Course Overview The "information superhighway," an international conglomeration of computer networks, offers access to data through ftp, gopher and the world wide web and supports written communication through electronic mail and various forms of electronic conferencing. Those building, cruising, and studying the information superhighway predict it will have profound effects on society, education, and perhaps language itself by effectively altering our definitions of knowledge, reading, and writing. The purpose of this course is to explore and learn, through writing, the literacies of the various networks available to UM students for research and correspondence. Through a series of computer-mediated writing activities that encourage them to learn about and from the information superhighway, students will enter electronic discourse communities within the class, across the university, and across the nation. The activities will begin at the local level, using the university's local area networks, e-mail, and Mirlyn (UM's on-line library catalog), then move out to the Internet to correspond with other students and researchers on the superhighway, and then on to various gophers and web sites to gather information.
Since this course also fulfills the Introductory Composition requirement, we will be writing four major papers that will undergo a number of drafts, with each draft receiving critical feedback from peers, cybertutors, and the instructor.
During the course we will explore four major areas, with each one culminating in a paper.
Ìu can learn more about the projects, course evaluation, and so on by using the navigation panel below.
Texts and Materials
As a class we've been finding and sharing ftp, gopher and WWW sites and usenet and e-mail groups related to our research interests. Most of those are now collected in our Hotlinks Research Repository.
If you are using a browser that supports web mail, you can now contact us through our class e-mail group at infohighway@umich.edu. Drop us a line!
Modified: 3/18/95