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Digital Costs | Classroom Activity | 'Digital Underbellies - An Investigative Report'
How To Use This Material [Instructor Note]
- The following is a group-based activity wherein students become experts on one of the ‘hidden costs’ of a digital technology in small groups and share their findings to the whole class
- This activity is meant to follow an engagement with the preceding reading from J.F. Lindsay, but could work as a stand-alone
- To set up the activity, you will need at least one student per group to have a computer/device; you may also want to provide additional materials to aid in more creative presentation (marker/poster board, costumes, etc.)
- You are welcome to make a copy of this material to edit and remix as you wish; please be sure to give credit and follow the CC license mandates when doing so
Digital Underbellies - An Investigative Report
This is a group-based activity where each of us will become ‘experts’ on one of the digitals’ many hidden costs. Each group has been assigned a relevant topic, as well as a few places to get started for research. In addition to the sources provided, you should conduct your own research, looking to bolster what you’ve learned with additional information, statistics, and case studies. Each group will present their findings at the end of class, cosplaying as ‘investigative reporters’ delivering the results of their research into the ‘digital underbelly.’
While each group will be looking at a different phenomena, and provided with different resources and ‘key topics,’ consider these overarching, guiding questions as well:
- What is happening? What are the key facts, the key problem(s)?
- Who is impacted? Who carries the most risk?
- Why does this matter? What are the consequences?
- What solutions are out there? How might we make meaningful change?
Instructions at a glance:
- Step One: Research & Analysis (20-30 minutes)
- Research your topic with your group members, starting with the sources provided before branching out
- Make sure you’re practicing good media literacy, only engaging with high-quality, trusted sources!
- Step Two: Presentation Preparation (10-15 minutes)
- Consolidate your research into a quick, 5-minute presentation. Feel free to lean as much into the ‘investigative report’ theme as you’d like 🙂
- Step Three: ‘Exposé’ Presentations (20-25 minutes)
- Each group will have about 5ish minutes to present their research. I encourage all of you to find a time to speak during the presentation.
- Step Four: All-Class Reflection (5-10 minutes)
- Guiding questions:
- What surprised you the most about the hidden costs of digital technology?
- Do any of these issues intersect with one another? How?
- What role do consumers, governments, and corporations each play in addressing these problems, if at all?
- Did this activity change how you think about your use of technology?
- Guiding questions:
- Group #1: Tech Minerals & Mining
- Starting off…
- Read/Watch: “Is my phone powered by child labor?” | Amnesty International
- Watch: “DR Congo cobalt miners work in treacherous conditions” | Al Jazeera English
- Read: “The Metals Inside Your iPhone Are More Precious Than You Thought” | Sareena Dayaram | CNET
- Key points to address…
- Child labor, and brutal labor conditions in general, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (and elsewhere)
- Environmental and human costs of unregulated mining practices
- Starting off…
- Group #2: Data Collection
- Starting off…
- Video: “Big data: why should you care?” | Timandra Harkness | The Guardian
- Video: “What Is Big Data?” | World Economic Forum
- Research: “Big Data” | Vox (Archives)
- Key points to address…
- How tech companies monetize user data
- Issues of surveillance, user consent, and influence of personalized media
- Starting off…
- Group #3: Energy Use
- Starting off…
- Read: “Why your internet habits are not as clean as you think” | Sarah Griffiths | BBC News
- Read: “Updated calculation released on the carbon impact of online video streaming” | Carbon Trust (White Paper)
- Watch: “How AI and data centers impact climate change” | CBS Mornings
- Interact: “A guide to your digital carbon footprint – and how to lower it” | World Economic Forum
- Key points to address…
- How everyday internet uses can collectively come to cost significant amounts of energy
- Growing energy demands of the internet (new technologies like AI and cryptocurrencies), the exponential growth of digital energy use
- Starting off…
- Group #4: E-Waste
- Starting off…
- Read/Interact: “The Global E-Waste Monitor 2024” | United Nations, ITU
- Read: “Fact Sheet: Electronic Waste” | World Health Organization
- Watch: “Computer recycling [in] West Africa” | BBC News
- Watch: “Planned obsolescence? It's gone too far!” | Right to Repair Europe
- Key points to address…
- Export of e-waste to developing countries
- Toxicity and permanence of e-waste
- Planned obsolescence
- Environmental costs of unregulated mining practices
- Starting off…