The Australian National University's Center for Technology Policy Design is set to deliver pioneering training courses for people who want a career in making, shaping and managing technology policy in Australia.
A pilot course led by Professor Johanna Weaver, founding director of the Australian National University Centre, will begin in April after being designed by a group of industry and government experts.
“When I talk to people who work in technology policy now about their career paths, most of them say they took this circuitous path where they started in policy or law or in very different fields. Australia has no curriculum for people who want a career that will shape the future of technology. “There's nowhere you can go and study that,” says Professor Weaver. “So, we'll be creating a course to do exactly that. Initially, it will just be professional development courses, so 4 credits this year and 4 credits next year. But we're looking to build that into a micro-credential and/or a major course.”
The Technology Policy Design Center opened in 2021 to focus on hot-button technology issues like who owns our data and has permission to use it; the growing influence and power of technology giants; Promote rights and safety online, while protecting against online abuse; and mitigate the impact of disinformation, disinformation, and foreign interference on democracy.
The new courses aim to expand the scope of the centre, targeting three target audiences.
“We're the national university, so obviously our target audience is government staff in Canberra; the other is people who work at big tech companies in government relations and government engagement; and then the third group is actually the technologists. We want to have people who are building technology. I think It's true that if we don't bring these three communities together and have conversations and build a common language between those different communities, we won't be able to build the future that we all want to live in moving forward,” says Professor Weaver.
Professor Weaver is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, a self-described international law nerd who takes pride in neurodiversity – as you can tell from her candid and brilliant signature in her email below:
“I'm dyslexic – expect big thinking and small typos.
“If this email arrives outside your business hours, you are not expected to respond immediately. Please act within your normal business pattern.“
Prior to joining the Australian National University, Professor Weaver was an independent Australian expert and lead negotiator on cyber issues at the United Nations as well as a lawyer who held senior cyber affairs positions in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Professor Weaver says the new technology policy courses will be unique in content and purpose.
“These will not be your standard university courses. They will be very much interdisciplinary. Every course we do will have an applied policy element – so given a political issue that is broadcast live, on the front page of newspapers, that is being talked about today.” There will be a hands-on dimension to make the learning practical, for example we might look at Australia's policy on misinformation and disinformation, and ask you to role-play as if you were in government or industry,” Professor Weaver explains.
Professor Weaver says the main motivation for curriculum designers is to give future policy makers the tools to navigate a rapidly changing technological landscape.
“We need to give students the toolset that enables them to interrogate other frameworks and the next set of technologies because we will never be able to teach regulations that keep pace with innovation in the classroom. So, we need to teach and provide frameworks that allow us to move quickly and at the speed of innovation. So Some of the courses will focus on technology – AI will have to be a part of it given the year we've just had – but a lot of what we're doing is about building a framework to give people the tools to be able to deal with these issues in the future.
Watch Women Love Tech Technology Editor Robyn Foester's interview with Professor Joanna Weaver about her inspiring career below:
You can connect with Professor Weaver on her LinkedIn here.
