Course Syllabus
Contact & Instructor Information
Office Hours
Course Description
Course Objectives
Course Communication
Topics & Schedule
Assignments
Policy on Late Assignments
Statement on Plagiarism
Contact & Instructor Information
Amanda Etches-Johnson
e-mail & MSN: amanda AT blogwithoutalibrary DOT net
AIM & Skype: torontolibrarian
Yahoo! Messenger: etches_johnson
Wednesdays, 8 to 10 PM (Eastern Time), throughout term (except Oct. 25), via IM.
The term “social software” has been applied to Web-based software tools that facilitate communication, collaboration, and network/community-building. This course will explore social software applications such as blogs, rss, wikis, social bookmarking, tagging, and online social networks within the context of library public service and discuss questions such as:
- does social software have a place in library service provision?
- what social software applications can be harnessed by information organizations?
While hands-on experience with social software tools will be an important component of this course, the focus will be on public service uses and implications of social software tools, rather than a nuts & bolts exploration of the technologies.
Students who take this course will:
- gain an understanding of social software principles;
- explore the impact of social software on library services;
- examine the range of use of social software in libraries and information organizations;
- with hands-on experience, develop proficiency in creating and maintaining social software tools such as blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and social tagging/folksonomy development applications;
- develop the capacity to critically evaluate social software tools within the context of an institution’s needs.
The primary method of communication in this course will be the course blog, individual students’ blogs, and our social bookmarking space (we’ll be using del.icio.us; more info on this later). We do have a WebCT space but that will be used more for course formalities (such as handing in assignments, receiving grades, etc.) than for regular communication.
An average week will work like this: students visit the course blog where I will publish a post (usually on Sunday night or early Monday morning) about the week: the topics we’re going to cover, readings and case studies for the week (these are already posted on the blog, I will just link to the appropriate week), and a few activities to get you using the tools we’re discussing that week. You will then go off and do some reading and spend some time exploring the tools and technologies of the week, after which you should blog about your thoughts, reactions, discoveries, etc.. At some point during the week, you should visit your colleagues’ blogs and respond to their posts, either in the comments section of their blogs or by posting your response in your own blog. As well, you should be reading other related works that you will have found on your own and tagging these readings in your del.icio.us account (the tag we will use is “lis757″). You will also be reading some of the items your colleagues have posted to the “lis757″ tag in del.icio.us.
In this course, I place a great deal of importance on the notion of “community” and hope that over the course of our term together, we will become a focused research community that is engaged with the broader community of librarians and social software researchers. To that end, our communication tools (blogs, RSS, del.icio.us) are open and readily available to any curious onlooker! As such, you are welcome to contact me directly (via email, IM, WebCT chat, etc.) if you have a sensitive issue that you would like to discuss, otherwise all communication will be done via the course blog, your blogs, and del.icio.us.
- Week 1: Introduction to social software
- Weeks 2 & 3: Blogs - introduction to technology, terminology & software options. Discussion of blog content, design, usability, and library case studies.
- Weeks 4 & 5: RSS - introduction to RSS technology and specifications. Discussion of RSS trends and current issues, review of RSS aggregators, hands-on, and library case studies.
- Week 6: Wikis – technology, software options, hands-on, and library case studies.
- Week 7-8: Social bookmarking, tagging, folksonomies – technology, trends and current issues, hands-on, and case studies.
- Week 9: Research week, no “class”
- Week 10-11: Online communities and social networks – trends and current issues, exploration of various online communities, hands-on, library case studies.
- Week 12: Other social software tools, e.g. image sharing, IM, podcasting, mash-ups.
- Weeks 13-14: best practices, discussion, evaluation.
Weekly blogging, commenting, tagging
You will be expected to use your blogs to respond to the week’s readings, comment on your experience with the technology/tools being explored for the week, and to expand upon the learning process in which you are engaged. You will also be expected to comment upon a significant number of your classmates’ blogs posts, as well as contribute to a shared social bookmarking space where we will all post sites and resources related to course topics. The amount and quality of your participation in these activities will account for 30% of your overall mark.
Due: weekly, by midnight Wednesday. E.g. your blog post(s) for week 1 should be published to your blog by midnight on the Wednesday of week 1; there is no deadline to post your comments and bookmarks, just make sure you post these regularly (i.e. weekly, not monthly!). It’s important for everyone to have at least one blog post for the week published by the deadline in order to keep the conversation on track as we move through the topics and weeks.
Library Blog Review
For this assignment you will be required to review and evaluate the use of blogs at three libraries. This assignment is worth 15% of your overall mark.
Due: midnight, Wednesday, October 4.
Group Analysis & Presentation
For this assignment you will be required to review a particular social software technology and “present” your findings to the rest of the class in a blog post of no less than 1000 words (to be published on the class blog). Your analysis should include an explanation of the way the technology works, a discussion of the major developers/providers of this technology, and some examples of the manner in which libraries are using this technology. Groups will be formed based upon the topics outlined in the weekly schedule, starting in week 4. There are 5 major topics (RSS, wikis, social bookmarking, social networks, and other tools) with 4 participants per group. Each group will receive a single assessment which will account for 20% of your overall mark
Due: 5pm on the Sunday before your presentation week. E.g. if your group is “presenting” on RSS in week 4, your blog post should be submitted by 5pm on Sunday of week 3.
Proposal for final paper
Your proposal is worth 10% of your final mark. You are encouraged to discuss your proposal with me before submitting it.
Due: midnight, Wednesday, October 11.
Final paper
The final paper will give you an opportunity to explore a social software theory, trend, technology, or application of interest to you. In this paper, you may explore the theory behind distributed classification and the wisdom of crowds, argue why wikis don’t work, or perform a needs assessment of an information organization (real or imaginary) and provide your recommendations for the implementation of social software applications at that organization. That is to say that the topic of the final paper is entirely up to you, just make sure that I have approved your proposal (due no later than week 6) before putting too much work into the project. Your final paper is worth 25% of your overall mark.
Due: midnight, Wednesday, December 6.
While I recognize that one of the advantages of distance education is to allow students flexibility in completing the course content, it’s important for students in this course to complete assignments in a timely manner so that our online conversations are productive and topics are tackled as a group. This doesn’t preclude you from blogging about wikis three weeks after the wiki module has been completed, but it’s also important to address the topic when the rest of the class is tackling it! That said, if you have a valid reason (serious illness, family emergency, etc.) for requesting an extension on an assignment, you may contact me. For obvious reasons, extensions will not be granted on the weekly blogging/tagging assignment and on the Group Analysis & Presentation. Assignments handed in late without permission will be penalized as follows:
- 1-7 days late: 30% reduction in mark
- 8-14 days late: 50% reduction in mark
- more than 14 days late: zero on the assignment
Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy Section 10 in the Faculty of Graduate Studies Academic Calendar at http://www.uwo.ca/grad/calendar.htm).
Last Updated September 7, 2006
