Spring 2021: This term, the course will be completely online and mostly asynchronous. We will have a several synchronous class sessions (using Zoom) on Tuesdays from 09:30-10:50am, but most of the work in this course will involve asynchronous online activities using Moodle and other tools/sites. Most of our synchronous sessions will be devoted to small group (book-club) meetings (see below), but we will use several Tuesdays for meetings of the full class. (These dates will be specified in the Syllabus.)
This technology and society course focuses on cyberspace and social relations, and especially the relations amongst us as knowledge creators. Our readings and activities are designed to stimulate thinking and discussion about the ways in which cyberspaces are embedded in meatspace, how our relations online compare and contrast with our relations offline, how historical processes of social construction weave and tear the webs and nets in which we find ourselves, and the ways in which we might collectively craft more humane cyberspaces—especially those spaces devoted to higher education.
The course is organized into several inter-connected (and overlapping) units. Each of these units consists of various activities, including substantial book-length readings, quizzes, online discussion forums, and wiki-crafting. Over the course of the term, students will cultivate a hypermedia project, explore and reflect upon learning/creative technologies through asynchronous online discussions, and participate in a synchronous face-to-face "Book Club" meeting (to be scheduled during the early weeks of the course).
Introductions: During this unit, students will introduce themselves to one another, learn how to use the tools and resources (e.g. Moodle), and start reading ahead for later units.
Technological Futures: During this unit, students will read and discuss various texts exploring the history, and projecting the future, of the World-Wide Web (and the internet in which it is embedded).
Remixing Culture: During this unit, students will consider the prospects for a more robust amateur culture online, and the legal/political challenges facing such a project.
The Wiki Way: During this unit, students discuss Joseph Reagle's book, Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia. With any luck, we will embrace practices of good faith collaboration in our work together in this course.
Frankenstein Technologies: During this unit, students will discuss Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein, as well as several articles exploring the abiding significance of this work for science and technology studies.
After the Primer: During this unit, students will discuss Neal Stephenson's novel, The Diamond Age (Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer), participating in a small group (synchronous but online) book-club meeting with other students and the professor.
Conclusions: During this unit, students will bring their work in this course to a close, and say their farewells.
Each student is required to buy or borrow a copy of each of the following books:
Other required texts (articles, book chapters, videos, &tc.) for this class will be available online through Moodle, the library, and the world-wide web.
The Syllabus will be made available at the beginning of the term. Stay tuned...
Revised: 2020.11.30