Instructors: Dr. Kevin Eckert, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Scott Burright, Digital Public Services Librarian, Kuhn Library

Time: Wednesday 4:30-7:00

Location: Room 334, Academic IV, B Wing

        The "information highway," "communications revolution," and "cyberspace" are all words used in newspapers and magazine articles, television, professional journals, and everyday conversation to describe the contemporary revolution in human communication. This course will explore e cultural, social, and political implications of computer mediated communication (CMC), its uses and its effects o interpersonal, work, education, and societal contexts. Topics include:

Power, privacy, and civil liberties (Who controls cyberspace? The transformation of cyberspace into a commodity),
Interactions and communications cyberspace (Who speaks to whom? How?),
Economics of cyberspace (Who is making money via cyberspace. Redefining money)
Work and workplace (Telecommuting and other futures),
Community formation in cyberspace (What is community? Democracy and collective action in cyberspace),
Information technology and institutional change (Is school out? - education in the 21^st century),
Representations of self and self-identity cyberspace (issues of gender, class, race, anonymity, and identity; reality, self, and others),
Social values in cyberspace (privacy, law and order, deviance),
The age of postmodernist simulation (the multiple, distributed self),
Back to the future (A brave new world or more of the same.)

Required:

Miller, Steven, Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power and the Information Superhighway. ACM Press, 1996.

Negroponte, Nicholas, Being Digital. Vantage Books, 1995.

Postman, Neil, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture Technology. Vintage Books, 1993.

Schellenberg, Kath Computers in Society (Seventh Edition). Brown and Benchmark, 1998.

Shields, R. Cultures of Internet. Sage, 1996.
 

Recommended:

Hawisher, G. and Selfe, C. Literacy, Technology, and Society. Prentice Hall, 1997.
 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS
 

        As an advanced seminar, we will participate jointly in a shared learning process, with instructors serving as guides, coaches, and co-learners. As partners in the seminar, you are expected to read, discuss topics in class and online, and become a member of a learning community. Weekly sessions include presentations (instructors, guest speakers, classmates, videos) and open discussions. The basic ground rules are respect and consideration for differing viewpoints and perspectives. To become a learning community you must be informed, therefore, you are expected to complete the reading before each session. Emphasis is on open discussion and debate of the issues. Reading and spending time in cyberspace are essential for informed and lively class discussions.

The syllabus may change depending on the availability of several guest speakers and the needs of the class.

Assignments include:

Leading Discussions. Students are assigned readings on which they lead class discussion on an assigned date. (10% grade)

Mid-term Essay Examination. Students write a mid-term essay examination on an assigned topic(s). (25% grade)

Final Essay Exam. Students write a take home exam in which they synthesize material covered during the semester. (25% grade)

Cyberspace Project. Students select a cyberspace related topic and write a 10- 1 5 page report. Brief project reports are presented in class toward the end of the semester. (30% grade)

Class Participation and Regular Attendance. Students are expected to participate in class discussions and attend regularly. (10% grade)

Book Report. Students enrolled at the graduate level (SOCY 616 and LLC 616) will write a 3-5 page, type-written book report and present it in class.

UMBC CLASS RESOURCES

A class web site with readings and useful reference will be maintained by Scott Burright.
http://novell.umbc.edu/library/reference/socy6l6/

• (2/3/99 and 2/10/99) Introduction - Welcome to Cyberspace

• Video: A Brief History of the Internet

• Schellenberg, K. Computers in Society. 1998. Introduction pages (6,7) For web sites listed at the Annual Editions home page click http://www.dushkin.com/annualeditions

• "Where is Cyberspace: Visions of the Future" In Miller, S. Civilizing Cyberspace. 1995.

• Elmer-DeWitt , E. "Welcome to Cyberspace: What is it? Where is it? And How Do We Get There?" (pages 8-12), In Schellenberg, 1998.
• Kupfer,A."Alone Together: Will Being Wired Set Us Free?" (11-14)(Reserve)
• Shea, V. "Core Rules of Netiquette" http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
• "Introduction: Virtual Spaces, Real Histories and Living Bodies" In Shields, R. Cultures of Internet. 1996.
• Postman, N. Technopoly: The Surrender of culture to Technology. (All)
• (2/17/99) Politics and Policy

 
• Guest Speaker: Dr. Patricia Fletcher, Dept. of Information Systems
• In Miller, S, Civilizing Cyberspace.
• Chapter 2, " The Policy Starting Point: Markets, Government, and the Public Interest"
• Chapter 4, "Framing the Public Policy Debate: Visions, Strategies, and Technology"
• Chapter 5, "Protecting the Public Interest: A Menu of Policy Options"
• Chapter 6, "The Government's Agenda: Pending Policies"
• Chapter 9, " Democracy and Free Speech"
• Chapter 13, "Cit en Action: From Analysis to New Institutions"

• Unit 5: Politics and the State, In Schellenberg, K. Computers in Society. 1998.
• In Shields, R. Culture of Internet. 1996.
• Chapter 6, "The Coming of Cyberspace Time and the End of Polity" (99-124)
• Chapter 3, "Cool Running: The Coming of Cybereality in Jamaica" (49-57)

• (2/24/99 and 3/3/99) Communities and Communications

• Video: Virtual Intentionality
• Bruckman, A. "Finding One's Own Space Cyberspace" In Schellenberg, 1998: 74-79.
• Turkle, S. "Virtuality and Its Discontents: Searching for Community in Cyberspace" The American Prospect, Number 24, Winter 1996, pages 50-57. (Reserve)
• In Miller,S. Civilizing Cyberspace. 1995
• Chapter 11, "Community, Diversity, and Citizenship"
• In Shield, R. Cultures of Internet. 1996
• Chapter 8, "Life After Death" (133-142)
• Chapter 9, "Are MUDs Communities? Identity, Belonging and Consciousness in Virtual Worlds" (143-152)
• Silberman S."We're Teen, We're Queer, and We've Got E-Mail"(Reserve)
• Jones, S. "The Internet and Its Social Landscape" (Reserve)
• Fernback, J. "The Individual Within the Collective" (Reserve)
• (3/10/99) Guest Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Preece, Dept. of Information Systems

• (3/17/19) Economics and the Workplace

 
• Video: High Stakes in Cyberspace
• In Schellenberg, K. Computers in Society, 1998 (Read Unit 1)
• Brody, H. "Clicking onto Webzines" (16-26)
• Mandel, M.J. "'The New Business Cycle" (27-32)
• Uchitelle, L."What had the Computer Done for Us Lately"(33-35)
• Dertouzos, M.L."Creating the People's Computer"(36-43)
• Patiway, P. "Money in Electronic Commerce" (44-49)
• In Miller, S. Civilizing Cyberspace. 1995
• Chapter 7, "The Players and Their Plans: The Industries and Firms"
• Chapter 12, "Economic Development: Work, Crime, and Intellectual Property"
• In Schellenberg, K. Computers in Society. 1998 (50-51)
• Filipczak B. "The Ripple Effect of Computer Networking" (52-56)
• Hequet, M."Virtually Working: Dispatches from the Home Front" (57-62)
• Romano, C."Working Out the Kinks"(63-64)
• Stuller, J. "Overload" (66-71)
• (3/24/99) Spring Break - No Class

• (3/3 /99) Guest Lecture: Dr. Brad Burke, Dept. of History

Organizations/Institutions
 
• In Schellenberg, K. Computers in Society . 1998
• Oppenheimer, T. "The Computer Delusion" (87-98)
• Saltrick, S. "A Campus of Our Own" (99-103)
• Strassman, P.A. "Information Systems and Literacy" (Reserve)
• Sculley, J. "The Relationship Between Business and Education: A Perspective on the 21^st Century" (Reserve)
• Apple, M. "The New Technology: Is it Part of e Solution or Part of the Problem in Education" (Reserve)
• Kay, A. "Computers, Networks and Education" (Reserve)
• Zuboff, S. The Age of the Smart Machine. Basic Books, 1984. (Chapter 10, pp. 362-386). (Reserve)
• Landauer, T. In The Trouble With Computers,. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1995. (Reserve)
• Sproull, L. and Kiesler, S. "Computers, Networks and Work" (Reserve)
• (4/7/99) Representations of Self and Self-Identity

• Turkle, S. "Introduction: Identity in the Age of the Internet," In Life on the Screen. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995. (Reserve)
• Stone, A. R. "Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?: Boundary Stories about Virtual Cultures," In . edited by Michael Benedikt, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991 (Reserve)
• Gerver, E. "Computers and Gender" (Reserve)
• Oehlert, M. "From Captain America to Wolverine" (Reserve)
• "Session with the Cybershrink: An interview with Sherry Turkle" In Schellenberg, 1998: 80-86.
• (4/14/99 and 4/21/99) Social Values in Cyberspace

• In Schellenberg, K. Computers in Society. 1998
• Diamond, E. "Law and Order Comes to Cyberspace" (106- 112)
• Behar, R. "Who's Reading Your E-mail" (113-119)
• Emmett A. "Simulation on Trial" (120-125)
• Kariam, R." The Invasion of Privacy"(126-131)
• Zickmund, S. "Approaching the Radical Other: The Discursive Culture of Cyberspace" (Reserve)
• In Miller, S. Civilizing Cyberspace. 1995
• Chapter 10, "Privacy, Civil Liberties, and Encryption: Controlling Our Data Identity"
• In Hawisher G.E. and C.L. Selfe 1997
• Wiener, J. "Free Speech on the Internet" (Reserve)
• Lemisch, J. "The First Amendment is Under Attack in Cyberspace" (Reserve)
• Kapor, M. "Civil Liberties in Cyberspace" (Reserve)
• Branscomb, A. "Common Law for the Electronic Frontier" (Reserve)
• (4/28/99) Book Report Presentation

• (5/5/99) Project Presentations

• (5/12/99) Project Presentations/Back to the Future

• Negreponte, N. Being Digital. 1995 (All)
• Winner, L."Mythinformation" In Hawisher and Selfe,1997 (Reserve)