eliberative Democracy in the Writing Classroom and Beyond Author(s): Michael Reich

In this dissertation I explore the consequences of adopting a deliberative pedagogy, based on the study of one or two sample courses taught in 2018 at St. John’s University. The project as a whole argues that the university should be an idea place for students to develop a sense of personal and political agency, and First Year Writing courses organized around deliberation allow students to learn to listen and reason with each other as individuals and as citizens. My first chapter defends the methodology of a humanistic idea of deliberation (a pedagogy not based in classroom drills or Standard English) and where I also worry that the soft and fuzzy notion of deliberation that I practice collides with the measurement of my students’ “progress” on objective rubrics . My second chapter is a case study describing my students’ performance in a deliberative classroom where some of my best students learn to practice deliberation but are unable to define it. My third chapter explains that a deliberative classroom helps overcome student anxiety and what I call “the eyes of deficiency”---rather than thinking of themselves as dull asteriods in a neoliberal universe, deliberation helps them see their power to influence and affect each other. In this chapter I argue that students do not need to go “outside” of class to find their political agency---deliberating and interacting with peers in the classroom itself is a genuine community. Building on my critique of the urge to push our students to find political awareness outside of the classroom, my final chapter is a sustained critique of the “false” face of deliberation found in social media like Facebook. Although many faculty have turned to using social media in class as a means of “making class real” I show the many ways that the Left’s faith in the apparently democratic technologies of social media is well intentioned but terribly misplaced: our students’ writing on social media is being harvested, sensationalized, and exploited against them, and as faculty we need to model practices of genuine listening, empathy, and respect

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 6

his is the complete volume of HMC Volume 6

The Word Made Digital: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Increase Bible Engagement

The purpose of this descriptive study was to understand whether a relationship exists between an individual\u27s behavioral intention to use a Bible-based chatbot that leverages AI to create human-like engagement with Scripture and the constructs of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, perceived enjoyment, and perceived risk, controlling for gender, age, and experience among registered users of the Inductive Bible Study App. Data was collected through an online survey and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), multi-group analysis (MGA), and homogeneity-of-slopes analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). While this quantitative descriptive study validated the correlation between each of the four reflective constructs and the formative construct (behavioral intent), the data suggests that perceived enjoyment maintains the strongest link to behavioral intent. In addition, the moderators appear to indicate that the strongest correlation to behavioral intent is found in communities of younger males with no prior exposure to chatbots. The results of this study provide useful insights into how individuals perceive and make decisions about using technology for religious or spiritual purposes, and how these perceptions may differ based on demographic factors. Additionally, the results inform the development and implementation of similar AI-based tools in religious or spiritual contexts and provide insights into how leaders in these contexts can effectively utilize technology to engage with their communities

A Pedagogy of Techno-Social Relationality: Ethics and Digital Multimodality in the Composition Classroom

I bring together the relational ethics of feminist critical theory with approaches of multimodal rhetoric to examine the ethical implications of composing on social media platforms. Most social media platforms are designed to value consumerism, efficiency, quantity of web traffic, and constant synchronous response over concerns of responsible and critical communication. I propose a rhetorical approach of techno-social relationality (TSR) as an intervention against such corporate-minded design. Through this approach, I argue that civil engagement is not limited to people’s social responsibilities but rather is entwined in complex, material-technical contexts. By considering the responsibility of our machines as much as ourselves, I lay a foundation for the multimodal writing pedagogies I would like to see implemented in composition courses

Between Fear and Trust: Factors Influencing Older Adults' Evaluation of Socially Assistive Robots

Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) are expected to support autonomy, aging in place, and wellbeing in later life. For successful assimilation, it is necessary to understand factors affecting older adults Quality Evaluations (QEs) of SARs, including the pragmatic and hedonic evaluations and overall attractiveness. Previous studies showed that trust in robots significantly enhances QE, while technophobia considerably decreases it. The current study aimed to examine the relative impact of these two factors on older persons QE of SARs. The study was based on an online survey of 384 individuals aged 65 and above. Respondents were presented with a video of a robotic system for physical and cognitive training and filled out a questionnaire relating to that system. The results indicated a positive association between trust and QE and a negative association between technophobia and QE. A simultaneous exploration demonstrated that the relative impact of technophobia is significantly more substantial than that of trust. In addition, the pragmatic qualities of the robot were found to be more crucial to its QE than the social aspects of use. The findings suggest that implementing robotics technology in later life strongly depends on reducing older adults technophobia regarding the convenience of using SARs and highlight the importance of simultaneous explorations of facilitators and inhibitors

Comm-entary, Spring 2010 - Full Issue

In this issue: Voluntary Surveillance: Privacy, Identity and the Rise of Social Panopticism in the Twenty-First Century by Jake Nevrla Dialogic Advancements in Psychotherapy by Michelle Laffoon Corey Johnson: A Football Captain and a Gay Male by Nina DiCenso Dexter: Multiple Personalities by Dustin Somero Intersexuality in Women’s Sports: The Case of Caster Semenya by Kayla Timmons Perspectives: The Culture of Underage Drinking at UNH by Sabrina Clark, Kelley Stenberg, Hope Fortier, & Camille Quarles Performing Maternity: Limiting the Role of the Individual Woman in Abortion Discourses by Katie Ramsay The Mass Media Deity: the Repercussions of Barack Obama’s Campaign Coverage by Corey Nachman The World’s First Pregnant Man by Samantha Bell Media in the Digital Generation by Aaron Mohammed Internet’s Rise to Power by Katie Relihan Facebook and Interpersonal Relationships by Kimberly Rogers A Healthy Look at Social Media by Andrew Hennessy Internet Culture: Popular Culture by the People by Kendra Mack The Pros and Cons of Facebook by Chelsea Bumgarne

Constitution of the market through social media: Dialogical co-production of medicine in a virtual health community organization

This research explores new systems of marketing, and new roles and relationships of organizations and consumers developing in healthcare as a result of transformations occurring in technology, consumer/marketer value systems, forms of discourse and institutional roles. Inspired by observations from a Medicine 2.0 community organization, which turn social networking into a business phenomenon – PatientsLikeMe (PLM) – I explore how such systems develop and function and the institutionalizations that reconstitute roles and maintain relationships among actors in these systems through netnographic research. That is, (1) why and how patients in PLM participate in the social co-production of medical knowledge and experience, and (2) how the ‘community’ organizes roles and relations, and institutionalize ‘sharing’ in healthcare where privacy dominates relations. Findings articulate a dialogical approach to organizing roles and relations with the dilution of provisioning in this co-mediated market system, which reflects collaborative, connective and communal relations built on dialogues among diverse healthcare actors. From a theoretical vantage point, Foucauldian notions of biopower and govern-mentality are reconsidered in order to articulate why and how such a system may be attracting healthcare actors and maintain their interest and sharing in this community

Case Study of Learning and Instruction for Members of an Online Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Support Group

Research has shown that individual members of traditional support groups gain a sense of identity and community and feelings of respect and support. Online support groups provide individuals avenues to find medical information and thus learn more about a given condition or illness. Little has been studied about the learning and instruction that occurs in online social support groups, especially in groups about chronic pain. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of members who participated in one open social support group. Siemen\u27s constructivism theory served as the basis for comprehending the learning and instruction that took place in this group, and the research questions focused on the support group members\u27 perceptions of this learning and instruction. Data were collected from 10 individuals who participated in a Facebook Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy support group. Yin\u27s case study framework provided additional support data analysis. Data were collected through individual, semistructured telephone interviews and observations of online discussions. A combination of open and axial coding was used to support content analysis. Themes identified were learning, knowledge, persuasion, and acceptance of underlying negativity. Online social support group participation involved shared experiences that facilitated learning and instruction; these findings could influence the structures of other support groups. Positive social change occurs when individuals are knowledgeable and well educated about social support groups because it is in these groups that trends, issues, and new information are learned. Informal learning occurs with the increased digital skills, especially within a person\u27s virtual support network

Machina ex deos. Successes and challenges of implementing mobile computing technologies for development. The experience of nine Indian village health projects using a project-issued mobile application

As mobile computing technologies become increasingly functional and affordable, global donor and local development organizations find ways to justify and fund their use in grassroots development work. This dissertation asks two questions: (1) In resource-constrained social sector settings, what project features govern and structure use of work-issued mobile devices? And: (2) How do decision-makers adjust to maximize the benefit of newly-introduced devices while minimizing new burdens to the project and project staff? More simply, what variables under social sector projects’ control might promote successful use of information and communication technologies in development (ICTD) projects? This research represents systematic, qualitative comparison of nine extended deployments of a popular mobile health application, CommCare. Each studied project deployed devices loaded with CommCare to health workers in India as a supportive job aid and/or a data collection tool to help monitor beneficiary populations’ health status and frontline workers’ work. This dissertation examines the conditions under which these health workers were able and willing to use CommCare devices in their jobs, and whether and how they deviated from the use of those devices prescribed by their supervisors. Primary data for this study come from 62 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, extensive review of project documents, and personal observations from field study in India over six months in 2013. Employing a sociotechnical lens and a principal agent model, my data support expectations that use of CommCare devices would help align community health workers’ behavior with their supervisors’ organization and mission-related priorities. Use of the devices improved health workers’ professional competence and improved communications, data quality, and data access. These improvements facilitated project supervisors’ monitoring of health workers and beneficiaries, and funders’ monitoring of projects. Contradicting expectations, use of CommCare devices also weakened organizational oversight and control through new data challenges and increased health worker autonomy in their personal and professional lives. These dual benefits and challenges ultimately served the overall projects’ missions.Public Affair

Cyber Ethics 4.0 : Serving Humanity with Values

Cyber space influences all sectors of life and society: Artificial Intelligence, Robots, Blockchain, Self-Driving Cars and Autonomous Weapons, Cyberbullying, telemedicine and cyber health, new methods in food production, destruction and conservation of the environment, Big Data as a new religion, the role of education and citizens’ rights, the need for legal regulations and international conventions. The 25 articles in this book cover the wide range of hot topics. Authors from many countries and positions of international (UN) organisations look for solutions from an ethical perspective. Cyber Ethics aims to provide orientation on what is right and wrong, good and bad, related to the cyber space. The authors apply and modify fundamental values and virtues to specific, new challenges arising from cyber technology and cyber society. The book serves as reading material for teachers, students, policy makers, politicians, businesses, hospitals, NGOs and religious organisations alike. It is an invitation for dialogue, debate and solution