Course Overview

Description • Objectives • Expectations
Course Evaluation • Academic Conduct

No previous experience with computers is required for this course.  HOWEVER...be prepared for a steep learning curve if you truly have NO experience.  Students with no experience should come to the drop-in labs for extra help.

This 5-credit class covers a wide range of material and will require a considerable amount of time. Students unable to spend up to 10 hours a week outside of class should consider taking this course during another term when they have more time.

Course Description

The official course description states that the class:

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Objectives

Fluency with Information Technology involves three types of knowledge, each equally important for reinforcing a deeper understanding of IT and its uses. Upon completion of this course, you will have acquired and honed these three types of knowledge—skills, concepts, and capabilities.

Skills

Gain contemporary and immediately applicable skills. Become technically literate. Learn how to:

Concepts

Reach an essential understanding of the foundations on which IT is built—surpassing technical literacy. Learn about critical areas of IT, such as:

Capabilities

Learn to apply IT in complex situations and understand the consequences. Develop the capabilities to:

IT evolves so rapidly that current skills become obsolete over shorter and shorter time spans. Successful completion of this course will give you an understanding of IT capabilities and concepts that will allow you to keep pace with inevitable advances in IT.

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Expectations for this Course

Workload

Plan on 13-20 hours per week of work:

  • 8-15 hrs. homework
  • 3 hrs. in lecture
  • 2 hrs. in lab

Attendance is expected for all lectures and labs. Daily pop quizzes (QuickClicks) and weekly pop writing exercises (QuickWrites) will be given in lecture. If you've paid attention in lecture, read the assigned chapters, and learned the vocabulary, you should do fine.

Picture ID

In Lecture, you must be prepared to show your Husky ID or other photo ID such as your driver’s license when QuickClicks are given.

Coursework entails readings, computer labs, assignments, projects, QuickClicks, QuickWrites, and participation in lectures and lab sections.

We expect you to attend all lectures (MWF 12:30–1:20 PM, MGH 389) and your assigned computer lab section. For each hour of class time, plan for one 1.5 to 3 hours of work outside of class; so, roughly, 8 to 15 hours of outside work each week. Remember that this course is a five-credit class.

Quizzes

This course has two kinds of pop quizzes:

Clicker quizzes will take place during lecture. Each quiz will have true/false and multiple-choice questions asking about vocabulary and concepts covered in the reading due that day. These questions test

Online quizzes will take place in lab. They are closed book and you have twenty minutes to complete each one. Each one has 10 true/false and multiple-choice questions. The questions ask about concepts are similar to the ones in the back of each chapter in Fluency. If you have read the readings, paid attention in lecture, participated in labs, and learned the key terms, you should do fine.

GoPosts

You are expected to participate in the GoPost online discussion board in two ways: through Participation and Postings.

For Participation, post about course topics, to ask questions, and to help other students throughout the course.

For Postings, post about the weekly topic for your Postings score. Rules include

Computer Lab Sections

Each computer lab section meets two times each week. Attendance is expected. The labs are integrated with the lecture material. In the labs, you will learn the hands-on computer skills that you will need to complete the projects. Important information about the projects will be discussed in lecture. Lab time is your opportunity to ask for advice from the TA and other students. The labs and the assignments that are part of them will be graded; they account for 20% of your final grade.

If you miss a lab, do not expect the TA or Instructor to provide you with an equivalent lab session during their consulting hours. Be prepared to go through the lab on your own and then, if you have specific questions not answered by your classmates, ask your TA.

Projects

Three projects will be completed in this course. Each project will have two parts. Projects will use the hands-on computer skillsyou have learned in the labs, require some research on the Web, and take you beyond what you have learned in class. Some lab time will focus on the projects. Bring questions about your projects to lab.

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Course Evaluation

End-of-quarter course evaluations will be handed out to you in lecture and lab section. You will have opportunity to evaluate the lectures, labs, and your work in the course.

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Academic Conduct

The following paragraphs discussing academic integrity, copyright and privacy outline matters governing student conduct in the iSchool and the University of Washington.  They apply to all assignments and communications in this course.

Academic Integrity

The essence of academic life revolves around respect not only for the ideas of others, but also their rights to those ideas and their promulgation. It is therefore essential that all of us engaged in the life of the mind take the utmost care that the ideas and expressions of ideas of other people always be appropriately handled, and, where necessary, cited.  For writing assignments, when ideas or materials of others are used, they must be cited. The format is not that important–as long as the source material can be located and the citation verified, it’s OK. What is important is that the material be cited.  In any situation, if you have a question, please feel free to ask.  Such attention to ideas and acknowledgment of their sources is central not only to academic life, but life in general.

Please acquaint yourself with the University of Washington's resources on academic honesty.

Students are encouraged to take drafts of their writing assignments to the English Department Writing Center for assistance with using citations ethically and effectively. Information on scheduling an appointment can be found here.

Copyright

All of the expressions of ideas in this class that are fixed in any tangible medium such as digital and physical documents are protected by copyright law as embodied in title 17 of the United States Code. These expressions include the work product of both: (1) your student colleagues (e.g., any assignments published here in the course environment or statements committed to text in a discussion forum); and, (2) your instructors (e.g., the syllabus, assignments, reading lists, and lectures).  Within the constraints of "fair use" (you should have/will have learned about that in depth in LIS 550), you may copy these copyrighted expressions for your personal intellectual use in support of your education here in the iSchool.  Such fair use by you does not include further distribution by any means of copying, performance or presentation beyond the circle of your close acquaintances, student colleagues in this class and your family. If you have any questions regarding whether a use to which you wish to put one of these expressions violates the creator's copyright interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

Privacy

To support an academic environment of rigorous discussion and open expression of personal thoughts and feelings, we, as members of the academic community, must be committed to the inviolate right of privacy of our student and instructor colleagues.  As a result, we must forego sharing personally identifiable information about any member of our community including information about the ideas they express, their families, life styles and their political and social affiliations.  If you have any questions regarding whether a disclosure you wish to make regarding anyone in this course or in the iSchool community violates that person's privacy interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

Knowing violations of these principles of academic conduct, privacy or copyright may result in University disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct.

Students with Disabilities

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services: 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from DSS indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to me so we can discuss the accommodations you might need in the class.

Academic accommodations due to disability will not be made unless the student has a letter from DSS specifying the type and nature of accommodations needed.

Student Code of Conduct

Good student conduct is important for maintaining a healthy course environment. Please familiarize yourself with the University of Washington's Student Code of Conduct.

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Last updated: Monday, 02-Nov-2009 18:32:25 PST
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