{"id":1584,"date":"2015-07-17T16:37:43","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T16:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=1584"},"modified":"2023-09-27T13:07:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T17:07:28","slug":"irobotdiscussion","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/topicstoanalyze\/irobotdiscussion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great I, Robot Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

I, Robot<\/em> Study<\/strong><\/h1>\n

I did a study on I, Robot<\/em> essays I acquired from students over a few years. As I’ve mentioned before in class, my approach to Technical Communication is not standard, so trying to pitch science fiction to the gatekeepers at the technical communication journals is difficult. Fortunately, the forward-thinker reviewers and editors at Computers and Composition<\/em> found my article worthy to be published.<\/p>\n

Below is an excerpt from the article that presents the goals I have for incorporating I, Robot<\/em> into the technical communication course:<\/p>\n

My goal for using Isaac Asimov\u2019s novel I, Robot<\/em> is to move students toward being aware that there are sub(altern) discourses about technologies\u2014and not just computers. These discourses do not consider technology inherently progressive or essentially good. The novel\u2019s setup fits in well with technical writing courses because, although it is 60 years old, it analyzes high-tech culture. Readers understand it as fiction, but they can be moved to read the novel\u2019s subtext, which illuminates the ideologies carried out through the dominant culture\u2019s beliefs and discourses about technology<\/strong>. When we adhere to strictly instrumentalist activities and lessons without critical analysis of the technical communicator-audience relationship, we may miss a major opportunity to engage our student population, a group that most likely\u2014coming from engineering and sciences\u2014has an uncritical view of technology: The mantra \u201cbigger\/smaller, faster, stronger, better\u201d is not always accurate. In fact, it promotes a modernist paradigm for technical writing. Such a paradigm privileges the technologies over the communicators,<\/strong> much like system-centered design suggests that \u201cthe documentation is written to reflect the image of the system designer\u201d (Johnson, 1998\/2003, p. 295). Incorporating I, Robot<\/em> into the technical writing classroom advances a postmodern pedagogy that privileges student agency and asks students to be critical of their own career goals when exploring the wider cultural forces that may shape their decisions and the products that their cultures produce<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Toscano, Aaron A. (2011). Using I, Robot<\/em> in the technical writing classroom: Developing a critical technological awareness. Computers and Composition 28<\/em>(1), 14-27. [cited in APA format…I think]<\/span><\/p>\n

Specific\/Starting Discussion Points<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below I have a few images to get us thinking:<\/p>\n