Students in Group Study courses are advised that this syllabus may vary in key details in each instance of the course. Always refer to the course site for the most up-to-date details on texts, assignment structure, and grading.
Overview
MAIS 623: Introduction to Trends in New Media: Digital Humanities explores theoretical approaches to the important social transformations taking place in connection with digital technologies. Digital Humanities is an emergent academic field that studies the tensions and issues arising from new ways we express ourselves and how we make sense of human experience using digital networks, computational abilities, and data. The influx of digital resources (including images, social media, text, video and audio streaming, digital analytics, visualization of data, and gaming) are changing the ways we think about production, circulation, and consumption. In response, this course examines the network society and how algorithms “think,” i.e., the growing importance of AI (artificial intelligence) and its potentials, limitations, and algorithmic ethics. It addresses ways networks, databases, open archives, and digital tools are changing research methods across platforms. Students will then consider how digital technologies are shaping approaches to education and pedagogy, information design, and the growing importance of gamification. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with key issues arising in the digital humanities and, more broadly, ethical issues and epistemic tensions facing society as a whole in the wake of emerging new media technologies and practices.
Outline
MAIS 623 is organized into 13 units, based on theoretical and methodological approaches to new media, especially as they apply to the emergent field of Digital Humanities.
Unit 1: What Is Digital Humanities?
Unit 2: Introduction to the Internet
Unit 3: Making Sense of Digital Networks
Unit 4: What are Digital Ethics?
Unit 5: Critical Approaches in the Digital Humanities
Unit 6: Encountering the Computational “Other” – Algorithms, AI, and the Humanities
Unit 7: Reading Week
Unit 8: Digital Pedagogies
Unit 9: Thinking with Machines – The Dark Side
Unit 10: Thinking with Machines – Computational Methods, Digital Design, & Research Through Design (RtD) in the Digital Humanities
Unit 11: Electronic Research Inside and Outside the Library System
Unit 12: Attention, Gamification, and New Digital Literacies
Unit 13: The Future of Digital Humanities
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
situate digital humanities in historical context with traditional humanities scholarship.
deepen your understanding of ethical implications of computational analysis.
help you to understand epistemic underpinnings of digital humanities research, including network societies, algorithmic thinking, and digital design.
explore pros and cons of emerging digital cultures from a humanities perspective.
explore the important dynamics of gamification in knowledge production.
identify emerging pedagogical issues and debates in new digital literacies.
Evaluation
The following table summarizes the evaluation activities and the credit weights associated with them:
Activity
Weight
Weekly Participation
15%
Assignment 1 – Short Essay
15%
Assignment 2 – Digital Analysis
25%
Assignment 3 – Final Research Paper
45%
Total
100%
Materials
Mitchell, W., & Hansen, M. (Eds.). (2010). Critical terms for media studies. Chicago: Chicago UP. (Print)
Lanier, J. (2010). You are not a gadget: A manifesto. New York: Knopf. (Print)
Other Resources
All other learning resources will be available online.
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized study counterparts.