I will be teaching the International Studies 501 course “Understanding the Global Information Society?” again with Miriam Conteh-Morgan in Spring 2010 (TuTh 1:30PM – 3:18PM). The course call # is 6438.
Here is the syllabus:
International Studies 501: Special Problems. Spring 2010
Understanding the Global Information Society?
Class Location: 149 Thompson Library
Time: Tuesday / Thursday, 1.30-3.18
Instructors:
Miriam Conteh-Morgan
Associate Professor / Linguistics, French and African Studies Librarian
conteh-morgan.2@osu.edu
Phone: 688.8776
Office hours:
322-A Thompson Library
Maureen Donovan
Associate Professor / Japanese Studies Librarian
donovan.1@osu.edu
Phone: 292.3502
Office hours:
350-B Thompson Library
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Course Description:
Around the world, changes in how people create, access and use information are driving the way we work, play, learn and organize around common interests. New paradigms and modes of producing, disseminating, and using information are, for example, making journalists and critics out of ordinary citizens, spurring political activism, and encouraging information sharing. At the same time, traditional knowledge institutions of all kinds are also responding and evolving.
Throughout the course students will monitor news, investigate web resources and gather information for a series of assignments leading up to a country report and a case study analysis. By reflecting on and discussing the issues and through practical assignments students will develop skill sets and forms of understanding that can act as a basis for agency in the real world. Students will engage such questions as:
• What is the impact of information on individuals, cultures and societies? How can we evaluate and compare power, control, equity, access and ownership with regard to information in countries around the world?
• How do patterns of adoption of information technologies vary in countries or regions around the world and what challenges does this present? What is the scope and scale of changes in power relationships resulting from widespread use of social media?
• What are the contours of the global information society? Who participates in it? What strategies work best for participation in the global information society, including learning new technologies, filtering and curating news and social media information, collaborating to create user-generated content, and forming self-organizing communities?
• How is information framed or packaged by intermediary organizations as it flows globally? What interpretive frameworks are best suited for analyzing the influence of globally networked structures and institutions in the cultural, social, political, economic and technological spheres?
• How is the “commons” of globally distributed information and knowledge being supported? What challenges face its further development?
Learning Outcomes — Students will:
• develop a richer understanding of the “global information society,” the knowledge creation process, and the emerging “commons” of globally distributed information and knowledge;
• be able to analyze and discuss knowledge and information-related issues in an in-depth manner;
• learn skills and use modes of analysis that they can apply in their academic and future professional lives;
• make meaningful assessments of their participation in various virtual communities.
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Required Texts (plus other readings and videos as assigned):
World Bank. Atlas of Global Development. 2d ed. 2009. (on 4-hour reserve in THO)
The New York Times. Subscription available at educational discount rate. Dorm residents can pick up a free copy daily in dorms. Copy available in Thompson Library newspaper rack. Also, available online at http://www.nytimes.com
Global Voices Online. http://globalvoicesonline.org/
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Course Requirements:
• Weekly 1-page New York Times and reading response reports and discussion (20% )
Students will read the New York Times newspaper regularly and submit one-page reports weekly on a news report that relates to something discussed in class. Students should cut or print out the news report and attach it to a one-page report written in paragraphs (with complete sentences) which includes:
1) a summary of what the news report is about
2) description of sources that were used for the news report
3) comparison with information + sources in Atlas of Global Development (2d ed)
4) a discussion of the report’s significance in relation to something discussed in class or in the assigned readings
Students will present these reports and lead brief discussions in class. These reports will comprise 20% of the grade.
• Exercises (skill set development) (20%– 4 projects, as follows)
Definitions
Strategies for learning new technologies
Media diet (filtering/curation)
Collaboration technologies for developing content, forming communities
The class will construct a wiki site incorporating a glossary of terms used around the world relative to the “global information society” along with an annotated guide to essential web sites. Each student will make 10 substantive contributions to this wiki project. Additional exercises will be aimed at reviewing the best strategies for learning new technologies, establishing a media diet to avoid “information overload” (filtering/curation) , and an introduction to collaboration technologies increasingly being used for developing content, forming communities and supporting a globally networked knowledge economy. These exercises, aimed at developing a skill set, will comprise 20% of the grade.
• Country report (30%–six short reports and related classroom discussion)
Information in daily life report
Technology timeline report
Analysis of application of one technology in the country
Analysis of networked structures and impact on access, equity, etc
Monitoring report
Framing analysis
Each student in the course will select a different country, with a distribution throughout the class of countries of various sizes, located in various continents, so that class coverage is “global” in scope. The country report is a portfolio of six assignments covering such topics as information in daily life, context, technology infrastructure, legal structures related to information, etc. Through these assignments each student will develop expertise about a particular country’s information society. The country report will comprise 30% of the student’s grade.
• Case study (30%)
Analytical report, with monitoring report and bibliography
Presentation and leading discussion
Students will choose case studies about which they will gather resources throughout the quarter (including materials from other assignments — reading reports, exercises or country report). Some work on the cases will be undertaken during class time. Cases can be specific incidents or initiatives that illuminate the impact of the “global information society,” areas of friction in development or human rights, technological innovations, or reviews of how things are changing in a specific field. Cases can be chosen from any sector, such as:
Culture / arts/ sports
Education/ science/innovation/ research
News/publishing/media
NGOs/political institutions
Individuals’ identities
Each student will submit a 7 to 10-page paper detailing the monitoring and bibliographic searching strategies undertaken for the case study, with an analytical report of how issues related to the “global information society” are reflected in the case. Additionally, the student present the case study as a short visual presentation (“Pecha-Kucha” style). The case study will comprise 30% of the student’s grade.
Schedule (may be adjusted)
What is Information?
3/30 + 4/1: Course overview
Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0
Definitions, statistical categories
Information pyramid
What is the Information Society?
4/6 + 8: Information needs & information seeking
Social media framework (Social Networking/ Participatory Culture)
Taxonomies of information technologies
Classifying and comparing theoretical models
Technology and Information
4/13+ 15: Technology and information:
Historical development
Current trends
Converging forces (eg: “new invisible college”)
Information and Knowledge in the Global Space
4/20+ 22: Regional/national/international standards; legal implications; copyright
Equity, Access and Power (socioeconomic and political)
4/27+ 29: Divides; literacies; digital content and language; information abundance; ethical considerations
Transformation of Work and Play in the Global Information Society;
5/ 4+ 6: Case studies: Culture / arts/ sports
5/11 + 13: Case studies: Education/ science/innovation/ research
Learning Organizations and Publishers
Open access; knowledge as commons; open archives
5/18 + 20: Case studies: News/publishing/media
Individuals and Mainstream Media
Bloggers; citizen journalists
5/25+27: Case studies: Community / Nongovernmental Organizations, Civil Society Groups
e-democracy; civic engagement
6/1+3: Case studies: Individuals’ identities in a Networked Environment
