Introduction to Your Blogs

Dear Students,

Welcome to Shahi’s Technology & World Change Master Blog!

Just a few gentle reminders:-

1. Please post up your blog entries for the week latest by Sunday of the same week before 2359hrs. Your journal/blog entries for each session must be completed prior to the start of the following session for you to receive any credit.
2. Each journal/blog entry should be in your own words and should consist of at least 100 words addressing the following points:

• Brief Overview/Summary of the themes/topics addressed during the session
• Interesting Observations and Ideas (ideas and concepts that captured your attention)
• Key Take Away Points (the 2 or 3 key messages from the session that you intend to keep in mind going forward)
• Issues for Further Discussion (stuff you wish had been considered or given more air-time in class – and why)
• Personal Ratings for Session (how you would rate the session on a scale of 0 to 10. Feel free to be as subjective as you like in your assessment)
• Extra credit will be given for originality of thought and innovative ideas expressed in your journal/blog. In addition, your contributions in terms of inputs/comments and suggestions to the journal entries/blogs of others will count toward your class participation.

Wishing you all the best as you embark on this exciting journey of discovery!

About the Course

Advances in technology have played a key role in human progress since human pre-history. We live today in exponential time. Scientific and technological breakthroughs with world changing potential are coming at us at an ever increasing pace, each promising to shape our future lives and livelihoods in ways we have only begun to imagine.

Technology innovation is central to ensuring the wealth of corporations and nations as we move rapidly into the realm of the “knowledge” economy. It is both a driver of world change and a response to changing economic and social realities. It may well also be our best hope for dealing with issues and concerns of global significance as well as the consequences of past human experiments in industrial development.

This course focuses on how technology innovation has worked, and will work, to change the world (both positively and negatively): past, present and future. Among other things, we will examine technology innovation in the context of the need for world change including: dealing with poverty and creating wealth; fighting death and disease; feeding the world; meeting our energy needs, controlling pollution and managing wastes more effectively; ensuring sustainable development, etc. We will also address the opportunity and need for new products, services and technologies as human aspirations and desires change.

A primary goal of this course is to equip the student with a conceptual framework for intelligently considering the potential economic, social and commercial impact and significance of technology innovation; and a solid foundation for considering issues of development, technology policy, change management, and the management of technology.