DMD 2010: History of Digital Culture

Professor – Tom Scheinfeldt
Email: tom.scheinfeldt@uconn.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 11:00-12:00
(Greenhouse Studios, 1st Floor of the Library)

Teaching Assistant – Lexy Vecchio
Email: lexy.vecchio@uconn.edu

Lecture:
Mon / Wed 12:20-1:10 – UTEB175

Sections:
001D – Friday 10:10-11:00 – BISH146
002D – Friday 11:15-12:05 – BISH146
003D – Friday 12:20-1:10 – BISH146

Downloadable Syllabus: DMD2010_syllabus_Fall2022

Welcome to DMD 2010: The History of Digital Culture for Fall 2022! This is the course website. It is your main source for information about the course. At the top of the page you will find links to the syllabus/schedule (including readings for each class), course assessments (including how your final grade will be calculated), and course policies (including the late work and grading policies). Please make sure you visit the website regularly to stay abreast of any updates. It is your responsibility to keep up with what’s posted here.

Thank you for joining the course. Please always feel free to talk to me in class, come to office hours (listed below), or shoot me an email if you have any questions or concerns. I’m looking forward to a great semester!

Digital technology and digital media are central to contemporary global culture. A knowledge of the history, character, and values of digital culture is crucial to any rounded understanding of life in the 21st century. This course will examine some key episodes in the history of digital technology and digital media and interrogate some of the values that adhere to digital culture, particularly online. In doing so, we will learn to view the technologies of digital media critically, as historical, cultural, human constructions. We will learn to be critical consumers and producers of digital media and to question received understandings of the role of technology in our public and private lives.

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

1) Discuss key episodes in the history of 20th and early-21st Century digital technology

2) Analyze these episodes using theoretical frameworks provided in class

3) Think and write critically about digital technology and digital media

4) Locate contemporary digital media and technology and personal digital practice in historical and cultural context