Spring 2003

Syllabus

Class Meetings: Tuesday & Thursday, 2:50-4:05pm
Classroom: Class will meet in MMC 219, unless otherwise noted in syllabus.
Required Text: Course packet available at the Bookstore and readings on Reserve in Library.

Course Description:

The computer is rapidly transforming how we store, organize, and access information. Moreover, computer-based systems like the Internet and electronic databases are also transforming our understanding of what “information” is, how we use it, and what we fashion from it. This course has three main aims: 1) to provide instruction in how to carry out purposeful and sophisticated research using electronic sources; 2) to use the development of electronic information as an occasion for examining how information is produced, constructed, and validated; and 3) to investigate the social and cultural implications (and impact) of electronic information. The course will be organized as a series of somewhat overlapping units:

1. What is information and what is its socio-cultural role?
2. How is information stored and how does this affect its retrieval, evaluation, use and impact?
3. How can information, stored electronically, be retrieved in an efficient and effective manner?

Requirements:

Advice and Policies:

Attendance is expected. This course will emphasize discussion, small group work, and in-class activities and experiments. Mostly, the tools and information you will need to use will be presented and developed in class.

Similarly, readings, journal activities, and exercises that will be assigned have been chosen to prepare you to participate in the work of a given class period and should be completed by the beginning of the class for which they have been assigned. Late assignments will automatically receive a lower grade (one grade for every day late) unless the professor has given prior approval. Assignments are to be typed.

Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have documentation of their disability on file in the Office of Student Services. Please notify the instructors of any approved accommodations during the first week of class. Accommodations are approved through the Office of Student Services, SS200.

You are responsible for the WSU policy on academic honesty (see Student Handbook).

Because this course emphasizes discussion and participation, every effort will be made to create a comfortable, respectful class atmosphere. All students and faculty are expected to be courteous and respectful of others while in class.

Class Outline, Readings and Assignments: