Read Bruce Sterling, "A Short History of the Internet," Douglas Adams, "Beyond the Brochure" and browse Wikipedia's History of the Internet. Watch Michael Wesch's The Machine Is Us/ing Us.

Read Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think." Browse "Sir Tim Berners-Lee" and watch the first 4 minutes of his TED Talk.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Fire Worship."

Nicholas Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

First Web Writing Assignment due: blog post. How to create web pages, vlogs, and screencasts.

More on web page design, vlogging, and screencasting.

FALL BREAK

1. How has the internet changed the way you learn? That is, do you think the internet helps you learn more, or better, or faster? Or does it make it so you need to learn less? Give an argument for your view. Discuss and make substantive use of at least two of the following articles in your essay: Bush, Hawthorne, Carr. Use specific examples from college and/or from your earlier school years to help make your point. Be as original, creative, specific, concrete, detailed, and engaging as possible in your argument. Pay close attention to writing mechanics and style. Post your essay to your class blog. Make use of appropriate links and graphics on your blog to help creatively illustrate, explain, and amplify your points. Bring a printed copy of your paper to class on the due date to hand in.

Or

2. Write an essay describing one piece of internet technology you no longer use (Napster, AIM, Alta Vista, etc.) and reflect on the ways both the presence and absence of that technology has changed and shaped your life. Discuss and make substantive use of at least two of the following articles in your essay: Bush, Hawthorne, Carr. Be as original, creative, specific, concrete, detailed, and engaging as possible in your argument. Pay close attention to writing mechanics and style. Post your essay to your class blog. Make use of appropriate links and graphics on your blog to help creatively illustrate, explain, and amplify your points. Bring a printed copy of your paper to class on the due date to hand in.

Revised First Web Writing Assignment (800-1500 words):

Revise, expand, and improve your first writing assignment, then design and publish either a web page, screencast, or vlog version of your essay. Give careful thought to the ways your digital design can be used to help make your essay clearer and more vivid. If you choose to do a screencast or vlog, please do your best to keep your video under 4 minutes long.

Post a link to your web page, or embed your video on your class blog. Bring a printed copy of your revised essay to hand in to me in class. Also hand in the original, graded copy of your first version of this essay.

In her book Alone Together Sherry Turkle writes, “With sociable robots, we imagine objects as people. Online, we invent ways of being with people that turn them into something close to objects” (168). Write an essay describing either:

1. A specific example of a digital pet, device, robot, or software that invites you to interact with it in ways that resemble the ways you interact with people. This can be something you experienced yourself or witnessed or learned about in some other way.

Or

2. A specific example of an online site, tool, relationship or interaction that tends to treat people (or yourself) as an object or thing with less than fully human feelings or autonomy. This can be something you've encountered yourself, someone you know, or an online event or exchange that received news coverage or that you learned about online in some other way.

In either case, your essay should make sustained and substantial use of Turkle’s book. You should clearly, carefully, and cogently explain and apply her arguments to your particular example. Do you think her concerns are justified in this particular case? Why or why not? Give an argument for your view.

Be as original, creative, specific, concrete, detailed, and engaging as possible in your argument and the selection of your example. Pay close attention to writing mechanics and style. Post your essay to your class blog. Make use of appropriate links and graphics on your blog to help creatively illustrate, explain, and amplify your points. Bring a printed copy of your paper to class on the due date to hand in.

Revised Second Web Writing Assignment (800-1500 words):

Revise, expand, and improve your second writing assignment, then design and publish either a web page, screencast, or vlog version of your essay. Give careful thought to the ways your digital design can be used to help make your essay clearer and more vivid. If you choose to do a screencast or vlog, please do your best to keep your video under 4 minutes long.

Post a link to your web page, or embed your video on your class blog. Bring a printed copy of your revised essay to hand in to me in class. Also hand in the original, graded copy of your first version of this essay.

Your group should create and design a new blog for your final group project. You may use Blogger or another site as you wish. Be creative in your use of layout, graphics, etc. This new blog will then be used for the following:

As a group, you will create and post your own digital mashup. Your mashup should take the form of a digital video and should be about one minute in length. It can be on any subject you like. It can be serious or funny. It can be educational or frivolous. Your choice. However, it should contain as many and as many different types of content as possible. Strive to include music, film, tv, video, text, photographs, etc. Use sources that are copyrighted, in the public domain, creative commons sources, and even original content of your own creation if you wish. In short, try to use as many different sorts of sources as possible in your mashup in an effort to create as many different interesting copyright puzzles for us as you can. Typically, your video should be uploaded to YouTube and then embedded in your blog. If you choose some other method, your video should still be playable from your blog. You may use iMovie or any other software you wish to help edit and create your mashup.

Then, as a group, create a list of complete citations for all the original sources for each element of your mashup. Try to follow MLA style for your citations. This list of sources can either be a separate blog post or some other creative means.

Then pick at least five of these sources and attempt to provide us the following information: Try to find out who, if anyone, owns the copyright to each element and whether or not your use of it is clearly legal, fair use, or likely illegal. Is permission required for its use? From whom? How does the copyright owner of the source typically get paid? Explore and explain the possible commercial impact of the use you are making of the content. Explain what steps would need to be taken to bring it into clear compliance with current copyright law and what difficulties you would face. Be as specific and comprehensive as possible in your discussion. Do research (both online and at the library) on copyright issues involved with the different media. Each of these five should be staged as separate essays (or audio or video) blog posts. Each should contain substantial, accurate, well researched information about the particular media used and its current online copyright issues and status.

Finally, write/create a sixth video/essay/blog post making substantial use of Lessig's Remix and reflecting on the legal, cultural, and economic issues raised by your mashup. The entire blog should be at least 3000 words in length (this includes written as well as video, audio and other text).

Post a link on your individual class blogs to your final group project blog.

During our regularly scheduled final exam time, we will meet for a final symposium during which groups will present their final projects to the class for discussion.