TECHNOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE

PTC 603, Spring 2012
Office: 413 Cullimore Hall
Hours: T, 1-2; Th, 1-2, and by appointment
Mail: Humanities Dep't, NJIT, Newark, NJ 07102
Professor Burt Kimmelman
Phone: 973.596.3376, 3266
Fax: 973.642.4689
E-Mail: kimmelman@njit.edu
Website: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma
Course Digital Venue,
Moodle Conferencing System portal: http://moodle.njit.edu

PLEASE SEE NEW COURSE PAGE: "IDENTITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND COMMUNICATION," http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/ptc603.html
The below may be not fully up to date.

Greetings,

As the faculty mentor for this distance learning course, Technological and Cultural Change, I welcome you. There are a number of  books assigned for this course (listed on the course syllabus below), which I hope will provide you with a fertile reading and thinking experience. Besides reading, we will also be doing a lot of writing. There will be weekly postings, some of them authored by a group and some of them by you alone, and there will be an end-of-term research paper and a final exam that will be essay in format (and, related to the research paper: an annotated bibliography, and a term paper "announcement").

We will be conducting our group discussions on the Moodle conferencing system (at moodle.njit.edu), so you will need to have a UCID account to be enrolled in this class’s "conference." To get this account, phone the NJIT Computing Help Desk at 973-596-2900 or try obtaining directions from NJIT's Information Services website: http://ist.njit.edu/. As a last resort, you may be able to get technical help by writing to moodle.admin@njit.edu. Once you have the account—or if you already have the account—please contact me through the Moodle messaging system and provide me with an e-mail address where if necessary you can be contacted other than through the Moodle environment or via your NJIT email address; in any case, I may have occasion, if for some reason Moodle were not working, to write to you at your NJIT eddress, via Highlander Pipeline, so make sure to check that eddress regularly or else to have your mail forwarded from there to an eddress you use often; in any case, my messages to you sent via Moodle will go to your NJIT email address.

After you have accomplished what is specified above, and once you have read over the materials waiting for you at the course site (the greater portion of which is not redundant relative to the message you are reading now), please then send a message to the class conference to introduce yourself, in the Discussions section of the class conference and in the subsection designated "Introducing Ourselves" (you need not introduce yourself until the first day of the semester).  Throughout the duration of this course, you will need to log on to the Moodle conferencing system.  You should sign into our on-line conference discussions at least once a day and respond to the comments and questions that I and/or your classmates have posed. It is STRONGLY recommended that you learn the Moodle system thoroughly right away; you may wish to begin your learning process by clicking the link under "Student Tutorials" at the Moodle website once you have logged in. And, again, please make sure to peruse all of the materials awaiting you at the course homepage, such as can be found in, for example, the course Syllabus, Calendar and Discussions.

Also, please, as soon as possible, read especially the "Introduction to the Course" to be found on the course homepage or here.

CAUTION:  ALL ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS YOU INITIATE MUST BE VIRUS-FREE!!

I look forward to getting to know you, to our exchanges, and otherwise to our sharing of our reading experiences that I think you will find enriching and enlightening.

Yours cordially,

Burt Kimmelman
 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this course is primarily to establish an intellectual context within which other, often more advanced, graduate work, such as in the field of Communication, can be put into perspective.  The premise of the course is that technology plays a fundamental role in the formation of thinking and generally in all arenas of human enterprise.  In seminar format, and with special emphasis on the interrelationship between technology and communication, the course examines the complex ways in which technology constructs—and is constructed by—society.  Discussions will focus on how technological change is expressed in  literature, art, architecture, philosophy,  and social movements, and how they, in turn, influence the future direction of technology.  Within these contexts, the course will also consider theories of invention, literacy, ethics and esthetics.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Bolter, J. David. Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. 2nd Ed. Mahwah, NJ and London:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001.

Bronk, Oppen and Schwerner. Sample Poems (multiple pages).

Hayles, N. Katherine. Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary. South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008.

_____. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Ihde, Don. Bodies in Technology. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2002.

Malloy, Judy. its name was Penelope. (This text consists of four files that can be downloaded from the class Moodle site; the four files must be placed in the same folder on a computer drive and then the file with the .exe extension must be double clicked.)

Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London and New York: Routledge, 1982.

Strickland, Stephanie, The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot (http://wordcircuits.com/gallery/sandsoot/).

____. slippingglimpse (http://www.slippingglimpse.org/).

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2011.

Electronic Literature Directory

The Rise of Visual Communication by Prof. Carol Johnson, NJIT

New Media Series

Humanities Computing Links

Writing Guides

Documentation Guides (including annotated bibliography samples)

Annotated Bibliography Sample

Abbreviations for Marking Papers

E-Server TC Library (for bibliographies of work on technical communication)
 

                                    Other Recent Books of Interest:

Arseth, Espen J. Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.

Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding Mew Media. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001.

_____ and Diane Gromala.  Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.

Boyer, Christine M. Cybercities: Visual Perception in the Age of Electronic Communication. Princeton: Princeton UP,
1996.

Greco, Diane. Cyborg: Engineering the Body Electric. Watertown, MA: Eastgate Systems, 1995.

Gross, Larry, John Stuart Katz, and Jay Ruby. Eds. Image Ethics in the Digital Age. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

Hardison, O. B. Disappearing through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century.  New York:
Viking Penguin,1988.

Hayles, N. Katherine. Writing Machines. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 2002.

Hillis, Ken. Digital Sensations: Space, Identity, and Embodiment in Virtual Reality. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. Nostalgic Angels : Rearticulating Hypertext Writing. Norwood, NJ : Ablex Publishing
Corporation, 1997.

Joyce, Michael. Moral Tales and Meditations: Technological Parables and Refractions. Afterword by Hélène Cixous.
Albany: SUNY Press, 2001. http://www.moral-tales.com.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Age of Spiritual Machines. New York: Viking, 1999.

Landow, George P. Hypertext 3.0: Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP,  2006.

Levy, Pierre. Cyberculture. Tr. Robert Bonnono. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Lunenfeld, Peter. Ed. The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 2000.

_____. Snap to Grid: A User's Guide to Digital Arts, Media, Cultures. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 2000.

Mitchell, William J. City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.

Morris, Errol. Dir. Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. Sony Pictures, 1997. (This is a film that can be rented or borrowed from a video store or library, respectively.)

Rothenberg, David. Hand's End: Technology and the Limits of Nature. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

Ullman, Ellen. Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997.

Rutsky, R. L. High Techne: Art and Technology from  the Machine Aesthetic to the Posthuman. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Mitchell, Robert, and Phillip Thurtle. Eds. Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information. New York and London: Routledge, 2004.

Shaviro, Steven. Connected, or What It Means to Live in the Network Society. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

Stone, Allucquère Rosanne. The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.

Tabbi, Joseph. Cognitive Fictions. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.

Turkle, Sherry.  Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.

_____. The Second Self:  Computers and the Human Spirit. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984.

_____. Simulation and Its Discontents. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009.


COURSE REQUIREMENTS

* Weekly Group Discussion Questions; each group will furnish two questions based on the group's reading each week, the question subsequently to be answered by each other group
    in the class; these questions should provoke further discussion--they should be intriguing, interesting, and under no circumstances should they be simply, for example, questions of fact, which can be
    answered so that no further discussion is called for. Follow-up questions, posed by the instructor or any class member, are to be answered individually, forming the basis for open-ended and otherwise
    unstructured examination by the class of the week's reading. Questions are to be posted separately. Group work will be posted by one member of the group. All group postings should be signed by all
    members of the group who have participated in the work leading to the posting (i.e., a posting will be followed by the name of the group and the names of all participating group members).  Moreover,
   accompanying each question, along with the list of names of people who substantially worked on the question, should be an indication of the span of reading the posting group has been assigned.
   N.B.: When submitting the following assignments for a grade--Annotated Bibliography, Term Paper Announcement, Term Paper, Final Exam, and Personal Narrative on Your Role as a Collaborator
    in This Course--the submissions must be in Word files and attached in the proper place within the class Moodle site. But when participating in forum discussions and in other venues within the class
    Moodle site attachments should not be used.
* End-of-term research paper of no less than four thousand and no more than seven thousand words, topic to be decided
   and developed in conference with instructor. The paper must be argumentative. At least five sources must be used, one of which to be
   hard copy (an article or book that exists as hard copy but is found on the Internet or a database is acceptable).
* Term Paper Announcement (consisting of: Working Title, one-sentence polemical Thesis Statement that indicates the focus of the paper
   to come, One Paragraph Description of writing strategy to be adopted in the term paper, and Bibliography of at least five sources, one
   of which must have originated as hard copy).
* Annotated Bibliography of sources to be used in the research paper, in MLA format. At least five sources must be used, one of which to be
   hard copy (an article or book that exists as hard copy but is found on the Internet or a database is acceptable).
* Final Examination of no less than two thousand words (to be done at home).
* Personal Narrative on Your Role as a Collaborator in the Course.

All writing must be spell checked, and to the best of one's ability grammar checked.  If on occasion use is made of the ideas or words of someone else in one's writing, then the source(s) of those ideas and/or words must be cited; that is, when appropriate, papers must be fully documented (you must cite sources--using footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation, which include specific page numbers keyed to particular passages in one's text, and complete bibliographical information). Papers not meeting these requirements will not be credited. The expectation is that participants in this course will adhere fully to the University Code on Academic Integrity (see: http://www.njit.edu/academics/honorcode.php).

N.B.: Lack of participation in weekly class activities will result in term papers and exam being disqualified.
 

COURSE SCHEDULE (for assignment dates and groups membership click here)

I.:     Analysis of poems by William Bronk, George Oppen, and Armand Schwerner
        (available here - N.B.: multiple pages).
II:     Ong,  Orality and Literacy (pages 1-77).
III:    Ong, Orality and Literacy (pages 78-179).
IV:    Bolter,  Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print (pages xi-120).
V:     Bolter,  Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print (pages 121-214); Malloy; Strickland
         (see Required Texts, above).
VI:    Turkle,. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. (Part I).
VII:   Turkle,. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. (Part II).
VIII:  Ihde, Bodies in Technology (xi-63).
IX:    Ihde, Bodies in Technology (67-138).
X:     Hayles, How We Became Posthuman (xi-xiv, 1-130, especially: xi-xiv, 1-63, 84-130).
XI:    Hayles, How We Became Posthuman (131-291, especially: 131-67, 188-251, 279-291).
XII:   Hayles, Electronic Literature (ix-85). Annotated Bibliographies due.
XIII:  Hayles, Electronic Literature (87-186).
XIV:  Research Paper Announcements due.
XV:   Final Exam, Research Paper, and Personal Narrative on Your Role as a Collaborator in the Course, Due.

Assignments by Group

Ong 1
Group 1:  Introduction and Chapter 1
Group 2:  Chapter 2

Group 3:  Chapter 3 (up to Oral Memorization)

Group 4:  Chapter 3, from Oral Memorization to the end of the
chapter).

Ong 2

Grp 1:  Chapter 4

Grp 2:  Chap 5

Grp 3:  Chap 6

Grp 4:  Chap 7.


Bolter I

Group 1:Chapters 3 and 4
Group 2: Chapter 5

Group 3: Chapter 6

Group 4: Preface and Chapters 1 and 2.


Bolter II 


Group 1: Chapter 7
Group 2 Chapter 8

Group 3 Chapter 9

Group 4 Chapter 10.



Turkle
I


Group 1: Chapters 4 & 5
Group 2: Chapters 2 & 3

Group 3: Author's Note, Introduction and Chapter 1

Group 4: Chapter 6 & 7.


Turkle 2

Group  1: Chapters 8 & 9

Group  2: Chapters 10 & 11

Group  3: Chapters 12 & 13

Group  4: Chapter 14, Conclusion & Epilogue.


Ihde 1


Group  1: Chapter 3

Group  2: Intro and Chapter 1

Group  3: Chapter 2

Group  4: Chapter 4.


Ihde 2


Group  1: Chapter 5
Group  2: Chapter 6

Group  3: Chapter 7

Group  4: Chapter 8 and Epilogue.


Hayles “How We Became” 1


Group  1: Chapter 3
Group  2: Chapter 4 and 5

Group  3: Prologue and Chapter 1

Group  4: Chapter 2.


Hayles “How We Became” 2


Group  1: Chapter 6
Group  2: Chapter 7

Group  3: Chapter 8 and 9

Group  4: Chapter 10 and 11.


Hayles “Electronic Literature” 1


Group  1: ix-18
Group  2: 18-42

Group  3: 43-59

Group  4: 59-85.


Hayles “Electronic Literature” 2


Group  1: 87-102
Group  2: 102-130

Group  3: 131-157

Group  4: 159-186.

Course Grade:

Class participation, 30%*
Final Examination, 30%
Term Research Paper, 30%
Term Paper Announcement, 5%
Reflective Essay on Group Participation, 5%

*Inadequate class participation will result in the disqualification of papers (i.e., term paper, final exam etc.) and thus will mean course failure.


Link to NJIT's chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (where there are job postings, and postings about the latest trends and other information relevant to Technical Communication): http://web.njit.edu/STC/.
 
 

ABBREVIATIONS FOR MARKING PAPERS

Key: Abbreviation - Meaning

  A  -     Article
 Agr  -   Agreement
 Awk -   Awkward
 CS  -   Comma Splice
 Dic  -   Diction
 Exp   -  Explain
 FS  -   Fused Sentences
 RO  -   Run On Sentence
 SF  -   Sentence Fragment
 Sp  -   Spelling
 SS   -  Sentence Structure
 Syn  -   Syntax or Word Order
 Tr   -  Transition
 Un   -  Unclear
 Uncl   -  Unclear
 Us  -   Usage
 V  -   Verb
 Va    - Vague
 VF  -   Verb Form
 VT  -   Verb Tense
 WF -   Word Form
 WW -   Wrong Word




 

Sample Book Report
Sample Poems
Bronk, Oppen , and Schwerner Links
Poems and Book Report
Essay on literacy and identity by Prof. Kimmelman
Syllabus Only
Introduction to the course
Links for Ong, Bolter, Strickland, Malloy, Hayles, Stone, Ihde, and Morris
Histories of Writing, Art
Semiotics Links

How-To Guide for Student Presentations
Abbreviations for Marking Papers