Module: 7AAVDC27, Introduction to Digital Culture and Society 1 (2023/24)
Assignment 1: 3,000 word assignment submitted in one document consisting of: 1) a short reflection statement on the use/non-use of AI tools (400 words) 2) a 2,600 word long essay (counting for 90% of the total mark for this module)
Deadline: to be announced, likely mid-January 2023 by 3:59pm ESSAY QUESTIONS
When answering the question, make sure you draw on literature from the relevant parts of the module reading list and critically engage with these theories in order to develop your own argument.
A) In the beginning of the essay, we expect you to pick one broad question and narrow it down to make it more specific, for example by focusing on a particular context or a particular issue.
B) You will need to discuss one or more examples in depth in order to provide evidence for the argument that you wish to make. Your writing up of the examples needs to be based on sources, for example from academic literature, reports from organisations, or coverage in news media outlets.
Choose ONE of the following questions and write a 3000-word essay that provides an answer:
1. Critically analyse the term ‘the cloud’: what are the most pressing challenges related to this digital
infrastructure?
2. Is regulation of digital technology essential or problematic? Use existing or proposed regulation and real word examples to make your argument.
3. When understanding global digital cultures, what role do local social contexts play?
4. Explain ‘algorithmic bias’ with reference to current academic debates and discuss: why it is this an increasingly concerning social issue and what can be done about it?
5. Analyse the economic and/or social power of platforms using the work of two or more academic scholars.
6. In what ways do digital technologies challenge the concept of the ‘public sphere’?
7. Exploring the concept of ‘intersectionality’, examine how various groups of people experience digital culture and technologies differently.
Beware of plagiarism (reference your sources properly in Harvard style) and note that the word limit does not include the bibliography.
We will specifically discuss this assignment in the revision week at the end of Semester 1. Throughout the semester you are welcome to raise questions about the essay, preferably in your seminars or on the forum.
Remember to submit your essay at least one hour before the deadline to ensure submission in case of technical problems.
AI TOOLS (400 words)– student disclosure/reflection statement
There is increasing global interest in the capacities of generative artificial intelligence technologies; ‘generative AI’ here refers to machine-learning based technologies that can create ‘new’ content, such as text (e.g. ChatGPT) or images (e.g. Stable Diffusion). Students producing assignments for a module, however, cannot pass off material created by generative AI tools as their own work, because this would constitute academic misconduct. But recent guidelines adopted by KCL, do allow for “the ethical use of generative AI” in the context of assessments. As scholars in the Digital Humanities, staff and students in our Department are particularly well placed to think critically about the various impacts of artificial intelligence on our lives, societies and work.
For these reasons, we are now asking that all students on the MA Digital Culture and Society core modules (7AAVDC27 and 7AAVDC29) include a short (300-400 word) statement a the beginning of each final assignment (the end of semester essays). In this statement, we ask you to write critically and reflectively bout either:
- what AI tool(s) you used and how and why you used them - or, how and why you decided not to use AI tools.
For your assignment, if you decided to work with specific generative AI tools (including outcomes of large language models, AI powered translation tools, image generators) in your statement you must be transparent and reflective about their use. Explain in your statement which steps and processes you used for particular tools and how you worked with and adapted the AI tool to optimise its outcome (for example how different prompts changed the results). We also expect you to critically reflect on your usage of AI through a short explanation of how you acknowledged and accounted for the known biases and risks of the tools, how this may have affected your work, and what you did to mitigate these issues. We do NOT want to see screenshots, but you may quote AI outcomes or prompts you used.
If you did not use specific generative AI tools, then you still must write this statement, but in this case you should explain why you did not. Be honest about this: it may relate to your personal habits and preferences, your first language, your existing knowledge/lack of knowledge about these tools, or ethical/intellectual concerns relating to academic integrity or problems with the tools themselves. If you wish, you may also reflect on how a wider range of ‘non generative’ AI (and AI-related) technologies may have influenced your research or writing process (for example, search engines, social media algorithms, predictive text, translation/grammar tools).
The purpose of this statement is not to encourage you to use these tools, but rather to learn about AI in our working lives and consider the wider impact of AI in scholarship. For example, when reflecting on the impacts of AI we need to be especially aware of their limits and risks of use – these are not fully reliable, neutral or unbiased tools, and they are rarely equally available (or equally functional/safe) for different individuals and communities.
Please note that this Al declaration does count toward your assignment word count and is considered as part of the assignment contributing to the overall grade awarded. Failure to include this statement will lead to an automatic penalty of 10 marks. This will be applied like the late submission policy and would not take the overall grade below the pass mark.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Russell Group principles on the use of generative AI tools in education https://russellgroup.ac.uk/media/6137/rg_ai_principles-final.pdf
Student Guidance on s Academic Honesty & Integrity Policy
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/acservices/conduct/201920-documents/student-guidance-on- academic-honesty-integrity.pdf
Reassessment information (7AAVDC27 – 3000 word essay/AI reflection)
If students do not receive a passing grade for this essay they are strongly encouraged to discuss the
feedback with the module convener.
If students wish to answer the same question for the resit then they are allowed to do so (alternatively they may decide to answer another question).
If answering the same question, students should address previous feedback with substantial revisions to the resit essay. Students must explain these revisions in an additional 1 page attached at the beginning of the essay (detailing how and where they have responded to feedback). This additional 1 page will not be included in the overall wordcount. (If they choose to answer a different question to the first attempt, they are not acquired to add this extra page).