Week 1

• Monday 8/29: Introduction (course description, objectives, schedule, assignments, grading, policies, personal introductions and questions)
• Wednesday 8/31: Being Digital  
  • Before Class: Explore Computer History Museum, Digital Logic [online exhibit]
• Friday 9/2: Section Introductions

Week 2

• Monday 9/5: No Class – Labor Day
  
• Wednesday 9/7: Theoretical Frameworks (internalism, externalism, determinism, and the Social Construction of Technology)
  • Before Class: Read Ronald Kline and Trevor Pinch. “Users as Agents of Technological Change: The Social Construction of the Automobile in the Rural United States.” Technology and Culture 37, no. 4 (1996): 763–95. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3107097. (Available from the UConn Library. If you don’t know how to use the Library and its online databases, you can ask a librarian.)
• Friday 9/9: Readings Discussion

Week 3

• Monday 9/12: Visions (Swift and Borges)
  • Before Class: Read Jonathan Swift, “Gulliver’s Travels,” Part III, Chapter V” and Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of the Forking Paths”
• Wednesday 9/14: Predictions (Otlet and Bush)
  • Before Class: Watch Francoise Levie, “The Man Who Wanted to Classify the World.” Read Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think” and Alexis Madrigal “The Hut Where The Internet Began.”
• Friday 9/16: Readings Discussion

Week 4

• Monday 9/19: The Mainframe and the Mainstream (1945-1965)
  • Before Class: Explore Computer History Museum, Mainframe Computers [online exhibit] and review Khan Academy, The postwar era, 1945-1950 and 1950s America
• Wednesday 9/21: The PC and the Counterculture (1965-1985)
  • Before Class: Explore Computer History Museum, Personal Computers [online exhibit] and review Khan Academy, The Civil Rights Movement and 1960s America
• Friday 9/23: Readings Discussion – Midterm Essay prompt released at 2:00 pm

Week 5

• Monday 9/26: Tron: Background and Watch Guide
• Wednesday 9/28: No Class – Watch Tron (1982 version) at home (available to stream on Disney+ with audio description and Amazon Prime Video without audio description)
• Friday 9/30: Tron Discussion

Week 6

• Monday 10/3: The Internet and The Web
  • Before Class: Explore Computer History Museum, Networking [online exhibit] and The Web [online exhibit]
• Wednesday 10/5: The Dot-Com Boom and Bust
  • Before Class: Listen to Internet History podcast episode, “Chapter 8: How the Dotcom Bubble Happened.”
• Friday 10/7: No Class – Midterm Essay due at 11:59 pm

Week 7

• Monday 10/10: The Matrix: Background and Watch Guide
• Wednesday 10/12: No Class – Watch The Matrix (1999) at home (available to stream on HBOMax or Amazon Prime Video, both with audio description)
• Friday 10/14: The Matrix Discussion

Week 8

• Monday 10/17: Web 2.0 and Challenges to Big Content
  • Before Class: Tim O’Reilly, “What is Web 2.0?”
• Wednesday 10/19: After Web 2.0
  • Before Class: Read Jonathan Zittrain, “The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It” (pp. 1-35) and explore Wired Magazine “The Web Is Dead
• Friday 10/21: Midterm Review

Week 9

• Monday 10/24: Midterm Exam
• Wednesday 10/26: Copyright: Its History and Purpose
  • Before Class: Read Constitution of the United States of America, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8
• Friday 10/28: Copyright and You
  • Before Class: Explore American Library Association, Copyright Tools and watch Adam Ruins Everything, How Mickey Mouse Destroyed the Public Domain

Week 10

• Monday 11/1: Social Media
  • Before Class: Explore Stanford University, Mapping the Republic of Letters
• Wednesday 11/2: Big Data
  • Before Class: Read boyd and Crawford, “Six Provocations for Big Data”
• Friday 11/5: Readings Discussion

Week 11

• Monday 11/7: Politics
  • Before Class: Watch, Siva Vaidhyanathan, “Anti-Social Media,” read Zeynep Tufekci, “YouTube, The Great Radicalizer,” and explore Pew Internet and American Life Project “Activism in the Social Media Age“
• Wednesday 11/9: Race and Gender
  • Before Class: Watch Safiya Noble, “Challenging the Algorithms of Oppression“
• Friday 11/11: Readings Discussion

Week 12

• Monday 11/14: The Gig Economy
  • Before Class: Read Nathan Heller, “Is the Gig Economy Working?“
• Wednesday 11/16: Surveillance
  • Before Class: Read Ryan Lizza, “State of Deception” and Miriam Posner, “The Software That Shapes Workers’ Lives.”
• Friday 11/18: Readings Discussion

Week 13  — Thanksgiving Break

Week 14

• Monday 11/28: Blockchain and Crypto
  • Before Class: Read Steven Johnson, “Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble.”
• Wednesday 11/30: Digital Culture and Memory
  • Before Class: Read Jonathan Zittrain, “The Internet Is Rotting.” Explore The September 11 Digital Archive and The Pandemic Journaling Project
• Friday 12/2: Readings Discussion

Week 15

• Monday 12/5: Final Exam Review – Take-home Exam released at 2:00 p.m.
• Wednesday 12/7: No Class – Work on Take-home Exam 
• Friday 12/9: No Class – Take-home Exam due at 11:59 p.m.