BIOL368/F20:Class Journal Week 7

Aiden Burnett

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 was particularly disturbed by the first image that came up on that Wikipedia page for "black women". Specifically because I looked through the talk/edits of that page out of curiosity (which I do now because of this class) and found that people have had to edit out a lot of abhorrently racist vandalism on the page (which is how that became the top image of the page in the first place).
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • The widespread misinformation concerning climate change is something I expect to grapple with often if I go into environmental science or a related field. Understanding how to discern the verisimilitude and motivations of sources is something I may need to explain to people who reference climate deniers (such as the NIPCC).

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • I was disturbed by the fact that the white, male, straight, able-bodied, European, middle-class, and Christian viewpoint(s) is (are) most predominantly represented in Google search results. I think that this is concerning because other groups have been historically (and presently) disadvantaged and if we are to build a better and more equitable world then these disadvantaged perspectives will need to be equally accessible to the average internet user.
2. What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • I think that the main thread among the three readings and workshop was the idea that in its current form, the internet is not an equitable distributor or information. The internet is often used to spread disinformation and unfairly signal boost the perspectives of white, male, straight, able-bodied, European, middle-class, and Christian individuals. This makes the use of the RADAR method, discussed in the workshop, essential to responsible users of the internet. Discerning the perspectives, biases, accuracy, etc. inherent to all sources helps offset the inequities found in many platforms/search engines.
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 think that this has supported my interest in researching how the European perspective has dominated ecological research for decades. We have seen this "command & control" model of ecology be challenged by new perspectives in the field, and I would like to learn more from these voices and possibly add to them.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • (How) can the effects of white/male dominance in the sciences be seen to have effected different field. I know about the effects on medicine and ecology but am curious about if this can be seen in fields like mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • (As a bioethics minor) Do you ever consciously employ bioethical theories such as principlism in the course of your work.

Aiden Burnett (talk) 19:09, 21 October 2020 (PDT)

Nathan Beshai

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.
   • Something that I found really disturbing is how easily accessible incorrect information is. Personally, I knew what Climate change is before entering college, but didn't have a true grasp on it until taking LMU courses. If I had stumbled upon a youtube video that did not contain correct information I could have been confused about climate change. Search engines and social media cannot monitor every piece of content on their websites. However, they can continue working on an algorithm that promotes correct information. Something that was exciting was the prospect of youtube and google changing certain parts of their algorithm so that they are not promoting false information or incorrect portrayals.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • If my dream of becoming a health professional becomes reality, I want to ensure that my patients have correct sources and are viewing correct information. With the internet providing infinite medical information, patients could look and find something that is not correct or does not pertain to their current state and perceive it as admissible. The workshop is to make sure that if a patient would come to me with a question or piece of information I wouldn't take their word for it and instead go through sources with them to make sure their information is correct and pertains to them. Although, I might know the answer the patient has the right for me to show them the information instead of just telling them.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • Something I found very interesting is how those who are creating algorithms for what pops up should not display the most popular websites because those can be offensive. Search engines and even health search engines need to make sure that not only correct information is shown but information that is sensitive to children and all the people who might come across the website. Something that I found disturbing was the Aspinall article which displayed how race and ethnicity were portrayed in healthcare search engines and the use of outdated racial terminology. If someone went to the health database and found something racially insensitive and offensive they may begin to doubt the healthcare field.
2. What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • The most common thread in these three articles is somebody searching for something in a type of search engine and not only getting something incorrect but can see something that can change their view on the subject. For example, if a young person of color googled black women and saw two women fighting on the first page they may think that people view women of color as violent. A teen can look in a scientific database and find a derogatory racial term, such as an outdated racial group, which might cause them to not trust a lot of the science. These things, like in the Digital Citizen Workshop, show that search engines should drown out insensitive material and steer people in the path of correct and up to date 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?
   • The readings really motivate me to keep up to date on new movements and ensuring that I stay accurate in everything I say with my patients. I think this will ensure that I can also contribute to helping fellow physicians and healthcare professionals keep up to date with terms and medical terminology. Something that motivates me is the fact that there is a movement, as shown in the Bodenreider and Stevens 2006 article, to modify and improve terminology. Contributing to this and keeping up to date is crucial in interacting with patients.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • In the healthcare field, have there been changes to curriculums to ensure diversity sensitivity and correct terminology?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   1. How do you think medical professionals can contribute to the politics that affect the healthcare field?
   2. What is one thing that you wish you knew before you entered the healthcare field?
   3. What is the light at the end of the tunnel after the COVID pandemic?

Nathan R. Beshai (talk) 19:21, 21 October 2020 (PDT)

Owen Dailey

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 was most simultaneously excited/disturbed by the fact that there are approximately 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. This is exciting because we truly do live in a modern age where a plethora of information is accessible for free. However, there are two sides of the same coin. The sheer amount of information being uploaded to YouTube every minute makes it impossible to monitor and fact-check, so there is no way of filtering out the false or unreliable information. This means that it is up to each individual to mentally go through RADAR in order to determine the reliability of the information that they are consuming, and if the American response to the 2016 election, COVID-19 pandemic, and studies on climate change have taught me anything it is that the American population is very susceptible to being fooled by information that would not pass the RADAR check.
• How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
  • Interestingly enough, this idea of RADAR and evaluating the legitimacy of information was recently brought up in a dental school interview that I participated in. An interesting technique that dental schools use to prepare students for the clinic in the second half of their education is to present the students with case studies in the first half of their education. This exposure to unique case studies forces the students to think critically, apply the knowledge gained in the didactic course work, and more importantly search through the scientific literature to assist in the case study. One of my interviewers was explaining this process to me, and mentioned that part of being a dentist is being able to decipher the good literature from the bad literature. She said that a surprising amount of results from dental scientific literature has been found to not be reproducible, and it is imperative that students be able to understand that not all information is going to be accurate. So, once in dental school, I will be using this RADAR technique quite often.

After you do the readings

• Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
  • I found that the top search results for “black girls” in the year of 2011 was porn. One can see how problematic it is for a young girl to search this as a way to learn more about her identity only to have her identity compromised by these horrible search results. This type of misrepresentation of people and their inherent identities was discussed by Noble in chapter five of her book. Another stark example of a blatant misrepresentation of people can be found in chapter five where Noble shows how a google search result autocorrected from “english major who taught herself calculus” to “english major who taught himself calculus.” This misrepresentation is a systemic problem that will take a wide effort to resolve.
• What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
  • The common thread amongst these readings is that although the internet and world wide web are highly beneficial tools that humans have at their disposal, the way in which these tools represent/categorize/present the information which they contain can be extremely incorrect and detrimental. In specific, large bounds need to be made to improve the way oppressed and marginalized populations are represented. This relates to the Digital Citizenship workshop because a part of being a good digital citizen is to recognize these systemic problems and work to solve them. Furthermore, there was a lot of talk in the Digital Citizenship presentation regarding the way we evaluate and interpret information that is presented; thus, we need to use these skills to ensure that the information we consume from the web is representative, true, and unbiased.
• How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
  • I know a problem that is facing the field of dentistry (and the whole healthcare field in general) is the problem of dental textbooks, dental experiments, and dental case studies normally revolve around a “white AND male AND straight AND European AND Christian AND middle-class AND able-bodied” patient (Noble 141). However, healthcare is extremely diverse, and I hope to take these lessons that I have learned from these readings and apply them in dental school by catering each treatment to the specific identity of each patient. I do not want to assume that every patient can be represented by the “white AND male AND straight AND European AND Christian AND middle-class AND able-bodied” patient represented in most dental literature (Noble 141).
• Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
  • How have databases and softwares worked to improve their algorithm to be more accurate in the representation of oppressed and marginalized populations? Can there be a true change on the digital level without a change in the “non-digital” system that perpetuates these misrepresentations?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's visit next week

• What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
  • What do you predict the relationship between medicine and technology will look like in the future?
  • What are some solutions to the “access to care” problem that the medical/dental field is currently facing?

Owen R. Dailey (talk) 21:24, 20 October 2020 (PDT)

Yaniv Maddahi

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 the part on RADAR and the amount of misinformation to be the most disturbing yet interesting. I also found the nature of algorithms somewhat disturbing in the way they can predict human nature and further curate content to maximize profit. We are surrounded by technology on a daily basis and even in this time, when we are essentially running our whole day on zoom and our computers, and for all of our habits to be tracked and having such a high probability of some of the information being incorrect, there needs to be better regulation.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • I plan on being a physician when I am older. Between now and then I will come across an incredible amount of information both in the classroom and online during my studying. It is important for me to be able to understand the nature of everything being put in front of me. That being said, these skills translate to the scientific world incredibly as well; when presented with any information, it is important for me to be able to use RADAR to analyze information presented to me.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • The most disturbing part of the readings came mostly from Algorithms of Oppression, The operationalization of race and ethnicity concepts in medical classification systems: issues of validity and utility, and Missed Connections. I found these two the most impactful because they spoke to the dangers of institutional racism and further the underlying systemic racism that is present within the medical field. The Algorithms of Oppression article was most disturbing to me because it highlighted how we may not necessarily be aware of the active shaping and molding technology is actually doing on a daily basis.
2. What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • They all address, to some degree, and some more so than others, issues of discrimination through use of technology and a theme of being aware of the information we are taking in on a daily basis. They all address the processes of creating, disseminating, and managing information and knowledge whether it be within the internet, healthcare, or anywhere else. They relate to the workshop because of they ways in which they expose the information and the natural biases that underlie them.
3. How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
   • The Bio-ontologies spoke to me most with regard to healthcare. Being able to predict healthcare patterns, understanding clinical terminology, and simply grasping the patterns by which scientists create, disseminate, and manage biomedical information and knowledge.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • Considering these readings and truly how prevalent all of this is, I would ask if there really is a solution to all of this and how we can prevent misinformation and even this systemic racism. Technology gives the whole world an incredible amount of both information, freedom, and access to the point at which there are essentially no true strict guidelines. It would be incredibly difficult to manage the information being distributed. What steps should be taken to start to filter the amount of misinformation, bais, and racism being implemented in our daily feeds?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • Where does he think the source is for change? At what point of the cycle does change need to occur? In the homes, in our schools, in the hospitals, the CEOs and executives, etc.? Where do you think the problem stems from?

Yaniv Maddahi Yaniv Maddahi (talk) 09:40, 21 October 2020 (PDT)

Anna Horvath

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.
   • An aspect of the workshop that I found disturbing was how readily available misinformation on the Internet is, as well as how easily our personal bias can be reflected in the media we consume. Specifically, YouTube’s algorithm seems to promote videos mainly with white individuals and ‘shadow bans’ other creators, meaning they do not recommend their videos. I found it disturbing that there is such a large amount of material uploaded to YouTube, and most of it is not fact-checked. This means that anyone is able to view it and form their opinions about it, despite the fact that it may not be factually correct. I found it disturbing that YouTube does not actively do anything to prevent this spread of misinformation.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • I hope to become a physician, and I find it disturbing that my patients might simply google their symptoms and use WebMD in order to find answers before going to a healthcare provider. I hope that in the future, both Google and YouTube ensure that the information provided on their websites or in their videos are fully credible. I hope that my future patients are not exposed to misleading information that prevents them from seeking professional care.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • The aspect of the reading I found the most disturbing was in Noble’s chapter 5. She wrote about how white, male, straight, able-bodied, European, middle-class, and Christian individuals compose the minority when everyone else is subtracted away. However, this group tends to compose the majority of search results because they drive the narrative of classification. Noble writes about the fact that Google autocorrected the search “English major who taught herself calculus” to “English major who taught himself calculus”. She also mentions the issue of pornography as a first-page search result for many women of color, while knowledge-based articles are hidden many pages away.

1. • The common thread among these readings is that information is very often categorized into groups, as this is how humans most readily digest it and utilize it efficiently. However, much of this classification is centered around white males, leaving out any other races/ethnicities. Ultimately, this leads to very biased searches, such as inappropriate information presenting itself on the very first page of Google. The Digital Citizenship workshop spoke a lot about ensuring that the information we consume is accurate. I believe that as future professionals in this field, we need to be aware of this bias present all around us and actively work against it.
2. How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
   • As a future physician, there are many biases that are present in the healthcare field. One bias that I have read a lot about is the fact that most medical textbooks present information about white males. This leaves out many races, and leads to confusion when these races might present with slightly different symptoms. For example, in terms of dermatology, black skin will not show the same patterns as white skin does. Yet, most textbooks do not show the other sides to the story, centering the narrative instead around white individuals. This is a bias that must be removed in order to alleviate the disparities in the field.
3. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • What are some ways that we are able to work to change the algorithm to display more relevant and unbiased information? How can different groups become better represented and take control of their own narrative? As future scientists, how can we ensure that this is happening?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • You spoke a lot about being innovators and bringing our passions to our future career paths in order to progress them. How open do you think the healthcare field is to change?
   • What do you feel is the best way to prepare ourselves to become future scientists?

Anna Horvath (talk) 11:48, 21 October 2020 (PDT)

Kam Taghizadeh

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.
   • One part that I found to be particularly disturbing is the vast amount of misinformation that is spread on youtube. Many youtubers are not educated enough in the subjects they speak on, and this can misguide viewers.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • As an aspiring doctor, it's important for me to only give out information that is backed by scientific evidence. As a physician, this is extremely important when it comes to the treatment of my patients.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • One aspect that was particularly interesting is in the Missed Connections paper, where it speaks on the fact that google provides its own investments such as youtube and google maps at the top of the list, over other websites that are in those same categories. What I found to be very disturbing in this same paper, is when they describe that google would often times priority rank anti semitic, Holocaust denial websites when one would search about Jewish people before 2011.
2. 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 like to become a dermatologist in the future, so the representation of all skin types is very important to me. I know, however, that the majority of skin conditions within textbooks are white. This poses a big problem, as one would not know what the skin condition might look like on black skin. It is very important for authors of textbooks to start displaying black skin, so that doctors may be able to help in a better way.
3. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • How would one be able to change the algorithm of search engines so that appropriate sites are shown when typing something in the search bar?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • What do you think science and technology will look like in the future?

Kam Taghizadeh (talk) 22:56, 21 October 2020 (PDT)

Fatimah Alghanem

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
   • One of the aspects that I found interesting, yet disturbing is what first comes up in a google search. Before the workshop, I didn't think of how Google's search is not by accident or/ and doesn't show random results but actually, it all falls into an algorithm which is controlled by people and controls the way that people think.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • As I plan to be a healthcare professional, what we talked about in the workshop is relevant in that in the future I should focus on the resources that I get my information from and how credible it is.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • the aspect of the reading that I found particularly disturbing is in "The operationalization of race and ethnicity concepts in medical classification systems." The fact that main medical database uses terms that sets a hierarchy between different races is very disturbing and it shows how racism is built into the system which is why our society suffers from it.
2. How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
   • Based on the workshop and specifically the reading; I don't plan to change my future career however I might pursue it somewhere else like in my home country. The reason being that I am a middle eastern and I have a middle eastern name too which might bring a lot of troubles for me when pursuing a career in the U.S.
3. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • is there a way that we make a change in terms of bias of race and the internet? if so how?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • As we complete to grow and start pursuing different careers, what do you think is essential advise that we should keep in mind?

Falghane (talk) 17:59, 21 October 2020 (PDT)

Ian Wright

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.
   • The RADAR exercise was a well structured method to check the validity of information sources. I ended up judging the information based off of the people and organizations presenting it. I'm not sure if this was the best way to analyze the validity, maybe source checking may have been better. However, in something like a news video like the anti-climate change video, finding sources is very difficult. This exercise made me appreciate scientific communication because it has a very effective style of citing sources of information.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • As an aspiring professional academic, I see lots of writing in my future. And much of the writing is going to deal with information that I have learned from other sources. So as not to perpetuate the spread of false information, I must be critical of the validity of what I read and subsequently write. I must also take care in clearly explaining the sources of the information I spread so as to communicate validity in what I say.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • There was a lot of discussion on how information is prioritized by certain individuals with agendas and intention hidden behind the information. This, of course, disturbed me but it also interested me. The comment in Noble's Missed Conceptions of google being a more powerful platform for information access than public libraries or information specialists was very interesting. When you compare google to an ontology like GO, it looks as if google is a sentient entity with intention and purpose. On the other hand, GO is a form of communication that is agreed upon by both those creating and those accessing the information. It is designed for efficient communication, not propagation of monetized information priority. On page 142 of Noble's Algorithms of Oppression, there's discussion over a google search 'English major who taught herself calculus' where google asked if the searcher meant 'himself'. I looked up 'English major who taught himself calculus' and found that google was correcting himself to herself. I looked at all the search results and realized that this correction was probably due to the fact that all the online content talking about english majors teaching themselves calculus are actually about this search that Noble is talking about. Google has seemingly responded to all of the activity over that search and now, it is so strong that it will correct a search using the word 'himself'. It looks as if google's results are dependent on the ebb and flow of current social phenomena. I wonder what reason it had for correcting 'herself' to 'himself' in the first place.
2. What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • They are all related to information accessibility. The Digital Citizenship Workshop was teaching us to be critical of information communicated over media, namely the internet. Since internet information accessibility includes information that is false and information prioritized for manipulative means, critical evaluation must be employed to validate sources 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?
   • I believe the criticism that a scientist must use to evaluate validity of scientific information is slightly different from what we learned in the workshop. Scientific criticism involves the inspection of an experiment's methodology and the statistics which were used to make sense of the results. The criticisms that must be employed in the broader world of internet information are much more nuanced. I now know that I need to practice information criticism more extensively before entering my professional field.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • Do you think racial misrepresentation on the internet could have any connections to modern world education? The people dictating the contents of the internet are those who are educated enough to do so. If full racial representation can be achieved in the academic world, will information foundations follow suit?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • I want to know if Dr. Speicher could see himself working with health systems in other nations!

Ian R. Wright (talk) 21:34, 21 October 2020 (PDT)

Macie Duran

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 already knew some examples of racist/biased coding, but it was interesting and disturbing to learn more about it. I feel like not many people are aware of how many biases are incorporated into technology and science. Science and technology tend to be viewed as very rigid and fact-based, but people seem to forget that there are humans behind it. I remembered seeing someone on Twitter who was filling out an online application, and the application would not accept the entry for her last name, as it was a two-letter name. In order to be able to submit the application, she would have to misspell her own name. Small details like that can be easily overlooked, and are quite prevalent. I think it’s extremely important that BIPOC are included more in these fields, and that they be considered more often when we are creating and sharing things.
2. 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 be skeptical of where the information you are consuming is coming from. It is incredibly easy to spread misinformation on the internet, so we must be critical when analyzing sources. It’s also important to recognize your own biases and check yourself often. I plan on going into nursing, and the amount of racism in the medical field is extremely concerning. I want to make sure that I am aware of those biases, and that I do not perpetuate them or allow others around me to perpetuate them.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing.
   • I really enjoyed reading Safiya Umoja Noble’s article from Bitch magazine and her The Future of Knowledge in the Public chapter. She detailed how often bias and racism can go unnoticed in algorithms. For example, searching “Black girls” on Google in 2011 would lead to porn as the top results. This sexualization of Black women and other WOC can be incredibly harmful when young women are seeking to figure out their identities. As a Latina, I know this all too well. I was happy to see that when I searched “Black girls” today, my top results were uplifting or educational. For example, Black Girls Code, Therapy for Black Girls, and Black Girls Vote. It is important that Google and other search engines are held to a certain standard in regard to the prioritization of results from searches about identity, sensitive subjects, political topics, etc.
2. What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to the Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • All of these readings explore how information is created and shared, and the implicit biases that are present in nearly everything we consume online. It is clear that many changes need to be made in the way that information is presented and shared on the internet. While it can be incredibly beneficial, it also has the ability to be detrimental. Sexism, racism, homophobia, and other hateful biases are able to flourish on the internet, and it is crucial that we are able to access information that is reliable and accurate.
3. How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
   • As I mentioned in a previous answer, there are many biases that are deeply ingrained in healthcare. For example, Black women are much more likely to die during childbirth than white women are. Black women do not receive the same merit or level of care that others do. Because I am planning on going into healthcare, it is important that I actively work against racism in the medical field.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • How can we hold the creators of software systems to a higher standard to ensure that accurate, unbiased information is prioritized?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher’s visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • Do you think that changes are currently being made in the medical field to combat the systemic racism and biases that have persisted?

(Macie Duran (talk) 19:33, 21 October 2020 (PDT))

JT Correy

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 feel like I already had a decent grasp on the problems with social media. I think that the workshop reinforced the ideas I already had much more than it taught me new information. I haven’t looked too much into YouTube specifically so it was interesting to learn a bit about that. I think that social media itself is exciting in the ability to connect with people, and when the librarians elaborated on in that regard can be scarry. For example, I can reach out to people I went to elementary school with, but I have to follow them and actively engage with them. The flip side of that (which is the problem) is the social media companies force you to engage with passive information as well. Things like political tunnel-vision is a real problem and the corporations are not doing nearly enough to combat it.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • I think that it is super applicable to my future careers in many ways, and even now with clubs and extracurriculars. When someone applies to an organization I am a part of, or even if someone just mentions a name that I don’t recognize, it is fairly likely that I will look up their social media. If they don’t have interesting information in their bio, I can at least see who I know that follows them, and then I have an avenue to learn more about them. In short, I think that social media has the biggest impact on networking. One huge downside, and potentially problem that will come in my career as a doctor (hopefully I become a doctor) is misinformation. I know that I have posted articles and links without properly reading them and checking for accuracy. I like to think I am good and mitigating the useless or incorrect information but I am definitely not perfect.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • Up until the library workshop I knew that search engines alter results based on the user, but I didn’t know they were so attuned to single word or phrases. When I speak with my grandparents, they use some colloquium that I don’t understand, but based on the context of the conversation and my understanding of them as people, I can infer what those words mean. Similarly, when my parents try and use slang that my brothers and I use, they often completely miss the mark. Again, I am able to infer what they are saying and don’t get too hung up on their error (unless it is to make fun of them). Based off the readings, I think that this is a major problem with search engines and the algorithms behind them. If I search something into google or bing, like Safiya Nobel did, the engine it is going to focus on the words, rather than the intention behind them. Her example of searching for “women athletes” and the top results regurgitated “top 25 sexiest female athletes” ignores the entire intention behind her words. The search engines assume that what she is looking for, rather than fully understanding the connotation and context of her search. I think that this assumption that the search engines make is exceedingly troubling.
2. What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • All of the readings and the workshop focus on the negatives. Yes, there are some clear issues that need to be improved upon, but I think they lack a bit of optimism. Search engines are an amazing tool that have revolutionized much of our daily lives. I think it is necessary to bring to light the racism, sexism, and other issues, but they can becoming an even better tool. Part of digital citizenship, and ever the RADAR technique, is analyzing the authority of the source. When I search things I always have in the back of my mind that I am getting biased results. I guarantee that no where in the first page will there ever be something about hoe climate change is a myth, I follow way to many climate activists for that to happen. But because I purposely go out to investigate those things I know that they are still out there. We need to mix the algorithms to be less bias, but these are still amazing processes and should be acknowledged for that.
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 think the most important thing is just being aware. Be aware that everything you get is targeted. I feel like my professors, education, and family/friends all do a fantastic job at urging me to use multiple sources for various perspectives. If I am going to be a doctor one day, it is very much worth my time to analyze anti-vaxx forums and try to understand where their views come from so I can provide the most educated and fitting response when I encounter those people.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • Clearly there are flaws with regular search engines, but how do data bases and specifically LMU databases mitigate these biases?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher’s visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • What do you know about DO programs versus MD programs?
   • I want to be a doctor because I have a passion for interacting with and helping people on a personal level, now that you work in the industry side on medicine are you still able to make those connections?

Jcorrey (talk) 22:33, 21 October 2020 (PDT)

Nida Patel

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 the sheer amount of information available on the internet, specifically YouTube, to be exciting, yet disturbing at the same time. While it is exciting to have easy access to so much content, the lack of filtration and fact checking make it so that wrong information is easily circulated amongst viewers and consumers, which poses a threat to the general public's perception on practically any subject.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • I plan on pursuing a field in healthcare and even amongst the people I associate with, people tend to self-diagnose based on symptoms and information they find online. The workshop emphasizes the negative effects of such use of the internet and causes a lot of issues, including distrust of an individual's medical practitioner. Acknowledging the misinformation available on the internet will be a recurring issue I will most likely face when interacting with patients.

After you do the readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • The article on race and ethnicity in medicine focuses in on the associations of terminology and categories within medicine and race. Largely medical terminology has been based around the white male and makes racial distinction around this base, this causes many problems around the world as information is so globally shared. I think its disturbing how deep internalized racism is that it can easily pose a problem to medicine in such a large manner though it is meant to be unbiased.
2. What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • The workshop and articles all discussed an issue relating technology and the racial underlying stereotypes incorporated into its foundation. All the articles discussed ways where such racism is prevalent in all aspects of information, including medicine, and ways to mitigate or recognize such flaws and recognize their negative implications.
3. How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
   • The articles changed the way I would practice my own career in healthcare, with a better general understanding of the racial inequity from the beginning, an overcompensation and more detailed overlook at cases involving target ethnic minorities would be an important part of what I would do.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • What would be effective legislation to limit the spread of false information.without crossing the lines of limits of speech, is it even possible to limit false information on the internet?

In preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's visit next week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • How do you think the relationship between medicine and technology will be in the near future?

Nidapatel (talk) 22:54, 21 October 2020 (PDT)

Taylor Makela

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 the aspect of the amount of information on the internet to be disturbingly interesting. I am certainly grateful for the amount of information on the internet as it serves as a great library of sources for entertainment, research, etc., however, the fact that there is very little control or discrepancy over what is posted on the internet is definitely concerning.
2. How is what was talked about in the workshop relevant to your future career as a scientist or health care professional?
   • In the future, I hope to work in medicine and be a doctor. In this field, it is common to get patients that will come in and tell you what they think is wrong with them because they already did research on the internet and self-diagnosed. I know that in the past, I have been guilty of this myself. When I got really sick, I would look up my symptoms on the internet to try to see what could be wrong with me. As shown in our Digital Citizen Workshop, there is a lot of false information on the internet, and it is important that people not try to diagnose themselves before seeing a medical professional -- doing so will likely only lead to anxiety and stress that is unnecessary.

After The Readings

1. Please comment on what aspect of the readings that you found particularly interesting, exciting, or disturbing?
   • I found the article regarding racism in medicine particularly interesting and disturbing. A majority of medical terminology and study is based on white patients. This causes many problems because different diseases/infections/viruses/conditions may look differently in patients of different races and ethnicities. I think it is important that in the future, there is a focus on adding more racially diverse curriculum and terminology to medical school practices.
2. What is the common thread amongst these three readings and how are they related to Digital Citizenship Workshop?
   • All three of the readings, in addition to the topics discussed in the workshop, discussed the prevalence of racism and stereotyping within various fields including technology and medicine. It is important to recognize the presence of this form of racism so that it can be corrected.
3. How might you change your practice in your future career as a scientist or health care professional based on the workshop and readings?
   • Based on the information that I learned in the readings and the workshop, in my future career, I know that I will make it a priority to study ad recognize the medical and terminology differences between ethnicities. I want to make sure that I am not contributing to the inequality within medicine and healthcare.
4. Write a discussion question based on the workshop and readings that you would like to talk about further.
   • What can be done to help stop this problem of inequality and racism within the healthcare system?

In Preparation for Dr. Stephen Speicher's Visit Next Week

1. What questions do you have for Dr. Speicher?
   • In what ways does the prevalence of technology have negative and/or positive effects your career as a doctor?

Taylor Makela (talk) 23:59, 21 October 2020 (PDT)