Welcome to Private and Public in the Age of the Net!

This course is about the impact of the Internet on private and public realms in modern democracies.  We will have two basic goals. The first goal is to understand how and in what ways Net technology has affected, or may yet affect, both private lives and public activity in the modern world.  The second goal is to understand how this same technology could change the way we learn about politics and society as well as how we share information with people in other parts of the world.  Is the Internet sufficiently revolutionary to affect the way we live and learn?  Over the coming months, we will search for an answer to this question.

You will need a rudimentary understanding of the Net to meet two course objectives:
1) to acquire information for class discussions and research assignments on the WWW; and 2) to utilize programs like WebCT and Cappstone to conduct synchronous and asynchronous discussions with students in 'foreign' sites.  In addition, I will assume that those of you who are CAPP concentrators will have basic Web design skills.  In the second half of the semester, we will break down into six different collaborative groups to investigate select topics.  Each group will design its own page.

Course Requirements

Hard Copy Format:

Cass Sunstein, Republic.com

Nancy Chang, Silencing Political Dissent

Robert Ellis Smith, Ben Franklin's Website

Course Reader (available in Lafortune Copy Center)

Cyber Format:

You will find all the basic information you need for this course on your Course Syllabus .  Many of your reading assignments will appear only on this site.

We will use the World Wide Web as a source of both information and communication.  This means that you must constantly compare the information  on the Syllabus with the WebCT course page.  I have deliberately designed these sites to be interactive.

WebCT will play a major role in everything we do.  Many of your assignments and deadlines will only appear on the Calendar page. Other assignments will appear only on the WebCT Discussion page.  Thus, to keep up with the course and meet your deadlines, you must consult the Calendar and Discussion pages on a daily basis.  I have been known to change my mind, which is easy to do over the WWW.

In the second half of the semester, you and your colleagues will engage in collaborative research projects on one of five different themes (see Part VI of your Course Syllabus ).  You will also write a seminar paper of your own.

Grading:

Mid-term paper and Web CT assignments:        20 percent

Seminar paper (rough draft):                                10 percent

Seminar paper (final draft):                                40 percent

Participation:                                                        30 percent

I expect everyone to participate actively and enthusiastically at all times, both in class and over the Net.  Classroom performance will be a major part of your grade.  Class attendance is mandatory.  You cannot pass this course if you have more than 3 unexcused absences.  Unless you have a good excuse (which requires my approval), assignments that are turned in late will be docked one-third of a letter grade for every day they are late.