Sp 2003
930-1045 TR Memorial 037
Professor: Stephen A. Bernhardt
Office Memorial 23
Phone 831 3351 (I prefer email messages.)
Instructor email Use Web-CT mail,
preferably
sab@udel.edu (goes to me)
Class email Use Web-CT mail,
preferably
engl410-010-03S@udel.edu (goes to
whole class and me)
Office Hours TR 1045-12:30; before or after class; and by appointment
Baron, Naomi. Alphabet to Email: How Written English Envolved and Where It's Heading. Routledge, 2000.
Bolter, Jay David. Writing Space: Computer, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print, 2nd Ed. Mahwah, NJ: LEA, 2001.
Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid. The Social Life of Information. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Levy, David M. Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age. NY: Arcade Publishing, 2001.
This course asks what happens when texts get inside machines. How does the computer change the ways we read and write? What happens to the shape and uses of a text as it goes electronic? What changes in our traditional roles as readers and writers? What kind of textual society are we becoming? What kinds of relationships can we build with or through the machine?
The course is meant to be useful to those who want to write in new media, to those who teach students to read and write, and to those who are simply interested in how we might formulate a visual and spatial rhetoric of electronic text. We will use various technologies to communicate with each other (such as Web-CT) and to develop and share our own web-texts (such as html authoring tools). No special computing expertise is prerequisite—only a willingness to experiment.
We will use the course as an opportunity to work together to gather and present useful materials to English majors through our class website.
This class emphasizes continual communication—you cannot exist on the periphery. We will discuss readings, kick around ideas, develop our individual and team projects, and create a classroom based on inquiry and learning through communication tools. So you need to be good at working online, willing to put your ideas in front of others, and participating actively in the discussion and work activities.
This is a class where we will consciously practice mediated communication in the context of doing our work. We will use Web-CT to handle many of the communication demands of the course. Web-CT will support synchronous and asynchronous discussions, provide class email, and allow us to exchange texts for online review. It will provide a space to develop team and individual websites so we can publish our writing to each other. One of our goals will be to see how much of our work we can accomplish working with electronic texts as opposed to printed texts. Perhaps this syllabus is the only piece of paper we need in this course?
If you have a question about how to do an assignment or want help, write to the class email, so everyone benefits from your question. If you are not sure about something, there will be other people in class with the same question. If you write to me personally, but I think the class would benefit from discussion the issue, I will forward your question to the group.
Take advantage of my office hours for one-on-one conferences. You can either schedule an appointment or drop in during my hours. Please note that from time to time I have meetings scheduled during my office hours—so it is best to check ahead.
To participate, you need to be in class, on time, having read the work and being prepared to work. Sometimes the class will meet online instead of physically, F2F. These sessions are not optional and I will take record of who is there and contributing.
I can accept one or two absences for personal reasons or special events, as long as you explain to me in a written memo the reason for your absence. You should do this before the absence, if possible. Additional absences will cause your grade to be lowered. If you miss a class, talk to someone or see me to be sure you don't miss important information about assignments.
I cannot accept habitual tardiness or absence, nor can I accept work that is late or poorly done. Withdrawing from class within deadlines is up to you.
Students with disabilities may choose to use the services the University provides: diagnosis, support, special arrangements. Let me know if you have a disability that might affect your performance in this class and we will find ways to work together, in confidence. Sit up front if you need to see or hear better. Ask me to repeat if you have trouble understanding.
If you have or believe you have a disability, you may wish to self-identify. You can do so by providing documentation to the UD Office of Americans with Disabilities ACT (ADA); you can call them at (302) 831-2835. Appropriate accommodations can then be provided for you.
Team and individual webwork will be awarded points. We will rank the team and individual projects to determine points. Teams will also evaluate each other’s contributions, thereby influencing point distribution. Everyone can be successful in terms of points and consequent grades; some work is likely to be of higher quality than other work and will get more points.
Some work will be given check (√) for satisfactory, √+ for better than expected, and √- for worse than expected. I’ll enter these in my gradebook as we go along. A strong contribution will get you high marks. These marks can influence your grade up or down.
Homework, class participation, and work habits all influence your grade. I will give you an evaluation of your progress at any time you request it—the grade I would give you if your work continued at the current level.
Since this is a workshop class, participation is important and I will credit you during grading on the basis of your overall participation, contributions, and leadership. Bring samples of interesting material to class to share. Talk in class about what you are learning. Help others be successful. Take an active role and your grade will take care of itself.
|
Task |
Points |
Due Date |
|
Participation in class discussions, email conversations, synchronous and asynchronous conversations |
up to 25 |
throughout term |
|
Team website project |
up to 30 |
throughout
term |
|
Individual hypertext/webtext on topic related to your interests in English studies |
up to 25 |
resource
bib Mar 13 |
|
Individual Professional Homepage (can present your work in this class and elsewhere) |
up to 10 |
site up
Feb 27 |
|
Individual Reading: Choose a book on issues related to this class and write a review to be published at our class website. See recommended readings or choose one of your own. |
up to 10 |
eDraft Mar
20 |
|
Extra credit: for work above and beyond requirement, helping others, taking the lead |
up to 5 |
as awarded |
|
Baron, Naomi. Alphabet to Email: How Written English Envolved and Where It's Heading. Routledge, 2000. |
Feb 18, Chaps 1-4 Feb 25, Chaps 5-7 Mar 4, Chaps 8-10 |
|
Bolter, Jay David. Writing Space: Computer, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print, 2nd Ed. Mahwah, NJ: LEA, 2001. |
Mar 11, Chaps 1-3 Mar 18, Chaps 4-6 Mar 25, Chaps 7-10 |
|
Levy, David M. Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age. NY: Arcade Publishing, 2001. |
Apr 8, Chaps 1-4 Apr 15, Chaps 5-8 Apr 22, Chaps 9-11 |
|
Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid. The Social Life of Information. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2000. |
Apr 29, Chaps 1-3 May 6, Chaps 4-6 May 13, Chaps 7-8, Afterword |