Welcome to week 9, the second week of the ‘algorithmic culture’ block, and the penultimate taught week of the course!

This week is principally about finishing your ‘algorithmic play’, putting an artefact together that represents it as best you can, and, towards the end of the week, sharing this with the group.

Depending on the particular algorithmic system you are choosing to explore, it may take time for your ‘play’ to turn up results. Therefore, you might want to wait until early in week 10 to complete your artefact. However do bear in mind that week 10 will be fairly busy with wrapping up and submitting your lifestream, so please make sure to give yourself enough time for this.

when putting together your artefact, remember the questions guiding our algorithmic play:

• How has the algorithm affected the options you are given or what you can see?
• How have your actions changed what the algorithm has done?
• How have other people been involved in shaping results?
• Do results feel personal or limiting? Is this optimisation, or a ‘you loop’?
• What are the ethical issues at stake with your chosen algorithm? Is there data here that should be private?
• And of course, what are the implications for digital education implied by your chosen algorithm?

You may not be able to answer all of these, but do make sure to frame your work around the final question!

For inspiration, you are welcome to look at work from the previous instance of EDC: here. However, don’t be influenced too much by these artefacts, and try to let your own experiences of ‘algorithmic play’ come to the fore.

That’s it from me, look forward to seeing your work from this block of the course!