Dr. Derek Stanovsky
Office: LLA 125, Phone: 262-2441
Office Hours: MW 9:30-1:15 and by appointment
E-mail: stanovskydj@appstate.edu
Home page: www.appstate.edu/~stanovskydj
This course provides an introduction to cyberculture and Internet Studies. As the Internet continues to insinuate itself into our daily lives, it is transforming both our culture and ourselves. This course will look at some of these changes through an interdisciplinary investigation of the social, political, cultural, psychological, economic, and legal implications of the Internet. It will also provide an opportunity for you to hone your critical reading skills in the context of the Internet as well as learn some of the technical and editorial skills needed to publish your own blogs and web pages. This class fulfills requirements for the IDS Internet Studies major concentration and minor. There are no prerequisites.
Textbooks:
Gibson, William. Neuromancer.
New York: Ace, 1984.
Lessig, Lawrence. Free
Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity. New York: Penguin, 2004.
Turkle, Sherry. Life
on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1995.
Course Requirements:
The most important requirements for this course are regular class attendance, participation, and preparation. You should come prepared to ask and answer questions and to discuss the readings each day. The formal grading requirements are as follows:
Class Participation 20%The class participation portion of your grade will be based on regular class attendance and participation as well as on periodic homeworks, blog posts, in-class assignments, and group work. Also included in your class participation grade will be your presentation of your Web pages to the class for discussion.
Three Web Writing Assignments 20% each
Final Web Project and Symposium 20%
Two absences are allowed during the semester. Each additional absence will lower your class participation grade by one letter grade. More than six absences and/or failure to complete any of the written assignments detailed below are grounds for failing the course.
There will be three Web Writing Assignments during the semester. Late assignments will be docked one-third of a letter grade for each day late. You will receive two grades for your Web writings each of which will count one-half of your assignment grade: one for writing content and mechanics, and one for online media design and mechanics. You may improve your grades by substantial revision. Revision deadlines will be announced in class. You will also be asked to present your Web pages to the class for discussion.
There will be a Final Web Project and Symposium during our regularly scheduled final exam time.
More information about these assignments will be posted online later in the semester.
With regard to all assignments for this course, you are expected to know and follow the ASU code of academic integrity.
Course Schedule:| Week | Day | Assignment |
| 1 | T 8/21 | Introductions. Begin reading William Gibson, Neuromancer. Internet Studies Blog |
| TH 8/23 | How To: Create your own blog. Post a brief introduction about yourself to your new blog. Please only post information you are comfortable sharing publicly, but consider including the following: Your first name, your major and minor, your particular interest in taking this class, and a link to your favorite strange, unusual, or little known web site. Be sure to email me the url of your blog. Student Web Writing Page. | |
| 2 | T 8/28 | Read Bruce Sterling, "A
Short History of the Internet." Browse Hobbes'
Internet Timeline. Read Douglas Adams, "Beyond
the Brochure." Browse Yahoo's
Netrospective and this Illustrated History of Computers. |
| | TH 8/30 | First Web Writing Assignment due. You will present your blog and paper to the class for discussion. |
| 3 | T 9/4 | Read Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think." Browse this Vannevar Bush page, as well as these photographs (2) and timeline. Read Time 100 article on "Sir Tim Berners-Lee." Finally, browse the Wikipedia (extra credit if you contribute to an entry on the site). |
| | CONVOCATION DAY | |
| 4 | T 9/11 | Read Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Fire Worship." |
| | TH 9/13 | Second Web Writing Assignment due. We will watch clips from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in class. |
| 5 | T 9/18 | We will discuss Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and watch clips from Ridley Scott's Blade Runner as well as the original Ridley Scott "1984" macintosh commercial (ipod version). Browse The Odyssey Explained, 2001 Resources and this Blade Runner fan site. |
| | TH 9/20 | Finish reading William Gibson, Neuromancer. Browse the screenplay and Paul Brians' Study Guide to Neuromancer. Read about Gibson's Agrippa and browse the text and photos. We will also discuss and watch clips from the Wachowski Brothers' The Matrix. |
| 6 | T 9/25 | How To: Create and publish your own web page with Google Page Creator. Also look at Spider Pro's 100 Do's and Dont's in Web Design. |
| | Th 9/27 | Turkle, Life on the Screen, Introduction and Chapters 1-2, pp. 9-73. Browse Sherry Turkle's home page. |
| 7 | T 10/2 | How To: More on web page design. |
| | TH 10/4 | Turkle, Life on the Screen, Chapters 3-4, pp. 77-124 (and pp.
321-324). Talk with ELIZA
and Alice.
Browse the Loebner
Prize, Julia and Michael
Mauldin' s home page. Also look at MyCyberTwin. |
| 8 | T 10/9 | TBA |
| | FALL BREAK | |
| 9 | T 10/16 | Read Alan Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." Browse the Alan Turing Scrapbook, a chronology, a biography, and an encyclopedia article. Read John Searle, "Minds, Brains, and Programs." Browse John Searle's home page. |
| | TH 10/18 | Turkle, Life on the Screen, Chapters 5-6, pp. 125-174. Browse the General Problem Solver, Hubert Dreyfus, Marvin Minsky, David Chalmer's Zombies, play with the Game of Life, Blind Watchmaker, Cellular Automata, Boids, and browse the A-Life page. |
| 10 | T 10/23 | Third Web Writing Assignment due. You will present your web page to the class for discussion. |
| | TH 10/25 | Virtual class. Sherry Turkle,
Life on the Screen, Chapters 7-8,
pp. 177-232.
Login as a guest to English MOO at Texas Tech. From the "Main Entrance," go to the "Research Facilities," and then the "CMC Classroom." Look for "Dr. D" and come say hello. "See" you there! After you log in, you can click on "Options" in the toolbar and it will ask you to enter the name you wish to use for that session (instead of the default guest names). |
| 11 | T 10/30 | Turkle, Life on the Screen, Chapters 9-10, pp. 233-269. |
| | TH 11/1 | Voodoo Electronics: Jaron Lanier Interview. |
| 12 | T 11/6 | Lessig, Free Culture, Introduction and "Piracy," pp. 1-79. |
| | TH 11/8 | Lessig, Free Culture, "Property," pp. 83-173. |
| 13 | T 11/13 | Finish reading Lessig,
"Puzzles" to Afterword, pp. 177-306. A Fair(y) Use Tale. |
| | TH 11/15 | Lessig, concluded. Browse eldred.cc, creativecommons.org, publicknowledge.org, eff.org. Groups assigned. |
| 14 | T 11/20 | TBA |
| | | THANKSGIVING BREAK |
| 15 | T 11/27 | Group Work. Watch this Not the Daily Show video. |
| | TH 11/29 | Group Work. |
| 16 | T 12/4 | Group Work. |