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schedule

Page history last edited by Chris Werry 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Week/dates

Schedule

Read the syllabus and assignments. Note any questions you have and be prepared to share them in class.

Share some information about yourself on this google slide (use your SDSU google ID to access ).

Go to the Canvas Discussion Board and click on the "Introduce Yourself" thread.

Week 1
Mon 08/21

Wed 08/23

Introductions, syllabus, assignments, course overview.
Introduction to the wiki, hypothes.is, AI tools.

Bring laptop to class if possible.
Assign students to introduce texts for 08/23.

Writing and AI: Overview of Possibilities
Read and discuss the following:

Mollick, “How to Use AI to Do Stuff”

Matthews, “If You’re Not Using ChatGPT for your Writing You’re Making a Mistake”

Mollick, “Magic for English Majors: Programming in Prose in an AI-haunted World”

Chandra, “What’s a Word Worth in the A.I. Era?”

In class: sign up for AI chatbots and experimental AI writing coaches

Assign students to introduce “peril” texts for 08/28

Post homework to Canvas Discussion board and make a copy in your Google Drive.

Week 2
Mon 08/28

Wed 08/30

ONLINE

Writing and AI: Overview of Perils

Read and discuss the following:

Caplan, “Dear Student: Keep Away From ChatGPT”
Kirschenbaum, “Prepare for the Textpocalypse”
Harari et al., “You Can Have the Blue Pill or the Red Pill”

Vincent, “Introducing the Mirror Test”

Chiang, “ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web”

Post homework to the Discussion board and make a copy in your Google Drive.

Groups work on presentations for 09/06 and 09/11. Instructor available over email or Zoom to advise and answer questions. Google doc with texts and groups.

Week 3

Mon 09/04

Wed 09/06

LABOR DAY NO CLASS CAMPUS CLOSED

Students continue working in groups to prepare presentations for 09/06 and 09/11.
Google doc with texts and groups.

All read and analyze together O’Neil, “These Women Warned of AI’s Dangers and Risks Long Before ChatGPT”

Group presentations part 1
Group 1
1. Mollick, “Assigning AI: Seven Ways of Using AI in Class”
2. Mollick “How to Use ChatGPT to Boost Your Writing”
Group 2
3. Mollick “What happens When AI Reads a Book”

Post homework to the discussion board and to your Google Drive.

Week 4

Mon 09/11

Wed 09/13

ONLINE

Discussing the Rhetoric of AI
All read and analyze together Abril, “Gen Z graduates are fluent in AI and ready to join the workforce,” And Karp, “Our Oppenheimer Moment: The Creation of A.I. Weapons”

Group presentations part 2
Group 3
1. Gebru, Bender et al. ”On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots”

Group 4
2. Acemoglu and Johnson, "Big Tech Is Bad Big AI Will Be Worse"

3. Klein, “Beyond the ‘Matrix’ Theory of the Mind”

Group 5
4 Marche “Peering Into Future of Novels With Machines”
5. Marche “The College Essay is Dead”

6. Warner, “With ChatGPT in the World Students Need to Think”

Assign students to introduce Thompson.

Post Post homework to the discussion board and to your Google Drive.

Absorb, reflect, experiment with A.I. prompts. Write entries for your A.I. reflection journal,
and put copies of Canvas homework in Google Drive.

Week 5

Mon 09/18

Wed 09/20

Writing on the (Open) Web, or Can We Go back to the Future?
Discuss Thompson, Public Thinking.

Post homework to the discussion board and to your Google Drive.

What Happened to the Open Web?

Doctorow on "TikTok and Enshittification," (Abigail) and on blogging and public thinking (Luke)

Brereton, "Google Search is Dying," (Nathan) and Lorenz, "People now are searching with TikTok or Reddit" (Jaren) Post homework to discussion board.

Week 6

Mon 09/25

Wed 09/27

The Past and Present of Online Communities

Werry "Imagined Electronic Community"; Doctorow, “Facebook’s Secret War on
Switching Costs”

Post homework to the discussion board and to your Google Drive.

Watch and discuss video excerpts from Doctorow. Considering Doctorow's rhetoric and persuasive strategies. The emergence of of a populist, critical, solutions-based rhetoric?

Week 7

Mon 10/02

Wed 10/04

Online

Excerpts Doctorow's The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

The introduction (3 pages, introduced by Jaren), chapter 1, web or pdf version, (Cole)

Doctorow's New York Times op-ed, "Amazon, the Apex Predator of the Platform Era.
(Christian and Marie.)

Writing with AI. Brainstorming, inventing, outlining, drafting, developing. Generating
ideas for a project. Using AI writing coaches. Work on your AI reflection journal and
put copies of Canvas homework in Google Drive.

Week 8

Mon 10/09

Wed 10/11

Ong, “Some Psychodynamics of Orality” and Sacasas, “The Inescapable Town Square.” Sundiata.

Post Homework to the discussion board

Social Media and Free Speech

Tufecki "It's the (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Age of Free Speech" (Luke) Hassan, “Subscribe to PewDiePie”; (Tom). Tufecki, "YouTube The Great Radicalizer."
(Background: Steinem, “Sex, Lies, and Advertising”)

Post homework to the discussion board and to your Google Drive

Week 9

M 10/16

Wed 10/18

CONFERENCES

Initial drafts of proposal due. Sign up for conference meetings and post a link to your draft
in the conference sign up sheet. Make sure a copy of your draft is on Google Drive in your folder named “Drafts for Instructor.”

Week 10

Mon 10/23

Wed 10/25

Proposal presentations

Present proposals. Put final version proposal in your Google Drive folder named "Proposal Final."

Final version of proposal due

Presentations continued

Week 11

Mon 10/30

Wed 11/01
Online

Social Media and Demagogic Rhetorics

Read: One page handout on key elements of demagoguery, two page handout on possible causes of a "culture of demagoguery," Roberts-Miller, "Rhetorical Characteristics of Demagoguery, (Emma and Issac) and Wallace, Inaugural Speech.

Post homework to the discussion board and to your Google Drive.

Absorb, reflect, experiment with further with A.I. tools. Initial draft of final paper.
Write entries for your A.I. reflection journal and put copies of Canvas homework in Google Drive.

Week 12

Mon 11/06

Wed 11/08

Social Media and Authoritarian Populism
Read handout analyzing authoritarian populist rhetorics and apply to statements p receding the January 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol and excerpts from Speeches on Jan 6.
Read/watch short text and video by Stanley, “Movie at the Ellipse: A Study in Fascist Propaganda

Post homework to Canvas and Google Drive.

Social Media and Authoritarian Populism Continued

Read handout analyzing authoritarian populist rhetorics and apply to statements p receding the January 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol and excerpts from Speeches on Jan 6.

Post homework to Canvas and Google Drive.

Week 13
Mon 11/13

Wed 11/15

Winner, “The Politics of the Artefact”; (Nathan) Pariser and Allen, "Our Democracy Needs Digital Public Infrastructure" (Daniel)
Post homework to the discussion board and to your Google Drive

Conspiracy Theories and Critical Digital Literacies