Actor-Network Theory in Education

Question: Critical grasp of actor network theory and some additional concepts from the module. Work includes contemporary debates, issues and discussions. Links are successfully. Discussed between the news stories and the computing assemblage. Accurate Harvard referencing. Answer: Introduction In this essay two computing news have been studied and analyzed using the principles of Actor Network theory. The news has been taken from the database of news lying in the period of 1st January 2016 to 31st March 2016. In both the stories, there is a network being impacted by one or more actants. The terms actant and network are key terms of ANT. The analysis shows that Actant can be human or non-human and both are of equal importance. The theory does not differentiate between society and nature, true and false, content and context, micro and macro levels, agency and structure, etc. but treats everything as a result of collective activities that are networked together with heterogeneous elements amalgamated together. It identifies these elements as actors that can be textual, conceptual, social and technical. Actor Network Theory Actor Network Theory (ANT) is a conceptual framework that explores socio-technological processes suggesting that scientific work is not much different from the work of social activities. This theory doesnt favor any one of realism or social constructivism views but believes in juxtaposition of social, technical, textual and conceptual processes bringing transformations. Act on Act on Humans ANT does not differentiate between a non-human entity and human entity on the basis of ontology. ANT states that non-human entities are equally important in the network and not completely controlled by human actants. Act on Material Environment ANT usually describes the infrastructure of assemblage i.e. assemblage. It focuses on the formation and breaking of the network. Act on Cultures ANT has also been used in preforming research on stability of assemblage hence is considered to impact the quality and complexity of the systems. Story 1: Apple co-founder criticises company over Apple Watch In this story, Wonziac expresses his dissatisfaction with the product development approach that is taken by Tim Cook as the CEO of the Apple organization. He believed in the capability of the company to innovate and come up with unique products in the times when Steve Jobs was heading the organization but the new approach in which all watches products look similar with only differences in colors and the designs, Wonziac compares the same with a jewelry business claiming that the brand is losing its originality and innovation as a capability. This story suggests how technological transformations are affected by the social concerns. The actants in this story include the people that are Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and Wozniak, texts that include the promotional campaigns and news coverage provided to the concerns, material that is the technology used for the watch as a product that is newly launched by Apple, and conceptual actants that include the company values and process that were established by the organization. According to the theory, this story can be seen as a network formed out of these elements such that they are juxtaposed to affect the collective activity. For instance, Steve Jobs is an actant as per theory who has affected the social as well as material side of the organization by establishing processes while Wonziak as an individual actor agrees with this processes by disagrees with the approaches taken by Tim Cook who is another actant as per the theory. There are different nodes and links that can be identified in the story to be forming the network that is a mix of all identified elements. These nodes include three individuals including Tim Cook, Steve Jobs and Wonziak, technological element that is the watch, conceptual element that is the innovation streak of the organization as well as Apple as a brand and textual element in the form of promotional exposure the new product is getting in the media. Connections or links can be made between these different categories of elements such as: Steve Jobs can be linked to the innovative streak of Apple Tim Cook can be connected to the innovation again while he aims to make changes in the regular approach set by Steve Jobs Apple brand as an actant can be connected with every other element affecting every decision that is taken by any other actant of the network Apple as a brand and as an organization collectively is responsible for producing the apple watch and thus, a direct connection can be established between the two actants. The products produced by Apple were affected by the position of the CEO such that when Steve Jobs was heading the division, the products manufactured were innovative, unique and with rich functionalities for its customers while when the same division is head by Tim Cook, the approach to product development changes such that the products are more focused on the price points that are significant and the users who would be buying the same would be concerned more about the status rather than the innovative features that were provided by Apple products at the time it was headed by Steve Jobs. Culture scale In the story, the resulting assemblage formed out of all these elements is the Apple Watch Market that is newly formed from the four types of elements that include Tim Cook who is the core decision maker of production, Apple brand which brings out the associations of status with users, the textual messages disbursed by the actants like Wonziac who has a negative view of the product and the technological capabilities of the organization. This assemblage would affect how the product would perform in the market. Story 2: Your selfish driving is making urban congestion worse This story talks about a plan of local authorities in different countries that are used for reducing traffic congestion on busy streets of the cities. USA demands road users to diversify their routes such that getting to destination becomes faster for everyone together. OpenStreetMaps are used by them for analyzing journeys of road users using mobile phone data sets called CDRs such that their movements, timestamps, starting and ending points of the time can be identified using real time GPS data. It was found by researchers of University of Birmingham that 15-30 minutes out of total day commute is lost due to bad routing and thus 30 % less time can be spend in congestion if routing is right. This would however require drivers to adjust routes for benefits of others such that numbers of drivers who get benefited are more than the number of drivers making sacrifices. Smart phone applications can be used for identification of optimum routes by these drivers aimed to reduce congestion. Autonomous vehicles can be used for making self-adjustments to routes for reducing congestion in future. In this story, actants can be clearly identified as be textual, conceptual, social and technical including social actors that are drivers, traffic control authorities and regular commuters of the cities using the network. Technical actors would include the GPS systems, OpenStreeMaps, CDRs, mobile applications, and autonomous cars. Textual actants would include the promotional campaigns, media messages that are displaced for creating awareness about the congestion in the drivers as well as the messages that are displayed by the technological applications for making them aware of the best routing options for the travel. As per the theory, various kinds can be established between these actants such as : The drivers that make the social actants are affected by the technological actants that include cars, mobile applications such that they would chose the appropriate routes for their travel. Compromise of the drivers in the use of applications and routes that are the technological actants would also affect other social drivers by making it easy for them to commute thereby reducing the congestion on the road, The textual messages spread by the authorities on the awareness of the congestion and use of optimized routes for travelling would affect both technical capabilities as more applications would be used or developed as well as autonomous cards would gain visibility as well as the social connections or actants that include other drivers who would gain control over their time taken for travel as well as the time spend in the congestion. Cultural Scale On the culture scale, the story identifies that drivers do impact the road network. All these actants form the assemblage that is formed from drivers, technological applications, materials like cars, and the capabilities of authorities in convincing drivers of making use of the best routing and comprising for the benefit of whole society that is the part of the assemblage. This will result in reducing the congestion by considerable level. Knowledge Scale On the knowledge scale, the story states that alternate and short routing mechanism do reduce the congestion and having good knowledge of online maps can facilitate them to contribute more in reducing the congestion. Enhancing Management On the basis of analysis of two computing news, it can be stated that technologies do enhance the working of the actants. In story 2, several other technologies for example: self driving cars, can also be used in addition to current maps. Driverless cars can help in estimating short routes to reduce the congestion level. Issues raised by Contemporary Computing On the basis of analysis of two computing stories, it can be depicted that human behavior does get affected by the introduction of phones and new technologies. This results because of the increase in dependency level among them. Contemporary computing indeed helps the facilitating communication between both the sides but it does affect the human neural competency as it leads to inputting more data than it can be used. The main reason of contemporary computing to remain in our daily is the amount of feedback obtained through it. Conclusion It was found that the various actants work together on the performance of the assemblage that includes nodes in the forms of the individual actants and the connections that take forward the assemblage to perform at a certain level. Various actants appear to be different and disconnected with each other while performing their own activities but when forming the whole assemblage, they get affected by each other. For instance, in case of the Apple story, the social actant that was Tim Cook affected how the products were developed and promoted while the technological capabilities of the organization affected how the brand was seen in the eyes of social actors that included the users of the Apple devices. In the similar manner, in the story of congestion, the social actants including drivers and commuters on the road were affected by technological elements like cars, GPS, CDS, mobile applications that affect the way routes are chosen by social actors that include drivers. References Fenwick, T. and Edwards, R. (2010).Actor-network theory in education. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Fenwick, T. and Edwards, R. (2012).Researching Education Through Actor-Network Theory. Hoboken: John Wiley Sons. Hern, A. (2016).Apple co-founder criticises company over Apple Watch. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/17/apple-co-founder-steve-wozniak-criticises-company-over-apple-watch [Accessed 18 Mar. 2016]. Wired UK. (2016).Taking 'socially-aware' GPS routes could improve congestion (Wired UK). [online] Available at: https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-03/17/selfish-driving-urban-congestion-socially-aware-gps [Accessed 18 Mar. 2016].