From 1998 to 2007 I taught part-time in the Science, Technology, and Society program at the University of Texas at Austin. I got my start with Coco Kishi when she invited me to teach the information architecture segment in her course "Introduction to Interactive Media."

In 1999 Andrew Otwell and I taught "Pixel, Line, Plane: Elements of Digital Craft," a course that introduced students to the basics of visual and interaction design through the DBN programming language developed at the MIT Media lab by professor John Maeda and his graduate students Casey Reas and Ben Fry, among others.

About the Spring 2005 Course

Through readings and hands-on activities "Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society" explored the relationship between humans and the technologies we invent. Throughout the course we built various devices, including:

• Perspective Machines (see one in action)
• Turing Machines made from toilet paper and post-its

The bulk of the "Intro. to Science, Technology, and Society" course was devoted to the exploration of the human, social, and ethical dimensions of various Internet technologies.

But we also studied the origins of  writing and numbers, the technologies of perspective, and the origins of computation and used these technologies as case studies that helped us imagine how networked communication technologies and group-forming networks (such as blogging, mobile phones, and Wikis, for example) might shape our future.

Readings included a history of information design by Edward Tufte, an introduction to Denise Schmandt-Besserat's theory of the origins of  writing, an analysis of the social aspects of Internet technologies, and an introduction to the principles of cognitive science, user-centered design (UCD) and human-computer interaction (HCI).

Throughout the course we explored the interchange between technology and various fields including art, architecture, design, and psychology.

The course ended with a final project that asks students to synthesize these concepts by conceiving of and prototyping a new type of application, such as a Web browser that allows one to browse documents by time, or by social connections, etc.

It's 2008, and I've been away from teaching for a year. Reading this course description is making me nostalgic for trips to the library to see and hold Sumerian tokens, discussions about Bill Joy and the Unabomber, and the joy of seeing students produce ideas far more beautiful than mine.