Fayetteville State University
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Faculty Senate
Proposal from College of Humanities and Social Sciences
I. Proposal:SPEE315 Computer-Mediated Communication. 3 credits. Elective.
II. Purpose: This course is designed to offer the advanced undergraduate student skills and knowledge concerning the ways in which computer technology has and will continue to affect our communication behaviors. Students will have the chance to use and present cutting-edge communication technologies that play a significant role in our lives and in society, but with an understanding and appreciation of the social implications of those technologies. The class is designed to give students a new vocabulary with which to dialogue about the communicative impact of a variety of computer-mediated technologies. Prerequisite: SPEE200.
III. Rationale: Our students are inundated and, indeed, socialized by computer technology. A course on computer-mediated communication is not only practical, but necessary for students who will find computer technology ever more pervasive in their future. Instead of cheerleading technology, which is often the case in college courses, I propose a course to challenge our students’ thinking regarding computer technology and the ways in which that technology has affected their ability to communicate. In general, these technologies have facilitated the creation and transfer of information to a degree never before imagined, altering the nature of communication in all realms of society. This course offers students a chance to explore some of these changes and help them prepare for an active and responsible life as a consumer and user of computer technology. The ultimate rationale for such a course is that, as our computer technology evolves, those who understand now the possibilities and dangers associated with its use will be better prepared as politically-active citizens and morally-responsible adults.
IV. To be presented to: (in succession to each of the following)
Departmental Curriculum Committee, Departmental faculty, CHSS Academic Affairs Committee, CHSS Dean, Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee, Faculty Senate, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Chancellor
V. Submitted by: Dr. Todd S. Frobish
VI. Number of Copies:
VII: Will this proposal, if implemented, require either additional faculty or other resources? If yes, explain how these resources will be provided. No.
Course Syllabus
Fayetteville State University
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department of Performing and Fine Arts
I. LOCATOR INFORMATION
Semester: Fall 2004Course No.: SPEE315
Course Name: Computer-Mediated Communication Hrs: 3
Day/Time/Room: TBA
Instructor: Dr. Todd S. Frobish
Office Location: BU267Phone: 672-1206
Office Hours:Email:
II. COURSE DESCRIPTION
A class designed to initiate students to the field of study known as computer-mediated communication (CMC). Computers, their networks, and the content on them have significantly influenced our political, religious, commercial, personal, and professional lives. Students will explore both qualitative and quantitative communication scholarship that focuses upon the implications of online media in these settings. Prerequisite: SPEE200.
III. TEXTBOOK:
Vitanza, V. (1999). Cyberreader. 2ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Course Packet of classic articles relating to computer-mediated communication.
IV. SPECIFIC COURSE OBJECTIVES
1) Students should demonstrate a basic understanding of communication as a symbolic process
2) Students should demonstrate a critical awareness of modern online technologies and their implications in a variety of communicative settings
3) Students should demonstrate an appreciation for the relationship between online technology and communication
4) Students should develop a vocabulary necessary for dialogue concerning the communicative impact of wired communication.
V. COURSE COMPETENCIES
INTASC #1 (Knowledge) The teacher understands the major concepts, assumptions, debates, processes of inquiry and ways of knowing that are central to the discipline he or she teaches.
INTASC #9.4 (Reflection) The teacher is committed to reflection, assessment, and learning as an ongoing process.
INTASC #6.13, NCDPI #6.4 (Technology) The teacher knows how to use a variety of media communication tools, including audiovisual aids and computers, to enrich learning opportunities.
INTASC #3 (Diversity) The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.
INTASC #10.12, NCDPI #10 (Collaboration) The teacher establishes respectful and productive relationships with diverse home and community situations, and seeks to develop cooperative partnerships in support of learning and well being.
VI. EVALUATION CRITERIA
Grading Scale:
920-1000=A
830-910=B
730-820=C
640-720=D
0 -630=F
I=Incomplete
Grade Distribution:
Journal100 points
Presentation A200 points
Presentation B200 points
Presentation C200 points
Final Research Paper300 points
Total:1000 points
Assignment Descriptions:
Journal
All students will register for access to a web-based journal database, created by the instructor. Each student will be expected to write two entries each week. The first entry must be recorded before the week begins, but after the student has read the week’s reading material. The second entry must be recorded within two days following that class. This journal is designed so that students can begin thinking about others’ perspectives before class discussion and so that students can follow-up on arguments that time would not allow during class. These entries will remain public only to other class members.
Presentation A:
This class presentation is designed to allow students the chance to explain or demonstrate the functionality of a particular web technology. The presentation will be no more than ten minutes. Students will be expected to make full use of in-class computer technology. Topics include, but are not limited to the following list: MOOs/MUDs, listservs, intranets, Java, Html, Sgml, P2P, chatrooms, audio and video, photo editing, desktop publishing, VR, Usenet, IRC, E-Mail....
Presentation B:
This class presentation is designed to allow students an opportunity to critically engage one theorist of interest and demonstrate the value or non-value of that person’s work to the understanding of CMC. The presentation will be no more than ten minutes. Students will be expected to prepare and distribute a handout that includes a short bio of the theorist, an annotated bibliography of that theorist’s major works, and an abbreviated abstract of the presentation. Theorists include, but are not limited to the following list: Neil Postman, Marshall McLuhan, Howard Rheingold, Sherry Turkle, Theodor Nelson, Sven Birkerts, Clifford Stoll, Nicholas Negroponte....
Presentation C:
This class presentation is the full report of the student’s research. The presentation will be no more than fifteen minutes. Students will be expected to prepare and distribute a handout that includes a description of the object of study and an abbreviated list of findings.
Final Research Paper:
Students will be expected to study some act of wired communication. Papers should be no more than 20 pages and should be theoretically-grounded, rich analyses that will make claims as to the implications of the particular mediating technology on human communication. Topics include, but are not limited to the following list: significant websites, chatroom behavior, hidden html codes, avatars, hard-wired programming agendas, meta-industry discourse, news media broadcasts on CMC, CMC culture and legends, advertising campaigns....
VII. COURSE OUTLINE
Week One: Introduction to CMC
Packet: Barnes, “Introduction to Computer-Mediated Communication”
Vitanza: Woolley, “Cyberspace”
Packet: Moore, “How do we get on?”
Packet: Adams & Clark, “What is it?”
Packet: Levinson, “Millennial McLuhan”
Week Two: History of Internet
Link: Bush, “As We May Think”
Packet: Snyder, “Explaining Hypertext”
Packet: Adams & Clark, “How did we get here?”
Link: PBS, “Life on the Internet”
Link: Google, “20 Year Usenet Archive”
Week Three: Survey of Web Technologies
Packet: Santoro, “The Internet”
Link: Jackson, “Assessing the Structure”
Packet: Miller, “Search Engines”
Packet: Barnes, “Online Games”
Week Four: Presentations (A)
Week Five: Utopians and Dystopians
Packet: Gates, “Education: The Best Investment”
Packet: Rheingold, “Introduction”
Link: Rheingold, “Utopian Promises - Net Realities”
Packet: Stoll, “A Speleological Introduction”
Packet: Talbott, “Can Human Ideals Survive the Internet?”
Week Six: Scholars of Identity
Vitanza: Turkle, “Identity Crisis”
Vitanza: Bruckman, “Gender Swapping”
Vitanza: Nakamura, “Identity Tourism”
Packet: Shaw, “Gay Men and Computer Communication”
Week Seven: Scholars of Community
Vitanza: Rheingold, “Introduction to Virtual Community”
Link: Rheingold, “Court Testimony”
Packet: Jones, “Information, Internet, and Community”
Packet: Mitra, “Diasporic Web Sites”
Week Eight: Presentations (B)
Week Nine: Political Issues
Packet: Rash, “How Politics, Political Action, and Cyberspace Work Together”
Packet: Benson, “Rhetoric, Civility, and Community”
Packet: Dorsey & Green, “Spinning the Web”
Packet: Connell, “New Ways to Reach Voters”
Packet: Faucheux, “How Campaigns are Using the Internet”
Packet: Hacker, “Missing Links”
Week Ten: Religious Issues
Packet: O’Leary & Brasher, “The Unknown God of the Internet”
Packet: Zaleski, “Chapter 10”
Packet: Cobb, “The Mind of God”
Link: Frobish, “Altar Rhetoric”
Week Eleven: Commercial/Work Place Issues
Vitanza: Barlow, “The Economy of Ideas”
Link: Kirsner, “Express Lane”
Packet: Gauntlett, “Introduction”
Week Twelve: Relationship Issues
Vitanza: Kantrowitz, “Men, Women, and Computers”
Vitanza: Rheingold, “Teledildonics”
Vitanza: Moore, “The Night Thoreau Had Cybersex”
Packet: Sherman, “Online Safety Tips”
Packet: Moore, “Public Relationships”
Week Thirteen: Controversial/Moral Issues
Vitanza: Meyer, Crimes of the Net”
Vitanza: Hackers, “Is it a Crime?”
Vitanza: Bombay, “Would You View This With Your Mother?”
Vitanza: Dibbell, “A Rape in Cyberspace”
Packet: Adams, “This is Not Our Fathers’ Pornography”
Week Fourteen: The Future of CMC
Packet: Wilder, “Peer into the Net’s Future”
Packet: Hill & Hughes, “The Internet and the Future of Political Communication”
Packet: Gauntlett, “The Future”
Week Fifteen: Presentations (C)
VIII. COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Student Responsibilities: To earn a passing grade in this course, a student must minimally attend 90% of all class meetings, deliver all presentations and complete the research paper. A student who wishes to achieve better than a passing grade should strive to actively participate in class discussions and activities, and show effort, thoughtfulness, and creativity in course assignments. Plagiarism, or using someone else’s intellectual work as one’s own, WILL NOT be tolerated. Plagiarizing will result in the failure for that assignment and may lead to one’s failure of the course!
Absences and Make-up Policy:
•Your attendance is mandatory. By not attending class, you are not only hurting yourself, but putting your peers at a disadvantage since class discussion will suffer and activities will not be as interactive.
•Three absences with explanation will be allowed. For each absence after three, your grade will be reduced by two cumulative percentage points. NOTE: Cutting classes for reasons other than illness or emergency limits your allowed absences for real problems. In other words, don’t cut.
•Attendance is mandatory on those days when you have signed up to present. Failure to show up on your presentation day will result in a reduced grade for that assignment by one full letter grade. Failure to make-up that presentation that next class day will result in a grade of zero for that speech. Make-ups for presentations and exams are always as the discretion of the instructor when the absence is unexcused.
Tardiness:
Tardiness is annoying and frustrating for both your peers and the instructor. If a student is presenting when you get to class, wait until you hear clapping before you open the door. Otherwise, you may hinder the student’s performance and grade. If you must leave for some reason (bathroom, water, etc.), please do so in a suitable manner. There is no need to ask permission, but keep exits to a minimum.
IX. TEACHING STRATEGIES:
The Computer-Mediated Communication course is designed to offer the advanced undergraduate student the basic skills and knowledge about computer technology and the ways in which it has affected our communication behaviors. This class embraces multiple approaches to reach that goal, including interpersonal interaction, group activities, student-to-class presentations, discussion, lecture, and examination. Students will have the chance to use and present technologies to class that have a significant role to play in our daily lives and which affect our communication behaviors.
X. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Course Packet Selections
Adams, Carol J. (1996). “This is not our father’s pornography:” sex, lies, and computers. In Ess,
Charles. (1996). (ed.) Philosophical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Communication. NY:
State University of New York Press.
Bettig, Ronald V. (1997). The enclosure of cyberspace. Critical Studies in Mass Communication,
14, 138-157.
Elgesem, Dag. (1996). Privacy, respect for persons, and risk. In Ess, Charles. (1996). (ed.)
Philosophical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Communication. NY: State University of
New York Press.
Hacker, K. (1996). Missing links in the evolution of electronic democratization. Media, Culture
& Society, 18, 213-32.
Kiesler, S., Siegel, J., & McGuire, T. (1984). Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated
communication. American Psychologist, 39, 1123-34.
Moore, Dinty W. (1995). The Emperor’s Virtual Clothes: The Naked Truth about Internet
Culture. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
OLeary, Stephen D., and Brasher, Brenda E. (1996). The unknown God of the Internet: religious
communication from the ancient agora to the virtual forum. In Ess, Charles. (1996). (ed.)
Philsophical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Communication. NY: State University of New
York Press.
Postman, Neil. (1985). The Huxleyan Warning. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse
in the Age of Show Business. NY: Penguin Books.
Rash, Wayne. (1997). Politics on the Nets: Wiring the Political Process. NY: W. H. Freeman.
Ratnasingham, P. (1998). The importance of trust in electronic commerce. Internet Research:
Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 7, 314.
Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Santoro, Gerald M. (1994, April). The Internet: an overview. Communication Education, 43, 73-
86
Sherman, Aliza. (1998). Cybergrrl! A Woman’s Guide to the World Wide Web. NY: Ballantine
Publishing Group.
Spears, Russell, and Lea, Martin. (1994, August). Panacea or panopticon? The hidden power in
computer-mediated communication. Communication Research, 21, 427-459.
Walther, J. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: impersonal, interpersonal, and
hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23, 3-43.
Zaleski, J. (1997). The Soul of Cyberspace: How New Technology is Changing our Spiritual
Lives. NY: HarperEdge.