| This
week's SAKAI quiz will open on Thursday
and close before class on the next Monday. This will be our
regular pattern. This is a one-try quiz focusing on the Licklider
and Sites readings. |
| Writing
Assignment Due Before Class on February 25. Use Google Docs to
prepare a five slide presentation on the new technology you wrote about
for your last assignment. Include some pictures and bullet
points. Explain what the technology is and how it works. Show
what it looks like. Offer some ideas about the impact it will
have on society. Publish your presentation on the WEB using the publish feature of GoogleDocs. [If you prefer to work in PowerPoint, you can do so and then upload your presentation to Google Docs. However, Google Docs does not seem to support animation and other features, so keep it simple.] Save a copy of your presentation in PDF format (this is an option on the File menu in Google Docs. Upload the PDF version of your presentation to the Assignment Dropbox on WEBCT by February 24. We will work on sharing these later in class. As a sample, the presentation I gave in class on writing samples is published at: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dcnbnm5x_18cz2f4ncm |
Assigned reading:
Notes, Suggested Readings and Links:
I think one thing that would be interesting, from a sociological and
group psychology point of view would be to devise some set of questions
for the first in-person meeting to find out what people consider, and
how their opinions change of each other, when their relationship changes
from solely on-line to in-person. It is also a good opportunity to get
people to reflect on how their attitudes and behaviors change between
the two situations, and what are the pros and cons of each mode of
interrelationship. A good question to take up in the class: Considering
that we're wired for interpersonal contact over tens of thousands of
years, at least, why do any people -- and especially why so many people
-- end up preferring to "live" so much of their life in cyberspance. I
think these are both important issues in the role of "cyberspace" in
society, and relevant to the format of the class.
The class discussed this question on Monday. The format of the class was changed, we sat in a circle and went around the room learning each other's names and speaking more or less in order. Many students enjoyed the chat session,others felt that it was too unstructured and it was hard to follow the train of thought. They thought an in-person visit from Ben and Stephan would have been better. Some students said they were "people persons" and preferred face-to-face discussion, others said they were not really "people persons" or were a bit shy, and found it easier to participate online. They felt it was easier to come up with questions in the chat room, and they did not worry so much about how their comment would be received. Some described the discussion as "anonymous" or said they felt anonymous even though the chat software lists people's real names with their comments. The chat might have been better 1) if it had been more structured, with organized topics and 2) if there had been fewer people (there were about 25).
> "Matt Mahoney" <matmahoney@yahoo.com>
>
>> It seems to me the problem is
>> defining consciousness, not testing for it.
>
> And it seems to me that beliefs of this sort are exactly the reason
> philosophy is in such a muddle. A definition of consciousness is not
> needed, in fact unless you're a mathematician where they can be of
> some use, one can lead a full rich rewarding intellectually life without
> having a good definition of anything. Compared with examples
> definitions are of trivial importance.
>
> John K Clark
Consciousness is the entity evaluating a portion of itself which
represents it's position in it's model of it's environment.
Charles D Hixson
- J.C.R. Licklider. "Man
Computer Symbiosis" and "The Computer as a Communications Device "
- Theodora Stites, "Rock My Network" in SAKAI folder for week
five.
- "Google
Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft"
Notes, Suggested Readings and Links:
- Licklider in
Wikipedia.
- Take a tour of Google Docs.
- Video
on Google Docs.
- Focusvision.
- Videoconferencing.
- Putting
Your best Cyberface Forward.
- Controversy
about Wikipedia.
- Obama
as Internet Campaign.
- Pedophiles
on the Internet.
- Judge
Shuts Down WEB site.
- Plagiarism
in Politics?
I think one thing that would be interesting, from a sociological and
group psychology point of view would be to devise some set of questions
for the first in-person meeting to find out what people consider, and
how their opinions change of each other, when their relationship changes
from solely on-line to in-person. It is also a good opportunity to get
people to reflect on how their attitudes and behaviors change between
the two situations, and what are the pros and cons of each mode of
interrelationship. A good question to take up in the class: Considering
that we're wired for interpersonal contact over tens of thousands of
years, at least, why do any people -- and especially why so many people
-- end up preferring to "live" so much of their life in cyberspance. I
think these are both important issues in the role of "cyberspace" in
society, and relevant to the format of the class.
The class discussed this question on Monday. The format of the class was changed, we sat in a circle and went around the room learning each other's names and speaking more or less in order. Many students enjoyed the chat session,others felt that it was too unstructured and it was hard to follow the train of thought. They thought an in-person visit from Ben and Stephan would have been better. Some students said they were "people persons" and preferred face-to-face discussion, others said they were not really "people persons" or were a bit shy, and found it easier to participate online. They felt it was easier to come up with questions in the chat room, and they did not worry so much about how their comment would be received. Some described the discussion as "anonymous" or said they felt anonymous even though the chat software lists people's real names with their comments. The chat might have been better 1) if it had been more structured, with organized topics and 2) if there had been fewer people (there were about 25).
> "Matt Mahoney" <matmahoney@yahoo.com>
>
>> It seems to me the problem is
>> defining consciousness, not testing for it.
>
> And it seems to me that beliefs of this sort are exactly the reason
> philosophy is in such a muddle. A definition of consciousness is not
> needed, in fact unless you're a mathematician where they can be of
> some use, one can lead a full rich rewarding intellectually life without
> having a good definition of anything. Compared with examples
> definitions are of trivial importance.
>
> John K Clark
Consciousness is the entity evaluating a portion of itself which
represents it's position in it's model of it's environment.
Charles D Hixson