Home exam grading info

.

Grading of the home exam depends on several different factors (for example if/how course literature is used in an appropriate and relevant way).

Points will furthermore be handed out depending on learning objectives that have been achieved according to Bloom's taxonomy (the further down in the list below, the better).

1, 2 - Remembering and Understanding:

Remember previously learned information and demonstrating an understanding of the facts.

Verbs that appropriately describes your answers on this level are: naming, outlining, selecting, giving examples, summarizing.

3- Applying:

Apply knowledge to actual situations.

Verbs that appropriately describes your answers on this level are; illustrating interpreting, relating, demonstrating, applying.

3 - Analyzing:

Break down objects or ideas into simpler parts and find evidence to support generalizations.

Verbs that appropriately describes your answers on this level are; comparing, contrasting, criticizing, infering, differentiating.

5 - Evaluating: 

Make and defend judgments based on internal evidence or external criteria.

Verbs that appropriately describes your answers on this level are; assess, argue, justify, contrast, value, defend.

6 - Creating:

Compile component ideas into a new whole or propose alternative solutions.

Verbs that appropriately describes your answers on this level are; construct, synthesize, combine, develop, create.

Other factors that are taken into account in relation to grading are:

- Content (most important)

- Language (not unimportant, but less important - unless it is difficult to understand your answers)

- Typographic/graphic form (not so important - unless it is difficult to read your paper)

Content: The content should be adapted to the scope of the text (please don't exceed the limitations set on the length of your answer(s)). Clearly indicate delimitations ["gjorda avgränsningar"]. Complex reasoning should be explained and put into context. Sources that you make use of in your answers should be in the list of references at the end of the exam. You should show that you have understood and can utilize basic theories and concepts concerning sustainability, or better yet, that you show that you understand how these theories and concepts are interrelated, or better yet, that you can carry out abstract reasoning about theories and concepts concerning sustainability

Language: Your answers should be written in English or Swedish and be well formulated, correct and proofread before you hand them in. Your answers should furthermore be coherent and logical. Terminology and technical terms should briefly be explained where needed. Use terms and concept in a uniform and unambiguous manner and stick to the point you are trying to make (avoid verbiage). Be reasoning and reflective, evaluate and discuss sources you make use of. 

Typographic/graphic form: The text should be easily accessible, clear, correct and follow typographic conventions. 

.

Åhman lecture + readings

.
At two students request, I hunted down Henrik Åhman's lecture slides from Oct 7 as well as two articles (suggested readings on social sustainability).

The slides are available in Bilda (Documents/Lectures) and so are the articles (Documents/Articles).

If you have any questions or comments about the home exam that you think are of general interest to the class, please post them here, in the form of a comment to this blog post. I will keep my eyes open for your comments and answer them in the form of a new comment here.
.

Home exam is available in Bilda

.
The home exam is now available in Bilda (DM2573 Sust-MT-13/Documents).

I was told Bilda was to be shut down between 15-18 today, but it seems to be up and running.

The deadline is a week from now - see further information about the home exam in the home exam itself.

Finally, good luck!

/Daniel & Elina
.

Instructions for seminar 5 (Thu Oct 17)

.

Seminar 5 will be held:

- For group A on Thursday October 17 at 10-12 in Q36

- For group B on Thursday October 17 at 10-12 in Q36 

NOTE: Both group A and B will be in the same seminar room!

- For group C on Thursday October 17 at 13-15 in B24

- For group D on Thursday October 17 at 13-15 in B24 

NOTE: Both group C and D will be in the same seminar room!

/Daniel

Instructions

----------------

This is the last seminar. We want to talk about the future. You have heard the panelists' discussions on Oct 14, and their views of the future.

We want you to prepare for the seminar by writing a position paper based on the panelists' discussions and/or the course literature. The theme of the position paper is: "What is your image(s) of the future?". If you want to, you can also reflect upon if or how this image have changed during the course.

Please submit your seminar question though this Google form. NOTE: The deadline is 16 hours before the first seminar groups will meet, i.e. Wednesday October 16 at 18.15. Write/paste your "position paper" directly into the Google form. 

-----------------------------------

Position paper instructions:

- Your paper should be between 200-600 words long. Make sure that you in some way refer to and make use of (some of) the lecture/seminar course materials in your paper. It is not the job of the teachers to in detail query and make sure that you have prepared for the seminar - it is your job to convince us that you have.

.

Information about the home exam

.
The home exam will be made available in Bilda on Thursday October 17, right after the last seminars (i.e. sometime between 15-16). You will have one week to complete the home exam and upload it to Bilda.

Since you might be tempted to stay home and work on the home exam on Friday October 18 instead of attending the very last lecture, we have decided to award one bonus point to everyone who shows up on that occasion! That occasion will consist of a summary/wrap-up of the course and will be followed by a "gripe session" - a live interactive course evaluation of sorts.
.

Lecture 9 - panel discussion Mon Oct 14 (15-18)

.

Time and place: Monday Oct 14, 15-18 in lecture hall K1

Title: "Images of the future"

Moderator: Daniel Pargman, KTH/School for Computer Science and Communication/Media Technology and Interaction Design group

Panelists: 

• Peter Nöu, Senior Program Manager at The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova)
• Sören Enholm, CEO of TCO Development
• Elisabeth Ekner Petersen, ph.d student at KTH/Department of Environmental Strategies Research and the Center for Sustainable Communications (CESC)
• Daniel Berg, ph.d student in economic history at Stockholm University and secretary in ASPO Sweden

Talk: Course participants have been presented with a variety of images of the future. This lecture won't be a lecture at all, but rather a discussion between invited guests who are expected to have widely differing ideas and opinions about the future, and about the future of sustainability. Can we imagine a future sustainable society? What would it look like? What are our chances and what is our best course of action in attempting to reach that future? Furthermore, what is the role of ICT and media in relation to these questions and issues? 

About the panelists:

Peter Nõu is Senior Program Manager with The Swedish Government Agency of Innovation Systems (VINNOVA). He is central in defining and administering sectors of 'Information Society' and 'Sustainable Cities' within the 'Vinnova Grand Challenges Program'. Open data, crowd sourcing and intensive prizes are other initiatives he’s been driving since joining Vinnova in late 2008, as a senior expert in the ICT and services sectors. Prior to joining Vinnova, Peter worked 15+ years in CTO and CIO roles in various industries and startups, always engaged in implementing strategic advantages of Internet technologies. This became a passion of his already 20 years ago, when as employed by the Swedish Government, he saw the birth of the Internet economy in Silicon Valley during the years 1992-94. He later joined Telia Research and helped launch Passagen, the Swedish 'First Wave Large Portal'. Peter has also worked in the strategic management consulting firm SMG. His degree is in Engineering Physics from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

Sören Enholm is the CEO of TCO Development, the organization behind TCO Certified, the international sustainability certification program for ICT products. The vision of TCO Development is that ICT is a solution in the development of a more sustainable society. Besides its certification program, TCO Development is also assisting organizations in becoming more sustainable with ICT as well as making their use of ICT more sustainable. Sören has a background in the ICT industry and has worked at several companies, including Sun Microsystems, Apple and Netscape. Sörens has a big interest in sustainability issues and wants to raise the awareness of possibilities and problems in regards to ICT and sustainabilty.

Elisabeth Ekener Petersen is a Ph.D. candidate at KTH and is one of the leading researchers in the area of social life cycle assessment (Social LCA). She has carried out the first Social LCA study on a complex product (a laptop computer) with UNEP/SETAC's guidelines and published it in a peer-reviewed journal. Elisabeth has also conducted Social LCA in two additional studies on vehicle fuels and e-waste management and is currently working on a ph.d. thesis on Social LCA. Elisabeth was part of the Swedish delegation in the international working group that developed the ISO 26000 guidance standards for Social responsibility that were issued in 2010.

Daniel Berg is a Ph.D. student in Economic history at Stockholm University (SU) and a has been a member of ASPO Sweden since 2008 (The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and gas). Daniel is also a journalist who writes about energy and finance from a long historical perspective and he is also working on a forthcoming book about the present-day "triple crisis" (energy, ecology, economy). His ph.d. thesis concerns the history of the opium trade, with a special interest in the regulation of desires in the transition from trade capitalism to industrial capitalism, and the default promotion of other desires that were better aligned with capital accumulation in an industrial energy-intense society. Daniel is a lecturer in a SU course on ICT and its economic impacts when seen as one of several industrial revolutions ("Den gamla och nya ekonomin"/"The old and the new economy"). 

.

Instructions for seminar 4 (Thu Oct 10)

.

Seminar 4 will be held:

- For group A on Thursday October 3 at 10-12 in M31

- For group B on Thursday October 3 at 10-12 in M32

- For group C on Thursday October 3 at 13-15 in Q33

- For group D on Thursday October 3 at 13-15 in Q34.

/Daniel

Instructions

----------------

This is the second to last seminar and the course is drawing to an end. Next week is the last week of lectures in the course. It is time to start to wrap up and discuss all the issues that we have touched upon in this course and we will do so in the last two course seminars. 

Before seminar 4, you will have heard two more lectures. Beyond reading the literature connected to these lectures (here and here), you should prepare for the seminar by:

- 1) reading two (short) text

- 2) thinking about/writing a seminar question and a "position paper" and

- 3) entering your question and position paper into a Google form

---------- 1 -----------

Please read the following two texts before the seminar:

- Hoffman, A. (2012). "Climate Science as Culture War"
- The latest (just-published) 2-page IPCC summary.

Optional: By all means have a look at this 18 minutes long TED talk by Jonathan Haidt,  "The moral roots of liberals and conservatives"

---------- 2 -----------

Write a seminar question and a position paper. This week, your seminar question does not necessarily have to build upon or lead to your position paper. It should however be based on this week's readings and lectures.

Position paper instructions:

How would you as a media technology engineering student formulate a plan to engage others in a sustainability-related topic of your choice?

For example and based on this week's seminar readings, could  you be a "climate broker" and if so, how? Or based on the IPCC report summary, how could it be presented in different ways to different audiences?

Tip: It might be easier if you target and address one of the "six Americas" that is presented in Hoffman's article. 

- Your paper should be between 200-600 words long. Make sure that you in some way refer to and make use of (some of) the lecture/seminar course materials in your paper. It is not the job of the teachers to in detail query and make sure that you have prepared for the seminar - it is your job to convince us that you have.

---------- 3 -----------

Please submit your seminar question though this Google form. The deadline is 24 hours before the first seminar groups will meet, i.e. Wednesday October 9 at 10.15. Write/paste your short seminar question and "position paper" directly into the Google form. 

.

Lecture 8 - October 8 (10-12) - Daniel Pargman

.

Time and place: Tuesday October 8, 10-12 in lecture hall E2.

Title: "Rebound effects"

Guest lecturer: Daniel Pargman, KTH/CSC/MID.

Talk: Increased efficiency can despite our best intentions oftentimes have counterintuitive negative indirect effects that decreases or even reverses the hoped-for positive effects. We build better roads (to reduce bottlenecks and queues and to make the trip smoother and save gasoline), but what happens? People settle further away from the city, leading to more traffic and more time lost in queues instead of less. These perverse effects are as devious and difficult-to-fight as the mythical hydra (see picture below) - cut off one head and two new grow out. These are examples of the dreaded "rebound effect" that threatens to foil our plans even when we try to do good for the environment. Do read the literature and be amazed/shocked!

Literature:

- Owen, D. (2011). The Conundrum: How scientific innovation, increased efficiency, and good intentions can make our energy and climate problems worse. Various very short chapters. Note: Available in Bilda.

- Hilty, L. (2012).  Why energy efficiency is not sufficient - some remarks on "Green by IT"", In: Arndt, H. K. (ed.): EnviroInfo 2012, Proceedings of the 26th Environmental Informatics Conference, Federal Environment Agency, Dessau, 2012. Note: Available in Bilda.

- Huesemann, M and Huesemann, J. (2011).  Techno-fix: Why technology won't save us or the environment, Chapter 1, "The inherent unavoidability and unpredictability of unintended consequences" and part of chapter 2, "When things bit back: Some unintended consequences of modern technology". Note: Available in Bilda.

Optional literature:

- Walker, R. (2011). Replacement Therapy. Atlantic Magazine (September issue)

Comment: A very short text about how "our gadgets can't wear out fast enough" - how we have a "gadget death wish" and wish that our gadgets wear out/die as soon as a newer version (think iPhone, iPad) is released.

- Crosstalks (2013). "Compensation for our lifestyle: How shortsighted can we afford to be?"

Comment: KTH's own TV show!

.

.

Lecture 7 - October 7 (15-17) - Henrik Åhman

.

Time and place: Monday October 7, 15-17 in lecture hall D2.

Title: "Social Sustainability: Society at the intersection of maintenance and development"

Guest lecturer: Henrik Åhman, Ph.D. student at KTH/CSC/Media Technology and Interaction Design.

Talk: Since the late 1980's, much of the debate on sustainability has been dominated by ecological perspectives. However, the last decade has seen an increasing interest in the social aspects of sustainability. While, to some extent, general consensus has been reached regarding the definitions of ecological sustainability, the definition of social sustainability is still in the making. This lecture will be an attempt to describe some of the more influential suggestions on how we could understand the concept of social sustainability.

About: Henrik Åhman is a Ph.D. student at KTH/CSC/MID. His research focuses on using poststructuralist theory to gain a deeper understanding of the relation between people and technology.

Literature:
- Henrik will provide one or two texts after the lecture.

.