NYU D&T Extra Credit Opportunities

If you would like to submit an extra credit “expanded blogging” assignment, please complete it as a blog post and put “Extra Credit” somewhere in the post’s title. Each extra credit post will earn up to 2.5 points on your total grade; the post should be 1000 words long to be eligible for the full 2.5 points.

  • Keywords for Diversity and Technology: Add definitions and explanations to the not-yet-defined keywords, which starts on Page 8 of the Keywords document. Each keyword that you define is eligible for up to 0.5 extra credit points on your final grade. For the word that you’re addressing, please include at least one of each of these bullet point types:
    • [QUOTE]: How does an β€œexpert” define this term? Please consider diversity, representation, and experience when choosing your expert(s).
    • [ANECDOTE]: What is your own experience in relation to this term?
    • [RELEVANCE TO D&T]: How is this term relevant to the larger discussion of β€œDiversity & Technology?” Since most of these terms are fairly general, please pay special attention to the term’s technological relevance.
  • Watch episodes of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj that pertain to our class: Affirmative Action, Immigration Enforcement, Content Moderation and Free Speech. Does the use of humor help to explain the issue? How? What are the technologies, SSIs, and biases at play in these segments?
  • The Field Guide to Human Centered Design: Conduct some research as to who wrote the Field Guide to Human Centered Design. What is the history of this guide? What are the organizations involved in created this guide? How has it been used? Where has it been used? Has it been used effectively?
  • More Work For Mother: If you have not already cited this book in your midterm paper, read
    • Chapter 1 of this book, with a particular focus on the terms “work process” and “technological system.”
    • Next, read one of the following sections that may apply to your own work: Food System (p 71), Clothing System (p 74), Health Care System (p 75), Transportation (p 79), Utility Systems (pp 85-89).
    • Now, write a reflection: How does the author use the concepts of “work process” and “technological system” to examine gender (and any other salient social identities) in the context of home-based work? Do you think this examination still holds up today?
  • Read Contested Relations and write a blog post that reflects on this paragraph, page 84: “American medicine developed under the expansive influence of European scientific racism. As a consequence, early gynecologists demonstrated their medical knowledge through their treatment of and writings about enslaved women as gynecological patients who purportedly felt little or no pain as they underwent invasive surgical procedures. Antebellum-era doctors continued the American tradition of reinforcing prevailing racial stereotypes about β€œblack” women through their writings. These men recognized the importance of medical journals, especially as the field became more legitimized.”
  • Make contact with any of the class resources and discuss how this resource has shed more light on your conception of diversity and technology. “Contact” can include attending an event at the resource, or scheduling a 1-on-1 appointment with an organizer of that resource. Please discuss the specific salient social identities and specific technologies addressed by this resource.
  • You are also welcome use any of the prompts that you may have missed from the “Assignments” section in all previous class posts. Note that for an extra credit post, it should be at least 1000 words long to be eligible for the full 2.5 extra credit points. I especially recommend the prompts for

NEW: Listen to the Critical Consciousness Reflection audio, recorded by Tyrone Bryant. If you’re willing to share some of your own answers to his questions, please do so in an essay that reflects how you will continue to work on diversity, inclusion, and representation in tech beyond the scope of this class.


In addition to expanded blogging, you can create a full web site for your project (if your project is not a web prototype) and/or a submit a paper to a relevant conference. If you’d like to pursue any of these options and have questions about them, please let me know.