{"id":747,"date":"2026-01-22T16:04:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/?p=747"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:21:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:21:04","slug":"outline-for-undergraduate-course-on-sociotechnical-analysis-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/2026\/01\/22\/outline-for-undergraduate-course-on-sociotechnical-analysis-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Outline for Undergraduate Course on Sociotechnical Analysis of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;ve been rethinking the capstone course on AI that I last taught two years ago for undergraduate students in our <a href=\"https:\/\/library.baruch.cuny.edu\/students\/library-instruction\/information-studies-minor\/\">information studies minor<\/a>. In spring 2024, the class met on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 75-minute class session. This year, it&#8217;s being offered on Fridays with 3-hour class sessions. I&#8217;m having to pour the wine into larger bottles, thereby rethinking the entire flow of in-class activities and homework assignments. I&#8217;ve had to take a step back to get a high-level snapshot of the topics we discussed in 2024 to see how they can be grouped into a once-a-week cadence of classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s where I am with what I did in 2024 and intend to mostly cover again (albeit in an updated fashion) for 2026:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Course intro&nbsp;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>syllabus&nbsp;review<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>document sharing in MS Office&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>AI intro\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>history of AI&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>kinds of AI&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>how AI systems are built&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>glossary assignment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>gen AI<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Educational aspects&nbsp;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>values of students, faculty, staff, administrators, etc.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>predictive&nbsp;analytics in higher ed ICTs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>pros \/ cons of AI use&nbsp;in higher ed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>kinds of use by students&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>why we write and how we learn to write&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>AI policies&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Information&nbsp;quality&nbsp;aspects&nbsp;&nbsp;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>training data&nbsp;quality<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>algorithmic bias&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>misinformation, disinformation, malinformation&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>AI transparency&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>info ecosystem&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>AI slop&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Economics and labor aspects&nbsp;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>job loss&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>outsourcing of AI development labor&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>costs of developing AI models&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>costs to communities near&nbsp;data centers&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Legal aspects&nbsp;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>copyright and training data&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>copyright status of inputs and outputs&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>privacy&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>libel&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Environmental aspects&nbsp;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>energy use and climate change&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>water&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>mineral extraction&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In thinking about the sociotechnical analysis that we&#8217;ll be doing in the course to understand AI, I&#8217;m still working out how I&#8217;ll bring to bear the model of &#8220;multi-level perspectives on transition&#8221; that F. W. Geels lays out in <a href=\"https:\/\/research.manchester.ac.uk\/en\/publications\/the-dynamics-of-transitions-in-socio-technical-systems-a-multi-le\/\">\u201cThe Dynamics of Transitions in Socio-Technical Systems: A Multi-Level Analysis of the Transition Pathway from Horse-Drawn Carriages to Automobiles (1860-1930).\u201d<\/a> (<em>Technology Analysis &amp; Strategic Management<\/em>, vol. 17, no. 4, Dec. 2005, pp. 445\u201376. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/09537320500357319\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/09537320500357319<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been rethinking the capstone course on AI that I last taught two years ago for undergraduate students in our information studies minor. In spring 2024, the class met on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 75-minute class session. This year, it&#8217;s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/2026\/01\/22\/outline-for-undergraduate-course-on-sociotechnical-analysis-of-ai\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[265],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}