This course has a relatively simple goal: to introduce you to the rapidly changing electronic information environment and to various resources of electronic information, such as the Internet, library listings, academic databases, and others. This course won’t teach you everything about computers, the Internet, and researching, but you’ll form a solid base of knowledge about these topics, and you’ll see your research skills improve dramatically.

By the time you leave this class, you should be able to:

• Know a variety of research techniques employing traditional and electronic tools,
  
• Gather and organize information on a topic of your interest,
  
• Exercise critical writing and thinking skills,
  
• Apply information gathering skills to various tasks and vocations,
  
• Be aware (and hopefully begin to practice) some basic journalistic attitudes toward research: skepticism, flexibility, and adaptability, and
  
• Have fun in learning--because that’s why we’re all here!

What you’ll need

The text for the course is called the Dead Tree Edition.^* It is a course pack available at Copytron (100 W. Franklin St.) for $22.

You will also need two 3.5 inch floppy disks. Please purchase the DTE as soon as possible and bring it to class every day (it is a valuable resource you will want to have with you; I’ll refer to it in class). Please purchase the floppy disks by Thursday, July 6th.

You will not have to read everything in the DTE, but you will be assigned selected readings in the DTE as well as other materials linked from the online syllabus. Please read assigned materials before the class for which they are assigned.

^*Please note that while the DTE is the standard coursepack for J-50, some information in the current edition does not pertain to this section of the course (such as the point values for some class projects). When in doubt about anything related to the course, refer to this syllabus or ask me!

Since this is a class about the Internet, you will be expected to refer to the course web site on a daily basis (probably more).

Special needs