FYS 101B: The Internet and the Humanities

Schedule of Assignments - Spring 2003

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

NOTE: This syllabus is very old. I'm well aware that a number of the links no longer work. Please do not write to let me know about broken links or to suggest replacements. I'm leaving the syllabus up mostly for its amusement and nostalgia value, though it may still be slightly useful.

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
  • VMyths: Virus Myths and Hoaxes
  • FSecure Hoax Warnings
  • Symantec Anti-Virus Research Center
  • McAfee Virus Hoax Listings
  • HoaxBusters (CIAC and U.S. Dept. of Energy)
• Scams
  • Nigerian E-mail Scam
  • Scam examples
• Urban Legends
  • About.com
  • Wayne's Antivirus, Hoax, Urban Legend, and Scam Resource
• E-mail Filters
  • Filtering Mail in Netscape 7/Mozilla 1
  • Filtering Mail in Netscape 6
  • Filtering Mail in Outlook Express
  • Using Procmail to Filter E-mail

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

• Tutorial: Evaluating Web Sites (U. of Wisconsin Women's Studies Librarian's Office)
• Recognizing Technical Trickery
• Behind the Screens on Health Web Sites (Washington Post - May 16, 2000)

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