Held Sunday, August 22, 1999
Summary
- What is Hypermedia?
- What is Tutorial?
- What is a liberal arts education?
- Nitty-gritty details (registration et al.)
- Assigned:
Handouts
Notes
- Today we'll spend about
- 20 minutes on introductions
- 30 minutes on issues pertaining to this tutorial
- 30 minutes on registration issues
- 10 minutes on slack
- We hope to make outlines like this available for each class.
- We will begin with a share-and-pair style set of introductions.
- Pairs of participants (tutors and tutees) will introduce themselves
to each other (about five minutes for those introductions).
- Each person will introduce his or her ``pairee'' to the class as
a whole.
- Sam will record information during introductions.
- When studying any subject, it is important to begin by considering
what we think that subject is.
- We have at least three key topics for this course. We'd like to
hear your perspectives on these topics.
- We will then attempt to synthesize those perspectives into a
coherent whole.
- How might you define the term ``hypertext''?
- What does hypertext have to do with structure of information?
- What does hypertext have to do with readers' interaction with
information?
- What distinguishes hypertext from other forms (and what are the
other forms)?
- Hypermedia is the application of hypertext principles to a
wider variety of media, including audio, animations, video, and
images.
- What is tutorial?
- Why does Grinnell make tutorial its only required course?
- Did tutorial influence your choice to attend Grinnell?
- Some thoughts about the purpose of tutorial:
- Tutorial is intended to help you form your first significant
student-faculty relationship. We expect that you will form
many such relationships at Grinnell.
- Tutorial is intended to prepare you to be a ``real'' college
student.
- Tutorial is intended to lay the groundwork for a rich and
rewarding liberal arts education.
- What is a ``liberal arts'' education?
- How has the concept changed over time?
- Is it intimately tied to the American small college experience?
- Why did you select an institution that emphasizes this type of
education?
- How does the open curriculum relate to the liberal arts education?
- As a product of a modern classical liberal arts education (the
University of Chicago's, which focuses on a ``core'' curriculum
of required subjects rather than Grinnell's rather open curriculum),
Sam often claims that ``the purpose of the liberal arts education
is to prepare to you to bullshit convincingly and clearly on any
subject''.
- Rebecca, on the other hand, theorizes that the intent of the liberal
arts education is to give you sufficiently broad perspective to
permit you to consider the implications of whatever it is you do.
A liberal arts education helps you make connections.
- Wo hoo! ``Connections!'' That's hypermedia!
- See the too-large course packet for more details.
- We'll cover some now, but not all of them.
- Try to read them over in the next week or so.
- Expect the syllabus to change.
- In addition to the general goals of tutorial (discussed earlier),
we hope that this tutorial will give you some mastery of the notion
of hypermedia, the technologies that underlie hypermedia,
and the implications thereof.
- There are two ``tutors'' for this tutorial. They will both
lead discussions and comment on your work in the class.
- Sam Rebelsky (Computer Science) is the officially-designated tutor.
He is responsible for advising and assigning grades.
- Rebecca Stuhr (Library) is the co-tutor, who helps give this class
additional perspectives.
- You will read a lot for this course and discuss those readings along
with related concepts.
- For each reading, you must prepare one or more questions in advance
of class.
- You will work on seven pieces of writing this semester.
- A short essay (assigned today)
- A hypertext discussing teaching methods
- A bibliography of works relating to an implication of hypertext
- A reaction to a hyperfiction
- A one-paragraph introduction for a longer research paper
- An annotated bibliography, in preparation for a longer research
paper
- A five-to-six page research paper (as you may have guessed from
the previous two assignments).
- Each student must sign up for a weekly 15-minute appointment with
SamR. During that time, we may discuss writing or simply consider
how the semester is going.
- Almost everything for the course can be found online.
- After the first assignment, everything you write will be in HTML format.
You should email both of us your assignments.
- Over the next two days (Monday-Tuesday), each of you will
meet with SamR to plan your courses for the fall.
- Registration is Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. If you are registering
for a course that is likely to fill (e.g., Introductory Philosophy
or Biology), you should get there early!
- Upperclassmen have been known to abuse first-year students in
line. We'll do our best to show up and protect you :-)
- You need to go to registration.
- Sam will be at registration (in the Math section, easily identifiable
by the two long line). Come visit if you have questions or if we
need to work something out.
- Duck around; don't wait in line with the people signing up for CS courses.
- As you plan for our advising meeting, you should consider
- What fields might be of interest?
- What major you might pursue? (I realize that it's early, but
many majors expect you to start on the courses for the major in your
first year.)
- What particular courses seem interesting?
- What areas haven't you explored in the past?
- What areas have you particularly enjoyed?
- What faculty do advanced students recommend?
- You should also reflect on our discussion of the liberal arts
education.
- Make sure to read the ``Advice for First Year Students'' booklet.
- You should come to your meeting with an approximate plan for your
first year at Grinnell.
- You should have at least one (and preferably two) back-up courses
for each course in your plan.
- If possible, you
should have at least one course in each of the three divisions
each semester.
- We will modify your plan during discussion.
- Sign-up sheets will be available at the end of tutorial today.
- Realize that I don't know everything.
- Sunday, 3 p.m.
Those of you with some background in a foreign language should
take the appropriate exam today at 3 p.m. today, even if you
do not plan to take courses related to that language this year
(or ever). You should take the exam even if you already have
placement, so that we can confirm or correct that placement.
- I'm not sure what's happening with Latin placement. We can try to
call the Classics faculty during your appointments on Monday or
Tuesday.
- Make arrangements
- Monday, 10:45 a.m.
All of you are expected to attend Getting the most from your
academic experience in the South Lounge of the Forum.
- Monday, 1:00 p.m.
Health professions meeting. Go if you have any inclination toward
entering the health professions (e.g., Medical School).
- Wednesday, 1:30 p.m.
Registration. Be there!
- Thursday, 8:00 a.m.
Our first real meeting. Meet in the MathLAN (2417).
- You've probably heard more than enough about the opportunities
that Grinnell offers. We'll do our best to reinforce a few
key points.
- Talk to faculty. Grinnell faculty are accessible.
They're here, in part, because they like close interactions with
students. If you're having problems in a class, if you want to
do better (even if you're doing well), if you want to delve more
deeply into material, or even if you just want to chat, feel free
to visit faculty during their office hours. Some faculty (like
Sam) are happy to have students drop in at any time.
- Explore extracurricular options. There are many things
to do outside of class. Try some of them.
- Don't do too much too soon. Some people try to do too much,
and don't end up doing anything all that well.
- Use tutors. There is no stigma attached to getting tutors
for classes. Grinnell even pays for them!
- Use the writing lab. It will make you a better writer, even
if you're already a good writer.
- Use the reading lab and the Math/Science learning center.
- Plan.
If you're going to start serious academic work, then it's best that
you start as soon as possible. Hence, we've decided to assign some
reading and some writing for Thursday's class. You will read
a short essay on writing
in college and a number
of short papers that give some definitions of hypertext. You
will also write a draft of a short assay that addresses the question
``Is the Talmud a Hypertext?''.
Some of you may be wondering how Sam and Rebecca define hypertext.
Since Sam's writing this, and Rebecca isn't around, you get Sam's
approximate definition(s). (Written quickly the night before this
day's meeting.)
Hypertext is a way of structuring information in which that
information is first broken into small pieces (variously called chunks,
nodes, pages, or lexia) and then linking those pieces together in multiple
ways. By providing multiple links from and to each piece, an author
frees readers to take the paths that best suit them.
At the core of hypertext is a sense of empowering the reader. Typically,
this also entails giving readers the opportunity to add and share
their own links and pieces.
Monday, 22 March 1999
- Created as a blank outline.
(Can you tell what we were doing during Spring break?)
Thursday, 12 August 1999.
Saturday, 21 August 1999.
- Added a few more details.