MES 199 SYLLABUS

MultiMedia 199 Syllabus

(c) 1998 WHAT THE COURSE IS ABOUT THE COMPUTER AS A MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION WHAT WE'LL DO IN THIS COURSE SELF-LEARNING ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION GROUP PRESENTATIONS EVALUATION HOMEWORK MULTIMEDIA PROJECT COURSE SCHEDULE

Leonard Shedletsky

College of Arts & Sciences Department of Communication The University of Southern Maine E-Mail Lenny What the Course is About

This course will focus upon creating multimedia projects for

the purpose of learning and expressing information. We will work with some

or all of the media that are available to us, text, graphics, images, possibly

audio and video. We will make use of the Internet. The primary reason for

creating a multimedia project is to learn the subject matter that you are

organizing, analyzing, and presenting. Hence, you will need to do research,

gather information, critically analyze the information, and learn the tools

of the computer needed to present your project. You will receive instruction

in Internet skills, Home Page construction, editing images, construction

of electronic slides, and a variety of related accessories and software.

For instance, examples of just a few possible project topics are as follows:

communication apprehension	satisfaction	turn taking	meaning
learning	time spent	outcome of collaboration	persuasion
group dynamics	self disclosure	attribution	function
control	gender	organizational structure	aggression and assertiveness
political activism	sense of community	visual journalism	critical theory
AND MANY OTHER ISSUES

While I cannot assume that you have experience in critically

reading research and theory, I will expect you to do your best at just

that. At the same time, I will try to help where I can, and we will raise

research issues whenever possible. Since we will do hands-on work on the

computer, it is assumed that all students who registered for this course

will devote time outside of class-time to homework exercises designed to

develop computer skills; Internet skills, home page construction, and slide

presentation will require work outside of class. In addition, you will

need to devote time to exploring and researching a subject that you will

build into your project. You will need to devote time to writing about

your subject. Some of you may already know many of the Internet and computer

skills used in this course. In those cases, I welcome your helping classmates

who are learning these skills. Also, if you are an advanced computer user,

please talk to me about how you can do homeworks that work for you. You

should be able to devote more of your time to preparing your term project.

The Computer as a Medium of Communication

The computer is a new medium of communication. The Internet

is a very large number of computers world-wide that are linked in a network

of communication with one another. Computer-mediated communication (CMC)

is all the kinds of communication that takes place using a computer, including

the user/computer communication, the user and computer at a distance, two

or more users on computers separated by time and space, users in a variety

of contexts, and many other forms of communication mediated by computer.

Our access to people and information is changed by this new medium. And

in turn its potential to change patterns of interaction is brought forth.

. . . new communication technology leads people to pay attention to different

things, have contact with different people, and depend on one another differently.

Change in attention means change in how people spend their time and in

what they think is important. Change in social patterns means change in

who people know and howthey feel about them. Change in interdependence

means change in what people do with and for each other and how these coupled

functions are organized in norms, roles, procedures, jobs, and departments.

Social roles, which codify patterns of attention and social interaction,

change. (Sproull and Kiesler, 1991)(1) In addition to its growing role

in education, health care, and commerce, CMC offers the communication scholar

the opportunity to study a truly new medium. CMC allows the student to

try out a new medium and to thereby learn first hand what it means to communicate

within a medium; it allows the student to learn how one medium differs

from another; how such differences affect human behavior.

What We'll Do In This Course

Overall, there are three major components to this course:

(1) learning how to use the Internet and multimedia software
(2) doing research on a communication project
(3) presenting your research findings as a home page presentation.

The goal is to use multimedia to present information. A great deal
of your time will be taken up with learning how to actually use the software.
You will receive instruction in using the computer, you will have readings
that explain how to do CMC; you will have required laboratorywork;
you will have homework to carry out using the computer.

THE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS MAKE UP 30% OF YOUR
GRADE, AND SO THEY MUST BE TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY.

Self-Learning

This course will require a great deal of self-learning. By that I mean

that, outside of

classroom time, you will have to decide when and for how

long to work at a computer;

you will have to decide on a research topic;

you will have to put in time to researching

your topic, gathering information,

critiquing the research you find, learning relevant theory,

and finally,

presenting your findings in the form of an electronic term project, a home

page

or slide presentation or both. I will do what I can to facilitate

your learning, but there is simply

no substitute for the hours you put

in at the computer, and noone else can learn for you or at

your pace or

with your interests and critical responses. BUT HERE COMES THE

DIFFICULTY.

For some learners, self-learning may be especially challenging, because

they prefer to have a course where the instructor leads them through their

learning. Since

that is not how this course is structured, and since self-learning

is a frequently observed

dimension of the online environment, it will be

important for you to let me know if you are

having a problem with this

type of course and we can at least talk about what can be done to

help.At

the same time, your own experiences with this medium may spark an interest

in a

particular research project. HOMEWORK Homework should be posted to

our electronic

discussion group archive prior to the next class meeting

(SEE THE COURSE SCHEDULE

BELOW). So, if, for example Homework #2 is

shown on the schedule for our second meeting,

then it ought to be posted

before our second class meeting. In the SUBJECT LINE of each

homework posting

please use HOMEWORK #1 or HOMEWORK #2, and so on. Homeworks

will be graded

on a pass/fail basis. I cannot emphasize enough that it is imperative that

you

practice the CMC skills that I will introduce you to, and that practice

during the classroom time

is not enough-- you will need to put hours in

outside of class time. Outside of class time, you can

work from wherever

you have access to the computer and the Internet, whether that is here

the university, or home, or work, or elsewhere. Most of the class time

is needed to demonstrate

computer skills and to show you Internet resources;

we need some class time for you to practice,

some to discuss what you are

finding, some class time to discuss the research issues related to

CMC,

e.g., the interpersonal effects, the outcomes, the psychological, financial,

and cultural

implications of CMC. It is assumed that you will complete

the weekly reading assignment by

the time we meet each week. Remember,

this course is largely about communication via

computer--so, we need to

try it out.

ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION GROUP

We will have our own electronic discussion group. This is a

place for us to stay

in touch on a daily basis, to discuss our Internet (computer) experiences, to ask

questions, comment, seek help from one another, and so on. I plan to check in just

about every day, and I assume that you will check in to our discussion group at

least a few times a week. Instruction in using the electronic discussion group will

be given during our first few meetings.

PRESENTATIONS

Your work in this course will culminate in a term project that

synthesizes what you were

able to find out about your topic. Moreover,

your findings will be presented in the form of

a home page , as opposed

to a printed term paper. The course schedule is designed to allow

you two

opportunities to tell the class about your research project and to take

us through

your electronic presentation. At any point in the semester that

you want me to look at your

presentation and discuss it with you, please

let me know. Please hand in to me your completed

term project presentation

on a floppy disk. I will link some of your final projects (with your

permission) to our course home page.

EVALUATION: Homework . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30% Participation. . . . . . . . . . . . .10% Presentation #1 . . . . . . . . . .10% Term Project . . . . . . . . . . . .40% Presentation #2 . . . . . . . . . .10% HOMEWORK

Homework is designed to help you learn how to use the computer

to do CMC. Homework

assignments are shown on our home page. You are expected

to log on at least once a week

to find out what is going on. This is necessary

to stay informed and to participate in the

course. You will be expected

to do the week's homework and to send it to the Discussion

Group Archive

via computer prior to each week's meeting. Late homework will not be accepted.

There will be no exceptions--I simply can't keep track of so much record

keeping if you don't

stick to the deadline. Please note: Homework makes

up 20% of your grade. The homework

assignments are critical to your learning

in this course. In addition to the hands-on computer

skills homework, you

are expected to do the reading assignment for each week, and to be

working

on your multimedia project. There will be opportunities to present your projects.

Multimedia Project

For your research, choose a topic about communication that interests

you. Gather information

about the topic from the Internet and from the

library. Present the information in the form of

a home page, equivalant

to 15 word processed pages. Please use APA Manual style. This project

should

be an example of your best work ...carefully thought out and crafted. An

abbreviated APA

style sheet on electronic sources can be found linked to our home page.

REQUIRED READING

Texts: Readings will be electronic texts.

See our home page at: http://www.usm.maine.edu/~com/multi199.htm

All of the required reading for the course is electronically available. Electronic
addresses are given below in the course schedule. Please note that in addition to
the assigned articles, you are expected to locate electronically available scholarly
articles on your own, and to read and use them.

Attendance and Responsibility

Full attendance is assumed. You are responsible for information

disseminated in

class--even when there are changes in the schedule that

are announced in class.

I assume that each week's readings will be completed.

I will not be able to go back

over class instruction that you miss.

(1) Sproull, L., and Kiesler, S. (1991). Connections: New ways of working in the networked organization. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press

MULTIMEDIA COURSE SCHEDULE (FALL, 1998) Instructor: L. Shedletsky 9- 1 1. SYLLABUS 9-8 2. EMAIL/ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION/WWW HOMEWORK #1 (IN CLASS EXERCISE) READING ASSIGNMENT: NET ORIENTATION 9-15 3.HOME PAGE CONSTRUCTION HOMEWORK #2 (E-Mail) READING ASSIGNMENT: THEORY AND PRACTICE

WHAT MAKES A GOOD HOMEPAGE 9-22 4. HOME PAGE CONSTRUCTION CONTINUED HOMEWORK #3 READING ASSIGNMENT: WWW 9-29 5.URSUS/SEARCH ENGINES READING ASSIGNMENT:SEARCH ENGINES HOMEWORK #4 10-6 6. DRAW/PAINT HOMEWORK #5 READING ASSIGNMENT: FEATURED WEB SITES 10-20 7. SCANNING GRAPHICS HOMEWORK #6 READING ASSIGNMENT: CHOOSE FROM EITHER (1) MULTIMEDIA, THE WEB & TEACHING or (2) COURSEWARE 10-27 8. POWERPOINT SLIDE CONSTRUCTION HOMEWORK #7 READING ASSIGNMENT: (1) MULTIMEDIA IN COMPUTING or (2) MULTIMEDIA & LAW 11-3 9. SLIDE PRESENTATIONS HOMEWORK #8 11-10 10. TROUBLE SHOOTING/PROJECT ISSUES 11-17 11. PRESENTATIONS: PRELIMINARY 11-24 12. NO CLASS 12-1 13. PRESENTATIONS: COMPLETED PROJECT 12-8 14. PRESENTATIONS: COMPLETED PROJECT/EVALUATIONS/