See notes on written assignments.
In this assignment you will do a preliminary SCOT-like analysis of an artifact. Since this is a rather short piece, your analysis will be fairly limited, but don’t limit yourself to the obvious. The purpose of this is to get you to think, and to try to use SCOT and see what it reveals.
You will do a SCOT analysis of mobile phones (not camera phones). Since you have limited space, choose a limited domain or population – e.g., high school students taking mobile phones to school. (This is controversial in some places. Some high schools ban mobile phones; one high school has taken out their pay phones – too many false fire alarms – and kids have more need for mobile phones. But you don’t need to pick an area that’s controversial.) It will help if you pick a domain you know about.
Consider multiple relevant social groups – e.g., for high school students these groups include, not only different groups of teens, but parents, teachers, school administrators, and others. Don’t forget that interpretive flexibility is a key element of SCOT. Obviously, you are not addressing the initial design of mobile phones, but how they get understood and used.
Write approximately 2 pages, single-spaced, in which you consider such issues as:
Based on your analysis, add another half page or so critique of SCOT. How was it helpful? Were there ways in which it was insufficient for your analysis? What did it reveal, or fail to reveal, for your analysis?
Total length: approx. 2 1/2 pages
DUE TUESDAY,November 4.