Course Organisation
- For the Quiz, look at the “Remember” sections of the first four weeks, including Session 5.2 (tomorrow), write down the concepts, and make sure that you understand the definitions.
- You can only go forward through the Quiz
- We expect to have all Tutorial Presences entered into Top Hat by the end of Reading Week
- The Tutorial Presences are registered in TopHat in a weird way, because the only way we can mark attendance manually is to create a “manual attendance” column, which shows all 155 students on TopHat automatically as present, and there is no way for us to automatically switch that to a default of “absent” for all 155 students. So we have agreed the following rule with the ITO:
- Students who were present at a Tutorial are marked as “excused”
- Students who were absent at all of the Tutorials are left as “present”
Starting Point: Online Games as Social Networks
Examples of networks and network-like elements in Games:
How the World of Warcraft community discusses cyberbullying
A long read on cyberbullying in World of Warcraft
Themes from Last Year’s Questions and Comments
Race and socioeconomic status
One student pointed out in the questions and comments – quite rightly! – that it appears rude and unthoughtful to say that race is correlated with socioeconomic status.
Race does not determine socioeconomic status; in the current century, you will find people of all races and skin colours at all levels of society. However, in some societies, people of some races are much more likely to be disadvantaged and feel disadvantaged.
Here are some resources:
- US: Perception of discrimination Pew Research Center
- US: Wage gaps Pew Research Center
- UK: Race Report Equality and Human Rights Commission
- UK: Equality in the UK Government statistics
Activity 1: Definition of Race
If you look at the definitions of race in the US versus the UK, what are the main differences? Why do you think some ethnic groups are highlighted?
Tip: For the US, look at the Wage Gaps data; for the UK, look at the Government definition.
What are the relevant Ethnic groups in your home country?
What is socioeconomic status?
Going back to the two UK resources, you will see that they highlight several areas of inequality. The Race Report talks about Employment, Education, Living Standards, Crime, and Health and Care. All of these contribute to socioeconomic status. Each of these areas is made up of separate statistics.
Activity 2: Aspects of Socioeconomic Status
What aspects are discussed in the UK Government statistics? How might each of the six areas (Education, Crime, Housing, Health, Work, Culture) contribute to the likelihood that
- a person has a cheap smartphone
- a person has a laptop
- a person has a high-end smartphone (Galaxy S8, iPhone X)
