Academic Requirements
There are three requirements for Digital Tools and the Academy:
Participation 50pts, 10%
Assignments (3) 150pts, 30%
Technology Journal 300pts, 60%
Attendance and Participation:
Each week you will be required to engage with the concept, reading, method, or resource under discussion. Students are expected to come to every class (excepting excused absences, see below) and to come fully prepared. Participation comes in many forms: you must be engaged in the discussion, not necessarily leading it.
Three times during the semester (weeks 5, 9, and 15) we will take what we have learned over the previous meetings and debate the ramifications. Students are expected to have done the assigned readings – and hopefully more still – in order to be prepared to take and defend a position. There will be many more than two points of view and there is good reason to believe you will end the debate with a new, or at least nuanced, position. Debates are key moments for participation, especially from the more reserved types.
Participation is worth 50 points, or 10% of the course grade.
Assignments:
There are three assignments in this class, each designed to engage students with a part of the UMass digital landscape or infrastructure. Each assignment requires the student to widely peruse the digital resource provided and then dive deep into the portions that appear most interesting. The first assignment, in week 4, asks students to explore the virtual representation of the Labyrinth of the Palace of Versailles as it was in the 16th century. Assignment two, in week 8, give students an opportunity to dig into the history and changing landscape of UMass, including a potential future Master Plan. The final assignment, in week 13, tasks students with a more advanced project to install another application in a subdomain of their UMassCreate web space.
In addition to the work of exploring and researching these platforms and portals, students will write a one-page summary of their experience, covering how the sites work (or don’t) and what sections deserve special mention. These summaries will be added to the on-going Technology Journal.
Assignments are worth 50 points each and 150 points total, or 10% of the course grade.
Technology Journal:
Each week (except weeks 1, 4, 11, and 12), students will summarize the readings and discussions in a short personal reflection. These reflections should be between one long paragraph and a page and will be made in a Google Document shared with the instructor. Reflections are due prior to the next class meeting. That is, the entry in the Technology Journal for week 2 will be due before class in week 3.
There is no specific content or format required for entries in the technology journal. There are, however, some general guidelines to follow. For example, reflections should demonstrate the student has seriously engaged with the material for that week. While personal opinions are especially desired – what parts of the technology worked, did not work, what might be useful in the future or in another context for the student – stating, but not explaining those personal preferences will not be sufficient. Thus, an opinion must include more than a “what”, it must also have a “why”.
Each entry in the Technology Journal is worth 30 points, or 6% of the course grade.
Rules and Accommodations
Attendance Policy
Absentee Policy and Extenuating circumstances (illness, death in the family, etc.) for which students must miss a class meeting. While attendance is crucial to participation in any class and therefore a significant factor in calculating your final grade in this course, extenuating circumstances may require you to miss a class meeting. Whether an absence is “excused” or counted in calculating participation grades is largely at the discretion of the instructor. Any student absent—whether the absence is “excused” or not—should contact the instructor as soon as possible to discuss assignments missed, class discussion, etc.
Student athletes, members of the band, and on occasion, students who are members of other groups will be allowed to miss class for games and other special events and make up work will be assigned. (See http://www.umass.edu/umhome/events/religious.php for University attendance policies and religious holidays.)
Exam Conflicts
University policy on exams scheduled at the same time a student’s Honors Seminar class meets. According to Faculty Senate Document 06-042, certain one-day-a-week courses, including Honors 391D, have priority over evening exams on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Evening exams (7-9 p.m.) have priority over all courses on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings.
Plagiarism Policy
Documenting the Writing, Speaking, and Thinking of Others.
In all your writing, and in oral presentations too, it is essential that you acknowledge the ideas of others upon whom your own thinking depends, including ideas obtained from such non-written sources as lectures, interviews, class discussions, and even casual conversations with colleagues and friends. Give credit for ideas that are not your own as well as for passages of text that you summarize, paraphrase, or quote.
If material possessions are the property of our community at large, thoughts and ideas—expressed in speech or writing—constitute the “intellectual property” of our academic community. To take another’s words or ideas and present them as your own is to commit plagiarism, an act of academic theft, and the punishments can be severe (cf. University of Massachusetts Amherst Academic Regulations, “Academic Honesty”).
UMass’ Academic Honesty Policy
Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty.
UMass’ Disability Accommodations Policy
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing an equal educational opportunity for all students. If you have a documented physical, psychological, or learning disability on file with Disability Services (DS), Learning Disabilities Support Services (LDSS), or Psychological Disabilities Services (PDS), you may be eligible for reasonable academic accommodations to help you succeed in this course. If you have a documented disability that requires an accommodation, please notify me within the first two weeks of the semester so that we may make appropriate arrangements.