I am collecting a large number of course syllabi related to digital studies and this one has an interesting comment on the learning value of blogging and on use of Wikipedia. The assignment regarding Wikipedia is one I want to incorporate into the Ljubljana seminar later in the semester.
Digital History: Methodology for the Infinite Archive
July 4th, 2006 by William Turkel
Blogging
Every student in the class will have an academic blog and will be expected to make regular posts to it. This use of blogging is to encourage you to engage in 'reflective practice,' that is, to force you to think about your learning and research as you are doing it. This process was described by Donald Schön in The Reflective Practitioner (London: Temple Smith, 1983):
In each instance, the practitioner allows himself [or herself] to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomena before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomena and a change in the situation… He does not keep means and ends separate, but defines them interactively as he frames a problematic situation. He does not separate thinking from doing… Because his experimenting is a kind of action, implementation is built into his inquiry.
Different bloggers have very different styles. Some people like to keep what amounts to a lab notebook, others a daily diary. Some write short, off-the-cuff entries, others prefer to write well-crafted essays. If you have never blogged before, spend some time familiarizing yourself with existing digital history blogs.
Before the first class (12 Sep 2006) you should go to Blogger and create an account and a blog. If possible, create the blog under your own name (e.g., http://johndoe.blogspot.com); if not, choose something professional sounding. Post an introductory message about yourself and then send me the URL of your blog so that I can add you to the course blogroll for History 513F. If you are also in History 500F/501G, you will be using the same blog for both courses. (And you should cc your e-mail about your blog to Professor MacEachern.)
…
Wikipedia
In this class you will be exposed to a lot of relatively new technical terms and ideas. You should get in the habit of looking these up in Wikipedia whenever you come across something unfamiliar. You've probably heard that Wikipedia is an unreliable source. That's true, but it's true of any source. One of our early seminar discussions will focus on reading Wikipedia critically; during the course you will also have the experience of writing a Wikipedia article and monitoring its subsequent revision.
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