Skip to main content ITU
ITU
  • Dk
  • Vacancies
  • Press
  • ITU Alumni
  • News
  • Events
  • Contact
  • About ITU
  • Dansk
  • About ITU
x
  • Programmes
    • BSc Programmes
      • BSc in Global Business Informatics
      • BSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies
      • BSc in Software Development
      • BSc in Data Science
      • Applying for a BSc Programme
      MSc Programmes
      • MSc in Data Science
      • MSc in Digital Innovation & Management
      • MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies
      • MSc in Computer Science
      • MSc in Software Design
      • MSc in Games
      • Applying for an MSc Programme
      Student Life
      • Meet some of our international students
      • Women in tech
      • Student Organisations at ITU
      • Labs for students
      • Practical Information for International Students
      • Study Start
      • Study and Career Guidance
      Guest Students
      • Who can be a Guest Student
      • ITU Summer University
      • Exchange Student
        • Become an exchange student at ITU
  • Professional Education
    • Master in IT
      • Master in IT Management
      Single Subjects
      • About single subjects
      Contact
      • Contact us here
  • Research
    • Departments
      • Business IT Department
      • Computer Science Department
      • Digital Design Department
      • Research Groups and Labs
        • Research Groups
        • Labs
      Research Centres
      • Centre for Computer Games Research
      • Center for Computing Education Research
      • Centre for Digital Welfare
      • Centre for Information Security and Trust
      • European Blockchain Centre
      • Research Centre for Government IT
      • Research Ethics and Integrity
        • Good Scientific Practice
      Selected Research Themes
      • Artificial intelligence
      • Big Data
      • Computer games
      • Blockchain
      • Digitalization
      • IT security
      • Find a Researcher
        • Faculty Search
      PhD Programme
      • About the PhD Programme
      • Available PhD Positions
      • PhD Courses
      • PhD Defences
      • Technical Reports
        • Technical Reports
  • Collaboration
    • Collaboration with students
      • Project collaboration
      • Student worker
      • Project market
      • ITU job and project bank
      • Portraits of ITU graduates
      Employer Branding
      • IT Match Making
      • Hiring an ITU student or graduate
      • Make a post in the job bank
      Research collaboration
      • Industrial PhD
      Innovation and entrepreneurship
      • ITU Business Development
      • Startup stories
  • Programmes
    • Homepage: Programmes
    • BSc Programmes
    • MSc Programmes
    • PhD Programme
    • Student Life
    • Guest Students
    • Exchange students
  • Professional Education
    • Homepage: Professional Education
    • Master in IT
    • Single subjects
    • Contact
  • Research
    • Homepage: Research
    • Research Departments
    • Research Ethics and Integrity
    • Good Scientific Practice
    • Research Groups and Centers
    • Labs
    • Technical Reports
    • PhD Programme
    • Center for Digital Welfare
  • Collaboration
    • Homepage: Collaboration
    • Employer Branding
    • Collaboration with students
    • Research collaboration
    • Industrial PhD
    • Employer Branding
    • Innovation and entrepreneurship
  • Shortcuts
    • Vacancies
    • Press
    • ITU Alumni
    • News
    • Events
    • Contact
    • About ITU
  • Dansk
ITU collaborates with Harvard
ITU  /  Press  /  News from ITU  /  ITU collaborates with Harvard

ITU collaborates with Harvard

Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that you’re not alone in what you think, experience and do. As it helps to know that people everywhere are different. In the intersection between alike and unlike students on Society and Technology on Global Business Informatics met online with a class at Harvard University last year. This is what happened.

CollaborationsEducation

Written May 11, 2015 1:56 PM

The Internet is - a few dictatorships excluded - the same everywhere around the world. But do we, Homo Sapiens, go about using it the same way no matter what our background is? That’s a question sought answered on both the course Society and Technology at the IT University and Exploring Race and Community in the Digital World at Harvard University in the US, and last year the two classes met online for an exchange of digital autobiographies sharing their first experiences with the WWW and the many facets of their use of it today.

Society and Technology, a first year, first semester course on the Global Business Informatics program about the inseparability of society and technology, is taught by assistant professor Rachel Douglas-Jones and she first met her American counter, lecturer on African and African American Studies at Harvard Carla Denny Martin, when they both studied at the American university back in 2007.

“The idea for this collaboration arose when Carla and I met up during a research trip I made to Harvard in spring 2014. I knew she was teaching Race and Technology because we had already reconnected over Twitter, and we realised our students sometimes struggled to contextualise their own experiences with different technologies, some of which defined eras of their lives. So using the old fashioned pen pal idea, we proposed to put our students in touch with one another, so they could share digital autobiographies,” explains Rachel Douglas-Jones.

What makes a digital citizen?

In the digital autobiographies the students reflected on their own trajectory so far with technology, specifically IT. The purpose was to give students opportunity to get to know the different experiences of their peers on another continent and allow them to use this reflection to sensitise them to the national, historical and infrastructural specificities of their engagement with digital technologies, and to help them see how the experiences of their peers around the world may differ.

»

It was interesting to see that where the role of gaming [...] in childhood sociality and as introduction to the web was very similar, the Danish and American students almost couldn’t be more different when it came to trust.

Rachel Douglas-Jones

«
“The ambition was to see this reflexive moment inform how the students engaged with the texts as the course progressed, and the realisation that their perspectives and experiences are not necessarily shared by their age-peers world over was certainly evident,” says Rachel Douglas-Jones.

“As an international teacher myself, I was surprised by the role of Danish social media networks in their childhoods, and also by the centrality of gaming both for the Danish and American students. Discussions about the Danish CPR number and American Social Security numbers led to in depth discussions of the role of the state, questions of data privacy and the different expectations held by Danish and American students. What does being a ‘digital citizen’ mean in these two different countries, for example?”

To trust or not to trust

Three themes were central in the international meeting: The American realisation that the Internet is English and the challenges that might pose for non English speaking people. Gaming as introduction to the Internet, and - now that a life is led online - trust. The first gave the American students food for thought. The second, it turned out, was a common trait for all nations involved, while the third showed great differences in terms of both a sense of online security and trust in government and other official authorities.

“It was interesting to see that where the role of gaming - and using one’s parents computer - in childhood sociality and as introduction to the web was very similar, the Danish and American students almost couldn’t be more different when it came to trust. The NSA scandal probably plays a big part here and the American students couldn’t believe how much information Danes readily give authorities online and the high level of trust they put into the security of NemID for instance,” says Rachel Douglas-Jones and recommends others to seek out collaborations like this.

“Collaborations such as this provide an opportunity to link students across national borders and encourage discussion about common issues for which they might have quite different experiences and starting points. I found the students were very engaged when they got comments back from the American students and were able to ask questions in return. Also, I got the impression that there was a lot of enjoyment in discovering commonalities and discussing differences, such as the CPR number, NemID and uses of different languages online.”

Selected Harvard reactions on Danish autobiographies:

"One major similarity we found was that we too found our first encounters through gaming on the Internet. We found this to be an interesting starting point as the Internet was created as an information bank, yet we all used it for non-scholarly purposes at first."

"We […] thought that your stories on accessibility were very thought provoking. In our discussion group, we had two Americans and a member from Japan. As Americans we realized we had never thought of the Internet as being so western-language normative, and perhaps taken for granted having English as our first language. Our discussion group member from Japan spoke to her experience as native Japanese speaker who found it was difficult to search using English as very few people speak English in Japan."

"We were struck by the extent to which you use different languages online—and that some of you learned to use English differently through engagement online. It really alerted us to the different ways in which the internet is used by diverse populations in other parts of the world. We hadn’t realized the extent to which the internet is Anglicized."

"Your writing about dial-up service […] gave us all fond memories. The processing of actually dialing up with the loud noise is an unforgettable memory. We even went to YouTube to find a clip of the noise. Related to this, we found your memories of going to a computer interesting—having to visit a friend, the school library, or an Internet cafe. In the era of the ubiquity of the laptop, it is important to remember the history of the physicality of technology."

"We are all surprised by how much you trust your government and your companies with private and personal information. The notion of a universal "NemID" seems far to easy to exploit and steal. Is identity theft a concern of yours? We have also been told that part of the NemID gives away your gender. Isn't that unsafely giving away private information? […) In America we largely consider the NSA to be illegally accessing our private data. Giving up privacy is considered not worth the potential security gains."

Selected ITU reactions on American autobiographies:

"We see that there is a general consensus that privacy online is a big issue for all of you. While we are also aware of what kind of information we share online and how it is being distributed, we were a little bit surprised about how distrustful you are of the NSA with regards to how they fetch people’s information and how they handle it."

"We found it funny of how surprised you were of the NemID system and how wary you guys are when it comes to putting that sort of information online. In Denmark most people trust the NemID to be really safe when it comes to your personal data."

"Some of you mentioned that you were surprised that we are bilingual and that we feel just as comfortable using English online as our native language. We think this comes down to how early we have English as a subject in school, some schools begin as early as 1st grade, and also how little of a country Denmark is, which means that a lot of our medias derives from American sources."

"Another thing that surprised us was that one of the students actually learned how to game before he could read as this pretty rare to see in our society. However, it is becoming more common that children will sit behind their computer screens after school than practice their reading."

"What we found interesting in your autobiographies was the fact that your first encounter with the computer and internet was for fun and games and then later on it would become a part of your social identity, through social media. We found out that we got engaged with the social media and digital technology at the same age." 

News

New report: Cybersecurity is underprioritized in Danish companies

New report: Cybersecurity is underprioritized in Danish companies

January 12, 2021

Danish companies consider cybersecurity important, but at the same time underprioritize it, shows a new report by researchers at the IT University of Copenhagen and University of Southern Denmark. Part of the explanation is that senior managers have little knowledge about the cybersecurity threats, say the researchers behind the report.

ITU's "Blockchain Professor" gets international top rankings

ITU's "Blockchain Professor" gets international top rankings

December 22, 2020

According to two international rankings, Professor Roman Beck is among the most important researchers in his field.

Notification of security breach

Notification of security breach

December 16, 2020

A file containing personal information about censors and a number of employees has been accessible on one of ITU's internal network drives. The security breach has been reported to the Danish Data Protection Agency, and the persons affected have been notified.

Study: Female researchers rival men in productivity – but have shorter careers

Study: Female researchers rival men in productivity – but have shorter careers

November 30, 2020

A comprehensive study of the careers of 1.5 million researchers shows that women and men on average produce the same number of scientific articles annually, but that women tend to leave their research careers earlier. According to ITU researcher Roberta Sinatra, co-author of the study, the study should inspire decision-makers to take a closer look at the reasons why women leave academia.

The IT University plays a vital role in the newly established National Centre for Research in Digital Technologies

The IT University plays a vital role in the newly established National Centre for Research in Digital Technologies

November 26, 2020

The Innovation Fund Denmark has granted DKK 100 million for the establishment of a national research centre in digital technologies, led by a consortium of seven Danish universities and the Alexandra Institute.

An insightful coffee break: ITU launches a line of talks on digital transformation

An insightful coffee break: ITU launches a line of talks on digital transformation

November 12, 2020

In a new series of live streamed talks, the IT University will present new perspectives on IT to professionals working with digitalisation and transformation. Under the headline ITU ESPRESSO, the series will go off as a line of concentrated coffee breaks. These talks will keep you abreast and expand your knowledge of what is on the future-facing agenda of digitalisation.

ITU launches action plan for gender diversity among employees

ITU launches action plan for gender diversity among employees

November 12, 2020

With a new action plan, the IT University of Copenhagen will work systematically and strategically to promote gender diversity by ensuring equal opportunities for all employees.

Software students win award for educational game about tech monopolies

Software students win award for educational game about tech monopolies

November 11, 2020

Lily Li and Olivia Winkel finished their bachelor's degree in Software Development with a project on computer games as a learning tool. The thesis has just received FA’s bachelor award - with the recognition comes a check for DKK 30,000.

New Dean of Education at ITU

New Dean of Education at ITU

November 9, 2020

The IT University of Copenhagen has appointed Pernille Rydén as Dean of Education as of January 1, 2021.

Lectures by live radio: Pandemic paves the way for new teaching methods

Lectures by live radio: Pandemic paves the way for new teaching methods

November 5, 2020

The logistical challenges that come with the corona restrictions have spurred creativity among ITU’s teachers. This semester, half of the lectures in the course ‘Navigating Complexities’ have been transformed into a live radio show complete with news, discussions and music breaks. The radio format provides new opportunities to convey complex knowledge to the students, the teachers say.

IT University of Copenhagen launches new center to do research on how to boost digital competences among students

IT University of Copenhagen launches new center to do research on how to boost digital competences among students

October 27, 2020

Many people get nervous even at thought of learning about computing, e.g., a programming language. But does it really have to be that way? Join the official opening of Center for Computing Education Research at the IT University of Copenhagen on Thursday November 5th and learn more about how we can ensure that students get competent in computational thinking.

ITU launches master’s programme in Data Science

ITU launches master’s programme in Data Science

October 21, 2020

Starting next summer, the IT University of Copenhagen will be offering a two-year master’s programme in Data Science. Future graduates will be highly sought after in the industry, which is currently experiencing a shortage of specialists who are able extract valuable knowledge from vast amounts of data.

Sexism and sexual harassment in academia need to end

Sexism and sexual harassment in academia need to end

October 9, 2020

Statement from Martin Tvede Zachariasen, Vice Chancellor at the IT University of Copenhagen.

The IT University is coordinating new European expert training in underwater robots

The IT University is coordinating new European expert training in underwater robots

October 5, 2020

In the next four years, professor at the IT University, Andrzej Wasowski, will be leading a new expert training program focusing on the development of /developing underwater robots in order to make them reliable so that we can use them for critical tasks like fighting pollution. The program is funded by an EU grant of 30 mio. DKK.

ITU bachelor's system to identify informative Corona tweets in top rank

ITU bachelor's system to identify informative Corona tweets in top rank

September 30, 2020

Competing with academics and IT professionals from all over the world, Anders Giovanni Møller shared first place in developing a system to identify Corona-related tweets.

Oxford University's Bent Flyvbjerg and ITU establish IT programme management research collaboration

Oxford University's Bent Flyvbjerg and ITU establish IT programme management research collaboration

September 25, 2020

The Oxford Major Programme Management research group starts collaboration with the ITU Research Centre for Government IT. The collaboration will, among other things, investigate the performance of IT projects.

Bent Flyvbjerg to be awarded ITU’s first honorary doctorate

Bent Flyvbjerg to be awarded ITU’s first honorary doctorate

September 1, 2020

Bent Flyvbjerg, Professor and Academic Lead of Oxford University’s research and education programmes in Major Programme Management, is known for his groundbreaking research in the management of large-scale projects, including in the field of IT. The IT University of Copenhagen is the youngest of Denmark’s eight universities, and specialized in research and higher education in IT.

ITU Professor in Prestigious Journal: Game Technology Can Improve AI-Development

ITU Professor in Prestigious Journal: Game Technology Can Improve AI-Development

August 6, 2020

Professor Sebastian Risi publishes paper in Nature Machine Intelligence on how to improve training of robots with popular video game technology.

The Danish Ministry of Defence funds two projects at The IT University of Copenhagen

The Danish Ministry of Defence funds two projects at The IT University of Copenhagen

July 10, 2020

The national ICT-security authority under the Danish Ministry of Defence, The Danish Centre for Cyber Security, has funded two new projects at ITU's Center for Information Security and Trust (CISAT). Both projects support the national ambition of raising the level of cybersecurity in private and public companies.

New Study: User-based surveillance is not effective against fake-news

New Study: User-based surveillance is not effective against fake-news

July 6, 2020

The defence against fake news, to a large extent, relies on the social media users identifying and "flagging" suspicious stories, but are we, the users, really capable of doing that? No, a new study concludes.

Contact us

Phone
+45 7218 5000
E-mail
itu@itu.dk

All contact information

Web Accessibility Statement

Find us

IT University of Copenhagen
Rued Langgaards Vej 7
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
How to get here

Follow us

ITU Student /
Privacy /
EAN-nr. 5798000417878/
CVR-nr. 29 05 77 53

This page is printed from http://212.97.130.100/