Write an eight to ten-page paper on ONE of the topics listed below.

1. We began this semester by reading Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and watching Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Write a critical comparison of the book and the film, making certain to incorporate in your analysis insights and analysis about notions of cyborgs, embodiment, and technological change from Haraway and Hayles and/or Thompson and Schivelbusch.
2. Explore the connection between our present day and the worlds depicted in Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and/or Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. You may consider using the visionary texts of Bush and Berners Lee as a lens or mirror to discuss the act of visioning techno-futures. In what ways do those fictional words reflect the present day that we live in (or not)? What and who is left out (and why)? In what ways do they reflect the society from which they emerged? Are there ways in which they transcend that society? And is it appropriate to place a story from the mind of a gritty science-fiction novelist alongside a whitepaper for a global network that would earn its architect a knighthood? In your analysis, consider incorporating the insights of theorists such as Haraway, Hayles, Marx, Nakamura, Thompson and Schivelbusch on the contours and impacts of technological change, as it relates to the aspects of the film/book you are discussing.
3. Trace one keyword, such as “cyborg,” “body,” “network,” “tool,” “machine,” “technology,” “gender,” or “pedagogy” across three or more of the readings we have completed so far this semester. How does each author you have chosen to analyze treat that concept? What concerns seem shared? Which author’s version of the keyword do you find most useful and/or provocative? Why?
4. Reflecting on historical perspectives of technological change, consider Hayles’s, Marx’s, Nakamura’s, Thompson’s, Schivelbusch’s, and Rosenzweig’s analyses of particular events in the history of technology.  Discuss the theories and conclusions of these writers, paying particular attention to the ways each depicts people’s actions and responses to technologies in the past and, with the notion of human agency in mind, how their perspectives might inform our responses to new and future technologies.
5. Write a bibliographic review essay that sketches out a critical dialogue about one of the key texts we have read this semester. You might, for instance, examine the critical reaction to Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto,” OR research the influence that a figure like Marx has had on subsequent theorists of technological change (such as Thompson, Schivelbusch or Rosenzweig), OR consider the ways neuroscience and/or gaming have helped reshape approaches to pedagogy OR the ways in which historical and structural/economic developments shaped the evolution of higher education in the postwar era. Your essay should work toward a synthesis of the critical discourse, making clear what kinds of debates, concepts, and terms delimit and define that discourse.
6. Write an essay comparing the histories of technological development (as outlined by Rosenzweig and Bush) and the American university system (as outlined by Brier/Fabricant, Kerr, Christensen, and Lepore) since 1945. What are the forces that shape change in these fields? How are they alike or dissimilar? What do these histories portend for the present and the future? What do they mean for your own work, which necessarily must engage both trajectories?
7. Design your own topic. You will need to have the topic approved by Steve and Michael before you begin work.

**The paper is due no later than 11:59 PM on November 6th.**

Rationale and Guidelines

There are four main reasons why scholars write papers: 1) to develop and improve their thinking on a subject; 2) to contribute to their fields; 3) to earn all the benefits that come from publication (mercenary, but true); 4) any combination of the aforementioned. As a scholar, it is perfectly legitimate for you to write this first paper simply with the goal of improving your thinking about interactive technology and pedagogy, but we strongly recommend that you consider this an opportunity to contribute to your field and to enjoy the benefits that accompany publication.

We therefore ask you to consider exploring several journals in your field or the Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. Look at the publication guidelines and any current calls for articles they have, and look at our prompts in relation to them. If none of our prompts coincide with your interests and/or their calls, construct your own topic that does. Write with an eye toward submitting the paper to one or more of these journals. Save yourself some time now and format your papers according to their guidelines (e.g. if they want APA style, use APA style now). Consult with us for suggestions about where you might submit your work.

Unless you are submitting to a journal with different citation/formatting requirements, please default to the following formatting guidelines: double-spaced, 1″ (2.5cm) margins on all sides, 12-point Times New Roman or similar font, and appropriate citations using Chicago 16 style (the guide to which you can find on the Mina Rees Library website). Please submit your paper as a Word document to BOTH sbrier@gc.cuny.edu and mmandiberg@gc.cuny.edu and upload it (if you want your fellow students to read it) to the course Group site under “Files.”