Group items tagged

"How the Internet is Shaping Social Change, and Social Change is Shaping the Internet"

M.I.T. computer scientist Alex Pentland explains There's a reason every government and corporation wants to hoard as much data on as many people as possible. Gather enough data, says Alex "Sandy" Pentland, director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Human Dynamics Laboratory, and you can achieve a "God's-eye view of humanity". Students practice theory construction and analysis by teasing out the social theory at work in our contemporary version of a "data driven" society. With some guidance we tease out theories of action, self, and social cohesion. We contrast that with some examples of a more conflict theory data driven society.

It seems silly but that's why this animated explanation of the division of labor works. We return to the video later in the course when we talk about how the assumptions about "family" are never challenged in this version of social organization.

"social media for research" methods

Might be useful for intro/methods students, too.

I'd like to put a binder together for all teaching online this semester 

I've been sharing this one on the Twitters and Facebook.

Ok, ignore the uncritical MOOC stuff in this, there's some interesting data/details on online courses. 

"toys are more strictly gendered today than they were 50 years ago, when adult gender roles were much more separate, according to research by Elizabeth Sweet, a sociologist at the University of California, Davis."