7.0483 Rs: E-Bookstores; E-Courses (3/200)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 14 Feb 1994 22:38:27 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 7, No. 0483. Monday, 14 Feb 1994.


(1) Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 12:05:54 +0000 (CUT) (34 lines)
From: Maurizio Lana <lana@rs950.cisi.unito.it>
Subject: online bookstores

(2) Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 21:37:58 -0500 (EST) (150 lines)
From: mccarty@epas.utoronto.ca (W. McCarty)
Subject: panel on humanities computing courses

(3) Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 09:25:12 +0100 (MET) (16 lines)
From: George Welling <welling@let.rug.nl>
Subject: Re: 7.0470 Courses: Humanities Curric.; Humanities Computing

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 12:05:54 +0000 (CUT)
From: Maurizio Lana <lana@rs950.cisi.unito.it>
Subject: online bookstores

Online bookstores are of two types:
those that allow you to browse their catalog online
those that allow you to place the order by e-mail.

In the first category is Roswell (gopher to nstn.ns.ca; they are down at
menu level three; or do a veronica search for Roswell). They are OK: you
may pay by credit card, they delete the electronic record of credit card
number after receiving it; you retrieve by gopher the order form.

In the second are those bookstores (I only cite them, knowing nothing by
direct experience):

SoftPro Books (softpro@world.std.com) with booklist available by
ftp at world.std.com in dir /ftp/Softpro).
Wordsworth Books (hillel@netcom.com)
SSC (bel@ssc.com)
Quantum Books (quanbook@world.std.com)
Computer Literacy Bookshop (info@clbooks.com)

Hope this helps. The truly useful and viable way of doing en electronic
bookstore is Roswell's, in my opinion.

Maurizio

Maurizio Lana - CISI - Universita' di Torino
lana@rs950.cisi.unito.it fax: 39-11-8990458




(2) --------------------------------------------------------------168---
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 21:37:58 -0500 (EST)
From: mccarty@epas.utoronto.ca (W. McCarty)
Subject: panel on humanities computing courses

In response to Ron Tetreault's recent note about courses in
humanities computing, I send along the following description
of a panel to be held at the ALLC/ACH 94 conference in Paris
this April.

Willard McCarty
-------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Curriculum ex machina: discovering humanities
computing in the classroom
Participants: Robert Gauthier (Sciences du Langage \a l'Universit/e
Toulouse-le Mirail, France)
Christian Koch (Computer Science, Oberlin College, USA)
Willard McCarty (Centre for Computing in the Humanities,
Toronto, Canada)
Tito Orlandi (Centro Interdipartimentale di Servizi per
l'Automazione nelle Discipline Umanistiche, Roma, Italia
Harold Short (King's College, London, UK)
Chair: T. Russon Wooldridge (French, Toronto, Canada)
Organizer: Willard McCarty


The question.

Humanities computing is by nature interdisciplinary: it affects
as well as draws from all the sciences humaines to which it is
applied. What is its role in relation to the humanities? to
computer science, to which it is indebted, and to mathematics, on
which computer science depends? Is it a subject in its own
right, or merely a "service" better rendered within the
traditional disciplines? Should it aspire to the increased
rigour, precision of thought, and objectivity of a scientific
discipline, or are its benefits to be found by going in a
somewhat different direction, e.g. toward the notion of modeling,
and so the illuminating discrepancies between mechanical models
and intuitive perceptions? What, in brief, is humanities
computing?

Experience in the classroom may help us to answer these
persistent, if annoying and intractible, questions, or perhaps to
make better questions from them.

The task of sifting this pedagogical experience is not easy:
since there are no commonly recognized models for curricula in
humanities computing, courses vary widely as to their content,
structure, departmental affiliation, and institutional status.
Nevertheless, there are now a sufficient number of cases for us
to be able to consider, from the evidence of what has been taught
and from the research that has been assisted by this teaching,
what kind of a discipline may be upon us, and in what direction
we would like to see it develop. In one way or another computers
and computational models of thought will be used in courses
throughout the disciplines. If we are to have a case for saying
how, then we need to pay close attention to what becomes of
computing when it is taught to humanists, especially in an
interdisciplinary setting.

Panel members will consider the above questions from the varying
perspectives of the courses they have designed and taught for
undergraduates, (post)-graduate students, researchers, and
members of teaching faculty in North America and Europe. After a
brief presentation from each panel member, attendees will be
invited to ask questions and raise further matters for
discussion.

The idea for this panel arose at the ALLC/ACH 93 in Georgetown,
in consequence of an informal session on the subject organised by
Malcolm Hayward (Indiana). It became clear at this session that
a more broadly based panel, formally constituted in the programme
of the conference, was needed. The panel at ALLC/ACH 94 attempts
to meet this need by expanding the context of discussion and
selecting members from several countries in North America and
Europe.


Composition of the panel.

Robert Gauthier, responsable de l'initiation \a l'utilisation de
l'ordinateur en Sciences du Langage \a l'Universit/e Toulouse-le
Mirail exposera les points suivants: Quel contenu peut ou doit
faire l'objet d'un enseignement, en se fixant quels objectifs, en
s'appuyant sur quels langages et en utilisant quel environnement
de programmation, sur quelle plate-forme? Apr\es avoir enseign/e
pendant cinq ann/ees l'utilisation de l'ordinateur en Sciences
humaines \a des /etudiants de Ma^itrise, de DEA, et en Th\ese,
est-il possible d'/evaluer la valeur d'un enseignement \a la fois
formel et pratique de la programmation, du d/eveloppement
d'applications didactiques, de la PAO, de l'analyse automatique
des textes, de l'analyse statistique, de la cr/eation de bases de
donn/ees bibliographiques et lexicographiques , de la PREAO, de
la manipulation d'images, et de l'utilisation des r/eseaux
internationaux et nationaux? Enfin on se posera le probl\eme de
l'aptitude des informaticiens de m/etier ou des
professeurs de lettres \a enseigner l'usage de l'ordinateur \a
des /etudiants de lettres.

Christian Koch, Professor of Computer Science (Oberlin College,
USA) will discuss Oberlin's new minor in "Computing in the
Liberal Arts", which relates computer science and mathematics to
the needs of those talented humanities students of tomorrow who
want to use computers in support of their interests. He will draw
on the results from the first two years of this minor.

Willard McCarty, Asst. Director of the Centre for Computing in
the Humanities (Toronto, Canada), will discuss his series of
interdisciplinary graduate courses and faculty workshops in
research computing over the last 3 years. He will emphasize the
methodological common ground that emerges as the principal
subject of these courses, as well as strategies for working with
faculty and administrators to get humanities computing integrated
into the departmental programmes. He will also describe a new
online archive of syllabi and course materials maintained at
Toronto.

Tito Orlandi, Professor of Coptic and Director of the Centro
Interdipartimentale di Servizi per l'Automazione nelle Discipline
Umanistiche (La Sapienza, Rome), will describe his post-graduate
courses and workshops in humanities computing at the Facolt\a di
Lettere. Based on experience with these courses, he will
emphasize methodological issues, specifically the need for a
better grasp of the fundamental theories of informatics, which
would then lead to an improved understanding of how humanities
computing relates methodologically to the traditional disciplines
in its scope. He will also discuss briefly the distinction
between human-social sciences and historical-liberal arts disciplines
in applying computerized procedures. He will note difficulties in
conventional curricular structures and in the laws governing them,
and discuss helpful relations with colleagues from the Facolt\a di
Ingegneria.

Harold Short, Director, Research Unit in Humanities Computing,
King's College London, will discuss the undergraduate,
postgraduate and academic staff courses which have been offered
for the past three years. The undergraduate programme covers a
wide range of computing techniques and skills; however the real
emphasis is on developing analytical skills - students being able
to assess which (if any) computing tools may be of value in
different contexts, and application skills - being able to apply
the tools in an appropriate way. With the postgraduate and academic
staff courses, the focus is on computing tools in humanities research,
and on how the research enterprise is changed by their use: is it
a matter of doing old things in new ways, or does the new
technology change the questions which can be asked?

*****END*****

(3) --------------------------------------------------------------34----
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 09:25:12 +0100 (MET)
From: George Welling <welling@let.rug.nl>
Subject: Re: 7.0470 Courses: Humanities Curric.; Humanities Computing (2/45)

Within the Association for History and Computing(AHC) there has been a long
discussion about this topic and two volumes have been published about it: the
articles and course discriptions of the last volume can be ftp-ed from the
Groningen Historical Electronic Text Archive (GHETA).
Use gopher (gopher gopher.let.rug.nl) or anonymous ftp (ftp tyr.let.rug.nl)
and go to the directory pub/ftp/GHETA/AHC/curriculum. There you will find the
articles in two formats: ASCII and WordPerfect 5.01.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
George M. Welling - dep.Alfa-Informatica HCI - University of Groningen
phone : +31 50 63 54 74 | fax : +31 50 63 49 00 | welling@let.rug.nl
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~