Bishop, A. (Ed.) (1993). Emerging Communities: Integrating Networked Information into Library Services. Champaign-Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Lindblom, Charles, and Cohen, David (1979). Usable Knowledge: Social Science and Social Problem Solving. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Schuler, D. (1996). New Community Networks: Wired for Change. Addison-Wesley. (Royalties donated to the Evergreen Foundation)
Schuler, D. (Ed.) (1996). A collection of readings available in the bookstore.
This course will introduce the student to a wide range of critical social issues surrounding the use of the "Net" (i.e. the Internet and other networked digital communiation) and to a broad range of thinking and writing on those topics. After completion of this course, the student will also have a solid foundation in understanding networked digital communications technology. This will include hands-on experience including acquiring information from the Internet, communicating with others over the Internet, and publishing on the Internet using the World Wide Web.
This course should help prepare a student for work in social science, government, community development, computer technology, new media, or journalism.
Student activities will include attendance at faculty and guest lectures, reading, seminar preparation, participation in seminars, participation in one (or more) group projects, and a completion of a research project that will be published on the web. Students will also attend the "Community Space and Cyberspace: What's the Connection?" conference in Seattle on March 1st - 2nd, 1997. Students will benefit from attending this conference in many ways including gathering material for their research projects or virtual events. Students may also want to propose and convene workshops at the conference. Students may be able to volunteer to help at the conference in lieu of paying the registration free.
The knowledge is this field is very young as the object of inquiry -- the Internet -- is relatively young and changing rapidly. The knowledge in this field must be regarded as tentative and subject to change. The number of "right answers" is small. Since this field is so dynamic it is possible for people that are alive now, students, for instance, to influence the directions that the Internet is taking and what and how people think when they think about the future of the medium.
We will all strive to learn and to report on our research, knowing that our contribution may be as useful or as non-useful as other research that is currently being conducted.
Because of Evergreen's educational philosophy and because of the inherent nature of our field of inquiry this course will be highly collaborative. Nobody has a monopoly on knowledge and we will learn from each other. As bell hooks has written in Teaching to Transgress, "As a classroom community, our capacity to generate excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one another, in hearing another's voices, in recognizing one another's presence." She goes on to say that, " There must be an ongoing recognition that everyone influences the classroom dynamic, that everyone contributes. These contributions are resources. Used constructively they enhance the capacity of any class to create an open learning community."
Since this process is collaborative we can change the course in mid-stream. Also since I am new at this I want to engage the class is some of the decisions as to how we should proceed. We will be doing research projects, "virtual events", lectures, etc. but how exactly we go about accomplishing these objectives can be revised as necessary.
This preliminary syllabus is divided into several units. Each will be accompanied by reading and participation in seminars. In addition to the units there are three threads that will run through both quarters. These threads include (1) < HREF="tech-threads.html">nuts and bolts of the past, present and future net; (2) social and policy issues including privacy and the role of government; and (3) research - what it is and why and how it should be done.
We will concentrate on two major areas winter quarter.
Communities - Virtual and Otherwise -- examining such concepts as
Deliberation, Discourse, and Decision-Making -- concentrating on topics like
And two major areas in the Spring.
Economic Issues -- including issues like
Information and Communication
I have made this material freely available on the web to encourage its re-use. Please attribute its source if you use it in any way. I welcome your feedback. Please let me know what you find useful and what you find less useful. How should it be improved? Please let me know if you are interested in future collaboration.