Thu Apr 9 13:32:11 2015
| Approvals Received: |
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| Approvals Pending: | College/Dean > Provost > LE > Catalog | |
| Effective Status: | Active | |
| Effective Term: | 1163 - Spring 2016 | |
| Course: | HSCI 1011 | |
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Institution: Campus: |
UMNTC - Twin Cities UMNTC - Twin Cities |
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| Career: | UGRD | |
| College: | TIOT - College of Science and Engineering | |
| Department: | 11142 - Science & Technology, Hist of | |
| General | ||
| Course Title Short: | Digital World | |
| Course Title Long: | Digital World | |
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Max-Min Credits for Course: |
3.0 to 3.0 credit(s) | |
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Catalog Description: |
Essential knowledge and critical perspective to understand today's Digital World. The history and social impact of the digital revolution, including security, surveillance, gaming, "reality," and global internet governance. | |
| Print in Catalog?: | Yes | |
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CCE Catalog Description: |
<no text provided> | |
| Grading Basis: | Stdnt Opt | |
| Topics Course: | No | |
| Honors Course: | No | |
| Online Course: | No | |
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Instructor Contact Hours: |
3.0 hours per week | |
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Years most frequently offered: |
Even years only | |
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Term(s) most frequently offered: |
Spring | |
| Component 1: |
LEC (with final exam) |
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Auto-Enroll Course: |
No | |
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Graded Component: |
LEC | |
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Academic Progress Units: |
Not allowed to bypass limits. 3.0 credit(s) |
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Financial Aid Progress Units: |
Not allowed to bypass limits. 3.0 credit(s) |
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Repetition of Course: |
Repetition not allowed. | |
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Course Prerequisites for Catalog: |
<no text provided> | |
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Course Equivalency: |
No course equivalencies | |
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Consent Requirement: |
No required consent | |
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Enforced Prerequisites: (course-based or non-course-based) |
No prerequisites | |
| Editor Comments: | <no text provided> | |
| Proposal Changes: | HSCI 1010: Proposed new course | |
| History Information: | <no text provided> | |
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Faculty Sponsor Name: |
Thomas Misa | |
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Faculty Sponsor E-mail Address: |
tmisa@umn.edu | |
| Student Learning Outcomes | ||
| Student Learning Outcomes: |
* Student in the course:
- Understand diverse philosophies and cultures within and across societies
Please explain briefly how this outcome will be addressed in the course. Give brief examples of class work related to the outcome. Have acquired skills for effective citizenship and life-long learning Addressed in course: Democratic governments depend on a well-informed citizenry, a basic staple of civic theory. The spread of decentralized forms of web-publishing on the internet has the significant up-side of reducing barriers to the spread of information and, in theory, enhancing deliberative democratic processes. No media monopoly shapes the news (cf. during Vietnam war); and it is more difficult for governments to control news cycles. Not everywhere in the world possesses "open" access to the information circulating on the internet. Students in this course will assess and discuss challenging cases to help them develop insight into where and whether the internet is bringing about trends toward or away from democratic participation (such challenging cases include Arab Spring, seemingly anonymous TOR [The Onion Router] networks, intrusive government surveillance, China's distinctive internet, Russia's internet-content creation). Lectures on the changing structure and technical features of the internet give students the basis for making informed judgments and conducting small-group discussions about these real-life situations of complexity and ambiguity. The internet was "supposed" to bring western-style open democracy to China: what actually has happened? Are social-media-centered political movements in the West a genuine form of activism--or a distracting "slack-tivism"? These are weighty questions that require long-term engagement and life-long learning. Significant changes in the structure of the internet across the past 25 years are not likely to slow down or stop: ongoing changes will have impacts on politics and democracy; and so the necessity for student-citizens to assess these changes and their consequences for democratic processes. How will you assess the students' learning related to this outcome? Give brief examples of how class work related to the outcome will be evaluated. Students will take quizzes, engage in small-group discussions, and (each three weeks) complete in-class exercises to refine and reflect on their learning: exercise topics include the changing structure of the internet (over time), the comparative analysis of different countries⿿ internets, the character and reliability of digital information, the ⿿reality of digital simulations, and the changing patterns of internet governance. One instance: China has 600,000 internet users and an immense domestic e-commerce economy, but only three [easily surveilled] connections to the global internet, while most other countries have dozens of such connections; Africa is thinly connected to the global internet. Students can visualize this structure through Telegeography⿿s online and interactive maps; students can experience it through TraceRoute, Netstat, and Ping. Student learning can be holistically evaluated by examining the richness of information presented, the appreciation of change over time, the degree of recognition of consequences and ambiguities, and the quality and soundness of argumentation. - Have acquired skills for effective citizenship and life-long learning Please explain briefly how this outcome will be addressed in the course. Give brief examples of class work related to the outcome. Understand diverse philosophies and cultures within and across societies Addressed in course: Today's global internet necessarily interacts with diverse philosophies and cultures within countries and around the world. Course topics include lectures and discussion on the (utopian) early view that the internet would bring about a universal and peaceful world culture (⿿One world, one image, one channel was MTV⿿s slogan in the 1980s). But, instead, it happened that diverse sub-cultures created their own discursive spaces, sometimes called the ⿿splinternet, and in recent years South Korea, Russia, China and other countries have evolved culturally specific forms of the internet with localized content. Hyper-sexualized images in mass media may conflict with traditional sensibilities in Asia and the Middle East (and even at home). A ⿿clash of cultures as well as unprecedented access to world cultures is clearly visible on the internet. Another revealing window is what is permitted and what is censored: the Russian government actively creates diverting entertainment with celebrities (possibly to distract from political programming), while China practices active censorship especially concerning terms connected to ruling elites (⿿carrot⿿ was censored since in Mandarin ⿿huluobo⿿ recalls the surname of then-president Hu Jintao). How will you assess the students' learning related to this outcome? Give brief examples of how class work related to the outcome will be evaluated. Learning about cultural differences requires some clarity about one⿿s one culture as well as curiosity about others⿿. The internet readily permits comparative cultural experiments, the subject of small-group discussions and in-class exercises. For instance, Wikipedia⿿s 287 languages permits students themselves to directly assess different languages and cultures (while internet translation, admittedly imperfect, affords some insights into unfamiliar languages). Look up ⿿same-sex marriage⿿ in (e.g.) Persian Wikipedia; copy results and paste into a translation page. Simulations and computer gaming offer rich examples of diverse (sub) cultures, within and between different societies. Are blockbuster computer games like Grand Theft Auto a new form of cultural imperialism⿿or, rather, instances of local cultures effective and creative appropriation? Students will discuss their assessments of cultural differences and similarities during in-class exercises (each three weeks). Student learning can be holistically evaluated by examining the richness of information presented, the degree of recognition of cultural ambiguities, and the validity and perceptiveness of discussion and results. | |
| Liberal Education | ||
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Requirement this course fulfills: |
HIS Historical Perspectives | |
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Other requirement this course fulfills: |
TS Technology and Society | |
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Criteria for Core Courses: |
Describe how the course meets the specific bullet points for the proposed core
requirement. Give concrete and detailed examples for the course syllabus, detailed
outline, laboratory material, student projects, or other instructional materials or method.
Core courses must meet the following requirements:
LIBERAL EDUCATION: HSCI 1010 ⿿Digital World is designed to encourage students⿿ engagement in liberal education through adopting a historically grounded approach to today⿿s digital world. Far from standing ⿿outside history, our present digital world has been deeply shaped by historical developments in computing, information theory, state- and corporate institutions, and globalization. Even more important, these changes are ongoing and will have significant consequences for the character of society and culture in the years and decades to come. A well-grounded liberal-education approach to the computer-driven digital economy and culture is, furthermore, a desirable experience for all student-citizens so they might effectively exercise citizenship rights and obligations as well as make informed assessments of future developments in technology and society. This course deals with the ⿿technology of the digital world; it also examines and assesses the implications of digital technologies for fundamental human concerns, such as perception and identity; for politics and citizenship, including the character, availability, and diversity of information and the means for assessing it (digital divide); for understanding of cultural differences and similarities, a challenging feature in the globalized digital world; and for making collective choices about governance issues, involving one⿿s own cultural values but also recognizing the significant variation in cultural values across the world today. The course is centrally concerned with two Student Learning Outcomes, notably, acquiring skills for effective citizenship and life-long learning and understanding diverse philosophies and cultures within and across societies. These goals are elaborated further in the SLO statement. The availability, character, and trustworthiness of information is obviously critical to the health of democratic society. The extensive information available on the internet today is large in volume, but students in discussions and small-group exercises will learn and share means to assess its character and reliability as well as to appreciate the profound differences existing today in the different ⿿internets available in the world. This reflects significant cultural variations. While formal methods of technically sophisticated censorship are practiced in some places (China, some countries in the Middle East and Asia), information is also shaped by governments⿿ state-directed ⿿entertainment (such as Russia) and focus on digital gaming celebrities (such as South Korean⿿s notable gaming culture with multiple 24-hour cable TV channels and a national association devoted to professional computer gaming a.k.a ⿿e-sports⿿). Exploring and assessing citizenship and cultural variation is a natural means of discussing these core liberal education topics and concerns with today⿿s students. This course will be taught by regular faculty in the History of Science and Technology program, and offered on a frequent and ongoing basis. It is presently planned to be offered every other spring semester, but if student demand warrants it could be offered each year. It is natural in a course like this to actively engage students with direct learning about the digital world. Interactive visual tools exist (see Telegeography.com) to explore internet-cable connections between countries, while students will use TraceRoute to do their own real-time mapping of the internet. These tools can help students explore and visualize the ⿿shape of today⿿s internet, with its rather centralized structure and limited number of internet exchange points. Small group work though in-class exercises (integrated into each of the course⿿s five themes) permits active student engagement, mutual sharing of results, and reflection on their work. Written work is formalized in five quizzes and final exam. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: Change over time and attention to specific and distinctive historical contexts is a fundamental aspect of this course. Precisely because we sometimes think ⿿the internet is a timeless creation, and that the ⿿digital world stands above and apart from history, this course will give students valuable historical insights into the emergence of digital technologies as well as the paths that were chosen (and some that were not taken up⿿or are yet to be created). Changes in the structure of the internet in the past 25 years are especially profound, with the internet undergoing several punctuated rounds of change (roughly, ⿿mesh to ⿿pipes with variants), a major theme of weeks 1-3. Also, despite early internet advocates⿿ utopian dreams about ⿿one world, the actual internet is a means for expression by many diverse subcultures (⿿splinternet). There are profound national differences in how the internet and digital media are constructed and experienced. Focused case studies of South Korean gaming culture, Russian state media creation, and China⿿s immense e-commerce economy and intense internet censorship provide vivid instance of today⿿s internet being far from uniform (weeks 13-15). Understanding the conceptual methodologies of historical analysis, including historical frameworks to assess primary sources, assists students with real-world examples for more deeply appreciating liberal education themes. Historical concepts and methods from technology, computer, and cultural history, such as user-driven innovation, gender analysis, user heuristic, systems, technical culture, and consumption junction (respectively, Eric von Hippel, Ruth Oldenziel et al., Claude Fischer, Tom Hughes, David Nye, Ruth Cowan) provide rich interpretive frameworks to assess primary sources. Primary sources on the digital world are varied and richly textured, although they must be carefully analyzed. In small group exercises, students will compare maps of the early internet with latter-day maps of the fiber-optic cables that create the global internet, identifying notable choke points and possible vulnerabilities (weeks 2-3). Digitally processed images and sounds (jpeg and mp3 in weeks 4 and 5) are digital instances of ⿿reality that students can examine and assess. Many students bring to the class background with computer gaming (week 10). |
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Criteria for Theme Courses: |
Describe how the course meets the specific bullet points for the proposed theme
requirement. Give concrete and detailed examples for the course syllabus, detailed outline,
laboratory material, student projects, or other instructional materials or methods. Theme courses have the common goal of cultivating in students a number of habits of mind:
TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY: This course confronts students with opportunities to recognize the ethical dimension of their everyday exposure to and immersion in the digital world. Awareness of computer user groups⿿ key role in developing software (including open source) encourages students to consider their own roles, not merely as passive consumers of digital technologies and media, but also as active and attentive/selective users and creators. The rise of separate and divided digital experiences reinforces the point that shared responsibilities cannot be taken for granted. Examining social media and our role in creating and consuming social media provides an apt instance fostering students⿿ sense of their roles as historical agents. Clearly, digital technology has had a profound impact on contemporary society. Students gain insight and appreciation of the underlying science and engineering through detailed examination of specific digital technologies, including [a] queueing theory that underpins internet traffic management (weeks 1 and 2); [b] information theory that supports the jpeg and mp3 encoding routines (weeks 4 and 5); [c] database and surveillance technologies as well as the anonymizing counter-measures (weeks 7 and 8); [d] the modeling, simulation, and gaming technologies that may supplant analog ⿿reality⿿ (weeks 10-11); and [e] the sensors, databases, and computer networks that collect climate-change data (week 12). Students consider and discuss the role that different societies have in the development of internet and digital technologies. The ⿿global internet has significant variants, based in part on geography, culture, and political values. Both the structure of and cultural practices on the internet are significantly different in diverse national and cultural contexts, a major theme of weeks 13-15. Multiple perspectives on the impact of digital technologies are a natural point when considering global internet governance. Some non-US countries resent the historical dominance of the US government as well as US-centered companies in managing and governing the internet. Efforts to wrest control away from the US have focused mostly on the UN-backed Internet Governance Forum (founded 2006). IGF⿿s impact on internet governance, to date, has been modest, but that might change in the future. Students can develop skills in assessing their own and others⿿ perspectives on the internet. Privacy activists and computer-security experts have varied perspectives about assessing what directions the internet ought to take. Similarly, diverse perspectives abound in global internet governance. By engaging in critical evaluation of these debates, students will gain a valuable framework for evaluating present-day options and directions and thereby gain insight into evaluating technology in the future. |
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LE Recertification-Reflection Statement: (for LE courses being re-certified only) |
<no text provided> | |
| Statement of Certification: |
This course is certified for a Core, effective as of
This course is certified for a Theme, effective as of |
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| Writing Intensive | ||
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Propose this course as Writing Intensive curriculum: |
No | |
| Question 1 (see CWB Requirement 1): |
How do writing assignments and writing instruction further the learning objectives
of this course and how is writing integrated into the course? Note that the syllabus must
reflect the critical role that writing plays in the course. <no text provided> |
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| Question 2 (see CWB Requirement 2): |
What types of writing (e.g., research papers, problem sets, presentations,
technical documents, lab reports, essays, journaling etc.) will be assigned? Explain how these
assignments meet the requirement that writing be a significant part of the course work, including
details about multi-authored assignments, if any. Include the required length for each writing
assignment and demonstrate how the minimum word count (or its equivalent) for finished writing will
be met. <no text provided> |
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| Question 3 (see CWB Requirement 3): |
How will students' final course grade depend on their writing performance?
What percentage of the course grade will depend on the quality and level of the student's writing
compared to the percentage of the grade that depends on the course content? Note that this information
must also be on the syllabus. <no text provided> |
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| Question 4 (see CWB Requirement 4): |
Indicate which assignment(s) students will be required to revise and resubmit after
feedback from the instructor. Indicate who will be providing the feedback. Include an example of the
assignment instructions you are likely to use for this assignment or assignments. <no text provided> |
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| Question 5 (see CWB Requirement 5): |
What types of writing instruction will be experienced by students? How much class
time will be devoted to explicit writing instruction and at what points in the semester? What types of
writing support and resources will be provided to students? <no text provided> |
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| Question 6 (see CWB Requirement 6): |
If teaching assistants will participate in writing assessment and writing instruction,
explain how will they be trained (e.g. in how to review, grade and respond to student writing) and how will
they be supervised. If the course is taught in multiple sections with multiple faculty (e.g. a capstone
directed studies course), explain how every faculty mentor will ensure that their students will receive
a writing intensive experience. <no text provided> |
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| Statement of Certification: | This course is certified as Writing Internsive effective as of | |
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Readme link.
Course Syllabus requirement section begins below
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| Course Syllabus | ||
| Course Syllabus: |
For new courses and courses in which changes in content and/or description and/or credits
are proposed, please provide a syllabus that includes the following information: course goals
and description; format;structure of the course (proposed number of instructor contact
hours per week, student workload effort per week, etc.); topics to be covered; scope and
nature of assigned readings (text, authors, frequency, amount per week); required course
assignments; nature of any student projects; and how students will be
evaluated. The University "Syllabi Policy" can be
found here
The University policy on credits is found under Section 4A of "Standards for Semester Conversion" found here. Course syllabus information will be retained in this system until new syllabus information is entered with the next major course modification. This course syllabus information may not correspond to the course as offered in a particular semester. (Please limit text to about 12 pages. Text copied and pasted from other sources will not retain formatting and special characters might not copy properly.) HSCI 1011 Digital World Spring 2016 MWF 11:15-12:05 pm (3 credits) place = TBA Thomas J. Misa tmisa@umn.edu | www.umn.edu/~tmisa Program in History of Science, Technology & Medicine Charles Babbage Institute Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Essential knowledge and critical perspective to understand today⿿s Digital World. The history and social impact of the digital revolution, including security, surveillance, gaming, "reality," and global internet governance. HIS/TS pending. This course provides essential knowledge and critical perspective for students, citizens, and professionals to understand todayʼs Digital World. It uses the conceptual practices and disciplinary outlook of history to understand the emergence, dynamics, and social impact of the digital revolution. Five three-week blocks are carefully constructed to provide needed historical depth on the complex social, cultural, political and technical dynamics of the digital world, while giving satisfying breadth and comparative scope. It complements existing regular offerings at the university including HSCI 1715/3715 (history of technology survey), HSCI 4321/CSCI 4921 (history of computing), CSCI 1001 (intro to computer science), and CSCI 3921W (ethical issues in computing). A trial version was offered in Spring 2013 with HSEM 2529H (Exploring the Digital World: Email to Arab Spring). There is no pre-requisite. The aim is to provide a rigorous, historically informed perspective on the digital world as it is unfolding around us. While the United States historically played a large role in inventing and deploying digital technologies, this course adopts a thoroughly global perspective. So South Korean gaming culture, Russian internet-content management, and Chinaʼs ⿿great firewall are treated along with Google, Facebook, and Twitter. A key theme is the ⿿materiality of the digital world: the immense server farms located in Oregon, Utah, and North Carolina are physically linked (by fiber optic cables) to create what we commonly call ⿿the Internet. Online resources such as the interactive Telegeography maps and the TraceRoute app encourage students to explore the structure of the digital world. The course draws on varied resources, including new research by internet historians, media scholars, privacy advocates, and internet-governance experts. It also draws on an NSFfunded project currently at the Charles Babbage Institute on the history of computer security, including 30 oral histories with pioneers in the field. The course thus connects undergraduate education with cutting edge scholarship and research. The five themes are: [1] Structure of the Internet; [2] Compressing Reality; [3] Security and Surveillance; [4] Simulation / Reality; [5] Global Governance. These five thematic blocs offer a flexible structure that can evolve as current concerns and future opportunities may warrant. REQUIRED READINGS are composed of short essays, selected chapters, primary sources, online resources, and oral-history interviews. Readings to be completed prior to class meetings. COURSE ASSIGNMENTS: five quizzes [40% of course grade]; in-class discussion [10%]; five small-group exercises [25%]; final exam [25%]. Quizzes and exams are ⿿closed book. Quizzes are scheduled the last week of each theme (Mon.). A small-group exercise (in class Wed. and written assignment due Fri.) completes each theme. No extra credit assignments. REGULAR ATTENDANCE is necessary. Lectures and in-class exercises are key to doing well in this course. You cannot simply take the quizzes and final exam. Your engagement and curiosity will make a big difference in your learning experience. Missed quizzes may be made up -- if you inform me of your absence (phone or email) prior to the course meeting. Late work loses a half-letter grade immediately and another half-letter grade for each 24 hours it is late. OFFICE HOURS: by appointment (612/624-5050 or <tmisa@umn.edu> ) in my West Bank office (Andersen Library 211) or anytime in the hour after each class. An hour-long review session on Google Groups precedes each quiz and the final exam. UNIVERSITY POLICIES: The University of Minnesota has a list of policy statements that it wishes all students to understand, especially first-year students who might not yet be familiar with them. There are eleven specific policy statements on Student Conduct Code (linked below); Use of Personal Electronic Devices in the Classroom; Scholastic Dishonesty (see below); Makeup Work for Legitimate Absences; Appropriate Student Use of Class Notes and Course Materials; Grading and Transcripts; Sexual Harassment; Equity, Diversity, Equal Opportunity, and Affirmative Action; Disability Accommodations; Mental Health and Stress Management; and Academic Freedom and Responsibility. Please review this page. The University of Minnesota Student Conduct Code identifies "scholastic dishonesty" as grounds for possible separation from the University through suspension or expulsion. Copying notes, quizzes, assignments, or exams from another student -- in whole or in part ⿿ is dishonest. If you commit scholastic dishonesty on a quiz, assignment, or exam in this class you will receive a zero on it. Please talk to me, anytime, if you have any questions or concerns about scholastic dishonesty. Students benefit greatly from contact with the Center for Writing, which offers on-line as well as in-person writing consultations through Student Writing Support. This course encourages studentsʼ engagement in liberal education and satisfies HIS and TS (see complete CLE statement below). Far from standing ⿿outside history, our present digital world is deeply shaped by historical developments in computing, information theory, diverse institutions, and globalization. These ongoing changes will shape the character of our society and culture -- now and in the future. Understanding the details of digital and internet technologies can provide insight into cultural and political implications as well as alternatives. THEME 1: Structure of the Internet Originally the internet was a multi-linked ⿿mesh with redundant connections between nodes; given this structure, it appeared the internet could not be centrally controlled (or surveilled) and was ⿿stronger than governments and traditional institutions. The ⿿world is flat and ⿿death of distance became popular slogans. Beginning in the late 1990s, however, the internetʼs ⿿mesh was reconstructed into a ⿿tube or ⿿pipe structure. Telecom companies ran fiber-optic cables, often in their existing telephone pipes. ⿿New York City is a superhub for the Internet [because] a large number of the transatlantic cables make landfall close to the city, according to a National Academies report. The 9/11 attacks in Manhattan knocked out the internet in South Africa. Similarly, commercial internet traffic across Minnesota was until 2011 routed through Ameritech in Chicago. 1. 1/18 The internet was born as a decentralized ⿿mesh with no single center Structure of ARPANET and Internet to 1990s. Decentralized networks, with no ⿿center, are hard to manage and impossible to centrally control. Nation-states, old-style corporations, the global economy and society were changing. 2. 1/25 The internet around 2000 became more ⿿tube- or pipe-like Around 20 million miles of fiber-optic cables were laid in 2000, with telephone companies (telcos) taking the lead⿿and largely re-wiring the commercial internet into the shape of the existing centralized phone system. 3. 2/1 No longer a ⿿mesh, the ⿿tube internet is controllable⿿and surveilled. QUIZ and EXERCISE with internet maps (mesh vs. tubes/pipes) THEME 2: Compressing Reality ⿿Reality in the everyday sense is complex, round, and messy; computing compresses letters, images, sounds and more to create a digital world⿿simple, square, orderly. Watching football on TV we occasionally see square pixels. Digital sounds and images are digitally processed data, stored in a smartphoneʼs memory. Standards for digital images and sounds take us quite a way from a painterʼs brushstrokes or an oboeʼs vibrating reed. The compression of reality has upsides (access, alterability, and transmission) as well as downsides (loss of fidelity, misrepresentation, and saturation). Will the analog world, evoking memory and identity, be preserved only in digital sights and sounds? 4. 2/8 1960s ASCII encoded number and letters⿿hardwiring computers for English Computer code for numbers, letters, and images permit them to process complex entities. Mostly it works well and permits us to edit words, sounds, images. But some Xerox machines scramble numbers (14 becomes 17 or 21). 5. 2/15 Science and technology of image- and audio-compression An accessible treatment of the science and technology of signal processing behind jpeg image and mp3 audio compression: how digital electronics squeezes 1000 songs or 10 movies to fit onto your cell phone 6. 2/22 What is gained⿿and what is lost⿿when analog ʻrealityʼ becomes digital? QUIZ and EXERCISE with digital reproduction and forensic analysis THEME 3: Security and Surveillance Concern about ⿿cyber-terrorism since 2001 expanded the power of governments, worldwide, to collect and analyze many forms of digital information. The internetʼs ⿿tubes made pervasive surveillance practical (see the Snowden revelations). Arab Spring activists in 2010-12, believing the internet was still a decentralized mesh, argued that ⿿the power of the people could be mobilized through social media and anonymous internet services. The future is being formed by todayʼs contests between rival advocates of privacy, security, and surveillance: some democracy and privacy advocates work toward strengthening anonymous internet use (such as TOR); others favor strengthened government surveillance techniques, such as deep packet inspection (DPI), to counter cyber-terrorism. Experts believe more than 90% of the internet consists of inaccessible ⿿dark, ⿿black, or ⿿deep webs, where anonymous users, Bitcoins, and legal and illegal activities flourish. Must ⿿secure digital networks be ⿿surveilled networks? 7. 2/29 Arab Spring relied on TOR to protect anti-government activists Activists worldwide depend on TOR (ʻThe Onion Routerʼ) for safe and anonymous internet access. TOR, a product of US intelligence agencies, works by creating de-personal networks that disguise its users. Does it work? 8. 3/7 Governments use ʻdeep-packet inspectionʼ to read internet traffic Computer scientistsʼ data-mining techniques can analyze immense datasets. DPI uses similar techniques to access specific messages in the immense flood of internet traffic. 9. 3/14 What is a ʻdarkʼ web? QUIZ and EXERCISE with creating a simulated ʻdark webʼ THEME 4: Simulation / Reality Digital technologies have transformed media, military⿿and science: where it once investigated the natural world (such as atoms, oceans, and solar systems) science now investigates artificial constructs such as buckyballs, quantum qubits, and information itself. Simulation models⿿of transportation systems, high-tech buildings, proteins, and subatomic particles⿿are now central to science and engineering. Exploration of the links among ⿿computer gaming for entertainment (an industry now larger than music and movies combined) and the computer-graphics techniques common in science and the military. How have digital simulations transformed the daily practices of soldiers and citizens? How does simulation effect our understanding of the world⿿simulated experiences, faith in simulation, prescriptive models, the representation of ⿿reality in a controlled set of computer statements? 10. 3/28 The military-entertainment complex created RTS, MMO, and FPS gaming An Army officer praised Atariʼs Battlezone (1980): ⿿the same result ... for less cost. DARPAʼs SIMNET created several distinct genres of computer gaming, while training soldiers for combat; networks, graphics, Z-buffer displays 11. 4/4 Science no longer focuses on ʻrealityʼ while engineers ʻmodelʼ everything Simulation models in biology, chemistry, architecture, civil engineering and many other technical fields have displaced ʻrealityʼ by elaborately computed entities, which may have great predictive power and have changed science 12. 4/11 How does ʻreal dataʼ get into global climate-change models? QUIZ and EXERCISE with the computer data that informs climate modeling THEME 5: Global Governance The internet was largely a U.S. creation in the 1980s, but today in China alone there are 600 million internet users. The U.S. Department of Commerce provides loose oversight to existing internet governance institutions (e.g. ICANN, IETF, Internet Society). These institutions typically resist governance efforts by the UN-backed Internet Governance Forum. One major change occurred in 2010 when, for the first time, ICANN permitted website addresses in non-Roman alphabets. Another major global governance issue is the rise of separate internets: China has its own search engine (Baidu), e-commerce giants (Alibaba, Taobao, Tencent, JD.com), social media (Weibo and Renren), unusual internet censorship; and it is exporting its ⿿great firewall. Western companies sell surveillance technologies to other repressive regimes in Asia and the Middle East. How long will an open, uniform ⿿world wide web remain? 13. 4/18 The internet was originally governed (not controlled) by the U.S. For years, informal groups (under military funding) managed the internet. Governance became vested in the U.S. dominated IAB, IETF, and ICANN, cheered on by Internet Society, and nominally run by Commerce Department 14. 4/25 China has built a separate internet⿿nearly independent from the world In 2014 Chinaʼs online economy surpassed the USʼs. Homegrown companies (Baidu rivals Google) and unusual internet censorship (3 points connect China to the global internet) create an orderly, authoritarian, and stable internet 15. 5/2 Can internet governance adapt to a global but divided world? QUIZ and EXERCISE exploring multi-level internet governance processes See appended Liberal Education statement LIBERAL EDUCATION: HSCI 1011 ⿿Digital World is designed to encourage students⿿ engagement in liberal education through adopting a historically grounded approach to today⿿s digital world. Far from standing ⿿outside history, our present digital world has been deeply shaped by historical developments in computing, information theory, state- and corporate institutions, and globalization. Even more important, these changes are ongoing and will have significant consequences for the character of society and culture in the years and decades to come. A well-grounded liberal-education approach to the computer-driven digital economy and culture is, furthermore, a desirable experience for all student-citizens so they might effectively exercise citizenship rights and obligations as well as make informed assessments of future developments in technology and society. This course deals with the ⿿technology of the digital world; it also examines and assesses the implications of digital technologies for fundamental human concerns, such as perception and identity; for politics and citizenship, including the character, availability, and diversity of information and the means for assessing it (digital divide); for understanding of cultural differences and similarities, a challenging feature in the globalized digital world; and for making collective choices about governance issues, involving one⿿s own cultural values but also recognizing the significant variation in cultural values across the world today. The course is centrally concerned with two Student Learning Outcomes, notably, acquiring skills for effective citizenship and life-long learning and understanding diverse philosophies and cultures within and across societies. These goals are elaborated further in the SLO statement. The availability, character, and trustworthiness of information is obviously critical to the health of democratic society. The extensive information available on the internet today is large in volume, but students in discussions and small-group exercises will learn and share means to assess its character and reliability as well as to appreciate the profound differences existing today in the different ⿿internets available in the world. This reflects significant cultural variations. While formal methods of technically sophisticated censorship are practiced in some places (China, some countries in the Middle East and Asia), information is also shaped by governments⿿ state-directed ⿿entertainment (such as Russia) and focus on digital gaming celebrities (such as South Korean⿿s notable gaming culture with multiple 24-hour cable TV channels and a national association devoted to professional computer gaming a.k.a ⿿e-sports⿿). Exploring and assessing citizenship and cultural variation is a natural means of discussing these core liberal education topics and concerns with today⿿s students. This course will be taught by regular faculty in the History of Science and Technology program, and offered on a frequent and ongoing basis. It is presently planned to be offered every other spring semester, but if student demand warrants it could be offered each year. It is natural in a course like this to actively engage students with direct learning about the digital world. Interactive visual tools exist (see Telegeography.com) to explore internet-cable connections between countries, while students will use TraceRoute to do their own real-time mapping of the internet. These tools can help students explore and visualize the ⿿shape of today⿿s internet, with its rather centralized structure and limited number of internet exchange points. Small group work though in-class exercises (integrated into each of the course⿿s five themes) permits active student engagement, mutual sharing of results, and reflection on their work. Written work is formalized in five quizzes and final exam. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: Change over time and attention to specific and distinctive historical contexts is a fundamental aspect of this course. Precisely because we sometimes think ⿿the internet is a timeless creation, and that the ⿿digital world stands above and apart from history, this course will give students valuable historical insights into the emergence of digital technologies as well as the paths that were chosen (and some that were not taken up⿿or are yet to be created). Changes in the structure of the internet in the past 25 years are especially profound, with the internet undergoing several punctuated rounds of change (roughly, ⿿mesh to ⿿pipes with variants), a major theme of weeks 1-3. Also, despite early internet advocates⿿ utopian dreams about ⿿one world, the actual internet is a means for expression by many diverse subcultures (⿿splinternet). There are profound national differences in how the internet and digital media are constructed and experienced. Focused case studies of South Korean gaming culture, Russian state media creation, and China⿿s immense e-commerce economy and intense internet censorship provide vivid instance of today⿿s internet being far from uniform (weeks 13-15). Understanding the conceptual methodologies of historical analysis, including historical frameworks to assess primary sources, assists students with real-world examples for more deeply appreciating liberal education themes. Historical concepts and methods from technology, computer, and cultural history, such as user-driven innovation, gender analysis, user heuristic, systems, technical culture, and consumption junction (respectively, Eric von Hippel, Ruth Oldenziel et al., Claude Fischer, Tom Hughes, David Nye, Ruth Cowan) provide rich interpretive frameworks to assess primary sources. Primary sources on the digital world are varied and richly textured, although they must be carefully analyzed. In small group exercises, students will compare maps of the early internet with latter-day maps of the fiber-optic cables that create the global internet, identifying notable choke points and possible vulnerabilities (weeks 2-3). Digitally processed images and sounds (jpeg and mp3 in weeks 4 and 5) are digital instances of ⿿reality that students can examine and assess. Many students bring to the class background with computer gaming (week 10). TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY: This course confronts students with opportunities to recognize the ethical dimension of their everyday exposure to and immersion in the digital world. Awareness of computer user groups⿿ key role in developing software (including open source) encourages students to consider their own roles, not merely as passive consumers of digital technologies and media, but also as active and attentive/selective users and creators. The rise of separate and divided digital experiences reinforces the point that shared responsibilities cannot be taken for granted. Examining social media and our role in creating and consuming social media provides an apt instance fostering students⿿ sense of their roles as historical agents. Clearly, digital technology has had a profound impact on contemporary society. Students gain insight and appreciation of the underlying science and engineering through detailed examination of specific digital technologies, including [a] queueing theory that underpins internet traffic management (weeks 1 and 2); [b] information theory that supports the jpeg and mp3 encoding routines (weeks 4 and 5); [c] database and surveillance technologies as well as the anonymizing counter-measures (weeks 7 and 8); [d] the modeling, simulation, and gaming technologies that may supplant analog ⿿reality⿿ (weeks 10-11); and [e] the sensors, databases, and computer networks that collect climate-change data (week 12). Students consider and discuss the role that different societies have in the development of internet and digital technologies. The ⿿global internet has significant variants, based in part on geography, culture, and political values. Both the structure of and cultural practices on the internet are significantly different in diverse national and cultural contexts, a major theme of weeks 13-15. Multiple perspectives on the impact of digital technologies are a natural point when considering global internet governance. Some non-US countries resent the historical dominance of the US government as well as US-centered companies in managing and governing the internet. Efforts to wrest control away from the US have focused mostly on the UN-backed Internet Governance Forum (founded 2006). IGF⿿s impact on internet governance, to date, has been modest, but that might change in the future. Students can develop skills in assessing their own and others⿿ perspectives on the internet. Privacy activists and computer-security experts have varied perspectives about assessing what directions the internet ought to take. Similarly, diverse perspectives abound in global internet governance. By engaging in critical evaluation of these debates, students will gain a valuable framework for evaluating present-day options and directions and thereby gain insight into evaluating technology in the future. |
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Readme link.
Strategic Objectives & Consultation section begins below
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| Strategic Objectives & Consultation | ||
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Name of Department Chair Approver: |
Susan D. Jones | |
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Strategic Objectives - Curricular Objectives: |
How does adding this course improve the overall curricular objectives ofthe unit? This course adds a much-needed introductory 1000-level course on computing history to the unit⿿s regular offering. The existing upper-division course HSCI 4321/CSCI 4921 ⿿History of Computing regularly over-enrolls, by two times or more; but it is most suitable for upper-division students. The lower-division history-of-technology survey courses HSCI 1714 and HSCI 1715 are chronologically very wide ranging, and even the later course HSCI 1715 (⿿Waterwheels to the Web) can only touch on the ⿿digital world that is the central focus of this course. |
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Strategic Objectives - Core Curriculum: |
Does the unit consider this course to be part of its core curriculum? This course is part of our ongoing service course offerings to the university community. Our courses enroll students from across the university (from all undergraduate colleges), and so the course will have wide benefits. |
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Strategic Objectives - Consultation with Other Units: |
In order to prevent course overlap and to inform other departments of new
curriculum, circulate proposal to chairs in relevant units and follow-up with direct
consultation. Please summarize response from units consulted and include correspondence. By
consultation with other units, the information about a new course is more widely disseminated
and can have a positive impact on enrollments. The consultation can be as simple as an
email to the department chair informing them of the course and asking for any feedback
from the faculty. Comment: This course is distinct from CSCI 1001 (overview of computer science) which is focused on the academic discipline of computer science rather than the social, cultural, political and technical issues raised in this course. Similarly CSCI 3921W (ethical issues in computing), an upper-division course, addresses ethical issues that are a subset of the more wide-ranging treatment of this course. This course is also quite distinct (with its 1000-level emphasis) from the graduate-level courses in the Masterʼs and Doctoral programs in (e.g.) Writing Studies; Journalism & Mass Communication; and Communication Studies. History, CLA Dept. head Ruth Mazo Karras: ⿿There is some overlap with a course that JB [Shank] has taught as a freshman seminar and plans to do as an upper level course, but the approach is entirely different. We think the two would be complementary. Computer Science & Engineering, CSE Phillip Barry: ⿿Sounds good. I've sent your note to a few folks here and they'll contact you directly if they have comments. Please keep us in the loop: the course looks interesting and will likely be of interest to some of our undergrads. Electrical & Computer Engineering, CSE Dept. head David Lilja: ⿿This looks like a very interesting course. I don't see any problem with overlap with any EE courses. I will run it by a few people here to see if they have any additional thoughts, but I do not see any issues. -James Leger: ⿿I don't see any substantial overlap with our current courses. Looks like a lot of fun. -Kia Bazargan: ⿿I don't see much overlap either. Students are going to have a great time! |
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