Week (3) article reflections - technology

Over the course of the term we will be reading eight scholarly articles on the topic of technology in the workplace, and eight more on the topic of diversity/inclusion in the workplace.  Each week, we'll ask you to prepare a written reflection on each scholarly article in order to help you analyze their arguments, and to better structure our class discussion.

Articles for week (3) -- technology issues

• Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, “The triple revolution,” in Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future (W.W. Norton, 2017).  [McAfee et al 2017]
• Ilana Gershon, “Didn’t we meet on LinkedIn?” in Down and Out in the New Economy: How People Find (or Don’t Find) Work Today (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2017).  [Gershon 2017]

Steps to follow

1. Read both articles for this week, and carefully and take notes.  You should always read a scholarly article thoroughly at least twice.  The first time through, read quickly to understand the overall topic, the specific arguments and evidence, and the flow of the author's logic or narrative.  The second time through, read more slowly to note any useful concepts or terms, any key claims or arguments, and any points where the author seems to nicely summarize their thoughts.  Also note any ideas you don't quite understand or names which aren't familiar!

2. Pick out one specific part of each article to reflect on. These reflections are most effective when they are focused.  You might hone in on one particular example or piece of evidence in the article that surprised you -- or that you find yourself questioning as dubious.   You might narrow in on one particular argument that the author is making, one that you find yourself agreeing or disagreeing with most enthusiastically.   Or maybe there's a particular quote or description in the article that stuck with you.   One good way to think about this is to try to pick out what you think is the "MIS" of this article -- the "most important sentence."

3. Write a one-paragraph reflection on each article.  Now, for each of the two articles this week, write a paragraph about why the particular excerpt from the article that you chose is worthy of wider discussion.  Does it raise a particular question that you'd like to pose to the course?  Does it resonate with something in your own experience that you don't think others would have shared?  Does it connect with another course you've taken at UW-Madison, either supporting or contradicting what you thought you'd already learned?  Detail each article reflection in a way that would be useful for other students to understand and would spark more discussion. These  reflective paragraphs must be longer than a sentence or two!

4. Write a final paragraph comparing or contrasting the two articles.  Based on what you wrote about each article, now try to say something about how the two articles "speak to each other" -- or how they seem to be unrelated.  Feel free to use this paragraph to articulate questions you might have about how the two articles compare, or to talk about which article you find to be more convincing or compelling than the other, and why.

5. Turn it in. Upload your three-paragraph reflection on both articles to Canvas to get credit for this assignment.  

6. Pick one of the two articles for this week to post about to your classmates. You may choose to post about the article that you were most engaged with; or, you may choose to post about the article that confused and frustrated you the most!  Either way, you only have to post about one of the two articles each week.  Go to the Discussions page of this web site and find your section's discussion board.  Your TA will have created a post titled something like, "Reflections on the article ____" with the article's title.  Use the "Reply" feature under that post to add your reflection paragraph about this article below your TA's posting.  You should post your paragraph by 11:59pm Wednesday night before discussion section meets on Thursday.

7. Comment on one other student's reflection.  Once you've posted your own reflection to the text discussion, read through the other student reflections so far, and post a "Reply" comment to at least one of these reflections.   

8. Be prepared to talk about your article reflections in your discussion section.  Each week, your TA may call on several students to talk specifically about their own article reflections during discussion section (in addition to the students already giving formal speeches and the students formulating discussion questions).  Make sure you are prepared in case you are called on, as this factors into your discussion participation grade.