Department of English and Journalism

We will focus primarily on networked communication, hypertext, and the internet. Along the way we will nod both at familiar computer applications, such as word processing, and at specialized applications, such as MOOs and multipurpose communications programs. Our study will be accomplished through the reading of both print texts and electronic texts, through f2f discussion in class, through asyncronous electronic discussion, and through writing, using both paper and electronic publication. (This course fulfills the department's upper-level writing requirement for undergraduates, and we will devote considerable attention to your writing.)

Computer Access

All students in the class will get an internet (ECN) account and use Pine or Eudora to post email messages to the class listserv list. You may subscribe to e480-l from this syllabus. You may also access the class's interactive WebCT site.

Our class meetings will be in Simpkins 324 (a classroom) and 321, a computer lab (for which you should familiarize yourself with the lab rules. In addition, you will need to spend a great deal of out-of-class time at the computer. There are four computers in the Writing Center (Simpkins 341), though they are usually in high demand. Your best bet is to use the labs in Stipes, Morgan, the Library, or a residence hall. If you have a modem for a home computer, you can get instructions for connecting to WIU and ECN from the Academic Computing office in Stipes Hall.

Texts:

Requirements:

  1. Faithful attendance. Serious illness or family emergency are the only reasons for absence.
  2. Equally faithful completion of reading and writing assignments on time.
  3. A home page to be posted on the World Wide Web and linked to this syllabus. (See my Technology Page for HTML guidelines.)
  4. Three or four exploratory writings on paper. The purpose of these assignments will be to contribute to our developing group knowledge. All should be written, then, to be shared with the class
  5. Two "papers" written in hypertext and published on the WWW. Both will be based on web-based research. The first will be a whole-class collaboration building a Neuromancer web site. The second will be a fully-developed hypertext on a technology/computer/internet topic.
  6. Email postings to e480-l four times a week including responses to readings, to points raised in class, to one another's ideas and questions. All posts should observe standard netiquette conventions. Click here to post to the list.
  7. Participation. We will be acting as a discourse community, writing and talking in order to discover meaning. Your participation in the class discussion is essential.
  8. Exploratory reading. I expect everyone to read whatever you can get your hands on relating to the Internet, email, hypertext, World Wide Web, etc, and to share what you discover in email postings.
  9. Net exploring. We will collectively explore internet resources: liservs and newsgroups, gopher, World Wide Web. You will share your discoveries with the class and include them in your home page.
  10. Graduate Students Only: Students taking the course for graduate credit will read an additional book (from this list) and write a brief report.

Tentative schedule of assignments.

Grades:

I tend not to grade with mathematical precision. The following percentages will, however, give you a sense of how your final grade will be determined:

A little amusement

How to Find me:

Office: Simpkins 217
Phone: 298-2212
email: mfbhl@wiu.edu
or lelandb@ccmail.wiu.edu
homepage: http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfbhl/
Office hours: MWF 2:00-3:00; Th 1:30-3:00
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Escape clause: This syllabus is subject to revision as circumstances dictate. You can expect additional links to be added with some regularity--check it often!.

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http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfbhl/480syl.htm