Cyberspace and Society
Schedule and Assignments Page
Fall 2008
For the Syllabus, click here

This class will meet in the Student Center, North Conference Room.  This is in the basement, at the end of the building nearest the Business and Science Building. 

Individual and Group Home Page Addresses

Links to Web Pages Relevant to Project Topics

Requirements and Deadlines for the Class Projects

Schedule
Week One:  September 6 to September 15.  The Internet and the Global Brain.  SAKAI quiz will close at 10:00 a.m. on September 15.

Week Two:  September 15 to September 22.   Future Studies and the Singularity. SAKAI quiz will close at 10:00 a.m. on September 22.

Week Three:  September 23 to September 28.  The Media and the Message.  SAKAI quiz will close at 10:00 a.m. on September 29.

Week Four:  September 29 to October 4.   Required in-class exam at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 4, Student Center North Conference Room.  There will be no SAKAI quiz this week. 

Week Five:  October 5 to October 12.  Effective Writing for the WEB. 

Week Six:  October 13 to October 20 --   Netroots and Politics:  The 2008 Elections.  This week's quiz closes 10 a.m. Monday, October 20.  You have two tries on this quiz.  A special early bird edition closes Friday, October 17 at 5 p.m.

Week Seven:  October 20 to October 27 - Children and Games.   There will be two quizzes on this material and the grade will be the highest of the two.  The two quizzes will NOT be identical.  The first closes 10 A.M. Oct 29 and the second 10 a.m. Oct 31.

Week Eight:  October 27 to November 1  -   There will be no new reading this week - review the materials from weeks five, six and seven for the in-class test on November 1.  A review crossword puzzle will be available in SAKAI/Resources.

Week Nine:  November 3 to November 10  -  The WEB and the 2008 Elections.  Additional readings may be added through Wednesday, Nov 5 to pick up on late developments.
Week Ten:  November 10 to November 17 -  Social Networking on the Web

Week Eleven:  November 18 to November 24  -  Blogs and the Blogosphere
Future Presentations due November 29, 5 p.m.  Instructions are on the class projects page.  If you don't see them, refresh the page.

A brief survey on this Hybrid Internet course counts as one day's attendance credit.  It should take less than five minutes.  Enter the survey here.  Due by November 29.

Week Twelve:  November 25 to  to December 1  -  No assigned readings or quiz this Thanksgiving week.  You can use the time to work on the Future Presentation which is due Saturday, November 29 at 5 p.m.

Week Thirteen:  December 2 to December 8 -  Controversies About Cyberspace

Week Fourteen:  Review Guide for Final:  Required in-class exam at 1 p.m. on Saturday, December 13.
General Information
This Hybrid Internet course will meet in the classroom four times, from 1:00 to 3:30 on September 6, October 4, November 1 and December 14.  There will be an in-class, closed book test on October 4, November 1 and December 14.  These will count for approximately one-third of the grade.  There will be weekly online quizzes in Sakai on each of the other weeks.  These quizzes will open no later than Thursday each week and close on Monday at 10 a.m. (to allow time for anyone who has computer problems over the weekend to take it at Rutgers or elsewhere first thing Monday).  These quizzes will account for another third of the grade.  The remaining third of the grade will be based primarily on written work as described on the Class Projects page as well as on attendance and participation.  We will try to fit in oral presentations as well as an exam on the last day, December 14.

In this kind of course it is very important to do assignments on time since we do not have the discipline of regular classes.   If you do not take a quiz on time, you will receive a zero for that week's quiz unless you have a really convincing excuse such as being in a coma.  Routine illnesses, travels and social obligations should not be insurmountable obstacles since the quizzes.  Technical problems, computer crashes, etc., must be reported immediately.

Reading Assignments will be posted each week on this page, by 10:00 a.m. on Monday.  Some of the readings will be available through hyperlinks, others will be in Sakai in the Resources folder.  The quiz on the assignments will open no later than the following Friday and close promptly at 10:00 a.m. the following Monday.  The quizzes are in Sakai.  Each quiz may be taken twice, and the highest score will count.  [The two versions may not always be identical, however.] The software will tell you which items you got wrong.  Quizzes are time limited.  While the software allows you to pause and quiz and resume it later, this does put off the closing time so it is not really a useful feature for timed quizzes.  The intention is for you to do the reading before taking the quiz, not to open the quiz and then start looking for the answers.

Chat room discussions (also in Sakai) will be scheduled on Sunday evenings before quizzes and on Friday nights before in-class tests and at other times during the week as needed.  Each week's chats will be stored in  SAKAI so students can read or reread them at their convenience.  Questions can also be posted to the Discussion List on SAKAI, although in the past students seem to prefer the chat room.  I prefer that questions be posted to SAKAI rather than directed to me privately so that everyone can see the answers. 

Everything in this schedule is subject to change (except the four weekly classroom meetings).  This is the first time this course has been offered in this format, so we will all be learning as we go along.

  I took the email addresses off of this file to protect your privacy.  If you wish to email another class member, you can use the Discussion and Private Messages function in SAKAI.  Click on "Member Listing" to send an email.  It is important that everyone make sure that Rutgers has their current email address.  In most cases, Rutgers sends mail to your clam address.  You can change this, or have the mail forwarded, at this WEB site.  This is important for getting all your official Rutgers mail as well.  You can also get student's email addresses from the Rutgers Online Directory.