NCLC249:Digital literacy
Fall 2011
syllabus

| syllabus | | weekly schedule | | service learning | | assignments | | honor code |

Introduction
Welcome to Digital Literacy, a learning community which investigates critical aspects of the digital cultures such as communication, composition in multiple media, social networking, intellectual and civic collaborations, emerging cultures and art forms, and those themes that you, as participants, introduce to the learning community.  Social networking, individual broadcasting via blogs and video, and multi-purpose mobile devices network individuals, their needs and their passions, their media and their creations, and, of course, their knowledge and opinions into complex systems of information transmission and reception.  Together, these activities structure what academic and educator Henry Jenkins calls a participatory culture:

A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices.  A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another…
Henry Jenkins et al., Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:
Media Education for the 21st Century. The MacArthur Foundation, 2006, p. 3

Throughout this semester, we shall delve into that participatory culture via popular writings about the internet, academic theories about networked life, and your own experiences and experiments with a variety of critical, composition and publishing tools and platforms.   Yet our discussions must also transcend the focus on our interactions with, and through, information and communication technologies.  As media artist and activist Julian Oliver reminds us, the machines of the digital revolution are much more than machines:

Rather, they are an assemblage of social, psychological, technical and bodily forces; expressions of these interacting, intersecting elements.
Julian Oliver, Posting to the listserv Empyre, 2011 7 17

As we discuss digital literacy, we also discuss the future of the society in which we shall live.  We need to expand our own capacities to step beyond simply reacting to change driven by new technologies.  Instead, we need to build the intellectual, cultural and political capacities (in the very broadest sense) to shape the society that emerges from those changes.  In a global society where change snaps relentlessly at our heels, we need every scrap of our capacity to learn. Fortunately, fewer and fewer boundaries today limit our learning as human beings, and our abilities to network, as one of our authors suggests, may extend even those that exist.  

Anticipated Learning Outcomes

• to apply existing knowledge and expertise to the always-evolving networked contexts of daily life 
• to understand ongoing developments and innovations in digital media in relation to access, authorship, publication and dissemination practices
• to practice and enhance the critical and creative consumption and production of digital media
• to understand how to engage in new knowledge-building through f2f and dispersed collaboration, and how to support such collaboration with the most appropriate information, tools and platforms
• to identify and apply effective communication strategies, forms and genres to disseminate new knowledge and ideas to diverse audiences via digital media  
• to explore our responsibilities as individuals and citizens within a networked world and develop an understanding of ethical practices (from the individual to the global)
• to explore how we might acquire the new knowledge and capacities required to thrive in digital contexts we cannot yet imagine

Texts
Online readings/viewings indicated on the weekly schedule, plus shorter readings distributed in seminar or electronically, if necessary

Class Participation
Participation in a New Century College learning community requires both preparation for each class meeting, and an active involvement during each class. As out-of-class preparation significantly enhances the quality of in-class participation, you will earn your class participation grade both for the quality of your preparation for seminar, and for your participation in seminar.   Both kinds of participation are particularly important in NCLC 249, as much of our work unfolds in discussion and workshop.

Preparation for Seminar
The learning community as a whole will collaboratively analyze each week’s readings on a shared wiki (a very, very simple web site, for those not familiar with wikis).  Please don’t worry that this assignment will prove too difficult.  I’ll provide a lot of guidance and support as we begin to work out the key concepts in each text, their relationships to your existing knowledge, their applicability to the digital media which surround us, and to your own experiences.  Through your contributions to this collective analysis, you will be able to raise questions for discussion in seminar, share your knowledge from other learning communities and courses, and speculate about the implications of the ideas you have encountered. 

Don’t feel you have to work on this preparation in isolation. I am available and, more importantly, eager to discuss readings/viewings.  If you do not understand the assignment for the next class, or you run into problems with a particular reading or exercise, let me know as soon as possible. I’m on campus several days a week, I really enjoy talking about our work, and I’m more than happy to help in person, via e-mail or by telephone.

Participation in seminar
How about participation during each meeting? The in-class work for this learning community includes discussion, writing, creative composition and formal and informal collaboration with peers. If you are uncomfortable speaking in a large group, you can share your ideas through writing or within a small group of peers. If you think best as you speak, you can demonstrate your capabilities in full-class discussions or collaborative presentations. If you think and communicate most effectively visually, you might excel as we investigate visual arguments and design communications. Whatever your learning style, whatever your intellectual and practical strengths, you should find several ways to demonstrate your excellence and contribute to our ongoing explorations in NCLC 249.

Attendance
Missing class is not the answer to any roadblocks you might encounter. In fact, you might learn more from a meeting when you talk about what you don't understand than from a meeting when you show how much you know. The workshops integrated into this learning community open up additional opportunities to learn from faculty and peers, ask questions, experiment with new ideas and ask for help. Reading and viewing, and critically thinking about those encounters, nourishes your in-class work. In-class work supports your individual and collaborative assignments.

As this is a seminar and workshop learning community, class attendance is mandatory (except for medical reasons or religious holidays). If you are absent, inform me of the circumstances as soon as possible and remember that it's your responsibility to research and make up the work you have missed.  Everyone has one Life Happens pass: it covers one missed preparation for class, or allows you to submit one individual assignment no more than two days late.  It’s not applicable to scheduled presentations, the “Teach Us Something Digital” assignment or to exams.

Assignments
Everyone will complete the Teach Us Something Digital project, in which small groups will teach the rest of the seminar about one aspect of digital culture and/or digital practices not covered elsewhere in the learning community (20% of your final grade).  Everyone will participate weekly in our reading and synthesis assignments (detailed under Class Participation), and in class (together also 20% of your final grade), and undertake one credit's worth of experiential learning. 

Beyond that, for the remaining 60% of the grade for this learning community, the choice is up to you. You can play to your strengths, choose to experiment with new ideas and new media, read and review books, analyze movies, and so on.  The choice is yours.  You will find a list of possible assignments at the end of this schedule: they range from exams. to news gathering, short analyses to portfolios.  Often faculty members say that we want you to take charge of your own learning and assessment but actually offer very few opportunities to do so. NCLC 249 is your chance to structure the assessment of your learning your way.

Service Learning
This learning community includes one-credit of service learning, which you will undertake independently during the semester.  George Mason University’s Center for Leadership and Community Engagement defines service learning as:

Service-learning is a teaching method which combines community service with academic instruction as it focuses on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility. Service-learning programs involve students in organized community service that addresses local needs, while developing their academic skills, sense of civic responsibility, and commitment to the community.

If you have never completed service learning before, please don’t worry, as we shall devote much of our second class to service learning, including discussions of its value to us as individuals, and a detailed breakdown of the logistics, both practical and intellectual, of your participation.  In NCLC 249, the service learning you choose should involve you in sharing your knowledge and expertise with information and communication technologies (ICTs).  For example, you might tutor children in an after-school program using internet-based resources.  You might help seniors or migrants to the US connect via e-mail with friends and family.  You might help adults gain computer job skills, or guide library users in their online information searches.  You might help a non-profit or local government agency develop a more effective social media strategy, or to build databases for fundraising. You might set up a computer lab. for an after-school program or family resource center, or train others to set up networks, maintain and update hardware and software, or adapt mobile devices to essential tasks. And so on.

One-credit of service learning requires 45 hours of out-of-class work.  However, that time includes preparation for service learning, reflection on that service learning, and your preparation of a final reflection on your work (due at the end of the semester).  Thus, you should anticipate spending 30 – 35 hours over the semester at your service site.  You must pass the service learning component to pass the learning community as a whole.  Please do go wholeheartedly into your service learning.  I have looked at the range of concentrations, majors, and minors within our group, and you have all so much to share. 

Academic Policies

Learning Differences
If you have a learning or physical difference that may affect your academic work, you should furnish appropriate documentation to the Office of Disability Services (http://www.gmu.edu/student/drc/). If you qualify for accommodation, the DRC staff will give you a form detailing appropriate accommodations for your instructor.  In addition to providing your professors with the appropriate form, please take the initiative to discuss accommodations with them at the beginning of the semester and as needed during the term. Faculty learn from you the most effective ways in which they can assist you. If you have contacted the Disability Resource Center and are waiting to hear from a counselor, please tell me.

Medical Emergencies
If you encounter a genuine medical emergency, such as illness or hospitalization of yourself or a close family member, or a family crisis, please contact me as soon as possible. To insure you are not penalized for medical absences, please submit supporting documentation when you return to class (doctor's certificate, hospital discharge forms, etc.).

Late Work
As late work impinges not only on your own learning, but also on that of all your colleagues in this collaborative community, assignments will lose one grade fraction (B to B-, C- to D, for example) for each day they are late.  You each have one Life Happens pass for one piece of late work.

E-Mail
As faculty, we are allowed to communicate with you only via your George Mason e-mail account. As a means of protecting your privacy and academic confidentiality, the university also urges you to communicate with each other only via your George Mason e-mail accounts. If you wish to forward mail from your George Mason account to another account (for example, to a gmail account), go to the bottom of the Accessing Your E-mail page of the University's Student Technology Guide.

Honor Code and Plagiarism
According to the University catalog, plagiarism includes the following:

• Presenting as one's own the words, the work, or the opinions of someone else without proper acknowledgment.
• Borrowing the sequence of ideas, the arrangement of material, or the pattern of thought of someone else without proper acknowledgment
  

Be particularly careful to credit work through citations. In addition to direct quotations, you must also provide an in-text citation and an entry in your list of works cited for paraphrases and summaries of opinions or factual information not formerly known to you, as researcher and writer. The only exception to this rule is information termed "general knowledge," information that is widely known to the population at large. As your definition of general knowledge may not be that applied in an academic context, please be cautious in applying the general knowledge exception. When in any doubt at all, cite.

If you decide to use another person's ideas you must either quote the idea verbatim or completely rephrase the ideas in your own words and voice. But you must still cite the original source of the information (in-text and in your list of works cited). In class discussions, you should also acknowledge the ideas you have acquired from others. Please give credit where credit is due, whether to a family member or friend with whom you have discussed your learning, to a class colleague or a group member, or to a faculty member or a guest lecturer.

In academic work, you should follow a standardized format for your in-text citations and lists of works cited (for example, the formats created by the Modern Language Association (MLA) or the American Psychological Association (APA). These standards apply to all your work, including your portfolio and its contents. As you select samples of work to include in the portfolio, you may wish to present collaborative work. If you do so, you must acknowledge the collaboration and identify clearly your own role within it.

Appropriate Collaboration
Appropriate collaboration differs from plagiarism. In an academic or work setting, some work will be completed by a group. In collaborative work, names of all the participants should appear on a project. If a group member does not participate in completing the project, his or her name should not appear on the project. Other assignments are designed to be completed independently. In this case, you may discuss your ideas with others and receive feedback from peers on drafts of projects. However, it is not appropriate to ask someone else to complete work or to revise it for you.
You are responsible for making certain there is no question the work you submit is your own. If your name appears on an assignment, instructors have a right to expect that you have completed the work yourself, fully, independently, and originally for this learning community.  Four fundamental principles are:

• All work submitted in your name on it must be your own
• When using the work or ideas of others, including your fellow students, you must cite appropriately.
• If you are uncertain about the ground rules on a particular assignment, ask for clarification.
• Additionally, the re-use of papers, presentations, etc., from another learning community is not appropriate. In every NCC learning community, faculty expect that the work that is submitted has been done only for that class.

Remember:  please read carefully the University's Honor Policy. It is your responsibility to understand it, and abide by its provisions.  No grade is important enough to justify cheating, which precipitates serious consequences. If you feel unusual pressure over your work or about your grade in this or any other learning community, please do talk to me, another faculty member or advisor whom you trust, or to the Counseling Center.

Learning Resources
University Writing Center (703-993-1200, Robinson A, Room 114)
The University Writing Center provides, at no charge, tutors who will help you to brainstorm, structure, revise and edit written work (and help you compile and check your citation of sources!). Although the Writing Center may sometimes accommodate walk-in appointments, you are more likely to see a tutor at a time convenient to you, and your assignment deadline, if you telephone in advance for an appointment. You may also consult the Writing Center online. For further information, e-mail wcenter@gmu.edu

Counseling and Psychological Services (703-993-2380, SUB 1 Room 3129)
Professional counselors provide individual and group sessions for personal development and assistance with emotional and relational issues. In addition, the Learning Services Program (703-993-2999) offers academic skill-building workshops and a tutor referral service.

Office of Disability Services (703-993-2474, Sub I, Room 2500)
The staff of DRC assist students with learning differences or physical conditions which may impact their academic work. If you need accommodations within any learning community or class because of learning differences or physical conditions

The Student Technology Assistance and Resource Center (STAR) (703- 993-8990, Johnson Center, Room 229)
STAR mentors help students to learn new software packages and improve their command of familiar software. The Collaborative Learning Hub (703-993-3766, Johnson Center, Room 311) provides access to workstations, an extensive range of softwares, and informal help. STAR*T training (703-993-1385, Johnson Center, Room 344) offers free multimedia application (Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, etc.) workshops throughout the semester.

Center for Leadership and Community Engagement (703-993-2900, Enterprise Hall, Room 442)
The Center for Service and Leadership promotes positive change and civic responsibility by combining academic study, leadership development and direct community service. CLCE is your campus resource at George Mason for leadership development and service-learning initiatives, including Alternative Spring Break.

Grading Breakdown

 

Important DatES

 

lesley smith, associate professor
new century college
college of humanities and social sciences
george mason university
fairfax va 22032

last updated: 2011 9 19