English 101.0407/101R.1801Colin CharltonFall 2002

Reading Groups: Questioning Technology, Community, and Ourselves

Up to now, we’ve talked about the reading groups, even formed some, without knowing why I want each of you to read an entire book outside of the course readings I chose and put on the CD-R. It’s time I offered my reasons and a procedure for this assignment (which will count for 10% of your course grade).

why: I’ve been working with English 101 classes for a while since I started teaching at the university level. One thing I’ve come to believe is that the anthologies that often get used in 101 cheat us (teachers and students) into an excerpt way of thinking. What I mean is that many of the excerpts students read in 101 are pieces of longer and more complex writings that deserve to be dealt with in their entirety. Of course, time constraints, not intellectual ones, prevent us from working only with full-length books. That’s why I picked excerpts from important full-length texts for us to discuss throughout the semester. (You should know that when a smaller piece of reading from the class interests you, I urge you to take on the whole text.) But I wanted to build in some extensive work with a single text so that you would get a feel for the time, patience, and effort it takes to work through a book. I also wanted to build in room for you to choose what we read this semester. If you’ve picked it, then you’ve got reasons to carefully explore the book’s ideas, arguments, and larger implications.

how: Once you have formed a group (maximum of 4 unless I’ve given my ok), proposed a book, and I’ve approved your selection, the fun begins. Right now, I have three days in a row scheduled for in class reading group meetings: November 6, 8, and 11. That’s late in the semester, and I intended those days to be times when you could prepare your reading group presentations (because I expect them to be killer!). Before those in-class meetings, I expect you to meet at least five times outside of class during the semester. When, where, and for how long is up to the group to decide. I suggest that you spread out your meetings and meet for at least an hour each time. When you meet these five times, I want you to have an agenda (a purpose for the meeting; something focused to talk about). To ensure that focus, the required writing will consist of the following:

  1. Before a meeting, each group member will prepare a discussion starter (in his/her Course Book) for the group that focuses on a specific idea or question which emerged during his/her reading of the book. This starter should be at least a typed page. Some useful possibilities:
  • What is the writer’s main (implicit/explicit) argument and why is it important to consider?
  • What larger social significance do the writer’s implicit/explicit claims have?
  1. After a meeting, each group member will need to write a reflective response (in his/her Course Book) to the group’s discussion. Basically, write about what you learned, what questions you still have, and what connections you can see between what we’re talking/writing about in class and what you’re doing in reading groups. This reflection should be at least a page, but should probably be longer to do justice to what I’m asking you to include in it.

Close to the end of the semester (November 13, 15, and 18), each group will give a wickedly-interesting fifteen-minute presentation. The goal of your presentation should be to teach the whole class, using your book, about an issue, concern, problem, solution, etc. that relates to technology and community. This idea may be one that we didn’t spend extensive time on in class or you might offer an extended discussion of an idea we dealt with in light of what you learned from your book. Whichever way you go, we’ll consider you the experts on your book and its connections to our class themes. We’ll follow each presentation with a question & discussion period. And I’ll make extra time in the schedule for the presentations if the discussion periods go well and take up more time than I’m currently planning for.

books: I’ve attached a bibliography of the books I’ve borrowed from for the class readings that would work (these are possibilities for group readings on a first ask basis; no groups doing the same book) and other books I wanted to include but didn’t. You aren’t limited to these books, and I urge you to continue looking on Amazon or in local bookstores (Von’s or Barnes & Noble). Online, you can type in the names of the books I’ve listed and find other related books. Online or in a store, you will find many options in Sociology, Science, Technology, and Cultural Studies sections of bookstores. I need the groups to be formed, have their books bought, and have a first meeting scheduled by Friday, September 6. You’ll need to bring your book to class and tell me when you’ll be meeting at the beginning of class. I’ve left the formation of the groups vague because I’d rather you handled it, as some of you already have. Of course, if you need my advice and/or help, let me know in class or through email.

final notes: You cannot choose a collection of essays. It’s just too much work and doesn’t get past the excerpt theory I suggested at the beginning of my discussion here.

I’d prefer that the books you choose be published in the last ten years, last five is best. Even with science-fiction or fiction, stories and their relevance to technology and social theory can become dated in a short time. Of course, if a group of four have never read Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and can bring it into the present for us, that’s a promising possibility. But I have to ok it and I’ll need to talk to the group about why they’re interested. After all, I was going to require William Gibson’s Neuromancer for the class, and it’s pretty old.

Bibliography

Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo. Linked: The New Science of Networks. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2002.

Bey, Hakim. TAZ: Temporary Autonomous Zones. Autonomedia, 1997.

Buchanan, Mark. Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks. Norton, 2002.

Jonsson, Erik. Inner Navigation: Why We Get Lost and How We Find Our Way. New York: Scribner, 2002.

Postman, Neil. Conscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble About Language, Technology, and Education. New York: Vintage, 1988.

Postman, Neil. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Vintage, 1993.

Sassen, Saskia. The Global City. 2000.

Weinberger, David. Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2002.