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... with a focus on information technologies from the telegraph to social media, inquiring through communication theorists, historians, multimedia pop press, and a little bit of fiction - Click on links for access to all readings and instructions (except McLuhan text). - Wait for instructions in class before beginning a project or assignment. Instructions and due dates are subject to change.
- Print and bring
texts/notes for
reading quizzes, if you'd like.
Click here to view the
syllabus (PDF) |
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| this week in 335 ... | Tuesday | Thursday |
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Week 1 overview of tech & modern civilization |
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 Meet- Review syllabus and texts, course information site, blog, BB - Review reading grid - Prepare for Gleick's reading - View The Onion's CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs video (3:43M) |
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Week 2
significant |
- Gleick's The Information prologue published in NYTimes (2011)
Meet - Bring laptop and printed reading grid - Take reading quiz - Register WordPress - Post introductory blog in class - Prepare for McLuhan reading |
Meet - Discuss text, idea of technology as an extension of self - Prepare for reading of Shannon's information theory - View Claude Shannon - Father of the Information Age (29:32M)
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Week 3 continuing on theorists; timelines of communication and media technologies |
 Read- Background material of your choice on "shannon mathematical theory of communication" - Fiske's Ch.1, Intro to Communication Studies excerpt (p. 5-7) (1982) - A note on the history of the below edition - Shannon's A Mathematical Theory of Communication (intro, diagram, definitions: p. 1 - first full para of p. 3) (1948)
Meet - Review blogs - Take reading quiz - Discuss model for information theory - Do group work applying theory to types of communication
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 Read- Timelines about communication technology of your choice - History of communication timeline- View From Cave Paintings to the Internet database (communication in outline view) Meet Online - Read instructions posted here - Experiment with Timetoast; create personal technology timeline per instructions - Post to course blog per instructions |
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Week 4 |
Submit - Blog 2
Read - Ong's Ch. 3 Orality and Literacy excerpt (p. 31-36) (1982)
Meet - Discuss text - Do group activity on understanding oral versus literate cultures |
 Read- Economic History Association's History of the US Telegraph Industry (2010) - skim - The alphabet in Morse code (listen) - Wikipedia entry on Morse code (just "Representation, timing and speeds" section) - Translate the following Morse code into text by clicking here: .-- . .- .-. / .- / .... .- - / - --- / -.-. .-.. .- ... ... / - --- -.. .- -.-- / ..-. --- .-. / . -..- - .-. .- / -.-. .-. . -.. .. - .-.-.- / .. ..-. / ..-. . .-- . .-. / - .... .- -. / .---- ----- / ... - ..- -.. . -. - ... / .-- . .- .-. / .- / .... .- - --..-- / - .... . -.-- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / . .- -.-. .... / .-. . -.-. . .. ...- . / .---- ----- / .--. --- .. -. - ... .-.-.- / .. ..-. / .---- ----- / --- .-. / -- --- .-. . / ... - ..- -.. . -. - ... / .-- . .- .-. / .- / .... .- - --..-- / - .... . -.-- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / . .- -.-. .... / .-. . -.-. . .. ...- . / ..... / .--. --- .. -. - ... .-.-.- Meet - Continue discussion of Ong reading - Reading quiz - View this page in Morse code - Discuss telegraph, Morse, converting language to bits, evolution of early binary code - View Telephone and Telegraph vocational video (10:35M) (1946) - View Verizon Telecom Career video (2:16M) (2008) |
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Week 5 Babbage and the first mechanical computers |
 Read
- McLuhan's
medium is the
massage (p. 48-99) (1967)- Discuss ditto machines and other oddities - Review instructions for Collide-O-Scopic Project - Prepare for Babbage reading |
 Read
- Brief bio of Charles Babbage (1792 - 1871) and image gallery - Translate the following binary code into text by clicking here: 01101111 01110010 01100111 01100001 01101110 01101001 01111010 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00101101 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101100 01100001 01110011 01101000 00100000 01101101 01101111 01100010 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01101001 01100100 01100100 01101100 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100011 01101100 01100001 01110011 01110011 - Discuss development of early computing - View The Babbage Engine (1:39M) - Develop idea for Collide-O-Scopic Project |
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Week 6
p |
Conference in my office by appointment. Do the Challenge. (Instructions will be transmitted to you.) |
 Read
- The Onion's Report: National Content Now Over 85 Percent Filler (1998) - a good book Meet - TBA - Work on Collide-O-Scopic Project |
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Week 7 |
 Submit -
Blog 3Read - McLuhan's medium is the massage (p. 100-160) (1967) Meet - View blogs - Discuss text, education, ears, eyes, tv - Do group activity - Prepare for Graham reading |
 Read- BBC's brief biography of Alexander Graham Bell (2011) - New York Times article Phone to Pacific from the Atlantic (1876) - Research on how the invention of the telephone impacted communication Meet - View Alexander Graham Bell's large box telephone - Listen to This American Life: Telephone, Prologue and Act 1 (7:00M and 31:00M) - Discuss pre-mobile phone impact on culture/society, stored memory, comparison between record of voice vs. social media/text records, communication as performance |
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Week 8 development of mobile communication technology |
 Read- The New Atlantis's Our Cell Phones, Ourselves (2004) - Facts about the mobile. A journey through time. (2006) - skim timeline (published as a press release) - Social Implications of Mobile Telephony:The Rise of Personal Communication Society (p. 371-374) - Berners-Lee Wants Free, Low-Bandwidth Mobile Data (2010) Meet - View images of mobile technology in use on some guy's blog - Read Cell Phone Usage and Social Interaction with Proximate Others: Ringing in a Theoretical Model, abstract only (2008) - Discuss mobile communication - Prepare for Bush reading |
 Meet -
Mid-term course critique |
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Week 9 |
 Submit -
Blog 4
Read - Short biography of Vannevar Bush - Bush's As We May Think (1945)
Meet - Take reading quiz - Discuss text - View Memex animation
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 Read- Wikipedia entry on "Wikipedia" (focus on intro, and "cultural significance" subsection) - Wikipedia entry on "meme" - Blackmore's article Evolution and Memes: The human brain as a selective imitation device (2001) OR her presentation on memes and "temes" (19:31M) (2008) OR the interactive transcript from that presentation Meet - View TED presentation Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth (7:33M) and interactive transcript (2007) - Hunt memes! - Discuss reading in the context of Bush's vision |
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Week 10 continuing meme week |
Meet - Go on a meme hunt! - Discuss readings - Do meme experiment - Engage in meme propagation - OPTIONAL & FOR NO EXTRA CREDIT AT ALL - Check out this Automatic Meme Generator. You too can become a meme: http://memegenerator.net/. If you decide to play around with it, feel free to post your meme on our blog (categorized as "memes"). |
 Read- Gleick's What Defines a Meme? (2011). Print version here. Meet - Take reading quiz - Discuss reading - Be a meme |
| Spring Break |
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Week 11 |
Submit -
Blog 5
 Read- Berners-Lee's Information Management: A Proposal [for the World Wide Web] (1989) - Berners-Lee's Hypertext and Our Collective Destiny talk notes (1995)
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Main Page - Freemind - a Free Mind mapping
software
-
download
software
Meet - Bring laptops - Discuss origins of vision for Internet - Do mind mapping activity |
 Meet- Bring laptops - Bring all files, materials, technology to work on Collide-O-Scopic Project - Discuss readings from Tuesday |
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Week 12 texting and social media |
 - LA Times Why text messages are limited to 160 characters (2009) - NY Times 15 Years of text messages: a 'cultural phenomenon (2007) - Current Research in Social Psychology's The Influence of Phonetic Abbreviations on the Evaluation of Student Performance, abstract only (2006) - YouTube's Girl Falls in the Fountain While Texting (1:28M) (2011) - Texts From Last Night web site (skim) Meet - Discuss texting as communication, performance, in terms of McLuhan/Shannon - Do text communication experiment - View The Daily Show's Digital Watch - Text Messaging (2003) |
 Read- CMS Wire's Facebook's Social Inbox: Changing Communication Forever (2010) - List of some scholarly research published in academic journals on Facebook and communication (skim) - The Winners of the Twitter Writing Contest Are - "Like" the ERAU COAS page ... Meet - View Southpark's You Have 0 Friends (21:29M) with notes - Discuss social media in pop culture, attitudes versus behavior - View ERAU COAS Twitter and Facebook pages |
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Week 13 media Technology in Fiction/Film
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PCA Conference in
Boston - Presentation
"Nice to meet you. We have the same disease … A
Rhetorical Study of Online Peer-To-Peer Patient
Communication" - meet online this week
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Meet Online - Discuss readings/video and information/communication technologies in fiction by posting a video response OR reading response on course blog and replying to other students' entries |
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Week 14 Collide-O-Scopic project and final Review
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- Bring laptop - Bring draft of Collide-O-Scopic Project - Do peer review workshop |
Submit Collide-O-Scopic Project Meet - Review for final |
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Week 15 |
 Meet
- Collide-O-Scopic presentations |
 Meet -
Collide-O-Scopic presentations |
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Final |
Also, by Friday, please post a
short blog
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