Hi! I'm Randy Connolly

Professor

I am a tenured full professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computing at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada.

Books

Peer-Reviewed Papers

Years Teaching

Best Paper Awards

Invited Talks

Keynotes

Randy Connolly

About Me

Hi! I'm Randy Connolly

I am a tenured full professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computing at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada. I also teach in my university’s General Education department. My teaching specialties are web application development, technology and society studies, and, believe it or not, art and cultural history.

contact

rconnolly@mtroyal.ca

Social Media

Timeline

Education and Experience

Professor 2014 - Present

Department of Mathematics & Computing

Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada

2008 - 2013 Associate Professor

Department of Computer Science and Information Systems

Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada

Instructor 1997 - 2007

Department of Computer Science and Information Systems

Mount Royal College, Calgary, Canada

1992 - 1999 PhD Political Science

Dissertation title: “WorldPerfect 7.0: The Rise And Persistence Of The Virtual Community Ideal In American Thought”.

McGill University, Montreal, Canada

MA Political Science 1990 - 1991

York University, Toronto, Canada

1982 - 1986 BSc Computer Science

University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

Research

Research Interests

My research has oscillated between my two backgrounds of computer science and political science. At present, I have a variety of on-going research projects.

Web Development

My textbook Fundamentals of Web Development has been translated into multiple languages, adopted at hundreds of universities worldwide, and is used by thousands of students every year.

Society, Ethics and Computing

I have a long research history focused on the social effects of computing.

Computing Disciplinarity

For the past decade, I have been interested in disciplinarity within computing education, in particular, how to communicate the nature of the different computing disciplines to outsiders..

Citizenship

My educational background in political science still motivates my research. My recent work in this area is focused on how digital technology affects attitudes towards citizenship.

The Role of Computing Intellectuals

My most recent area of research.

Publications

Select Publications

To see the full list of publications (which includes 40+ articles and multiple books), you can download my CV. Here I'm showcasing some recent publications.

Article

From ethics to politics: changing approaches to AI education (2023)

My most recent article appears in the Handbook of Critical Studies of Artificial Intelligence published in late 2023.

Article

Datafication, Platformization, Algorithmic Governance, and Digital Sovereignty: Four Concepts You Should Teach (2023)

This paper reports on four emerging conceptual approaches in the social sciences for understanding contemporary computing’s interactions with the social world. Published in ACM Inroads, 2023, Vol. 14.

Book

Fundamentals of Web Development, Third Edition (Pearson Ed)

Has been translated into multiple languages, adopted at hundreds of universities worldwide, and is used by thousands of students every year

Article

Evaluating and Revising the Digital Citizenship Scale (2022)

This study investigates the psychometric properties of the Digital Citizenship Scale (DCS). While previous investigations of the DCS drew participants exclusively from single educational environments (college students, teachers), this study is the first with a survey population (n=1820) that includes both students and the general public from multiple 12 counties. Published in Informatics, 2022, Vol. 9, and was awarded the Editor's Choice commendation for 2022.

Booklet

Computing Careers & Disciplines: A Quick Guide for Career Advisors and Prospective Students, Second Edition.

Downloaded over 200,000 times and translated into French. Google’s results typically places it first or second when searching for “Computing Discplines”. Responsible for visual design and illustrations.

Article

Why Computing Belongs Within the Social Sciences.

My August 2020 article in Communications of the ACM, which is the principal peer-reviewed academic journal for computing as a whole with a subscriber base over 100,000 a month. It is one of the top downloaded (non-ML/AI) articles in all of computing this decade.

Courses

Recent courses taught in the past five or six years.

COMP 3309

Information Technology and Society

A study of the implications of information technology for society. Historical perspectives, social context of computing, legal and ethical problems, economic issues, and philosophical frameworks for analysis will be covered.

COMP 4513

Web 3

This course covers advanced web development topics, applying the foundation client and server techniques learned in Web I and II (or COMP3612). In addition to practical theory, students will learn more about asynchronous JavaScript on both the client and server, TypeScript, noSQL database systems, authentication systems, search engines, and caching.

COMP 3512

Web 2

This course focuses on the concepts and technologies needed to develop web-centric applications. The main topics are the overall architecture of contemporary Internet applications, JavaScript, and PHP.

GNED 1201

Aesthetic Experience and Ideas

This course examines human aesthetic responses and our capacities to interpret diverse forms of cultural expression. I am interested in art whose subject is, in some form, about individuals and their relationship to their community. As such, I thought it would be beneficial to spend a semester looking for a pathway to a better, more social future by first looking backwards at the visual art of the past, and then finish with possibilities of future civic-oriented creativity.

Talks

Recent talks and presentations.

Some of these are invited talks, keynotes, or simply talks at conferences.