Skip to Main Content

Algorithms, AI, and First-Year Academic Skills

Prior Knowledge Check

Over the next few pages, we'll be building our awareness--basic, critical, and rhetorical understanding of algorithms, but first--a prior knowledge check: 

  • In your own words, what is an algorithm?
  • Can algorithms be biased? Why or why not?
  • How do algorithms show up in our day-to-day life?
  • What is an example of an algorithm you rely on the most?

Abby Koenig, The Algorithms Know Me and I Know Them: Using Student Journals to Uncover Algorithmic Literacy Awareness,
Computers and Composition, Volume 58, 2020, 102611, ISSN 8755-4615, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2020.102611.

Basic Awareness | Algorithms Explained

  • Which explanation helped your understanding the most (child, teen, college student, adult)?
  • In your own words, what is an algorithm?
  • How do you use algorithms in your day-to-day life? What types of problems do they help you solve?
  • How do you think you'll use algorithms in college? What types of problems do you think they'll help you solve? 

Critical Awareness | Test Drive

Test Drive General Algorithms (1) 

  1. Begin and browse a typical Google search; 
  2. Use the same key words, now begin and browse results from Duck Duck Go, a search engine that does not collect IP addresses or other search history information. 
  3. Repeat the process, only now, agree to use the same search as a group.
    • For example, type “Why do. . .” and compare your top autocomplete results. 

Test Drive Personal Algorithms (2) 

  1. Log in to your Google account on your phone or laptop.
  2. Click the Data & Privacy tab.
  3. Scroll down to Personalized Ads, and click the link to “My Ad Center.”
  4. Under “How your ads are personalized,” scroll through the personal information Google has collected about you including your presumed age and gender, shopping habits, and interests.

  • Does Google have an accurate picture of you? Do these ads align with your true interests?
  • What activity may have caused Google to add these interests to your profile?
  • How might Google use these different interests in positive ways? In negative ways?
  • If Google shared this information with other websites (such as retailers, banks, car dealerships, credit agencies, etc.) would this be helpful to you? If yes, how? If no, why?
  • Please comment on anything else related to this topic that strikes you as interesting.

Rhetorical Awareness

  • What did you learn from watching this news report? Anything surprise you?
  • Do you think algorithms should be transparent? Why or why not? Who should be held responsible for algorithmic bias?
  • Do you think your own search results or social media feed is shaped by biased algorithms? What do you think the feed is biased towards? And what effect does that have on what you believe about yourself, how you feel towards others, or how you interact with the world?

FURTHER READING:

Test Drive Personal Algorithms (1) 

Are they a self-fulfilling prophecy?

As we’ve just learned, social media platforms tend to show users the most “popular” videos first. But what actually makes those videos popular? Often, it’s simply that the algorithm decided to promote them early on—popularity becomes a self-fulfilling cycle.

  1. Open the preferred music streaming app or website of your choice.
    • What artists are they recommending? Are you truly discovering new, independent artists? Is the algorithm prioritizing artists that the company has a financial interest in promoting? Or probably the biggest culprit of them all--Amazon. Who stands to benefit from your product recommendations?

Test Drive Personal Algorithms (2) 

  1. Open Amazon. 
    • What are the top product recommendations? 
    • What activity may have caused Amazon to add these interests to your profile?
    • How might Amazon use these different interests in positive ways? In negative ways?

Pick a social media app of your choosing. Sift through the "For Your Page;" specifically, find (1) post promoting an idea and (2) a post promoting a product. Then, reflect on the following: 

  • Do you feel in control of what you consume online? Why or why not? 
  • What patterns do you notice? Any consistent #hastags? Are they words or adjectives you'd used to describe yourself or your interests?
  • In what ways might this content be part of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Do you think it’s popular because it's valuable—or is it valuable because it's popularized by the algorithm?

  • Who stands to profit from your engagement or purchase? Who is served when that idea spreads? Whose voice or viewpoint is being centered or amplified?

Sit for a moment to ponder the sheer scale of this impact on our culture. Millions of users be fed similar ideas on politics, consumerism, even gender norms. What implications are you drawing?

Metacognitive Evaluation | Writing Assignment

Please read the following student text from The Yale Review, "Is Life Online Real?"

Then in an approximately 500-750 word journal, reflect on the author's message, your learning today, and your own digital media experience. Jumping off points include: 

  • Attempt to answer the author's question, "What, exactly, is happening to me, my self, and my reality when I scroll on Instagram?"
  • Do you physically feel better or worse after scrolling through social media?
  • Do you feel in control of what you consume online? Why or why not? 
  • Be honest and hold yourself accountable. What is your daily social media usage? Reflect on your usage. 
  • Expand on our in-class discussion question, "Who stands to profit from your engagement or purchase? Who is served when that idea spreads? Whose voice or viewpoint is being centered or amplified?" 
  • Who stands to benefit from these search results economically, politically, and socially?

  • What persuasive forces are at play behind this AI-generated suggestion?