Have the topics discussed here made you interested in taking things further?

Courses

The OpenLearn website gives free access to Open University course materials, such as:

• Digital communications
• Information technology: a new era?
• Engineering: the nature of problems
• ICTs in everyday life

Or maybe you'll find something of interest in the OU engineering and technology podcasts.

Further study

The Open University has a wide range of relevant courses. Among them are:

Engineering the future (T173): an introduction to engineering from design concepts to the manufacture, including historical developments and future prospects.

Design thinking: Creativity for the 21st century (U101): this new course is based around an online virtual design studio, where you will upload your practical work – using images you have created – to discuss with other students and your tutor.

Networked living: exploring information & communication technologies (T175): looks at what ICT systems are, and their place in society.

Environment: journeys through a changing world (U116): this course introduces you to environmental studies and the issues arising from environmental change.

Innovation: designing for a sustainable future (T307): looks at how innovations emerge and translate into marketable products, and how innovation can be directed towards ensuring a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable future.

Design and designing (T211): shows the design processes that generate products and provides practice in basic design skills.

Communication and information technologies (T215): this course helps you to learn about new developments in digital communication and information technologies, and equips you with the understanding and skills to continue learning about them in the future.

Technologies for digital media (T325): investigates how this has come about, looking at the technologies behind digital media as well as some of the social, ethical and legal issues they raise.

Computers and processors (T224): this course uses examples, ranging from electronic kitchen scales to a robotic milking system, to examine computers and the functions they perform.

Data, computing and information (M150): explains how computers work, and gives you an understanding of software, hardware and data.

Understanding society (Y157): an introduction to concepts and debates within social sciences, including families, community, culture, global markets, migrant labour and social movements.

Further reading

'Bringing Technology Back Home. Gender and technology in a changing Europe'
edited by Cynthia Cockburn and Ruza Fürst-Dilic, Open University Press

'The Gender-Technology Relation. Contemporary Theory and Research'
edited by Keith Grint and Rosalind Gill, Taylor & Francis

'The Social Shaping of Technology. How the Refrigerator Got its Hum'
edited by Donald Mackenzie and Judy Wajcman, Open University Press

'Transforming Housewifery: Dispositions, Practices and Technologies'
by Elizabeth B Silva in The 'New' Family?
Edited by Elizabeth B Silva and Carol Smart, Sage

'Time and emotion in studies of household technologies'
by Elizabeth B Silva in Work, Employment & Society Volume 16 (2)

'The cook, the cooker and the gendering of the kitchen'
by Elizabeth B Silva in The Sociological Review 48 (4)

'Technofeminism'
by Judy Wajcman, Polity

Content last updated: 17/09/2009

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