Goals

This is the capstone course for the Information Technology Studies minor. The seminar explores what it means to be information literate in today's world. Students examine a number of information literacies, from print to multimedia, from stand-alone to networked, and discuss a variety of themes that have been affected by new communication and information technologies, such as community, the political sphere, and education.

We don't notice the technologies of literacy because we treat our literacy technologies as natural and inevitable: How else could one write except with a pen and paper, or a typewriter? But when we look at literacy cross-culturally, or historically, it becomes difficult to ignore the means and the media by which people communicate. That we often conceive literacy without mentioning its technologies tells us mostly that these technologies are deeply embedded in our daily practices. --Bruce, 1998, "New Literacies"

What then are we doing when we teach children to read and write? We have taken this for granted for so long that it seems strange to question it. --Martin Hoyles, The politics of literacy, p. 22.

As we enter the twenty-first century, we see literacy practices evolving as well as becoming more central in our lives. The nature of texts is changing, as they are re-presented through online communities, web sites, video, hypermedia, virtual reality, and other new technologies. These changes call on us to re-visit enduring questions about readers, writers, and texts, whether these texts be oral, traditional books, or new media. We also need to consider the impact on young people: how they make meaning as they both respond to and create texts; how cultural meanings are re-created within each new generation.

The advent of video, the web, online communities, virtual reality, and other new technologies has given rise to the concept of new literacies such as computer literacy, visual literacy, and information literacy. This course explores these literacies and their relation to traditional concepts, with a focus on literacy as situated practice. Major themes include emerging media, historical perspectives, personal meaning, ethical and policy issues, learning opportunities, and community.

In the course, students ...

1. Learn from readings and discussions about changing notions of literacy and their relation to the technologies of representation and communication.
2. Study new literacy practices through an individual or small group research project.
3. Learn from each other through discussions about current events and personal experiences with new information and communication technologies.

Readings

The course is organized around major themes or units, each comprising two or more weeks. Each of these is important for society generally and raises questions about the future of literacy. The questions generate real controversy, and radically different opposing perspectives. Each also poses some deep challenges to conventional understandings and practices. As the semester goes along, you will see more and more interconnections among these issues. In general, the first week of each topic will introduce the basic issues at stake; the second (and sometimes third) weeks will push these issues further, uncovering additional layers that may not be immediately apparent.

Each course unit features readings, audio lectures, and exploratory activities related to a theme. Assigned readings should be seen as just the starting point for your studies. Additional materials is in the course bibliography, and loads of additional material can be accessed through web searches.

One required book is When information came of age, by Daniel R. Headrick. The other required readings can be purchased as a course packet from the TIS Bookstore on Sixth St.

Communication

Students will use, learn through, and critique a variety of new literacy technologies :

• LEEP bulletin boards -- asynchronous discussions on the theme of the unit, the readings, the lectures, the activities, and discussion questions suggested by the class participants.
• chat sessions -- synchronous text-based discussion
• Video conferences
• Class notes -- one student each class period records the class activities and discussions and posts that in the LEEP board called "Class notes"
• Inquiry units -- for project work, as well as shorter investigations
• FAQ -- frequently asked questions
• Blog -- course web log
• Face-to-face discussions -- including Discoveries (sharing findings each week from popular media and the workplace), Project updates (regular reports on project work with collaboration in solving problems that arise), and General discussion of readings and issues .

Assignments & grading

There are no exams. Grades are based on:

• A semester-long project, reported in six stages (40%), marked by in the schedule. Some tips:
  • Be sure to look at examples of past projects for ideas about content, format, and length. Note that in some cases the project Inquiry Unit was a draft, rather than the final version. A typical one-person final report might be ~3000 words, more if it's essentially a review article, less if it's reporting on a service learning project. A report by three or four people might be twice as long, but you should use whatever space you need to develop your story. The JAAL columns are another reasonable model in terms of scope.
  • A group project is assumed to receive equivalent, but not necessarily the same, contributions from group members, and is expected to be more substantial than an individual project.
  • Research involving human subjects, such as interviewing, surveys, or observations, requires Institutional Review Board approval. If it fits within the existing approval from the Institutional Review Board (see IRB-1), no additional approval process is needed. Research participants should be informed fully of the research and given a copy of the consent letter.
  • If the research involves schools, an additional approval is required through the Bureau of Educational Research.
• Six smaller assignments (40%), each marked by in the schedule. The last assignment is a reflection paper: What have you learned from the course activities? What do you see as the future for literacy? ...the most surprising changes? Do you see ways to apply that learning to your own work?;
• Participation in discussions, discoveries, class notes, helping others learn, computer helper, ... (20%). Notify in advance about any absence and complete alternate assignment.

Work must turned submitted through C-Base by the date on which the assignment is listed in the schedule in order to receive full consideration. The grading is criterion-based, with an indication in C-Base:

Excellent,exceeds expectations, "A" quality work
Does what was required, "B" quality work
Something missing, with an indication of the work that is needed. If you choose to do so, you may revise the assignment in order to improve your grade.

Schedule

Week	Assignments	Readings	Activities
New Media Practices
(1) Aug 29	(Optional) Public domain information: Aug 26-30, discussion board Sep 5-6, symposium announcement	Headrick, ch. 1	Computer help Class notes Introductions Course goals & structure possible course units past projects steganography Powers of 10 Computers & Writing, Purdue, May 22-25, due Oct 28 CPSR E$$ay Contest GSLIS Undergraduate Paper Award
(2) Sep 3	Explore the course site and think about possible course topics. Begin thinking about your course project.	Eco, From Internet to Gutenberg (in six parts)	Digital Cities Kyoto Mindset list The role of technology Sullivan, "America in 1900" Brainstorm issues relevant to literacy in the information age Discuss possible projects and groups
Sep 5	Login to LEEP. In the board for the first week, post a greeting to the class introducing yourself. Briefly describe your goals for the course. Then, login to C-Base and post the URL for that message in activity 1.	Headrick, ch. 2 Supp: Headrick, ch. 3	Lessig, Internet & copyright [interview]
(3) Sep 10		Bruce, New literacies Supp: McEneaney, A hypertext history in 36 nodes	What does it mean to "own" information? Bioinformatics in education Project ideas: "Rain is not my Indian name" spin-off a course unit Game studies TappedIn Display wall CAVE tour Inquiry Page as a medium for the project
Sep 12		Sharples, Electronic Publication: Writing for the Screen Supp: Headrick, ch. 5	viruses virus hoaxes Jan Brunvand Projects Research involving human subjects Team Action Project Groups discussion: What is writing?
(4) Sep 17	Post your project proposal: (or a URL for it) in LEEP. Post the URL for that message in C-Base. Use the keyword "liafa2" for your Inquiry Unit.	Bruce, The work of art in the age of digital reproduction	Twenty-first century literacy Internet an integral part of college life
Historical Perspectives
Sep 19		Headrick, chs. 6 & 7	Nu shortcuts in school r 2 much 4 teachers discuss Headrick, pp. 183-193 timeline assignment
(5) Sep 24	Do one of the three options in: What role have technologies played in learning throughout history?	Baron, Pencils to pixels Supp: NPR, Literacy in the 21st century.	What are the new literacies?
Sep 26		Bruce, Constructing a once and future history of learning technologies	Life on the web: BEACHTechie assignments
(6) Oct 1	Add your annotated bibliography to the course collection. Use your netid as a keyword, in addition to "lis 391".	Headrick, ch. 4	end of radio drama, Sep 30, 1962; start of Saturday Night at the Movies class notes blog "updated" timeline human subjects research Deconstructing images from the media
Personal Meanings
Oct 3		Rheingold, Look who's talking	Community Issue Forum, Oct 5 Google language preferences Geographic Information Systems; GIS for classroom (major, sign, sport)
(7) Oct 8	Find a webcam. Find your home in Terraserver. Discuss both of these in the web board.	Burbules, Privacy, surveillance and classroom communication Supp: Liu, Wireless Internet for all	Googlefight security cameras webcam/terraserver assignment privacy discussion maps as social tools (jigsaw)
Oct 10		NIIT, Hole in the wall computer Judge, computer literacy for India's poorest kids	project updates
Ethical and Policy Issues
(8) Oct 15		Bruce, How worldwide is the web? Supp: Snow, clever Cubans still get bootleg Internet Bruce & Hogan, The disappearance of technology	Internet bookmobile. First Monday Computers & Writing proposals Oct 28 Otlet film tomorrow Nobel prize stamps Internet in India (guests: Pradip Kumar Upadhyay, Pandurang Konnur)
Oct 17	One of: Locate the "Bobby Site" and evaluate its criteria for accessible web pages. What assumptions does it make about access? Discuss in the web board. What is the UIUC role in ICT devleopment? Post in the History web board.	Zhao, et al. Teaching and learning: Whose computer is it?	discuss assignments project updates Faces of Tomorrow -- new literacies, access, privacy, ...
(9) Oct 22	Post your outline. Note that this "outline" is a several-page draft of your project. It may include parts in a rough form, such as lists of key phrases, but it's not simply a hierarchical structure of the parts (intro, background, method, results, etc.)	Schneider, The Patriot Act: Last refuge of a scoundrel Boulton, Is Microsoft watching what you're watching?	Radio UserLand Situated evaluation
Oct 24		Bruce, Access points on the digital river Supp: Coyle, Access: Not just wires Gunderson, web accessibility [interview] [text]) Shade, Gender issues in computer networking	David Gunkel, "What's the Matter with Books?" Walt Scacchi, "Understanding the Requirements for Developing Open Source Software Information Systems" Apropiación de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación en América Latina McWhortle Enterprises, Inc. Patriot registration site visits; inquiry units dimensions of access
(10) Oct 29		White, Six degrees of instant messaging Ma, Happiness on the Chinese Internet Anderson & Kubiatowicz, The worldwide computer	Visual thesaurus accessibility symbols eye scanning Simputer technology survey changes in access
Learning Opportunities
Oct 31	Project responses Choose at least two projects and respond to them on the web board	Noble, Digital diploma mills: The automation of higher education Brown & Duguid, Universities in the digital age Supp: Review of Noble's book on distance ed Winner, the automatic professor	Derrick de Kerckhove Love Machine survey results project updates Janine Solberg, Visual literacy & web spaces Schedule in-class project presentations Undergraduate best paper award
(11) Nov 5		Reuters, Monkey moves cursor! Hiler, Google time bombs	Hole in the Wall Larry Lessig, Free culture Academic Exchange
Nov 7	Project presentations: Jack: Virtual exhibits Becky: How have media literacies changed healthcare today?	Dewey, 3. Criteria of experience	Downs Intellectual Freedom Award one reading for the syllabus
Community
(12) Nov 12	Project presentations: Inray, Kerry: Are pop-up advertisements a "necessary evil" or just evil? Kelly: How accessible are computers and the Internet for visually disabled users?	Bishop, Communities for the new century Who owns the media?	Mediaworks Pamphlets Double fold CPSR essay contest
Nov 14	Project presentations: Sarah, Patty, David: Peer-to-peer technology Tony: Emoticons Meenal: Relationship between technology used in businesses and the country's economy	Thakkar, et al. Extending literacy through participation in new technologies	Inquiry Unit wrappers
(13) Nov 19	Project presentations: Grant: Representations of time Nichole: the independent film genre Wei, Katy, Doug: The future of copyrights credibility unit	Bruce, Digital content: The babel of cyberspace. Supp: Floridi, Rheingold's brainstorms: Disinformation superhighway? People "turn to online library materials before printed ones" Postman, Informing ourselves to death.	Whales in Lake Michigan Google answers IJUR
Nov 21		Hafner, A paternity dispute divides net pioneers
-- Nov 26, 28 -- Thanksgiving Break
(14) Dec 3	Final report Project presentations: Dyanna: From us to you: Talk radio broadcasting in the information age Susana, Bailey, Jeff, Paul: The effects of media in society Meghan, Joan, Bijan: What is visual literacy?	Hawisher, Constructing our identities through online images	think about the story of your writing
Dec 5		Mishra, et al. Seeing ourselves in the computer: How we relate to technologies	The Flesh Public Library library filters draw the story of your project; see Waldmeier unit
(15) Dec 10	Reflection paper	Kapitzke, Information literacy: The changing library	Total Information Awareness, EPIC John Poindexter, info on Cyberatlas toolbox China blocks news copyright: GIrl Scout songs; cab driver music; Christmas carols Discuss TIA pragmatic technology
Dec 12		Brunelle, Why free software matters for literacy educators	Where do we go next? What did we learn? What new questions? Journals Organizations Instructor and Course Evaluation Survey