UCIL26002
Digital Society: Your Place in a Networked World
- Semester 2
- Online delivery
- 10 credits
What are the implications for individuals and societies when we live so much of our lives online?
This online course, led by Dave Hirst, explores your place in today's networked world.
In this course, you'll discover the connectedness of digital life, the relationship between the individual and the state, the smart cities of the future (and now), the ethics of the online world, and the impact of digital and mobile technology on business and marketing.
This unit has been designed specifically for online learning and offers a unique interactive experience.
You will work alongside students from a wide range of disciplines.
About
As citizens of a networked world, our access to information has never been greater.
Using digital media to share your findings, you will critically examine your digital identity to influence how the world perceives you online.
Run entirely online, the unit uses a mix of approaches to enable digital learning, discussion and collaboration. All the unit information, content and discussions are held in Medium, a public writing/blogging platform. You will contribute to the development of unit materials with your comments, thoughts and coursework, joining over 100 others as a writer for Digital Society, an online publication.
The unit has a strong employability focus. Through assessed and non-assessed activities, you will develop transferable skills relevant to life beyond your studies, including real experience of blogging, critical thinking and reflection, peer learning, collaborative tools, researching and curating content, maintaining an online profile and publishing information online.
Digital Society is a unit which supports your study in a flexible way that suits you. You will be given a suggested study schedule and access to a tool to track your progress. Online tutors will guide you to stay on track with the course materials. The unit is taught through asynchronous online content; there are no 'live' sessions, but we can arrange online or in person one-to-one support on request.
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Unit details
What should I know about this unit?
UCIL26002- Digital Society: Your Place in a Networked World
This unit has been designed specifically for online learning and offers a unique interactive experience.
- Semester 2
- Online delivery
- 10 credits
- Level 2
- The University of Manchester Library
This unit aims to explore the relationship between digital technology, society, and you, from the connectedness of our lives and the machines around us, to how we communicate with each other.
On successful completion of the unit you will be able to:
- Describe the key concepts of a 'digital society', the ethics of online information use and the skills needed to be effective and successful digital scholars and citizens
- Demonstrate critical engagement with information, practise self-reflection and collaborate across disciplines
- Make use of your existing knowledge and that of peers to confront new challenges
- Find, evaluate and share information online, understand issues of intellectual property and apply learning to other aspects of academic, personal and professional life
- Use the internet and social media to develop your communication skills, share information and develop your online profile
The Digital Society topic pages show the most recent year's topics.
Topics covered in previous years:
- The Internet: How have key developments in the history of the internet made us more connected to information, and each other?
- Engagement: How does 'digital' impact on our engagement with each other, organisations, and our environment?
- The AI, ethics, and us: As individuals, how are we governed in a digital society?
- The Internet of Things: What is it and what does it mean for you?
- Smart cities: The impact of technology on where we live, work and play.
- Critically analysing information: Online criticality, critical analysis and how to develop your own critical voice.
- A metal box paradox: Is technology a neutral machine (researched and written by a member of the Library Student team)
- Chatbots and questions of digital conversation: How online communication asks us to question ideas of gender and the human.
- Reflecting on your employability for a digital future: How do changing skills/society affect your future employability?
A mix of self-led learning and online collaboration and discussion. The unit is based around a publication: Digital Society. As a participant you will become a writer for this publication, commenting and responding to others, writing posts to share your experience and what you are learning, and reading posts from previous and current participants to learn from your peers.
- Welcome lecture (in person)
- Weekly topics in Medium
- Optional virtual drop-ins
- 500 word blog post on online communication (10%)
- 1000 word blog post on using technology to address opportunities/challenges (30%)
- 1500 word blog post: critical analysis of living in a digital world and reflection on the unit (60%)
Formative feedback
- Optional formative feedback on a bullet-point draft outline of each assessment.
Detailed feedback provided on all three written assessments via Turnitin to aid continuous development.
- Dave Hirst
- Padma Inala
- Guest contributors
UCIL units are designed to be accessible to undergraduate students from all disciplines.
UCIL units are credit-bearing and it is not possible to audit UCIL units or take them for additional/extra credits. You must enrol following the standard procedure for your School when adding units outside of your home School.
If you are not sure if you are able to enrol on UCIL units you should contact your School Undergraduate office. You may wish to contact your programme director if your programme does not currently allow you to take a UCIL unit.
You can also contact the UCIL office if you have any questions.
This unit is also available with a different course unit code. To take a UCIL unit you must choose the unit with a UCIL prefix.
How to enrol
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Enrolment using the Course Selection System
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Enrolment via your School
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Feedback
I have nothing but positive feelings toward the nature of how the course was delivered. The delivery of the content was easy to digest. For this, I feel thankful and would recommend all other units to take inspiration from the creative design of this unit.
Anonymous
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