FYS 101B: The Internet and the Humanities

Schedule of Assignments - Spring 2003

TEXTS:

The Internet: Effective Online Communication: Tyrone Adams and Norman Clark (Thomson/Wadsworth, 2001) [abbreviated below as TI]
Composing Cyberspace: Identity, Community, and Knowledge in the Electronic Age: Richard Holeton, ed. (McGraw Hill, 1998) [abbreviated below as CC]
He, She and It: Marge Piercy (Fawcett, 1991)

The following is a tentative schedule of assignments; any changes will be announced in class. You should complete all the readings in time for class on the dates listed. Last updated: May 12, 2003

Tu, Jan 28 - Introduction

Th, Jan. 30 - TI, ch 1: "How Did We Get Here?: The Development of a New Medium"

Tu, Feb. 4 - E-mail

TI, ch. 3, "Don't Just Hit Reply!: Effectively Using E-mail, Listservs, and Newsgroups"
Country Codes
Deleting the Outlook Express Preview Screen

Th, Feb 6 - E-mail Lists, Newsgroups, Netiquette

E-mail Discussion Lists
- Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists [NOTE: As of May 2003, this resource no longer exists]
- CataList
- Yahoo Groups
- Topica
- Gender-Related Electronic Forums
Newsgroups
- Google Groups (formerly Usenet Newsgroups)
Netiquette
- The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette, especially:
  1. "Electronic Mail and Files - User Responsibility"
  2. "Discussion Groups"

Tu, Feb. 11 - Still More about E-mail: Spam, Viruses, Scams, Urban Legends

Spam
- What is Spam?
- Preventing Spam
Virus Hoaxes
Scams
- Nigerian E-mail Scam
- Scam examples
Urban Legends
- About.com
- Wayne's Antivirus, Hoax, Urban Legend, and Scam Resource
E-mail Filters

Th, Feb. 13 - Online Communities

Howard Rheingold - "The Heart of the WELL," in CC, pp. 151-163.
Amy Bruckman - "Finding One's Own in Cyberspace," in CC, pp. 171-178.
Skim TI, ch. 4 ("Shall We Chat in the Dungeon?")

Tu, Feb. 18 - Identity Online

Sherry Turkle - "Identity in the Age of the Internet" in CC, pp. 5-11.
Peter Steiner, cartoon, in CC, p. 110.

Th, Feb. 20 - Gender Online

Dale Spender - "Gender-Bending," in CC, pp. 69-75
Julian Dibbell - "A Rape in Cyberspace," in CC, pp. 83-98.
Laura Miller - "Women and Children First: Gender and the Settling of the Electronic Frontier," in CC, 99-105.

Tu, Feb. 25 - Race Online

Lisa Nakamura - "Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet"

Th, Feb. 27 - Discussion of the film The Matrix (on reserve at Library)

Tu, Mar. 4 - Finding Information Online E-mail List Paper due today!

TI, ch. 6: "Where Do I Find It?: Searching the Web"
Pandia Search Engine Tutorial
Search Tools on FYS 101B Useful Links page

Th, Mar. 6 - Finding Still More Information Online

"A Nation of Voyeurs" - The Boston Globe, Feb. 2, 2003
Finding People's E-mail Addresses
Kuhn Library
1. Catalogusmai (Good catalog, dreadful name!)
2. Lexis-Nexis Academic
Voice of the Shuttle: Web Site for Humanities Research
Amazon.com

Tu, Mar. 11 - Evaluating Online Information

TI, ch. 7: "What Do I Do with It?: Evaluating and Citing What You Find"
Susan Beck, Evaluation Criteria
Walden Univ. Library Liaison, Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites
Joe Barker, Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask

Th, Mar 13 - Evaluating Online Information

Tu, Mar. 18 - Making a Web Site
(NOTE: Be sure to explore the Web Creation resources on the Useful Links page)

TI, ch. 8 - "What a Tangled Web We Weave!: The Basics of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)," only pages 187-202.
FTP, Zip files, and Tera Term

Th, Mar. 20 - Making a Web Site: Computer Lab Session

TI, chs. 9 ("Eyesore or Eye Candy?") and 10 ("Bring on the Multimedia!")
Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design
'Top Ten Mistakes' Revisited Three Years Later

SPRING BREAK, March 24-28

Tu, Apr. 1 - Creating a Web Site: Computer Lab Session Search Engine Paper due today!

Th, Apr. 3 - Books in an Electronic Age

Sven Birkerts, "Into the Electronic Millennium," in CC, pp. 311-322
Shyamala Reddy, "The Once and Future Book," in CC, pp. 323-327.

Tu, Apr. 8 - Books in an Electronic Age

Raymond Kurzweil, The Future of Libraries, Part 1: The Technology of the Book
Raymond Kurzweil, The Future of Libraries, Part 2: The End of Books
Raymond Kurzweil, The Future of Libraries, Part 3: The Virtual Library

Th, Apr. 10 - Hypertext and the Future of Books

Robert Coover, "The End of Books," New York Times Book Review, June 21, 1992 (on reserve, but it will also be distributed in class because the reserve copy isn't sufficiently legible.)
Victory Garden, sample of a hypertext novel by Stuart Moulthrop.

Friday, April 11 - Lecture: "Computer Ethics" - Marsha Woodbury, Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. University Center Ballroom Lounge.

Tu, Apr. 15 - Hypertext

Ilana Snyder, "Beyond the Hype: Reassessing Hypertext" (on reserve)
Howard S. Becker, "A New Art Form: Hypertext Fiction"
Roland Barthes, "From Work to Text" (we may have to skip this)

Th, Apr. 17 - The Cyborg

Chris Hables Gray et al., "Cyborgology" [Introduction to The Cyborg Handbook] (on reserve)
Not required, but in case you're curious: Donna Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto

Tu, Apr. 22 - He, She and It Simpleminded Quiz today!

Th, Apr. 24 - He, She and It

Tu, Apr. 29 - Computers and Human Beings

Finish discussion of He, She and It
Donna Jo Napoli, "Can Computers Learn Language?" (ch. 6 of Language Matters (Oxford Univ. Press, 2003) - distributed in class

Th, May 1 - Literary Anticipations/Representations of Cyberspace

E. M. Forster, "The Machine Stops" (on reserve)
Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel" in CC, pp. 293-298
William Gibson, "Johnny Mnemonic," in CC, pp. 48-61.

Tu, May 6 - Computer Lab: Work on Web Page

Th, May 8 - Legal Issues

TI, ch. 12: "What about My Rights?: The Internet and U.S. Law"

Tu, May 13 - The Internet and Society Web Page/Resources Assignment due today!

TI, ch. 13: "What about My Life?: Society, Individuals, and the Internet"

Return to course info page or to Joan Korenman's home page or go to Useful Links page