[1] From: Robin Kornman <rkornman@csd.uwm.edu> (42)
From: "H-CLC (BD)" <bdiederi@ucsd.edu>
Subject: Re: Computer Literacy and Computer Literary Studies
[3] From: "Eric S. Rabkin" <esrabkin@umich.edu> (57)
Subject: RTH (was "course in literary computing literacy")
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Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 03:44:11 -0600 (CST)
From: Robin Kornman <rkornman@csd.uwm.edu>
Responding to a request for info from people teaching courses
specifically directed towards computers and literature.
Well, I taught a course something like that as part of our introductory
Honors Program seminar. The organizing principle was supposed to be the
notion of expanding English Composition into multimedia. We read a
series of classics on a specific subject, but did a lot of our research
on Internet and I required that students not simply learn to write papers
using word-processors, but that they expand this ability into authoring
in other media.
The course still exists, but the authoring part has not gone as far as I
wanted, because to teach a thing like that takes incredible access to
tools. The students at our school simply do not have practicable
access to networked computers on the scale needed to do the homework
for such a program. And for a classroom we would need a room full of networked
computers, not just one computer at the front with a big screen.
Also, I find that the authoring technology is changing so fast that I
couldn't communicate a stable competency. I kept on tripping over my own
learning curve. In short, it's going to take me years to learn how to
teach a course like this---- a course in which the students write in
images and sound as well as words.
Our last problem was inadequate support from the university computer
services people. I could configure my own office's Macintosh until it
worked just right for the course. But the computers in the classrooms
were configured by the university and could not possibly keep up with my
needs.
I don't know if these problems are endemic or just there because of the
cutbacks at my school.
Still, the notion of the course is quite clear in my mind, even if I
don't yet have access to tools to put it inot action.
Robin Kornman
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Date: Sun, 09 Feb 1997 16:58:45 -0500
From: "Eric S. Rabkin" <esrabkin@umich.edu>
Subject: RTH (was "course in literary computing literacy")
For those who may be interested, I should mention that here at the
University of Michigan I've been team-teaching a course at the
senior/grad level called Research and Technology in the Humanities
(RTH). It involves three overlapping components. First, the students
learn a common minimal suite of computer applications widely useful for
information acquisition, collaboration, information manipulation, and
information presentation. Second, the students take up "study cases"
exploring the humanistic implications of diverse technologies. Third,
the students work in teams to generate their own treatment of humanities
issues. This last is the heart of the course. The students begin work
on learning to collaborate early; they collaborate in defining their
projects soon; they learn more advanced computer applications as their
projects demand; they finish the course by presenting the (generally
splendid) fruits of their labor. The course has been very successful.
Those wanting to see the latest version of the syllabus, should look at
http://www.umich.edu/~lsarth/RTHf96/415f96syl.htm
and those wanting to see the most recent overview PowerPoint presentatin
that we used to induct the students into the class should see
http://www.umich.edu/~lsarth/RTHf96/index.htm
Comments on- or off-list are welcome.
Eric
-- Eric S. Rabkin 313-764-2553 (Office) Dept of English 313-764-6330 (Dept) Univ of Michigan 313-763-3128 (Fax) Ann Arbor MI 48109-1003 esrabkin@umich.edu http://www-personal.umich.edu/~esrabkin/
-- Eric S. Rabkin 313-764-2553 (Office) Dept of English 313-764-6330 (Dept) Univ of Michigan 313-763-3128 (Fax) Ann Arbor MI 48109-1003 esrabkin@umich.edu http://www-personal.umich.edu/~esrabkin/