BIOL368/S20:Class Journal Week 4

Karina Vescio

After library workshop

Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.

• I found it interesting, as well as disturbing to see the way information is shared on the internet. Different news outlets or organizations share information via YouTube, but often times they do not provide necessary background information or scientific evidence to their claims. This is disturbing because there is a lot of false information out there, and for those who are not inclined to do further research, it may be quite confusing to differentiate the true from the false.

How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?

• I believe it is very relevant to scientists and health care professionals. For example, currently, there is a lot of false information about the novel coronavirus circulating the web and social media outlets. It is frustrating for scientists and health care professionals because most people are believing what they hear online about the virus rather than speaking to those who have knowledge on the subject. It also is provoking fear in particularly the younger generation persons who have not yet learned how to do proper research. I have seen this trend happening in the ER as many patients are coming in with a common cold or influenza, and believe that they have the coronavirus or something else more serious. Many google their symptoms and believe that information rather than their own physician. It does make it frustrating because scientists and medical professional spend a lot of time and money learning about diseases and the body, to only have people argue with them about what they hear on social media or google.

After the readings

Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?

• I found it disturbing that medical classification is based a lot on race and separates people in a hierarchal structure based on race.

What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?

• Common thread is these readings is the use of computers to store data. Technology has been vital and important to medical advancements, and with storing patient history, separating patients, comparing patients, studying common trends in diseases.

How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?

• Whether I become a physician and work with patients, or become a scientist; I want to ensure that my practice is ethical. I want to do all the proper research before confirming anything, and to also provide fair and equal treatment for everyone.

Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.

• How can we educate everyone on how to do proper research, and how to determine what is true verses false on the internet?

Kvescio (talk) 23:14, 11 February 2020 (PST)

Christina Dominguez

After workshop

1. During the beginning of the workshop, I did not know what was meant by the question, "Do you think the internet is neutral"? I found it interesting and a little disturbing to learn about the ways in which it is not neutral. I became more aware of the fact that we are almost always online in some way and there are a lot of platforms to track interest online that allows the internet to not be considered neutral.
2. It is relevant in understanding that almost everything on the internet, including what looks to be a scientific paper or statement, needs to be evaluated further and carefully. This is important for me as I want to be in healthcare and the things that I say and relay to other people must be rooted in fact. It is an important reminder to not believe everything you see even when it comes from a company that seems to be of general authority and credibility in the science world.

After readings

1. I found it disturbing that a popular and widely used medical classification system included racialized terms and categories. This was mostly shocking due to the potential of impact given its wide use in medicine and potential issues involving adopted perspectives of biological health differences due to race.
2. In a changing world in which technology is more in use and in high demand, biological tools are more readily available to the public and professionals. This also means that popular datasets and tools are given more credibility and authority as scientific and based in fact. This can cause potential problems such as with MEDLINE and EMBASE where classification systems can be racialized and biased. With a biomedical classification system, this type of racial bias causes problems when information on this site is taken as fact and science and widely used.
3. In my future career in health care, I want to be able to address and think critically about the way in which information is presented. Learning from the workshop that the internet is not neutral is important to implement into my practice of interacting and relaying information to people that I work with and see.
4. What can the general public do to create an internet atmosphere that is less bias?

Cdominguez (talk) 16:35, 11 February 2020 (PST)

Madeleine King

After the library workshop, but before the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.
   • I thought it was interesting how they emphasized the logical shortcomings of technology. Usually, the first thought to one’s mind isn’t that technology is biased, or can be racist or sexist in anyway. But it is true and important to consider that there are humans who decided that code, and it can vary depending on who designed it or put the information in. It is important to keep in mind how to make technology fit for everyone and to have a moral component, versus just a bunch of logical equations.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • It can affect doing research, for example if I want to make a medicine and I only take protein or blood samples only from White individuals instead of finding a diverse cohort to study. Maybe it could be successful, but if I only tested it on white individuals it doesn’t take into account other races and maybe could work on other individuals when they try it. It also could affect how I read papers in the scientific community. We talked about how someone who has a PhD and sponsored by a university doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a great paper or they have good data. One should always be aware and skeptical when reading scientific papers or listening to seminars. Knowing credentials, the motive, and data from the individual can help one not to just brush over the data, and not assume that they are right or wrote a good paper.

After the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • I thought it was interesting that scientific databases had some bias in their system too. It didn’t shock me as much that a search engine has some bias and unethical results, but the fact that the scientific community has the same problem isn’t good. I would expect since they are scientists and society looks up to them, that there wouldn’t be a problem with the databases.
2. What is the common thread among these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • The common thread among these three readings is striving towards a universal “code” in a way, similar to DNA, on providing information that is accessible to everyone as well as understood by everyone. A problem about technology is that it is limited by whoever puts in the information or creates the algorithm, so by spreading awareness about how to recognize these algorithms, one can lead to a more universal and ethical database of information.
3. How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
   • If I was making a biological database, I would make sure I’m using the right vocabulary while describing race and ethnicity as well as include as much diverse information as possible.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further
   • What would a 'good' public search engine look like and how would one be able to design it?

Mking44 (talk) 19:46, 11 February 2020 (PST)

Maya Paniagua

After the library workshop, but before you do the readings Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.

• What I found most disturbing was when asked to reflect on how many hours I spend on the web I calculated around 7 hours per day. This fact is so disturbing because what was shown to us demonstrates that the internet has bias and people are very good at molding information to make it appear to be true without having anyone question it, and I spend a majority of my time awake looking at this information and taking it without question.

How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?

• I believe it is relevant in my future career because as a health care professional I need to be aware that patients will have certain bias and I myself will have certain bias from the information we have both heard and it will be my job to put bias aside and make sure I am giving the patient all of the information I can.

After you do the readings Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?

• That technology though thought of as an equalizer to some is actually fostering the amount of inequality and social injustice that appears in the world today.

What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?

• The common thread amongst these three readings, related to the Digitial Citenzship Workshop, is that they expose the issue with technology bias and how it affects society.

How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?

• Based off of these readings in my future career, I need to be aware of biases that I have and how to put them aside to make sure each patient feels well taken care of and that I informed them on every option possible

Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.

• What kind of regulations are put in place for internet content?

Mpaniag1 (talk) 18:57, 12 February 2020 (PST)

Nicholas Yeo

After the library workshop, but before you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.
   • I found it especially disturbing to find that major companies can warp information in order to get a specific message across. We are taught in earlier grades to check the publisher to see if they are credible or not, but what we found in the workshop is that even credible sources may not publish correct information. Furthermore, to address the question asking whether or not technology is neutral, I think that it is almost impossible for any human to remain one-hundred percent neutral. These humans are the ones who are putting code into computers and creating the technology that we use today. Therefore, the information that is produced is usually not neutral.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • The information that we talked about in the workshop is incredibly relevant to my future as a healthcare professional. In the field, to give each patient the care they deserve, I must be able to put aside biases. The information I receive about each patient is for me to help them, not for me to change the way I would treat them holistically.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • I find it disturbing to think that information that I look for on the internet may not be truthful, especially when I may be using that information for my professional career. I always thought of google search as this haven of information, but I did not think it would racialize searches.
2. What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • The common thread between these three readings is pointing out that even though information seems to be objective and from a neutral perspective, there are inherent biases throughout the technological world and it is up to the audience to discern whether something is correct or not. Not many know to do this, so advocating for more to have a critical eye when searching up information is crucial for society in general.
3. How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
   • I personally have gotten to participate in a program that centered around working in a hospital and assisting professionals in providing healthcare, so I got to see a wide variety of patients and how they were treated. Moving forward, I want to be able to stay away from bias and only utilize the information that helps me in providing the best care that I possibly can, while building personal relationships with patients that I will come to care about.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • Are search engines too developed at the moment for anything to be done to achieve less bias? Or is there anything we can do to help creators eliminate bias within the technological world?

Jack Menzagopian

After the workshop

1. What I found most interesting was that it is so easy to practice good info literacy, yet many people don't seem to do it today. For example, during the video exercise, finding out information about the video I was assigned, who posted it, and who spoke in it only took a few clicks. There were more things I could have done to get more information about the reliability of the video I was assigned but just within the 5 minutes is spent on the exercise I would say that I had a good enough understanding about the background for the video to come to a decision about its reliability. Even though practicing info literacy takes no more than 5 minutes, there is still so much misinformation and disinformation being spread, which I found interesting. I also thought the underwater network of internet cables was really cool.
2. As a pharmacist, I would constantly need to stay up to date with new drug developments and with alternatives healthcare options for patients. Unfortunately, drug prices can be high for many patients or the more affordable option may conflict with other medications they are prescribed to. One of my responsibilities as a pharmacist is to try to work around these obstacles to help patients receive the best care they can, and to do that I would need to keep up with news about different treatment options. However, not all affordable treatment options are reliable. Patients could turn to natural remedies as cures for their ailments, but they are not always reliable options. Some herbal tea may be good for a stomach ache, but if the cause of that pain a tumor, tea probably won't do much. I would need to practice info literacy to understand the reliability of the multitude of treatments available to best alleviate a patient's physical and monetary pains.

After the readings

1. What I found most interesting was the discussion about the medical field's reliance on outdated, race and ethnicity based classifications and how the community has fallen behind other professional bodies in pursuing newer, more contextually sensitive terms in its databases.
2. The common thread between the readings and the workshop is that they discuss how biases can bleed into technology and how that has an affect on the way people practice their profession.
3. I will try to be more aware of my biases, the biases of my colleagues, and biases that can bleed into the literature and databases I will need to use for my career to care for my clients in the best way possible.
4. Is it even possible to have a truly unbiased search engine if biased people are the ones coding it?

Jmenzago (talk) 22:39, 12 February 2020 (PST)

Carolyn Egekeze

After the library workshop

1. Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.
   1. One aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that I found interesting was the idea that technology is not really neutral As humans, we can often put our biases into technology that we consider neutral when we're designing it. Or, as was displayed in the Wikipedia example about black women, technology can reinforce harmful stereotypes unintentionally. I think that there is a really important idea to get across to other people because there is always this idea that technology is somehow completely divorced from humans and human biases, but that is not accurate or true.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   1. The content of this workshop is relevant to my career as a scientist or health professional because technology is becoming a huge part of those fields. In either profession, I hope to work to help people and part of helping people is making sure the technology that I plan to work with is actually unbiased. It would also mean that I need to be a more cognizant consumer of technology so that I am aware of the biases a piece of tech may have.

After the readings

• Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
  • I found it concerning how much of the medical terminology regarding race that is often used today is still based on discriminatory terminology and conceptualizations of race from the past. However, I thought it was a good thing that there were people in the biomedical field thinking about these terms and how we can replacement with language that is more accurate and respectful of people.
• What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
  • The interesting and important ideas that were discussed in Aspinall (2005), Bodenreider and Stevens (2006), and Noble (2018) all help to explain how the information that we receive from technology comes about. Information that we perceive to be objective is not really as objective as we want to believe it is. The information and technology that we use can still show human biases, even if we don't intend for bias to be present. This affects how we use technology and can impact the way that people who use technology to work carry out their jobs.
• How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
  • I think that I will need to take more steps to be cognizant of my own biases, and also look for signs of bias in the information that I consume. I would also try to look more into the sources of any information I use and to listen when people say that a term or portrayal is discriminatory and hurtful.
• Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
  • How should we go about addressing bias when designing new technology? How do we ensure that language we use, especially in seemingly "objective" fields like science and health, is respectful and inclusive?

Carolyne (talk) 23:40, 12 February 2020 (PST)

Annika Dinulos

After the library workshop

• Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.
  • I liked thinking about all the ways that technology could be biased, it was interesting to think about there was probably nothing meant by the soap dispenser not recognizing darker skin, but it was still biased. Likewise, most technology is probably built to be unbiased but there’s no way to achieve that 100%.

• How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
  • I think it’s important to talk about technology and the ethics behind it because as technology becomes a bigger role in the workplace, it is important to keep up with good practices and acknowledge all the ways that technology could be harmful.

After you do the readings

• Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
  • I found it very surprising that the US Census found such a difficult time trying to distinguish between ethnicities and races, and that they didn’t have a basis for the different classifications.

• What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
  • The three readings link technology and how it can be limited and biased towards whoever is creating the technology. This is extremely relevant now, as technology continues to be implemented in everyday life.

• How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
  • I would strive to accommodate my career to the idea that like technology, the world is evolving and coming up with more inclusive ways that people can identify themselves with. I would like the people I work with to always feel comfortable and try to make sure any technology that is involved with potential research isn’t biased.

• Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
  • What are the best practices that people should employ to ensure that they are being the most inclusive when using technology?

Adinulos (talk) 21:46, 12 February 2020 (PST)

Sahil Patel

After the library workshop, but before you do the readings

• Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.
  • I found it so disturbing that any information can be put onto various platforms without really being backed by actual evidence. However, there is also an upside to technology as it has been molded to provide as a resource for scholars and others out there who simply seek to learn more about the world.
• How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
  • The most relevant thing that I learned from the workshop was the RADAR technique. This is very important in the scientific and health care world because it allows researchers to objectively decide whether or not a piece of information found online is credible and/or trustworthy.

After you do the readings

• Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
  • I found it interesting that the information we see online can be tailored to fit a certain way of thinking and how once someone falls into this trap, they can easily be swayed or misguided by miss/disinformation.
• What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
  • The most obvious common thread among the readings and the workshop was the emphasis on social media biases and the algorithms which dictate the information we see and how this narrows our scope of finding truth in what we read or see.
• How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
  • One way would be by implementing the RADAR technique in the research that we do.
• Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
  • How might one go about avoiding the temptations of subjective and opinion based literature when researching things that he or she is passionate about?

Sahil Patel (talk) 20:30, 12 February 2020 (PST)

Nathan On

Before Readings

Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.

• It was interesting to see the numerous examples of how technology can predispose us to certain unhealthy mindsets and attitudes without our knowledge.

How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?

• It is always important to evaluate the background and intentions of sources when come across; we should not always trust every study we come across that claims to show evidence of some groundbreaking claim.

After Readings

Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?

• The operationalization of race and ethnicity concepts in medical classification systems article interested me as I had never realized the underlying difficulties in a system that tried to characterize people based on race and ethnicity. Because of the need for standardization, finding a universally acceptable system for grouping people is inherently difficult and perhaps impossible.

What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?

• All three readings focus heavily on the importance of language in how it shapes we learn and characterize information. The Bio-Ontologies reading looked at the evolution of bioinformatics over time and how the Internet has allowed for the growth and standardization of the field. The race and ethnicity article looked at the difficulties in grouping people by race and ethnicity in medical databases, as they often relied on outdated terms. The Algorithms of Oppression chapter looked at how Google's search suggestions helped reinforce troubling stereotypes and notions of superiority.

How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?

• I will analyze all of the sources and papers I read with an increased focus of the impact of the language and terms that they use. It is important to never to take for granted the everyday phrases that we might use, as they can unknowingly harmful impacts on our interactions with others.

Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.

• Is there even a way to create a search engine that doesn't have harmful bias?

Jenny Chua

After the library workshop

Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizen Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.

I thought the beginning question and discussion that followed was the most interesting regarding if technology is neutral. At first when I answered, I had stated that the hardware was neutral but the software was not, but after hearing some discussion from fellow classmates, I realized that technology has to be designed by someone else, i.e. a person, and that someone else has their own biases. For example, we can say that the new iPhone was designed by someone who is really into photography, so that's why it has an amazing camera; though, it might not have the absolute best battery life that it could because its designer did not see it as important for him or herself. Though, I think one thing we all agreed on is that software is definitely not netural. Targeted ads are a common and relatable example, as I could be simply talking about wanting to do or buy something, and I'll get multiple ads in a row on Facebook or Instagram for that product. If that's not disturbing, I don't know what is.

How is what we talked about in the workshop relevant to my career as a scientist or health care professional?

As someone who wants to be in secondary education, I find such value in being able to be educated on where to find reliable information and what to even count as reliable or credible in the first place. In most of my science classes, both in high school and at LMU, I've had to write multiple papers using outside scholarly resources, and it can be difficult to find unbiased and professional sources appropriate for academia. Hopefully, I can use R.A.D.A.R. in my classes to help inform and promote healthy technology interactions amongst my students.

After the readings

Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing? Like pretty much everyone else, I was shocked to find that scientific and medical databases still include racialized and very dated terms. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about the term "Caucasian" the other day adn it's not even really geographically accurate anymore. To be honest, I'm shocked "Oriental" isn't in the database too, but "Mongoloid" is pretty bad as well. The main issue I have with this is that it is so limiting to so many people who don't fall within these categories. Also, science is supposed to inherently be as nonbiased as possible, and it's upsetting that these terms are still in use in the scientific world.

What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to the Digital Citizenship Workshop and readings? The common thread amongst these three readings and the Digital Citizen Workshop is that they expose how biased technological systems can be and how it further represents biases and microaggressions in society.

How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based off the workshop and readings?

I definitely think the R.A.D.A.R. method is helpful in analyzing some more news-based articles or pieces. With the climate change exercise we did in the workshop, it was clear that the producers were trying to make their case look formal, and that can be deceiving to many who don't know how to analyze their media sources. So hopefully in my classes, I can find a way to incorporate that and set my students off on a successful college route.

Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.

What is the "best," meaning most non-biased, search engine on the World Wide Web? How do we know this to be true?

Drew Cartmel

After the workshop, but before you do the readings

Please comment on what aspect of the Digital Citizenship Workshop that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.

• An aspect of the Digital Citizenship workshop that I found to be interesting was the example of how a soap dispenser was labeled as racist. The video that went with this statement showed a soap dispenser in a bathroom that would pump soap for lightly pigmented skin and not for darker pigmented skin. It is obvious that this mechanism involved was not intended to be racist towards particular ethnicites, however it did demonstrate that there might have been a lack of ethnic diversity in the group that designed it. This brought up the idea that many mechanisms in technology are developed with the intention of being neutral, however they can then be used in ways that can be seen as discriminatory or non-inclusive towards certain groups of people.

How is what we talked about in the workshop relevant to your future as a scientist or health care professional?

• What we talked about is relevant to my future career as a health care professional because I can apply the guidelines that were mentioned to consider the credibility of sources that I am gathering information from. I can utilize these methods to decide whether or not I can trust the information that I am receiving, which may prevent me from depending on misleading or incorrect data/facts.

After you do the readings

Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?

• Something that I found to be interesting about these readings was the use of different categories of race and ethnicity to divide up the population and how these categories have changed over time to be more inclusive and specific.

What is the common thread amongst these readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?

• A common thread among these readings is that even though certain technological mechanisms might have been designed with neutral intentions, they can be manipulated to present certain biases which influence the ways in which people in society receive information on the internet.

How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?

• I might change my practice in my future career as a health care professional by making sure to utilize more objective based strategies when I attempt to solve complicated or controversial issues. Disregarding potential biases when addressing certain problems might allow for the resulting solutions to be more beneficial to all those involved without favoring any particular group of individuals.

Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.

• Should search engines be more upfront to their users about the possible biases that may be present in their software or which advertisers they are affiliated with?

Dcartmel (talk) 22:58, 12 February 2020 (PST)