Information Technologies and the Information Professions
Fall 2004
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Class time: Alternate Tuesdays, 6:30-9:30 PM, SZB 468 Instructor: Danielle Cunniff Plumer
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Note: This class is required for all students who entered the School of Information prior to Fall 2004. It is OPTIONAL for students entering in Fall 2004.
Course Description
This course will provide an overview of the history of information technology, broadly conceived. We will look specifically at the ways in which information professionals, and people generally, have produced and shared information, identifying changes and transitions in the mode and medium of such production, from orality to literacy, from script to print, and from analog to digital.
We will also investigate the role of the information professional in identifying, initiating, anticipating, and reacting to such changes. As future leaders in your profession, you will be expected to implement and evaluate applications, develop highly technical skills, and create strategic technology plans. This course will help to prepare you for that role through various individual and group assignments.
This is not a skills class. Although we will discuss and use specific technologies, such as HTML and its variants, the focus of the course will be on the role of these technologies in the information professions, not on the skills themselves. Other venues, such as informal workshops taught by the School of Information IT Lab staff, the General Libraries, and ACITS are more appropriate if you feel that you would benefit from skills instruction.
Blackboard: http://courses.utexas.edu/
Class work will be submitted in Blackboard 6. Note that this is the "new" Blackboard and that we may experience some technical glitches! Supplemental "tech training" sessions will be held as needed. We have the option in Bb 6 of using a new internal messaging feature, which will replace all email in the class. Except in emergencies, email should not be sent to my personal email. I will check my Bb messages folder several times a day, so you should not worry that I won't see your message.
Email List:
As a backup measure only, we will have a class email list. Students should sign up for this email list by sending an email to the instructor or by emailing listproc@lists.cc.utexas.edu with no subject and the single line "subscribe i380k-dcp yourfirstname yourlastname"
Course Links
Lecture Notes | Grading Standards (DCP) | Web Presentation Template
Assignments
There will be four written assignments plus additional online assignments. Because this course has a large online component, students should expect to spend between 3-5 hours every week in online assignments.
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Date Due |
Percent of Grade |
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ongoing |
10% |
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Sept. 7 |
5% |
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Dec. 7 |
25% |
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Sept. 21 |
10% |
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Oct. 5 |
20% |
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Oct. 26 Nov. 30 (eval) |
5% |
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Nov. 2 (RFP) Nov. 16 (draft) Dec. 7 (final) |
25% |
Required Texts
Ong, Walter J. (1982). Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Routledge.
(or similar edition).Stephenson, Neal. (1999). In the beginning... was the command line. New York: Avon.
A reading packet, which can be purchased from University Duplicating Service at the Graduate School of Business, GSB 3.136 (471-8281). One copy of this packet will also be placed on reserve at PCL for students who choose not to purchase it. Additional readings will be available online and/or on reserve at PCL.
Sources of Current Awareness
These are sources that you might want to visit periodically to keep up to date with IT trends and topics. I strongly encourage you to experiment with news aggregators as a way of keeping current (see Dave Winer's definition and an article on "Blogs and News Aggregators without the Aggravation (and Only a Little Serendipity)" from the Exploded Library blog).
- Google News - A light-weight news aggregator
- Yahoo! News - A light-weight news aggregator with some customization allowed through My Yahoo!
- Slashdot - Slashdot is kind of a moderated blog; it can seem overwhelming, so you need to learn to skim it.
- CNET.com - A good source of tech-specific news
- The New York Times - Registration required, but the "Technology" page is often worth reading
- Wired News - Another good source of tech news, plus a lot of the content from the print publication
Blogs
Blogs can be a good source of current awareness, but you need to be cautious with them, as some are more authoritative than others. These are some of my favorites; please add your own.
- Feedster is a new search engine for blogs. Great for when you remember that you read something, but you can't remember where!
- LISNews.com - A nice library-oriented blog
- Library Stuff - Somewhat more technically oriented, but still focuses mainly on libraries
- Also see www.lisfeeds.com, which lists many more library-related weblogs.
- ia/, a great source of information architecture news.
- Lou Rosenfeld's bloug, another information architecture source.
- Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, for usability posts.
- Boxes and Arrows, a great source for usability and information architecture advice.
- Boing Boing Blog, one of the most-read blogs on the net, is just plain fun.
- LawMeme, a source of current legal news.
- Lessig blog, by Larry Lessig at Stanford, has tech-related legal musings.
- Booklab II, "visions and innovations for the traditional book," shares news about book history and technology.
- Gary Frost's Future of the Book, "preservation and persistence of the changing book," focuses on the future of the codex book.
Cartoons
- User Friendly - A very "geek friendly" strip
- Dilbert - Sometimes geeky, sometimes corporate, often funny
- Unshelved - A comic strip about a library. Frighteningly true-to-life!
If you have other favorite online sources, please share them with me at !