Course Technology

Courses in the Transcriptions project are designed not just to teach humanities students information technology skills but to integrate those skills with the themes of the curriculum (see Project Rationale). This course uses the following information technologies:

  1. Course E-Mail List
  2. Exchange Server Messaging Environment (with Web interface)
  3. Filemaker Pro Database (with Web interface)

Graduate students in Transcriptions courses have access to the Transcriptions computing studio. They are encouraged to learn the concepts and software involved in Web-authoring at their own pace. (More on access to Transcriptions studio.)

General philosophy regarding technology in this course: Because much of the information technology used in the Transcriptions project is new to the humanities (and it is being personally configured, coded, or designed by Transcriptions instructors and research assistants), there are sure to be glitches, gotchas, and bugs. This is not a problem but an opportunity. Transcriptions -- and this course on "The Culture of Information" in particular -- encourages a philosophical approach to the experience of information technology. Problems should be reflected upon in the context of the overall life of contemporary information. For instance, if you are having trouble accessing a site or are experiencing delays, how might those practical problems be related to larger issues of access or time in contemporary culture? Why is the delay of a minute now so frustrating compared to the delays of days, weeks, or months that societies in the past accepted as part of the normal rhythm of human communication? "Reflecting" on technical problems is perhaps in the last analysis more a matter of attitude than of deliberate thought. In his Zen Computer, Philip Toshio Sudo suggests that as you sit down to boot up your computer you should first acknowledge it and what it means: "Before you start and after you finish working, make this one simple gesture toward your computer: Give it a nod" (fuller quote).

Course E-Mail List

Most basically, the course will use e-mail to allow students and the instructor to engage with each other outside class. E-mail can be both individual and collective. Since a graduate seminar is an intimate affair, collective e-mail can be handled through the simple means of an "alias" (as opposed to full-fledged "listserv" or "majordomo"). Once the instructor has your e-mail addresses, he will enter you in the alias so that correspondence to the alias will reach all class members (including the instructor). The alias address for this course is engl236@humanitas.ucsb.edu

For help with e-mail in general or to set up a university e-mail account, contact U-Mail at Instructional Computing in Phelps Hall or see the U-Mail web page at http://www.umail.ucsb.edu/

Exchange Server Messaging Environment (with Web Interface)

The course will have access to the English Department's NT server computer. Among other functions, the server runs the Microsoft Exchange program--a "messaging" environment that allows course participants to read and post messages to discussion forums called "public folders." Such forums have the following advantages over normal e-mail discussion lists or aliases:

  • Access can be controlled. Permission to read and/or post in an Exchange public folder can be granted variously to an individual course, group of courses, or the world.
  • Discussion is cumulative and organized ('threaded"). In ordinary e-mail discussions, participants must catch the "wave" of current discussion if they wish to respond to a topic. Such waves move quickly and thereafter disappear--leaving behind those who do not have the time or computing resources to participate daily (or sometimes even hourly). By contrast, Exchange Server public folders accumulate a standing record of all posted messages organized by topic or "thread." Any message or thread can be responded to at any time.
  • Messages can contain many kinds of files--including not just straight text but also word-processor files, spreadsheets, Web pages, and images. This allows students to collaborate on research tasks, post drafts of project material for critique, share notes, etc. Once a student is given an account and password, all of the above features of the Exchange Server messaging environment are available through a standard Web browser interface, allowing the student to participate from any location and with any computer/operating system (PC or Mac).

Click here for a step-by-step guide to using Exchange in this course.

Filemaker Pro Database (with Web Interface)

The English Dept. NT server also runs a database program called Filemaker Pro that allows students with passwords to add and edit records through a Web browser from any location. The Transcriptions project has created two related databases for the use of courses and the project as a whole. One holds chronologies of events, and the the other holds links to online resources. Students build projects by adding material to the databases over the Web; and the results are displayed in searchable form over the Web to all users. (See Assignments; for an example of a Transcriptions timeline and links resource built by an undergraduate course in Spring 1999 using the Filemaker system, see Postmodernism Timeline.)

Click here for a step-by-step guide to adding/editing content in the Timeline or Linkbase Databases

Graduate-Student Access to Transcriptions Computing Studio

Graduate students enrolled in Transcriptions courses have access to the project's computing studio during the duration of the course (English Dept. graduate students may later ask for continuing access if they have future projects that require high-end equipment and software or wish to become Associates of the Transcriptions project). Access entails taking responsibility for a key, and comes with the following restrictions:

  • Developers and Associates of the Transcriptions project have priority over students in courses when there are no free machines
  • Transcriptions developers have priority on machines #4 and #6 when they need to do graphical or video work
  • During the week before the end of the course, students in the course should use the studio before noon or after 5 pm (to prevent congestion as the deadline approaches for finishing projects).
This page is part of the Transcriptions Project
Page content by Alan Liu | Graphic design by Eric Feay
(revised 1/24/00)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Computer (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999:

Before you start and after you finish working, make this one simple gesture toward your computer: Give it a nod. . . . For many of us, the computer is the means by which we earn a living. To give it a nod, then, is a way of thanking the tool for what it provides in life. It helps put bread on the table and a roof overhead. It gives us work and pleasure, exercises our minds, brings us information, connects us with other people. It is a partner helping us achieve our goals.

Nodding also thanks the unseen hands and minds who helped create our machine. . . .

(pp. 40-41)