Grab your tricorder and gear up for this unusual college class at Syracuse University: Star Trek and the Information Age! My College Guide had heard of a Star Trek class before (remember Religions of Star Trek?) – but not like this one! After talking to Anthony Rotolo, the Professor behind the Syracuse University class, we quickly understood: resistance is futile.
Courtesy of Syracuse University
Why a Star Trek class? What do you think we can learn from watching Star Trek?
Star Trek has inspired generations of technologists and scientists, not to mention countless people around the world. The franchise depicts a possible future for humanity, complete with technological advancements that sometimes look a lot like our own emerging technologies. Star Trek also addresses some of the same societal challenges we face in today’s Information Age. In my class, we will use Star Trek to launch a discussion of these issues, and to explore what is possible through work in Information Science and other fields of study.
Is this a class for “Trekkies” or is this something that anyone, School of Information Studies major or not, can enjoy and understand?
The class is definitely not just for Trekkies — but, as I’ve told others, I can’t promise students won’t become Trekkies by the time the semester is over! Students who have never watched Star Trek before will find the class very approachable. Each new episode or example will be introduced with background information on story and characters to help link everything together. We are using Star Trek to start a discussion, and every student — trekkie or not — will be able to contribute, learn and enjoy the class.
Students from a variety of majors have enrolled in the class so far (we’ve had to move the class to a larger auditorium). I have students from information studies, psychology, sociology, management, television and film, engineering, education and more. The diversity of majors and backgrounds will add quite a bit to the discussion. This is also in the spirit of Star Trek, which envisioned starships filled with people of all backgrounds and interests contributing to exploration.
Did we hear that you are also somehow incorporating Twitter? Do tell!
My main focus at the iSchool (how we refer to the School of Information Studies) is Social Media. I teach a course on social media (use in business, entrepreneurship, and related issues — policy, privacy, management…) which is also popular with students university-wide.
Courtesy of Syracuse University
My social media course is known on Twitter by its hashtag #RotoloClass, which students use to chat during class. Twitter users often participate in the discussion as well, which is displayed live on screen during lecture. This adds a lot to our discussion and often brings in interesting perspectives from outside the classroom. In the same way, my Star Trek course will use the hashtag #TrekClass to conduct a similar discussion. Anyone interested in the topics we’re covering is welcome to join in — including Trek fans.
Can anyone follow along with The Collective or is this for Syracuse University class participants only?
The Collective is a new concept, and I’m still working out all the details. The site will be public, and anyone will be able to comment and discuss the articles posted by the students. I’m not certain whether individuals outside the class will be able to post articles themselves, but I’m open to the idea. We’ll see…
Can you give examples of Star Trek episodes and the topics up for discussion?
Using Episodes like “The Best of Both Worlds” from The Next Generation and “Scorpion” from Voyager, which deal with the Borg, we will raise the issues of collective intelligence, technological enhancements to the human body, organic/biological technology, etc. Some have compared Google and Twitter to the Borg. We will look for similarities there. Also, if we are building a collective intelligence through social networking and the web, how do we manage this?
The Original Series episode, “The Ultimate Computer” deals with the loss of human jobs to computer automation. We will discuss how our own society has handled this issue.
The Next Generation episode, “The Arsenal of Freedom“ focuses on the concept of remote warfare — we will discuss how this compares to remote access technology we see emerging today, including unmanned drones and modern remote warfare.
Judy and Jam / Jam Zhang
Through the characters of Data (TNG) and the Doctor (Voyager) we will look at intelligent systems — technology that can learn, process human language, etc. — and holographic technology. Through Lt. Barclay, who becomes addicted to the Enterprise holodeck, we will discuss what today’s tech addictions look like. We will use the starships themselves to examine how our own technology compares to the systems and environments we see on the Enterprise, the Deep Space Nine space station or Voyager.
Out with it! Who is your favorite Star Trek captain?
I’m afraid that information is classified. However, students will have the opportunity to weigh in on this question at the end of the course!
Anything else that we need to know about the Star Trek class?
You can find out all the details, including a bit about assignments, etc., at: http://rotolo.syr.edu/trek. I think the course will be both useful and enjoyable, and that’s the most important thing!
Special thanks to Kim Brown on Twitter for bringing the Star Trek and the Information Age class to our attention!
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