3. (CHUM 103) Weaving Nets

Note that the description and specifics of this course are drafts only, and wil be revised after consultation. Please send comments to Michael Best.

Possible Calendar entry:

Basic Internet literacy: familiarity with different protocols (ftp, http etc.) and their uses; hypertext; basic HTML concepts; file downloading, compression, and decompression; digitizing and using images; use of different search engines. Construction of a web page. Assessment of the impact of the Internet on research and communication.

Course content and objectives:

• Concepts.
  • local and wide area networking
  • Internet protocols
  • hypertext nodes and links.
• Searching the Web.
• File exchange.
  • downloading text and binary files, and the distinction between them
  • the dangers of viruses
  • compression (lossless and lossy)
  • file formats used by different operating systems
  • graphic and sound file formats
• Web page. Creation of a basic home page
• Wider issues.
  • The question of reliability: techniques of making a critical evaluation of information on the Internet.
  • Questions of copyright
    • censorship v. freedom of expression
    • the commercialization of the medium.

Assignments:

Submission of

1. Successful completion of specific tasks in searching the Web.
2. Successful completion of an exercise that requires downloading a compressed file and opening it (PC and Macintosh)
3. Creation of Web pages with specific elements included
4. Questionnaire(s) to test the reading of the additional materials on "wider issues" as outlined above.

Rationale:

The growing importance of the Internet as both a source of information and a means of communication requires that Humanities students not only understand methods of critically evaluating the resources they find, but are capable of adding their voice to the new medium. This is arguably the most important of the modules.