Digital Humanities

Dr. Gerald R. Lucas gerald.lucas@maconstate.edu Office: Macon H/SS-117 53021 HUMN 2151.01 TR 10A-12:20P SUMMER 2012 WRC3-215

Postmodernism and the PC dene our contemporary culture.

This section of HUMN 2151 Digital Humanities will look at the intersection of the humanities and the digital world. We will look at how traditional approaches to the study and creation of cultural texts are being inuenced and changed by microprocessing technologies. Our study will begin in the latter part of the twentieth century, include a primer of postmodernism, and focus on new media approaches to cultural production and consumption.

Goals
Since this class is a requirement for General Studies majors, key assessments of writing and public speaking must be measured. All students must be able to analyze problems in more than one discipline; therefore the course requirements will be directed toward these goals. To develop and enhance the students critical and analytical ability to read and understand the texts of thinkers in various disciplines, their contexts and signicance, through and variety of pedagogical strategies. To develop and enhance the students ability to think critically and creatively and to write and to speak eectively about the arts and culture.

HUMN 2151 Summer 2012 Dr. Lucas litmuse.net

Required Texts
The following two texts will be available in the MSC book store, but you may also order them online. Bacigalupi, Paolo. The Windup Girl. (2010) Clark, Carol Lea. The Wired Society. (1998) At several points throughout the semester, your reading assignments will entail short stories that are not in the above texts. These additional readings will be made available to you as PDFs in the course management system.

COURSE POLICIES
Assignments
Your work represents you. Therefore, I expect everything you turn into me to exemplify the very best of your professional self. Work should be proofread, rhetorically appropriate, and illustrate your very best writing. No late submissions will be considered for a grade. See Course Requirements and Grading below.

Attendance
This section of HUMN 2151 is a hybrid online course that meets face-to-face only a couple of times during the semester (See Tentative Schedule). Therefore, your attendance for those days is very important; your presence at the rst class meeting is mandatory. Please communicate with me if you plan to miss any scheduled course meetings.

Conduct
As a Macon State College student and as a student in this class, it is your responsibility to read, to understand, and to abide by the MSC Student Code of Conduct from the MSC Student Handbook, available online.

Plagiarism
Willful plagiarism will result in automatic failure of this class and will be pursued to incite the utmost penalty for such dishonesty. Academic falsehood, in any form, will constitute class failure. The professor reserves the right to use the plagiarism detection service Turn It In at his discretion.

HUMN 2151 Summer 2012 Dr. Lucas litmuse.net

Special Needs
Students seeking academic accommodations for a special need must contact the MSC Counseling and Disability Services (478-471-2985) located on the rst oor of the Math Building (formerly Learning Support), Room 110 on the Macon Campus. I cannot accommodate needs requests without the proper documentation.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING

This class grades on the point system. Each assignment will be worth a specic amount of points depending on its relative importance in evaluation. For example, a reading quiz might be worth 10 points, while a midterm exam might be worth 100. See Grades to the right for specic breakdown. Requirements will fall under the following categories:
A B C D F

Grades
90-100% of total points 80-89% of total points 70-79% of total points 60-69% of total points 59% or less of total points

Forum Responses

Each week, you are required to respond informally in writing. These responses will be posted in an online forum, so the entire class can benet from reading and responding to your thoughts. Further explanation will be forthcoming during the course orientation; see Forum Guidelines below.

Essay Exams
A midterm and a nal exam will be given that will test your knowledge of the subject matter (texts, lecture material, and vocabulary), your ability to synthesize this material, and your creativity in going beyond the discussion and reading materials. The nal exam will include vocabulary, identication, and interpretation. All exam grades will be based upon objective knowledge of the material, thoroughness, depth of insight, precision, and originality.

Presentation
All students will be responsible for a 10-minute oral presentation that discusses some aspect of digital humanities: use a text either from the syllabus or one that might have been included on the syllabus as the foundation of your talk. The specic assignment will be covered during orientation; see Presentation Guidelines below.

Daily Work
Quizzes, other class activities, and homework assignments not explicitly outlined above will be considered daily work.
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TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
This schedule represents the ideal and general outline for our semester, but it is tentative and subject to change. See the CMS for the most accurate and specic data on assignments.
T 6/5 Course Introduction and Orientation Lecture: (Post)modernism and the Digital Age Video: Jos Chungs From Outer Space; forum response Reading: Coover and Pratt; forum response View: Stelarc; Reading: Miller and Gibson; forum response Reading: Joy, Sterling, and Bear; forum response Video: No Maps for These Territories; Reading: Sterling, Bolter; forum response Video: Technoculture: Finding Our Way in the Terra Incognita; Reading: Barlow, Gleick, and Rosenberg; forum response Midterm Exam; Last day to submit presentation topics Video: You Only Live Twice: Virtual Reality Meets Real World in Second Life; Reading: Grosso, Smolowe, and Gladwell; forum response Video: Big Thinkers: Sherry Turkle; Activity: Second Life; Reading: Brody, Tiptree, and Rheingold; forum response Video: Cyberspace: Virtual Unreality?; Reading: Dibbell and Stephenson; forum response Video: Kurzweil and the Singularity; Reading: Kurzweil, Tiptree, and Liu; forum response Reading: Bacigalupi Reading: Bacigalupi; forum response Presentations (Meet in class) Exam: 10:30a-12:30p

1
R 6/7 T 6/12 R 6/14 T 6/19

R 6/21 T 6/26

4
R 6/28 T 7/3

R 7/5 T 7/10

R 7/12 T 7/17 R 7/19 T 7/24 R 8/2

7 8

FORUM GUIDELINES
Students will complete any number of forum responses during the course of the semester. Posts and responses are about the critical analysis of cultural or critical texts. They should be thoughtful and succinct. Strong posts will refer to specic portions of the primary text, will make liberal use of links to external sources, will cite sources correctly, will only summarize when necessary, and will have something unique to contribute to the conversation. Remember to proofread carefully before submitting your post for moderation.
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Forum posts will be worth a maximum of 10 points. Here is a more precise breakdown: 10 and 9 points: precise, thoughtful, focused, original, supported; uses secondary sources (links to web sites); stylistically and mechanically awless; minimum of two posts 8 points: precise, thoughtful, supported; may or may not use secondary sources; uses links; stylistically and grammatically sound; minimum of two posts 7 points: generally acceptable, college-level work, but not really original; few mechanical and stylistic errors; minimum of two posts 6 points: plot summary or a re-hashing of what everyone else wrote; minor mechanical and stylistic problems; minimum of two posts 1-5 points: did not follow directions; not proofread; not revised; little to no eort; complaining about the assignment; less than two posts Your post within a particular forum will never be complete unless you respond to at least one thread. Remember, most forums will be worth ten points, but a thread (post, comment) is worth a maximum of ve points. Therefore, you should at least begin a thread and respond to a thread in every forum in the class. However, I recommend doing more than that. If you earn a 4 on one post and a 3 on your second, your nal grade for the forum will be a 7 out of 10. Posting one more time will likely make up those three points you are missing. If you want to make the maximum grade, post as much as you are able.

PRESENTATION GUIDELINES
You will give one 10-minute presentation on one of the major components of the course from one text of your choice from the syllabus, textbook, or one that addresses the course subject matter. If you choose the latter, it must be approved by me. Topics must be submitted to me by midterm, June 28, 2012, or you will be assigned a topic. The goal of this exercise is to generate engaged discussion of the cultural text (literary work, lm, etc.), not simply to summarize the material. Think of questions or observations that are likely to spark the interest of your audience and encourage them to share their own ideas. This exercise is intended to help each of you write persuasive essays and speak condently in class and on-line discussions. Avoid giving too much background information on your chosen text. Instead, think about ways to (1) introduce the texts most compelling features to the class and (2) get the class engaged in a discussion about the text using specic passages and scenes. Think about your audience, and be as lively and interesting as you can. Make every minute of the presentation count. The minimum requirements are as follows:

HUMN 2151 Summer 2012 Dr. Lucas litmuse.net

Content
1. Discuss a specic aspect of the course content in your chosen text 2. Avoid plot summary unless it pertains directly to your discussion 3. Point to specic lines or scenes from your chosen text (if you are presenting on a lm, make arrangements to show 1-2 scenes of your choice) 4. Give your own interpretation of the text

Delivery
1. Plan to stand up and talk for at least 10 minutes 2. Speak clearly and loudly enough for all of us to hear you. 3. Make eye contact with your audience 4. Have at least two questions prepared to ask the whole class 5. Refer to page numbers of the quotations you select Presentations are scheduled for the last day of class, July 24, 2012. Attendance is mandatory. Presentation order will be based on a random lottery.

DR. GERALD R. LUCAS

Email: gerald.lucas@maconstate.edu Ofce: Macon Campus, H/SS-117 AIM: drgrlucas Web: litmuse.net humanities.maconstate.edu Ofce Hours: TR 9-10a by appointment Voice: (478) 471-5761

HUMN 2151 Summer 2012 Dr. Lucas litmuse.net