There will be a (usually) short assignment each week and 2 projects.
The assignments will be due the week after they are assigned. The projects
can be turned in at any time up to the day of the final.
Individual Project - choose a topic of interest to you and research it at the library and on the internet. Write a report on the topic and an essay comparing and contrasting the amount, type, reliablility, etc. of the information you found, and the ease of use, etc. of the two approaches.
Group Project - choose a piece of technology (spread sheet, data base, internet, etc.) and develop a small information application. Write a short essay evaluating the strengths and limitations of the technology you used to create it and of the application you developed. The essay should describe your experiences (good and bad) in learning how to use the technology and how the design of your application evolved. Include a discussion on how the technology could be improved, based on the ideas in Design of Everyday Things.
Extra Credit Project - make a web page (keeping in mind the ideas in Design of Everyday Things) related to one or more of the topics covered in class.
Jan 8 -
Read Snow Crash - make a list of things (words, ideas, etc.) you don't understand in the book. Write a paragraph on each of the following: the author's views on language, on information, and on libraries? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Email me your favorite url and your homepage, if you want it included in the student list.
Jan 15 -
add, subtract, multiply, and divide these binary numbers: 1001 111
convert each problem to decimal to check your answer - except for division
Read Design of Everyday Things - make an outline of the ideas he presents
Jan 22 -
Draw the following boolean functions using AND gate, OR gates, and NOT gates and make a truth table for each.
x AND NOTy AND z
(x OR y) AND z
w AND x OR y AND NOT z
x OR NOT y AND NOT x OR y
Read the papers in the handout.
Using any presentation software, create a 3-5 page presentation on the papers
you read. Turn it in along with a description of what software you used
and how well it was designed (see Design of Everyday Things).
Jan 29 -
Design a subtractor (may be done in a group). STOP WHEN YOU HAVE SPENT 20 MINUTES ON IT!
Read "Technopoly" by Neil Postman. Write a page or 2 on "I think Neil Postman [exaggerates / does not exaggerate] to make his points." Support your position by discussing examples from the book.
Using any database software, create a small database of information
of interest to you. Print it out, along with the results of 2 searches.
If you want help finding some group members to work on the group
project, write your name, what you are interested in doing, when you
are available to work on it, etc.
on a 3X5 card, or reasonable facsimile, to be posted on the wall in
class for everyone to check out.
add, subtract, multiply, and divide these binary numbers: 1010 10 using addition and complements
convert each problem to decimal to check your answer
Read
On the History and Impact of the Net (This is a draft document.
final draft
will be available on-line when it is finished.)
(The authors welcome your comments and suggestions. There are email addresses
where you can send them at the bottom of the first page.)
Write a page or 2 telling me about interesting things you found in
the reading and what you think about reading books on the web (with
reference to yourself and your thoughts on its impact on people
and libraries).
Start a spreadsheet program to keep track of your grade in the class.
Read the first half of Nicholas Negroponte's book, Being Digital.
Use an integrated office software package like Microsoft Office,
Claris Works, Microsoft
works, etc., to do a 3-5 page presentation
on what you read. For 2 points extra credit, use one of the cool things
in the lab that you never used before.
Feb 26 -
Read the rest of Nicholas Negroponte's book, Being Digital.
Find or create some interesting information - text, image, sound,
whatever - and make it available to your classmates. When you have something
post it to the list-server. When you see something interesting posted to
the list-server, download it and check it out. Compression
cheat-sheet
How to do the homework:
Subscribe to the listserv!
send an email message to majordomo97@si.umich.edu
the body of the message should say
subscribe si526-l
(that thing at the end is the 12th letter of the alphabet - lower case)
find some information that your classmates might be interested in -
this is your chance to get on a soap box and "do your thing", as they used
to say when I was a kid.... :)
Topics - something related to what we have been learning about in class,
something cool you learned about somewhere else, a hobby, whatever - you choose!
Source - you (write a paper or flesh out one of the assignments I gave yo
or a paper from some other class or whatever), newspapers, web pages, TV,
magazines, reference works, famous authors, your grandmother, whatever - mix
and match!
Media - plain text, images, sounds, video, Word document, Excel spreadsheet,
anything and everything.
print it out to hand in
Does it need to be encoded? If so, use MIME encoding
or uuencode (on UNIX) or anything else you can find.
Compress it just for practice
Put the compressed file in your Public folder (if you are doing it on
a Mac) or in your Public directory (from a UNIX point of view) or make it
available from your web page.
Check (ls -l in UNIX) that the permissions are ok (ok is r permitted to everyone) or hope for the best! :>)
send an email message to si526-l@si.umich.edu
telling everyone where it is and how
you prepared it (so they know how to uncompress and unencode it).
Write a paragraph or 2 describing how you prepared it to hand in.
Read the messages that come to you from the listserv. Choose something
sounds interesting.
Download your treasure, using ftp, fetch, or whatever it takes!
Uncompress what you downloaded and unencode it, if it needs it.
Print it out to hand in (if it is not printable - like a sound file -
describe it.)
Comment on the info you downloaded - did you like it, did you agree
with the point of view, was it interesting, etc. to hand in
Comment on the whole process of gathering and preparing your
information and downloading and using the other person's information to hand in
Hand in:
hardcopy of your information (or a description of it)
a description of how you prepared it for downloading
hardcopy or a description of what you downloaded
comments on the information you downloaded
comments on the whole process of gathering and preparing your
information and downloading and using the other person's information.
Mar 5 - Spring Break - no class
Mar 12 -
Read and think about the things that Jeff Johnson mentioned in his
summary of ACM'97, the annual conference of the Association for
Computing Machinery, in preparation for the panel discussion we will
be attending at Border's Mar. 19. Post your favorite quote to the listserv
and say a few words about it.
Create a web page about CPU's
SLB's favorite SI 526 CPU web pages
Read the first half of Things that Make us Smart by
Donald Norman. If you went to the panel discussion at Border's, write
a page or 2 on how Norman's ideas relate to what you heard the people
(any people!) at Border's say. If you didn't go, write about how Norman's
ideas relate to 3 of the people who spoke at ACM'97 (see last week's
assignment).
Mar 26 -
Read the last half of Things that Make us Smart by
Donald Norman.
Reread Snow Crash or another cyberpunk novel by the same or a different
author.
Login to a
MUD,
Diversity University Moo
or
IRC.
Hang out for an hour or so. Write 2-4 pages on
how you liked it, how it made you feel, what you thought of the other people,
what might this do to our society, and anything else that you found interesting.
Relate this experience to the description of the virtual world in Snow Crash
and any other cyberpunk novels you have read.
Strictly FYI - you don't have to check this out. the DoD and MUDS
a fun, friendly Aber Mud - aber.ludd.luth.se 6715
Apr 9 - Study for the test and finish up the projects