Information Technologies and the Information Professions

School of Information

The University of Texas

Page updated 2004-03-23
Recent changes

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.

The course will emphasize the multiple roles and identities of information technologies, broadly understood. These technologies can be examined along a number of important axes, e.g.:

As modes of information dissemination
As objects of analysis
As important sites of cultural production
As objects of instrumental use
As extensions of, surrogates for, or methods to obfuscate identity
In personal and professional use
In consideration of tensions among commercial, individual, social scientific, and other perspectives on these technologies
In the context of differential social and professional power.

While these are only some of the important perspectives on information technologies and the information professions, the class will closely consider the scholarship about information technologies from a number of disciplinary perspectives. The course will comprise 3 units:

History of Information Technology and the Information Professions
Information Technology Use and Information Literacy
The Future of Information Technology and the Information Professions

Schedule

Meeting	Date	Topics
1	Jan 20	Introduction to the information professions Reading: Drucker (2001), "The Next Society" (online)
Unit I: A Brief History of Technology (broadly conceived)
2	Jan 27 lecture notes	Orality, literacy, and technology I Reading: Ong (1982), Orality and Literacy (Ch. 1-3) Hobert & Schiffman (1998), “The Analytical World Map” (packet) Nardi & O’Day (1999), “A Matter of Metaphor” (packet) DUE: Online exercise 1, parts a & b
3	Feb 3	Orality, literacy, and technology II Reading: Ong (1982), Orality and Literacy (Ch. 4-6; Ch. 7 opt.) Chartier (1995), "Representations of the Written Word" (packet) Nunberg (1996), “Introduction” (FOTB) DUE: Online exercise 1, parts c & d DUE: Online exercise 2, part a
4	Feb 10	Information Technology I Computer Networks and Protocols Information Standards and Regulation Reading: Bolter (1996), “Ekphrasis, Virtual Reality, and the Future of Writing” (FOTB) Hesse (1996), “Books in Time” (FOTB) Lessig (1998), "The Laws of Cyberspace" (online) Recommended Reading: Kuhn (1972), “Preface” Kling (1996), “The Seductive Equation” Fisher (2002), “Studying Social Information Spaces” DUE: Problems and Potentials Paper
5	Feb 17	Information Technology II Open Source and Free Software The Semantic Web Reading: Bazin (1996), “Toward Metareading” (FOTB) Raymond (2000), "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" (online) Berners-Lee (2001), “The Semantic Web” (online) Recommended Reading: Fisher (2002), “Studying Social Information Spaces” DUE: Online exercise 2, part b
Unit II: Information Technology Use and Information Literacy
6	Feb 24	Computers and Artificial Intelligence Reading: Haraway (1991), “A Cyborg Manifesto” (online) Kurzweil (2003), “The Singularity” (packet) Minsky (2003), “What Comes After Minds?” (packet) Recommended Reading: Winograd & Flores (1987), “Computation and Intelligence” DUE: Web-based presentation of Information Problems and Potentials DUE: Technology Plan Agency and Situation Analysis (GRP)
7	Mar 2	Human Information Behavior Reading: Olsen (1994), “Theories of Literacy and Mind” (packet) Wilson (2000), “Human Information Behavior” (online) Brown & Duguid (2002), “Learning – In Theory and In Practice” (packet) Recommended Reading: Baecker, Grudin, Buxton, & Greenberg (1995), “Human Information Processing” DUE: Perspectives on Information Ethics (topic selection)
8	Mar 9	Finding and Evaluating Information Reading: Kuhlthau, (1991), “Inside the Search Process” (online) Bruce (2000), “Credibility of the Web” (online) Feldman (2002), “This is What I Asked For? The Searching Quagmire” (packet) Recommended Reading: Nardi and O’Day (1999), “Librarians: A Keystone Species” Lueg (2002), “Exploring Interaction and Participation to Support Information Seeking in a Social Information Space” DUE: Technology Plan Consultant/Client Selection (GRP)
—	Mar 16	Spring Break – no class
9	Mar 23	Information Literacy and Equity of Access Reading: Marcum (2002), "Rethinking Information Literacy" (online) Lerman, Oldenziel, & Mohun (2003), “Introduction: Interrogating Boundaries” (packet) Lerman, Oldenziel, & Mohun (2003), “The Shoulders We Stand On / The View from Here” (packet) US Dept of Commerce (2000), "Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion" (esp. Introduction and Part I) (online) Recommended Reading: AASL, “Information Power” (online) ALA, “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education” (online) Eisenberg & Berkowitz (2002), “The Big6: Information Literacy for the Information Age” (online)
Unit III: The Future of Information Technology and the Information Professions
10	Mar 30	Information Architecture and Usability Reading: Nielsen & Mack (1994), "Executive Summary" (packet) Norman (1998), "The Psychopathology of Everyday Things" (packet) Nielsen (2003), "Heuristic Evaluation" (plus linked articles) (online) Recommended Reading: Dillon & Morris (1996), “User Acceptance of Information Technology” DUE: Online exercise 3, parts a & b DUE: Online exercise 4
11	Apr 6	Privacy and Security (NOTE CHANGE OF TOPIC) Reading: Debray (1996), “The Book as Symbolic Object” (FOTB) Belloti (2001), "Design for Privacy in Multimedia Computer and Communications Environments" (packet) Waldman, Cranor, & Rubin (2001), "Trust" (packet) Recommended Reading: Zimmermann (1999), “Why I Wrote PGP” (online) DUE: Perspectives on Information Ethics (Wiki posting)
12	Apr 13	Information ethics (NOTE CHANGE OF TOPIC) Reading: Johnson (1994), “Introduction: What is Computer Ethics?” (packet) Kling (1996), “Social Controversies About Computerization” Agre (2002), "Cyberspace as American Culture" (online) Recommended Reading: Johnson (1994), “Philosophical Ethics” DUE: Perspectives on Information Ethics (response)
13	Apr 20	Emerging Technology and Technology Planning I Reading: Holland (2002), "What is to Come and How to Predict It" (packet) Rheingold (2002), "Always-On Panopticon or Cooperation Amplifier?" (packet) Cristol (2003), “Futurism is Dead” (online) Recommended Reading: Dieberger & Guzdial (2002), “CoWeb – Experiences with Collaborative Web Spaces” Mattison (2003), “Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki, and the Phone Wars” DUE: Technology Plan Rough Draft (GRP)
14	Apr 27	Emerging Technology and Technology Planning II Reading: Nunberg (1996), “Farewell to the Information Age” (FOTB) Duguid (1996), “Material Matters” (FOTB) Group presentations on technology plans DUE: Online exercise 5
15	May 4	Course evaluation and discussion of information futures Reading: Borges (1964), "The Library of Babel" (online) Shneiderman (1990), "Human Values and the Future of Technology" (online) Landow (1996), “Twenty Minutes into the Future” (FOTB) Simone (1996), “The Body of the Text” (FOTB) Group presentations on technology plans DUE: Technology Plan Comments (GRP)
	May 11	No class DUE: Technology Plan Final Draft (GRP)
	May 18	No class DUE: Online exercise 2, part c DUE: Online exercise 6

Recent changes:

2004-01-21: Fixed broken links, modifed due date for online assignment 2a.

2004-01-27: Added lecture notes

2004-03-23: Changed due date for online assignment 3; switched days for Information Ethics and Privacy & Security topics.