Acquire a conceptual toolkit to navigate the high waters of cyberspace as you learn about the pains and gains of the net. Tangibility is being replaced by virtuality. Social media supplants the water cooler. MOOCs challenge the classroom. This course is a colorful mélange of ideas, debates, inventions and stories of the visionaries and entrepreneurs who've created-- and critiqued -- the digital world – as we know it today.
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This is an introductory survey course. It fits into early, foundational learning in various disciplines, such as Social Science; Arts & Culture; Business & Management; Communication; Computer Science; Education; Humanities; Law, and the informal studies of lifelong learners. No previous knowledge is required.
However, life in the 21st century is assumed.
What you'll learn
- Master the concepts underlying digital and networked realities.
- Understand and intelligently discuss and predict digital life.
- Gain familiarity with leading thinkers and their thoughts in the field.
- Use digital and collaborative tools in this quest.
- Create collaborative concept maps of the information age.
- Based on your newly gained knowledge, form your own opinions about whether and how much Privacy, Center, Distance, Time and Death, the Book and the Classroom are dying.
- Answer the question, is the Net fulfilling its promise?
Syllabus
Topics (weeks)
Death of Privacy?
Death of Center, Time and Distance?
Death of Conversation?
Death of Classroom?
Death of Tangibility and Books?
Death of Choice (Truth)?
Death of and Memory and Death?
Weeks 8-10 (CCM) Collaborative Concept Mapping ( creation/ranking questions on Ligilo )
Death of the Promise?
Final Exam
