Technology for Social Good

SIL 503, Fall 2026, University of Michigan School of Social Work
Innovation and Ethics in Social Impact Leadership. 3 credits, in person, Wednesdays 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, September 9 to December 9, in SSWB B760.
A course in the MA in Social Impact Leadership.

Technology now shapes how social impact organizations serve, fund, evaluate, and sometimes surveil the communities they exist for. This course prepares you to make and guide technology decisions in that environment.

The research record points in both directions. Randomized trials show AI assistance narrowing skill gaps, expanding what novice workers can do, and extending access to mental health support. Documented deployments in unemployment benefits, child welfare, and Medicaid eligibility show automation scaling injustice. The course assigns both.

Modules

Foundations Weeks 1 to 2

AI Weeks 3 to 6

Data, industry, and partners Weeks 7 to 10

Community and implementation Weeks 11 to 13

Deliverables

Ethics Case Week 7, 25 percent

Digital Story Week 12, 25 percent

Strategy Pitch Weeks 11 to 13, 25 percent

Course structure

Each week runs half seminar, half lab. You will use AI tools nearly every week under the course's disclosure and verification policy. No technical background is assumed, lab failures have no grade penalty, and the participation structure rewards documenting what went wrong and what you learned from it.

Schedule

The week-by-week calendar of sessions, labs, and due dates, September 2 through December 9.

Assignments

A technology case analysis, a short video on one of three tracks, and a consultant memo built on one interview.

Sociotechnical protocol

The one-page set of questions this course asks of every technology, in failure and in success.

Case bank

Documented cases with verified sources, from Michigan's MiDAS to Māori-owned speech AI.

Interactive activities

Small in-browser tools we built for specific weeks, plus the free tools we use in class.

Schedule

Class meets Wednesdays, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM in SSWB B760, September 9 through December 9, with no class on November 25 (Thanksgiving recess). Details for each session are on its week page, linked below.

Module 1, Foundations (Weeks 1–2)

Working definitions, the history of technology in social services, and the sociotechnical protocol used all semester.

Module 1, Foundations (Weeks 1–2), session by session with the lab and what is due
#	Date	Session	Lab	Due
1	Sep 9	Definitions of technology and social good	Collaborative definition workshop
2	Sep 16	History of technology in social services	Protocol on paired artifacts

Module 2, AI (Weeks 3–6)

Algorithmic bias and fairness, how generative AI works, critical and safe use, and organizational adoption.

Module 2, AI (Weeks 3–6), session by session with the lab and what is due
#	Date	Session	Lab	Due
3	Sep 23	Algorithmic bias and fairness	The paired-case lab	Ethics Case launched
4	Sep 30	Language model mechanics	Transformer Explainer + hallucination hunt
5	Oct 7	AI literacy	Calibration, ask-AI-or-ask-a-person triage sort, our AI-disclosure form	Digital Story track chosen
6	Oct 14	AI adoption in organizations, with Lauri Goldkind (Fordham)	Debate Lab 1	Organization named

Module 3, Data, industry, and capacity (Weeks 7–10)

Data rights and privacy, how the technology industry is structured, the digital maturity of an organization, and digital storytelling.

Module 3, Data, industry, and capacity (Weeks 7–10), session by session with the lab and what is due
#	Date	Session	Lab	Due
7	Oct 21	Data sovereignty and privacy	Digital Defense Playbook	Ethics Case due (25%)
8	Oct 28	Structure of the technology industry, with Jes Kane (former Google.org)	Funder grant teardown
9	Nov 4	Digital maturity	Capacity assessment + interview protocol	Strategy Pitch launched, interview protocol
10	Nov 11	Digital storytelling	Story circle + communication brief	Video notes and communication brief; rough cut (ungraded)

Module 4, Equity and implementation (Weeks 11–13)

Production and accessibility, design justice and ICT4D, digital equity, and the strategy pitch briefed in class.

Module 4, Equity and implementation (Weeks 11–13), session by session with the lab and what is due
#	Date	Session	Lab	Due
11	Nov 18	Production and accessibility	Production stations + caption sprint	Capacity brief
12	Dec 2	Design justice, digital equity, and environmental costs	Debate Lab 2 (Detroit edition) + final consult	Digital Story due (25%), memo outline + metrics
13	Dec 9	Strategy pitch briefings	Briefings + feedback, story screening	Briefing (of 25%)

Learning outcomes

By December you will be able to evaluate a technology through an ethical lens and name both its opportunities and its harms. You will be able to explain how generative AI works in plain language, use it responsibly, and reason about when an organization should decline to adopt it. You will have made a short video about a problem you have seen yourself, aimed at an audience you named and asking them for something specific, with documented accessibility and consent practices, and you will have presented a defensible technology recommendation to a real organization's leadership.

Instructor

Nari Yoo, PhD (she/her), nariyoo@umich.edu
Office hours by appointment: calendly.com/nari-yoo. Expect a reply within 48 hours.

Community organizations interested in hosting a future student group: see For community organizations.

Site and Canvas

This site holds the schedule, weekly pages, assignment guides, and resources. Canvas holds submissions, grades, announcements, and readings that need library access. The site itself was built with Claude, a language model made by Anthropic.