Admission requirements
You have received your propaedeutic diploma within one academic year and your academic results are good (indication: 7,3 average). Students who meet the criteria may apply for a place in the Humanities Lab. For advanced modules succesful completion of one or more key modules is required.
Description
There is a growing debate on how the use of digital media (in particular the Internet) is affect-ing the way in which we learn, think, communicate and collaborate. Some express grave concern about the negative effects of computer use, including Hubert Dreyfus (On the Internet, 2001), Nicholas Carr (The Shallows, 2008), and Manfred Spitzer (Digital Dementia, 2012). Others are jubilant about the opportunities offered by the Internet; examples include Wikinomics (Tapscott & Williams, 2006), Grown Up Digital (Tapscott, 2009), Everything Bad is Good for You (Johnson, 2005).
This course explores the way in which changing media landscapes affect our epistemic practices, that is, our ways of organizing, evaluating, and communicating our beliefs and desires. The working hypothesis is that our psychological profiles will tend to change as we accommodate to different systems for creating, manipu¬lating and storing information (e.g., writing, printing press, computers, and the internet). Gradually educational systems will respond by pro¬moting new ways for self-organizing our mental households, and instilling new ‘epistemic virtues’.
The course has six key themes: Logos (writing), Gutenborgs (printing press), Google (Internet), Bits (digital information), Wikis (sharing), and World 2.0 (virtual ontology).
Course objectives
The primary objective is to explore the way in which changing media landscapes affect our epistemic practices, taking the rise of the Internet as its main example. The secondary objective is to assess the impact of the Internet on the organization of knowledge in society, including educational systems, and on key notions such as information, reliability, authorship, and copyright.
Students will acquire and practice skills in critical analysis, argumentation, and presentation (orally, written, and using digital media).
Timetable
Courses of the Humanities Lab are scheduled on Friday afternoon from 13.00 to 17.00. For the exact timetable, please visit the following website.
Mode of instruction
Seminar combining short lectures with student-led presentations
Course Load
Seminar sessions: 6 × 4 = 24 hours
Required reading: ca. 400 pages = 80 hours
Preparation of presentation: 8 hours
Final assignment: 16 hours
Peer review: 4 hours
Closing event: 4 hours
Reserved: 4 hours
Total: 5 EC = 140 hours
Assessment method
Oral presentation: 20%
Participation in class discussions: 10%
Final project assignment: 50%
Peer review: 20 %
The final grade is the weighted average of the above components. A resit option is offered only for the final project assignment.
Blackboard
All required readings will be made available through Blackboard. The course will also use Pitch2Peer on Blackboard for sharing and reviewing student presentations.
Reading list
All required readings will be made available through Blackboard. Please notice that a reading assignment for the first meeting will be posted on Blackboard. Recommended readings (books you may want to purchase yourself) are mentioned in the course description.
Registration
Students of the Humanities Lab will be registered via uSis by the administration of the Humanities Lab
Contact
Dr. Jan Sleutels, j.j.m.sleutels@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
If all participants of this course are Dutch native speakers, this course will be taught in Dutch.
More information: website.