Flashing Palely in the Margins
Government in a Digital Era: Module 8
From January to April 2019, I’m teaching the “Government in a Digital Era” course as part of the Masters of Public Service program at the University of Waterloo.
I’ve had a few people ask me about the course—what we’re learning, what we’re reading, how the classes are going—so I thought I’d share some information about each module that we cover in the class. Today, I’m sharing the course overview from our eight and final module, as well as a link to some of the reflections that the students have done. I’m also sharing what bowtie I wear to class every week because, well, why not?
Module 8: A Nascent Movement Towards Digital
The global digital government movement is a young one: there are a lot of things that we have yet to learn. With the rapid pace of change, how governments approach digital will be different tomorrow than they are today.
In this module, we will address some of the salient issues around digital government that still need to be better addressed. These include digital literacy, digital inclusion, public service transformation, information security, and ethics.
This module will also serve as a time for students to address topics and ideas that they felt were not covered in the previous modules, as well as quick recap of the full semester prior to the submission of final assignments.
Guest Lecture: Nasma Ahmed, Founder and Director, Digital Justice Lab
Learning Outcomes:
- Broadly cover emerging topics around literacy, inclusion, transformation, and ethics.
- Look forward at the bigger issues in digital government to come in the future.
- Reflect upon all the topics and discussions covered in the past semester.
Resources and Reading:
- Do bureaucrats care?, Martin Stewart-Weeks
- Decolonizing digital spaces, Alexander Dirksen
- Restorative Technological Practices, Neil Tamplin
- Community perspectives on race, power, and colonialism in technology, IntersectTO
- The Garden and the Stream: A Technopastoral, Mike Caulfield
- Data Governance in the Digital Age
- Fast Company : Privacy Divide
- End of Trust, EFF + McSweeney
- Downside of Digital Inclusion, Seeta Peña Gangadharan
- Dark Matters, Simone Brown
- Smart Cities, Anthony Townsend
- Infinite Details, Tim Maughan
- Parable of Sower, Octavia Butler
- Emergent Strategies, adrienne maree brown
- Networks of New York, Ingrid Burrington
- Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks
- Instruction Slides
Student Reflections
At the start of the course, I asked students to share their reflections on each module, and encouraged them to share them publicly where they felt comfortable. A few of them took me up on the challenge:
- Some reflections shared on blogs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
- Some reflections shared on video: 1, 2
- One reflection shared on Twitter.
- And of course, the final episode of the class podcast. I’ll definitely miss these conversations.
Next time I deliver this class, I think I’ll make public reflections a course requirement! I love all the public reflecting that some of the students have chosen to share.
Bowtie of the Week (and other photos)
I wear a bowtie to class every week, so I thought I’d end this post with a snapshot of that bowtie, as I didn’t take any other photos this class.
