At the University of Washington I teach a seminar called Infrastructure Studies for students in the Information School and the STSS program (I am an advisor for this program). You can find the syllabus and a list of the course readings here: Infrastructure Studies Syllabus.
My colleagues and I spent a year in a reading group around the intersection of computing and the environment. We published a syllabus that we called “Troubled Worlds” based on our group’s experiences with the open access Journal of Critical Library and Information Science. I plan to teach a course based on this syllabus in Spring of 2021.
Megan Finn, Daniela K. Rosner, Suzanne Black, Nathan Cunningham, Kristin N. Dew, Josephine Hoy, Kevin McCraney, and Colin Morgan, “Troubled Worlds: A Course Syllabus about Information Work and the Anthropocene,” Journal of Critical Library and Information Science 3(1): 1-24, 2020.
I currently teach a required class for UW’s undergraduate Informatics program called Information Policy and Ethics. I taught a required core class, Information Policy and Ethics, for our Masters in Science in Information Management (MSIM) program at the Information School at University of Washington from 2015-2019. This is the course catalog description: “This course explores a range of information issues in the social and organizational context of information professionals, including professional ethics, privacy, freedom of expression, and intellectual property. Gives students tools for analysis of the kinds of social and ethical issues that will arise in their future lives as information professionals.”
- Information Policy and Ethics Syllabus Winter 2015: IMT550_Winter2015
- Information Policy and Ethics Syllabus Winter 2016: IMT550_Winter2016
- Information Policy and Ethics Syllabus Winter 2017: IMT550 Winter2017
- Information Policy and Ethics Syllabus Winter 2018: IMT550 Winter2018
- Information Policy and Ethics Syllabus Winter 2019: IMT550_Winter2019
- Information Policy and Ethics for Informatics Winter 2020: INFO350_Winter2020
- This is the version of the class which I taught during the coronavirus pandemic in Spring of 2020: INFO350 Spring2020
At UC Berkeley, as a graduate student, I worked on a number of classes:
The ambitiously titled, History of Information explores the history of document-related practices and associated technologies from early writing systems to mobile text messaging, uncovering why we think of ours as “the information age.” This course addresses the question of technological determinism: how do technological developments affect society and vice-versa? Students complete exams and weekly writing assignments analyzing primary texts and responding to questions about readings or their research experiments.
- Co-instructor, History of Information
- Syllabus Summer 2009: http://blogs.ischool.berkeley.edu/i103su09/class-schedule-and-readings/
- Graduate Student Instructor, History of Information, [Upper-level undergraduate course listed in the Information, Media Studies, Cognitive Science, and History departments.]
- Syllabus Spring 2009: http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i103/s09/HOFI09.html
- Syllabus Spring 2010: http://blogs.ischool.berkeley.edu/i103s10/
- Syllabus Spring 2011: http://blogs.ischool.berkeley.edu/i103s11/
Tutor, Effective Project Management, Fall 2011. [Graduate level course; fulfills “Project Management” requirement for professional masters students at the School of Information.] Effective Project Management takes professional masters-level students from a number of different departments and teaches them the essential tools and techniques of project management. Students complete a number of individual assignments aimed at improving leadership skills as well as a capstone group project where they complete a detailed project management plan.
- Syllabus: https://blogs.ischool.berkeley.edu/i290-epm/ (Requires account to view some content.)
Graduate Student Instructor, Computer Mediated Communication, Fall 2010. [Graduate level course; fulfills requirements for the Management of Technology Certificate and the Berkeley Center for New Media Designated Emphasis for PhD students.] CMC examines topics pertaining to online social action, including online collective action, reputation, and privacy. Students write weekly reviews of reading, assemble summaries of weekly reviews, and participate in online forum and wikis. The culmination of the course is a semester-long research or design project integrating theory and practice.
- Syllabus: http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i216/f10/ (Requires login to view some content.)
Graduate Student Instructor, Foundations of American Cyber-cultures, Fall 2004. [Lower-division undergraduate course in Art Practice, Rhetoric and Women’s Studies; fulfilled Berkeley’s American Culture requirement.] This thoroughly interdisciplinary undergraduate course integrates theory about new media with student projects to investigate the online social world. Students complete weekly assignments where they experiment with the Turing Test, create web sites to interrogate identity online, and design and execute small research projects investigating the digital divide.
Tutor, Distributed Computing Applications and Infrastructure, Fall 2007. [Core course for Masters of Information and Management students at the School of Information.] This core course for professional masters iSchool students introduces them to the basics of computer architecture, network architecture and programming. Students complete assignments in a lab completing tasks that help them understand network design.
Megan Finn 