousness; socially meaningful failure artifacts; productive failure; creativity; aesthetics first.
