Introduction

Over the course of the semester we will be examining a number of ideas relating to digital technology as a medium, and its impact both on communication and the way people who use it approach the world. We will be looking at text and images, hypertext, and hypermedia as well as the author/producer and reader/spectator's relationships to these media. In addition to working with ideas, we will also be creating text, hypertext and hypermedia.

Since much of the course will involve using the computer to both gather and share information, all members of the class MUST have accounts on the University NT server. (I'll arrange for an account on the university web server). The assignments for the course are available on my web site (http://people.wcsu.edu/mccarneyh/acad/335S09.html), and a good portion of the class discussion will be conducted in an eConference available from any computer with internet access (there is a link on the syllabus to the conference in ERes). You will set up a web site which, among other things, will be used as a repository for useful information gathered via the Internet.

Two projects using hypertext also require that people be familiar with several computer applications. Many classes will be conducted as workshops to be sure that everyone has the basic understanding necessary to do the work required in the course and to address problems that arise in the completion of that work. Work will need to be compiled and composed out of class, and class time will be used for formatting and final touches.

Syllabus