Cyberspace & Society Schedule

Cyberspace and Society
Daily Schedule and Assignments

Tentative Schedule
(still in process--please refresh to note changes)

Thurs. Dec. 23	Introduction to Cyberspace and Society/The PC Revolution *Video:* Triumph of the Nerds 1 Tasks to complete by Jan. 3: Make sure that your Rutgers email address in the student directory is the one you use Register for the New York Times if you have not done so before. Check the Technology page regularly. If you have internet access at home: Make sure that you have configured your computer for remote access to the Rutgers library system
Mon. Jan. 3 (pre-class assignment due Sunday Jan. 2)	What is Cyberspace?/Technological and Social Change *Mini-Lecture:* Digital Revolution and Digital Convergence *Read and come prepared to discuss:* Julian Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society." Help start or continue a pre-class discussion of the meaning of this article on the Cyberspace Bulletin Board in WebCT. Barry Wellman and Bernie Hogan, "The Internet in Everyday Life." Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture, pp. xiii-79. Spend some time searching the internet to explore the origins and meanings of the term, "cyberspace." Recommended: An Atlas of Cyberspaces Assignment: Complete the Cyberspace Assignment in WebCT and submit your assignment by 10:00 p.m. Sunday, January 2 at the latest. *Video:* Triumph of the Nerds 2 (Transcripts at website are worth reading through for review) *Lab:* Basic web-page design and creation. How HTML works. Resource: Creating a Web Page on Clam Using Mozilla Composer Net ID Account Tools for Clam Users (includes spam filter and web directory permissions) Site for downloading WebDrive for home use (if you wish to save directly to your clam account--login and Search Software for Webdrive)
Tues. Jan. 4	Cyberculture and Virtual Communities Read and come prepared to discuss: Howard Rheingold, "A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community" David Silver, "Introducing Cyberculture" Barry Wellman, "Little Boxes, Glocalization, and Networked Individualism," in Digital Cities II: Computational and Sociological Approaches, edited by Makoto Tanabe, Peter van den Besselaar and Toru Ishida. Berlin: Springer, 2002. Recommended: Samuel M. Wilson and Leighton C. Peterson, "The Anthropology of Online Communities," Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002):449-67. *Video:* The Internet: Behind the Web (History Channel film, 2000) *Lab:* Screen shots and image editing. More on web-page editing. Use my project guidlines and resources at Creating Your Own Webpage (not all links work)
Wed. Jan. 5	The Internet, Everyday Life, and Networked Individualism Read and come prepared to discuss: Paul DiMaggio, Eszter Hargittai, W. Russell Neuman, and John P. Robinson, "Social Implications of the Internet," Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001):307-36. Skim through: Deborah Fallows, "The Internet and Daily Life," (August 2004). Explore the website of the Pew Internet and American Life Project that conducted this and many other studies. *Lab:* Complete and publish your home page, per instructions at Projects and Assignments webpage
Thurs. Jan. 6	Changing Meanings of the Digital Divide/Technology and Education Read and come prepared to discuss: Mark Warschauer, "Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide," First Monday 2002 Robert Wood, "Scaling Up: From Web-Enhanced Courses to a Web-Enhanced Curriculum," Innovate 1,1 (October/November 2004). You must register for free to access article. Julie H.C.H. Ryan, Student Plagiarism in an Online World (written for faculty members but useful for students to read) Additional Resource: Paul DiMaggio, Eszter Hargittai, Coral Celeste, and Steven Shafer, "From Inequal Access to Differentiated Use: A Literature Review and Agenda for Research on Digital Inequality." *Lab:* Plagiarism, fair use, citation, bibliographic databases, and my department's Web-Enhanced Curriculum Project: Complete the Digital Knowledge Assignment in WebCT and submit it either in class or by 10:00 this evening.
Fri. Jan. 7	Property, Piracy, and Cultural Creativity Read and come prepared to discuss: Rest of Lessig book Creative Commons videos Video: Wiring the World, vol. 3 of Nerds 2.01: A Brief History of the Internet (useful summary transcript and Glossary of Geek at website), Lab: Demonstration of the WayBack Machine. Extra time for completing the Home Page or Digital Knowledge assignments, or for exploring possible project topics.
Mon. Jan. 10	Revised "Midterm" Exam Plan: The exam will have two parts which may be submitted either from home or from school: 1) an essay section that will consist of an essay on the Lessig book and several short answer questions. The questions for this section will be posted at the WebCT assignments page on Friday evening. The essay and short answers must be submitted as a single Word document via the assignments page by 9:00 a.m. Monday; 2) an online multiple-choice section that will be made available in WebCT at 9:00 a.m. and must be completed by 11:00 a.m. The online exam will be based on the Study Guide. You may consult your notes while taking it, but you must not communicate with anyone else about it or consult other online sources while you are taking the exam. Your work must be your own, and you will be asked to affirm that as part of the exam. [Note: I have to be in New Brunswick for a university IT planning meeting on Monday, and therefore there will be no class.] Project Topic Statement: A statement about what you plan to study for your research project on how some group is using the internet should be posted by midnight on the Project Topic WebCT bulletin board.
Tues. Jan. 11	Governing the Internet *Read and come prepared to discuss:* Managing the Digital Enterprise: Internet Governance (brief introduction and overview byProf. M. Rappa) Internet Society: Public Policy (identification of key issue areas) Public Agenda Issue Guide: Internet Speech/Privacy (read this page as well as the Discussion Guide to identify the different positions and where you fall) Lab: Making good PowerPoints and putting them on the web Selected Resources for Avoiding PowerPointlessness sample ppt slides
Wed. Jan. 12	*Lab:* Research project
Thurs. Jan. 13	*Lab:* Research project. Post project URL before the beginning of Friday's class.
Fri. Jan. 14	Lab: Student Research Project PowerPoint Presentations and Web Pages

January 10, 2005