This Tuesday’s readings focused on algorithms and how this way of algorithmic “decision-making” is embedded all throughout life. Degand’s study involves two teenage black male students, Namir and Mathieu, with completely different backgrounds living in New York. The study compares how they view social success, what their career goals and media experiences entail. Both young men agreed that their social success is influenced by the personal experiences of their family. This study does a great job at assessing the abundance of social and individual factors that influence social success. The intro chapter to “Algorithms of Oppression”, by Safiya Noble, focuses on the embedded algorithms by big companies such as Google and YouTube. She also discusses search engines and how many undoubtedly promote racism. People of color are constantly experiencing “algorithmic oppression”. In the Steinkuehler video, it demonstrates how videogames can motivate students to learn and even read. She also introduced “the rule of self-correction rights”, which is happening when students are allowed to make decisions for themselves such as picking what book they want to read for educational purposes. Students become more interested and motivated in what they are learning when they have some say in choosing their material. Lastly, in the TedTalk NPR episode, “Can We Trust the Numbers”, shows us the difference between stats and algorithms and also the power and persuasion of algorithms. Most people’s view of statistics is completely off. We must do our research in truly understanding what is behind the data of the said statistics.
I was able to connect with what Steinkuehler was saying when talking about children being a part in having the choice in choosing how they want to learn; or choosing a book they like instead of being assigned one they have no connection to. I believe that allowing students to have a choice will create a more efficient learning experience for them. From experience, being at UC Davis I have been able to have free choice in many research assignments, creative projects etc. and those are the times where I feel I retained the most knowledge!
What media outlets do you use where you experience algorithms? Do you like it?
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