Seminar participation and grading

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I promised to get back with info about how we will grade the 4 points you can get at each seminar. I have updated the document "Course examination and grading" in Bilda - there is now a new version there ("130915 Course examination and grading.pdf".

You don't need to check out that document though, I have pasted the relevant part below and the new text about the seminars is marked in orange below.

/Daniel

Attendance and participation

The course covers a topic that, beyond a hard core of scientific facts, is rife with values and differing opinions. The purpose of the course is not to get people to acquire certain opinions (although that might be a side effect), but rather to gain a basic understanding of the topic of sustainability and to make connections to media/information and communications technologies (ICT). In the interest of fostering an open discussion climate, a large part (56%) of the course is examined through preparation, attendance and participation in course activities (lectures and seminars).

As a student, you have to participate in 80% of the scheduled course activities (10 lectures and 5 seminars) in order to get top points in the course. Attendance and participation that falls below the 80% threshold will have adverse effects on grades (e.g attendance at 5/10 lectures = 7.5/12 points for lecture attendance).

Furthermore, it is crucial to (according to instructions given) actually prepare for and actively participate in the seminars in order to gain top points at each seminar. Since you have the chance to earn as much as 4 points at each seminar (corresponding to 8% of the total score that is possible to attain in the course), the score for a seminar has been broken down as follows:

• Preparing for the seminar by submitting a seminar question – 0.5 points
• Preparing for the seminar by submitting a “position paper”[1] – 1.5 points (you will be awarded 0, 0.5, 1 or 1.5 points depending on the merit and quality of your position paper)
• Attending the seminar – 1 point
• Attending the seminar and actively contributing to it – 1 point

Note: if you attend a seminar without in any way contributing to the seminar discussions, you will only get 1 point for your attendance.

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[1] For more information about ”position papers”, see http://dm2573-2013.blogspot.se/2013/09/instructions-for-seminar-1-thu-sept-19.html

Instructions for seminar 1 (Thu Sept 19 & Fri Sept 20)

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Seminar 1 will be held:

- For group A on Thursday September 19 at 10-12 in Q22

- For group B on Thursday September 19 at 10-12 in Q26

- For group D on Thursday September 19 at 13-15 in M36

- For group C on Friday September 20 at 13-15 in E33. All future seminars in the course will be held on Thursdays.

/Daniel

Instructions

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You have read texts, seen films and will by Tuesday (Sept 17) have heard two more lectures about energy and resource challenges. Beyond reading the literature connected to these lectures (here and here), you should prepare for seminar 1 by:

- 1) watching an additional movie (a 16 minute long TED talk)

- 2) reading a text

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

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

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The movie (TED talk) you should watch is:

- Hopkins, Rob, Transition to a world without oil (2009).

Optional: if you want to, you can also have a look at the 16 minutes long TED talk counterargument by Peter Diamandis, Abundance is our future (2012).

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The text you should read is:

- Tomlinson, Silberman, Patterson, Pan & Blevis (2012), "Collapse informatics: Augmenting the sustainability and ICT4D discourse in HCI" (pdf file here). The paper was presented at the CHI conference last year (the largest and most prestigious conference in the field of Human-Computer Interaction) and it received the "best paper award" at the conference.

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As a starting point for your seminar question, please consider the following questions :

Is it prudent (wise) for individuals, companies and/or societies to prepare for a future of materials and energy scarcity and/or negative economic growth - or is it just plain stupid? Why? Furthermore, if these are issues that we should care and think about, do you have any suggestions for possible implications for ICT and media (production, distribution, use, disposal)?

Although it can be difficult, you might also consider what (if any) the implications are for you in the future that you personally think we are most likely to face.

Perhaps the question above is too direct and too big? Then here is an alternative, slightly more analytical and roundabout way of thinking about the same issues:

- Try to identify the Dahlin-Hagens-Pargman-course literature "discourse" (the set of interlinking ideas and underlying assumptions). You can use these four questions below as a starting point:

- What, according to this discourse, is to be considered a problem?

- What is to be considered a feasible conclusion?

- What is to be prioritized?

- What are your personal opinions as to these matters?

It is suggested that you use one (or some) of the specific questions above as your starting point when you formulate your seminar question. Your seminar question should be a question that you think is suitable to discuss in class/at the seminar. Your seminar question should be relatively brief (1-2 sentences long).

Position paper instructions:

- Make a stand (take a position) and write about it in the position paper. Your paper should be between 200-400 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.

- There should preferably be some connection between your position paper and your seminar question. Your position paper should ideally lead up to you seminar question, or, your seminar question should be "grounded" and explained in your position paper.

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Please submit your seminar question though this Google form. The deadline is 24 hours before the first seminar groups will meet, i.e. Wednesday September 18 at 10.15. Write/paste your short seminar question and "position paper" directly into the Google form. 

IMPORTANT. Since you have the chance to earn as much as 4 points for each seminar (corresponding to 8% of the total score that is possible to attain in the course), your seminar position papers will be graded (0 - 0.5 - 1 - 1.5 points). I will write a separate blog post about this but didn't have time before the weekend so keep an eye on the blog in the beginning of next week for more information.

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On the seminar groups

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There are four seminar groups (A, B, C, D). As most of you heard at the lecture earlier today, the regular time slot for seminar groups A and B are Thursdays before lunch (10-12). The regular time slots for seminar groups C and D are Thursdays after lunch (13-15).

Seminar groups A and C will have Daniel as their seminar leader and seminar groups B and D will have Elina as their seminar leader.

When the schedule states that will use seminar rooms Q22 and Q26 (as is the case Thursday Sept 19 between 10-12), group A will convene in Q22 and group C will convene in Q26. This can be important to remember, for example the following week (Thursday Sept 26) when seminar group A will convene in E53 and seminar group B will convene in M33 (i.e. another building).
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Lecture 2 - Sept 17 (8-10) - Daniel Pargman

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Time and place: Tuesday September 19, 8-13 in lecture hall D3.

Title: "Global resource challenges and implications for ICT and media"

Guest: Daniel Pargman, Assistant Professor in Media Technology at the School for Computer Science and Communication, KTH

Talk: You have by now heard lectures focusing on the meaning of sustainability and challenges regarding climate change (CO2 emissions, global environmental challenges etc.). I will try to convince you that resource challenges and a global "energy crunch" will pose a more immediate concern than the (possibly more serious, but also acting on a longer time horizon) challenge of climate change - even though these two issues are tightly linked.

The first part of the lecture will concern resource and energy issues (especially "peak oil"). The second part will discuss implications for ICT and media technologies. Note: the first part of the lecture will use an "unorthodox" lecture format (see the instructions below).

About: Daniel Pargman is Assistant Professor in Media Technology at the KTH School of Computer Science and Communication. His research interests concerns social media, virtual communities, Internet culture, sustainability and resource challenges. He is a member of the steering committee for the KTH VINN ExcellenceCenter for Sustainable Communications (CESC).

Instructions and literature to read before the lecture:

1) Start by looking at the 35 minutes long film with the not-so-uplifting name "There's no tomorrow" (below). Please do not look at it on your smartphone while you're on the move. The film is packed with information, so treat it the same way you would treat a complex text (or a math problem). Concentrate on the movie and keep paper and a pencil at hand in order to write down any questions or thoughts that the film raises (the message is very grim and it should raise many questions and perhaps objections). The first part of the lecture will partly be based on the questions you bring to class. The movie below is "backed up" by two texts that you should read (see further below).

2) Rubin, Jeff (2009), "Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller: Oil and the end of globalization". Chapter 1, "Redefining recovery". Note: available in Bilda.

3) Heinberg, Richard (2003), "The party's over: Oil, war and the fate of industrial societies". Parts of chapter 1 ("Energy, nature and society") and chapter 2 ("Party time: The historic interval of cheap, abundant energy". Note: available in Bilda.

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Lecture 1 - Sept 16 (15-17) - Nate Hagens

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Time and place: Monday September 16 at 15-17 in lecture hall B2. Do note that our guest will participate remotely (from the US) and that he will be "present" through the modern wonders of ICT/Media Technologies. The lecture is two hours long but we have booked the lecture hall for four hours.

Title: "Human behavior meets limits to growth: Constraints and opportunities"

Guest: Nate Hagens, Ph.D., US Director of the Institute for Integrated Economic Research (IIER)

Talk: When discussing resource limits, most attention goes to the supply side; energy limits and environmental sink capacity. Less attention is given to the human biological drivers of our predicament, why we are slow to act on it, and what can be done about it. In this lecture we will have an overview of evolved human behavioral traits that contribute to continued overconsumption of resources on a full planet, how our current stimuli laden culture "hijacks" our brains into using more resources, and why the problems facing humanity are in many ways psychological and social as opposed to physical.

About: Nate has a Masters in Finance from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. He is currently the US Director of the Institute for Integrated Economic Research where models are developed integrating energy, resources, finance, economics, trade and human behavior in an attempt to aid policy in what is likely the end of the global economic growth era. Without knowing the larger picture, a focus on smaller pieces end up being ineffective. Nate used to manage a small hedge fund on Wall Street and has worked at investment banks Salomon Brothers and Lehman Brothers.

Literature to read before the lecture:

- Hagens, Nate (2011). The psychological roots of resource overconsumption, in "Fleeing Vesuvius: Overcoming the risks of economic and environmental collapse", edited by Richard Douthwaite and Gillian Fallon (pp. 336-355). New Society Publishers.

Note: Available in Bilda.

- Hages, Nate (2007). Peak Oil - Believe it or not? (14 pages, available online). Published online in the discussion forum The Oil Drum.

- Hagens, Nate (2007). Climate change, Saber tooth tigers and devaluing the future (10 pages, available online) Published online in the discussion forum The Oil Drum.

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Seminar groups

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From week 38 (week 3 in the course), the regular time slot for seminar groups A and B will be Thursdays 10-12. The regular time slot for seminar groups C and D will be Thursdays 13-15.

Below are the seminar groups. They are perfectly balanced as there are exactly 15 persons in each group. Each person who expressed their preferences at the course introduction has gotten them fulfilled. Generally, everybody else has been placed in the afternoon groups.

If you have a strong need to change group, post a comment about it here. Hopefully someone else can switch with you.

If you read the course but have not been divided into any of the groups below, please send me an e-mail.


Seminar group A 
- Carl A
- Johan B
- Mårten C
- Stefan E
- Elisabeth I
- Felicia J
- Mikael K
- Ingrid L
- Elma M
- Henrik N
- Kristina R
- Ragnar S
- Andreas S
- Johannes T
- Charlotte Å


Seminar group B 
- Oskar A
- Niklas B
- Gustav B
- Ida E
- Anna E
- Christina J
- Noa J
- Evert L
- Sara L
- Fredrik N
- Nicholas O
- Tommy R
- Jenny S
- Anna T
- Johan W


Seminar group C 
- Mimmi A
- Isabella A
- Zahra A
- Amanda A
- Christoffer C
- Stephanie D
- Jakob F
- Cecilia E
- Johan G
- Martin J
- Cim N
- Ida R
- Johan S
- Maria S
- Martin S


Seminar group D 
- Marit A
- Torbjörn A
- Moa B
- Rémi B
- Alexander B
- Johan B
- Oscar F
- Axel H
- Sofie N
- Kristian O
- Adam R
- Alexandros S
- Poya T
- Mikaela W
- Anton W
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Examination and grading

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I gave some information about examination and grading for the course during the course introduction (Mon Sept 2 at 13-15). The lecture slides contain some info about these issues and they are available in Bilda.

However, there is now a document with more detailed information available in Bilda (/Documents/130905 Course examination and grading). Please have a look at it.

Comments or questions about these issues can for example be posed in the form of a comment to this blog post.
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