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A Course for the ATLAS “Technology, Arts and Media” Certificate Program

Designing the Information Society of
the New Millennium

Spring Semester 2000

Ernesto G. Arias (ernie@cs.colorado.edu) and
Gerhard Fischer (gerhard@cs.colorado.edu)

College of Architecture and Planning (CAP), CU-Denver;
Department of Computer Science (CS) and
Institute of Cognitive Science (ICS), CU-Boulder

Course Numbers:

1 CSCI 4830 sec. 002 call # 12189 Undergraduates
2 CSCI 7000 sec. 002 call # 24034 Graduates
3 DSPL 7686 sec. 001 call # 14206 Denver Arch. / Planning Graduates
4 ENVD 4352 sec. 801 call # 24036 Boulder Arch. / Planning Undergraduates

Goals and Content. This course explores how new media will impact learning, thinking, designing and collaborating in the information society of the next millennium. Likewise, it looks at how the media itself will be shaped through use by professionals and citizens. The course aims at creating an understanding that at present there is really no consensus as to how technological innovations in information and communications will affect the shape of cultures and society in the future. The pursuits of this courses are by nature interdisciplinary. To this end, this course encourages enrollment across disciplines, across college levels, and across campuses.

Topics/Units. The course is based on the "Invention and Practice" of new media, as well as the impacts of new media on "Invention and Practice" processes. Students will have the opportunity of discussing and learning that the future is not out there to be discovered, but rather that it has to be designed and invented — and that they can and should play a meaningful role in this process. To this end, three major themes are investigated:

  • design in physical spaces, in informational spaces and the relationship between them;

  • creation of virtual communities and their integration in real behavior settings; and

  • exploration of fundamental concepts in learning and design such as distributed cognition, evolution, participation, and sustainability.

These three themes form a basis of understanding to think about the impacts of information technologies on the reconstruction of social meaning in the context of virtual spaces. Collaborative and self-directed activities are offered in the context of real world domains. Active participation by students is required, and participants will have opportunities to work in and utilize some of the most innovative technological environments. In this manner, the course addresses "Invention and Practice" as one of the three core areas for the Atlas Certificate.

Readings. Students will be provided with readings selected from the following sources: N. Postman’s “Technolopy”; P.F. Drucker’s “Age of Social Transformation”; E.M. Noam’s “Electronics and the Dim Future of the University, Science”; J. S. Brown and P. Duguid’s "Universities in the Digital Age"; K. Lynch’s “Image of the City,” M. Castells’ “The Informational City”; J. Jacobs’ “Death and Life of Great American Cities”; E.T. Hall’s trilogy “Beyond Culture,” “The Hidden Dimension” and “The Silent Language”; I. Illich’s “De-Schooling Society”; L. Mumford’s “The Myth and the Machine”; H. Simon’s “Sciences of the Artificial.”

Activities and Assignments. Exploration and use of innovative systems developed at the L3D Center such as Agensheets, Visual AgenTalk, Dynasites, as well as commercial applications such as SimCity 3000; exploration of and extensions to simulation games (physical, computational and integrated, sush as the EDC); improvement of collaborations between course participants by creating personal web pages; and support of the course itself by new media, such as discussion forums and community spaces.

Size and Composition. The course explores the construction of communities of learners through horizontal integration (i.e., bringing students together with different interests, different background knowledge, and different skills); and vertical integration of educational levels (i.e., bringing together undergraduates and graduates emphasizing media-supported, collaborative peer-to-peer learning).

Format. The course is a mixture of guided discovery learning and opportunities for students to engage in self-directed learning. Active student participation and peer-to-peer learning will be emphasized to support collaborative learning. The course is enriched through extensive media support (e.g., use of electronic white boards, smart classroom features, hands-on learning experiences, etc. that we have been researching in the L3D Lab). The course includes a major collaborative project aimed at putting in practice both the collaborative and self-directed learning basis of the course.

Prerequisites, Levels, and Types of Skills. No formal prerequisites are required. Recommended prerequisites: willingness to explore new learning settings (horizontal and vertical integration), and interest in the role of new media in our society (use, assessment, and design). We encourage creative, critical and self-motivated students to participate. We seek for students who believe in interdisciplinary learning and are willing to explore new learning paradigms (e.g., self-directed learning, guided discovery learning, learning by doing, collaborative learning) with the instructors in the context of this course.

When and Where.

Times: Mondays and Wednesdays 4:00-5:15 pm

Locations: Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory (ITLL 1B50) of the College of Engineering, Workshops and demonstrations will also use the L3D Lab (ECCS 128) at the College of Engineering and the SIMLab (ENVD 215) at the College of Architecture and Planning.

Contact and Information

Ernesto G. Arias - phone: (303) 492-6914

Gerhard Fischer - phone: (303) 492-1502

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