IASC 1F02 Syllabus PDF

Preview

Summary

IASC 1F02 Syllabus...

Description

IASC 1F02: Being Human in a Digital World Brock University FW 2020/2021 Centre for Digital Humanities

Instructor: Jeff Reichheld Email: [email protected] Course Coordinator: Tracy Stewart Email: [email protected] Seminar Leaders Tracy Stewart Jane Storie Krista Hrin Julie Gemuend Daniel Glah Elizabeth D’Angelo William Birrell Jeff Reichheld

seminars 1 & 2 seminars 3 & 4 seminars 5, 6, 7 & 8 seminar 9 seminar 10, 11, 12 & 13 seminar 14 & 15 seminar 16 & 17 seminar 20

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

IASC 1F02: Being Human in a Digital World is a survey course that examines many of the social shifts that occur as humanity is becoming more and more connected to the digital environment that we have created. The official course description is: Exploration of how emerging technologies shape human identities and lifestyles. Impact of rapid technological change on citizenship, education, employment, entertainment, globalization, health, privacy and security. Predictions of what the future may hold and its implications for the human condition. In this course, we will engage closely with some of the issues that have arisen and are arising due to the shift into digital existence and that are especially significant as there are differing degrees of adherence to digital lifestyles, even in so-called “developed nations.” That there are different degrees of adherence to and acceptance of digital technologies and lifestyles will be a common theme as we approach this material. As this is a humanities context credit, there will be a close focus on writing and communication skills which will be discussed in lecture, especially in conjunction with the assignments. Required text and reading material: Reed, T.V., (2014). Digitized Lives: Culture, Power and Social Change in the Internet Era. New York: Routledge. (Hardcopies are available from the Brock Campus Store and as a digital copy from all major book-sellers – Routledge directly, Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, etc.) All other material will be provided by way of Sakai or through provided web links.

IASC 1F02 FW 2020 Syllabus & Reading Schedule – Reichheld

Page 1 of 10

Grading: Seminar Participation: Assignment 1: Critical analysis of an object Assignment 2: Critical Textual Analysis Assignment 3: Research Proposal Assignment 4: Annotated Bibliography Assignment 3: Argumentative Research Essay

20% 5% 15% 5% 25% 30%

Learning outcomes:      

Critical understanding of the implications of being digitally connected. Critical understanding of the relationship between consumption and creation of digital media. Critical understanding of the ways that digital technology is implicated in real world events. Critical understanding of the effects of technology on health and well-being. Developing skills of critical thinking. Developing skills of academic writing.

Course schedule: IASC 1F02 is a fully online survey course that will be delivered asynchronously. Lectures will be released once a week, no later than 08:00 on Mondays. There will also be online seminar content for most weeks, comprising activities such as discussion, journaling, and debate. The official “work” week for this course will run from Monday at 08:00 to Friday at 17:00 EST, beginning on the first “workday” of the week, with most assignments due before the end of the day Sunday in the week that they are due (please note that in all announcements and scheduling I will use 24 hour time to avoid confusion with AM/PM). Your seminar leaders will not send or respond to course correspondence on the weekends. The Sunday Assignments deadline and seminar closure is for your convenience, and emails about assignments or seminars will not be answered after the end of the work week as noted above. IASC 1F02 is asynchronous , which means that there is no set time at which you are obligated to log on and participate in lectures or discussions. Rather, there are deadlines throughout the week before which you are to perform your course tasks (please remember that these are deadlines, and not appointments). Be careful though, as these deadlines are system monitored and, if you miss them, there will not be an opportunity to make up for missed work. A list of weekly topics and lecture readings for term 1, as well as a summary of the assignments, is attached at the end of this document. The reading list for Term 2 will be released via Sakai before the Christmas break. Late policy: Late seminar work will not be accepted and will be assigned a grade of zero. Late written assignments will penalized at a rate of 10% per day for up to five calendar days late, after which a grade of zero will be assigned. If you have any questions about the assignment late policies, please contact the Instructor. Word counts: All work must adhere to the word count limits assigned. There are very practical and pedagogical reasons for these limits. Any assignment (including seminar work) that is under the lower limit or over the upper limit may be automatically assigned a grade of zero. These limits are for the content of any assignment, which means that title pages, reference/bibliographic information (even in the Annotated Bibliography), and any other para-material is not included in this total. For IASC 1F02 FW 2020 Syllabus & Reading Schedule – Reichheld

Page 2 of 10

convenience’s sake, in-text references will not be excluded from word counts.

Email policy: As this is an online course, email will be a critical medium for communication. As such, course staff will reply to email communication within 24 hours, during the official work week (Monday through Friday). Please note that email will not be returned over the weekend, so any email received on Friday will be guaranteed to be answered no later than the end of the day Monday (but not on Saturday or Sunday). In order to keep communication consistent and secure, we will use only Brock’s email system as our official communication medium. Email sent by or to any other server cannot be considered secure, and cannot be guaranteed to preserve your privacy. Emails from any address other than your official Brock email may not be returned. This is a large class so, for seminar issues and for assignment feedback, please contact your Seminar Leader first. For lecture issues, please contact the Instructor. For other issues, or if seminar issues cannot be resolved by Seminar Leaders, you may contact the Course Coordinator or the Instructor. Time zone: Most of you are currently at home for the duration of this course (at least for Term 1), which experience suggests can be anywhere in the world. We will therefore use Eastern Time (Brock Time) as the official time for all course scheduling and communication. The timestamp of receipt here at Brock will be considered the official time of submission for any coursework. So, please ensure that you verify the difference between your time zone (if any) and Brock’s, as y ou are responsible for ensuring that your assignments are submitted on time. Hardware: Students are required to ensure that they have access to systems capable of supporting Sakai and any required texts and/or readings. It is your responsibility to make sure that your computer and your internet connection are adequate for course participation and assignment submission. This may be especially critical if you live in a rural or otherwise digitally underserved area. Unfortunately, most secondary sites, such as libraries and coffee shops, which can be excellent ways of accessing adequate internet connections, are currently unavailable in most locations, although this is changing as we speak. Website: The courseware for IASC 1F02 is Sakai, within which each student will see a single tab for IASC 1F02. To log into the course, go to Sakai in the Web Services drop-down menu on the Brock Home Page, or check your courses via the Portal. The user assigned at your initial Brock registration is your Sakai user name, and you will use the same password as you use for all of your Brock utilities. You will need to visit the IASC 1F02 Sakai site regularly for the most complete and up-to-date course outline, for study aids, and for messages from the Instructor or from your Seminar Leader. The site will be used to distribute information and materials pertinent to the lecture component of the course, and the forums will be used in place of live, face to face seminars.

IASC 1F02 FW 2020 Syllabus & Reading Schedule – Reichheld

Page 3 of 10

Lectures: Lectures will explore issues from the course readings, elaborating on selected points and providing a broader-context background for the general principles and providing particular examples about which you will be learning. Lectures will not be limited to simply explaining assigned readings, nor will they always explicitly cover every detail of a given text. In preparing for examinations and essays, and in planning online seminar work, students are responsible for the textbook content, for the lecture material, and for weekly assigned readings, as well as for additional reading on their own as necessary to improve their understanding and performance. Online seminars – Participation: Students participate in seminars by way of Sakai’s Forums. Instructions for seminars will be posted at the end of each lecture, and students will be expected to participate accordingly. Most weeks will involve some form of discussion or debate; however, other tasks may be assigned. Participation will generally mean posting a well-developed response to the initial prompt, and then responding, according to instructions, to a previous post or posts. You will be required to post a minimum of twice weekly, in response to these specific instructions. However, engaging more frequently will provide you the opportunity to make use of your peers’ and your Seminar Leaders’ expertise in these matters to more fully develop your understanding of the material and issues. Seminars in IASC 1F02 are asynchronous, meaning that the discussion forum is open 24 hours a day between the start and end times of the seminar, and that there is no set time to log in. However, as mentioned earlier, there will be strict deadlines for submitting assigned posts and responses (these will be outlined at the end of each weekly lecture). Seminars will usually be set so that you must make your initial post before you have access to your peers’ contributions. In general, you will be expected to address a problem/question/task as assigned, which may require reading specific material, accessing websites or other online resources, or even observing the interaction between the world and digital media as you go about your daily routine. Some tasks may also require you to engage with the world outside of the digital medium. Seminar will be assessed weekly out of 10, with each of the assigned tasks usually receiving equal weight (if there is any change to weighting, it will be noted in the specific week’s instructions). Grades will be assigned according to critical engagement with the topic, quality of your response and the overall quality of your writing. While these seminars are intended to allow you to explore the focal issues cooperatively, it is important to also use them to help develop your ability to communicate in a semi-professional setting. A more detailed grading rubric will be available on Sakai under the heading Grading Resources. Office Hours: Each Seminar Leader (including the Course Coordinator) will hold 1 hour of office hours weekly; the Instructor will hold 2 hours of office hours. Since this is an online course, all office hours will occur in the chat room on Sakai. While Seminar Leaders’ office hours will be primarily for their own seminars, it is OK to ask any Seminar Leader course related questions. However, in-depth discussion should be reserved for your own Seminar Leader. All students are welcome to meet with the Instructor in his office hours. A schedule of office hours will be provided on the Overview page of the course’s Sakai site. Please keep in mind that the chat room is a public forum, so IASC 1F02 FW 2020 Syllabus & Reading Schedule – Reichheld

Page 4 of 10

do not discuss private matters there. Schedule a private meeting or discuss the issue via email. Attendance: According to university policy, students are required to attend all lectures and to participate in all seminars. While attendance will not be formally taken, you are expected to be present (in other words, you must read the lecture material and post in a timely fashion; keep in mind that you are only considered to be present in seminars if you actually post something) for seminar and lecture, and you are responsible for all material discussed. The instructor will not be required to share notes, nor to provide makeup material. Students are similarly expected to participate in and to be responsible for all material presented in and discussed in seminar. (Please note that you are responsible to cover all course material, including lecture and seminar material). It is your responsibility to make up for missed work. However, seminar grades cannot be made up if the seminar discussion is missed. Written assignments: IASC 1F02 is a Humanities Context Course and, as such, a key objective is the development of skills in the areas of academic writing, critical thinking and library research. Consequently, the written assignments have been structured in such a way as to support the gradual improvement of these skills. The writing component of the course is designed for students to follow a thematic sequence of progressively more ambitious assignments, such that each assignment builds on the one(s) before it. More complete information on written assignments will be posted to Sakai and will be discussed in lecture. Grading Criteria: Definitions of grades for Brock University can be found at https://brocku.ca/webcal/2017/undergrad/ areg.html#sec60, which have been used to develop grading criteria for IASC 1F02. Accommodation of Students with Disabilities: As part of Brock University’s commitment to a respectful work and learning environment, we will make every reasonable effort to accommodate all members of the University community with disabilities. If you require academic accommodations related to a (permanent) disability to participate in this course, you are encouraged to contact the Student Development Centre Services for Students with Disabilities (4th Floor Schmon Tower ext. 3240) and also to discuss any recommended accommodation(s) with the Instructor; if those accommodations affect seminar work, it would be helpful to discuss them with your Seminar Leader as well. A particular goal within IASC 1F02 is to provide equitable access for all students. Academic Integrity: ACADEMIC DISHONESTY of any form is unacceptable, the most common of which is PLAGIARISM. Students are therefore responsible for familiarizing themselves with all forms of what constitutes academic misconduct. For guidelines and an outline of disciplinary measures, please refer to the Brock Calendar, Chapter VII, available at: http://www.brocku.ca/webcal/2017/ undergrad/ areg.html#sec67. Please note that plagiarism includes self-plagiarism, which means IASC 1F02 FW 2020 Syllabus & Reading Schedule – Reichheld

Page 5 of 10

specifically that you are not permitted to submit the same work (or parts of the same work) for two different courses, nor for different assignments in the same course, unless given explicit permission by the instructor. Assignment Submission: Written work is to be submitted to the specified Assignments file on Sakai no later than 23:55 Eastern Time (in other words 11:55 pm ET) on the day that it is due (this will generally be the Sunday at the end of the week). Any assignment received after the assigned time will be deemed to be late. Sakai’s Assignments will time- and date-stamp submissions, as well as submit them to Turnitin.com, so no further action on your part is necessary. It is your responsibility to ensure that your assignment is in on time, and no adjustments or extensions will be made without medical, or other significant documentation attesting to an emergency. The Assignments folder will be made available on Sakai no less than one week prior to each assignment’s due date. Assignments may be submitted in any format that is supported by turintin.com, such as .doc, .docx, .pdf. .rtf, etc. However, please note that not all document formats are easily marked up (this means instructor commentary can be easily applied). While we will read any document that we can open, only MS Word files (.doc & .docx) will be guaranteed to receive detailed commentary, as Word presents a simple way of providing closely connected commentary. Other formats may only receive end commentary, at the discretion of the marker. However, all assignments will receive commentary on the grading rubric. Please note that all Brock students can register for and use Office 365 for free, which includes MA Word. Please see IT in the Campus Store for detail s. Turnitin.com: All assignments will be submitted to turnitin.com by way of Assignments on Sakai. Once you have submitted to Assignments, no other action will be required, as Assignments is directly connected to Turnitin. Turnitin.com is a site that helps verify academic integrity, and will be used in this course for two reasons: 1) the course is large and unwieldy, and it is impossible to vet each submission separately. 2) Also, Assignments, which uses turnitin.com, is a convenient way to collect, grade and return assignments electronically. Students unwilling to use Turnitin.com are advised to drop IASC 1F02 promptly in order to select a different course within the add-drop period. Turnitin.com will be discussed in lecture. The Assignments folder will be made available on Sakai no less than one week prior to each assignment’s due date. Medical Documentation: When a medical condition requires special consideration for any academic activity (for example, missed seminars, assignment extensions or exam rescheduling), students and their physicians must complete the Brock medical certificate. Only Brock’s medical certificate will be accepted as proof of medical exceptions for attendance and written work submission. The form must be filled out by the attending professional and stamped by the clinic, or signed by the attending physician, including his or her registration number. The form can be found at http://www.cosc.brocku.ca /files/downloads/department/Medical_Form.pdf

IASC 1F02 FW 2020 Syllabus & Reading Schedule – Reichheld

Page 6 of 10

Important Dates: Sept 9 – class begins, first lecture available Oct 12-16 – Thanksgiving/Reading Week – no classes Dec 8 – last day of fall term classes Jan 4 – first day of winter term classes, lectures resume Jan 15 – last day to withdraw without academic penalty Feb 15-19 – Family Day/Reading Week – no classes April 2 – Good Friday – last day of classes

IASC 1F02 FW 2020 Syllabus & Reading Schedule – Reichheld

Page 7 of 10

IASC 1F02 FW 2020 Written Assignments (this page is a summary only; full assignment details will be distributed on Sakai under the Assignments tab): Assignment 1: Critical Analysis (200-300 words) 5% In the Critical Analysis assignment, you will be tasked with critically analyzing an object to understand the influences that it exerts on contemporary society. Secondary research will not be necessary; however, you will be required to look beyond the obvious to see how the object influences the world around you. This assignment’s purpose is to introduce you to the concept of, and skills involved in performing, critical analysis. Assignment 2: Critical Textual Analysis (800-900 words) 15% In the Critical Textual Analysis, you will be provided with a text (text is a very broad term, which is not limited exclusively to words printed on a page) which you will analyse critically to uncover ways that it constructs a sense of humans’ place...