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(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)
Midterm Exam
Hi folks,
A few of you have emailed asking about our midterm exam. I mentioned the basics in class, but I’ll go over it again here.
You need to be ready to discuss The Hacker Crackdown. That is, not just repeat what Sterling wrote. What I expect is the following:
- You should be able to discuss the basic concepts and ideas in the book. For example, you should be able to list the Four Stages of a Technology from Part I, and apply it to various technologies: telephones, the Internet, cars, whatever.
- You should be able to offer your own opinion on these same basic concepts and ideas in the book. For example, you should be able to argue whether you think that Sterling’s model of the Four Stages of a Technology is correct, or outdated, or doesn’t apply to all technologies. Or you should be able to point out how it works differently for certain technologies.
- You should be able to discuss the basic argument of the book as well. Sterling provides profiles of companies, hackers, computer cops, and civil libertarians. You should be able to discuss them in various ways.
- You should have some ideas about why Sterling thinks Stanley’s invisible enemy is so important, and be able to apply it to any of the four major groups Sterling discusses.
- You should have some ideas about what Sterling means at the end of the book when he says it is the End of the Amateurs, and how it applies to the earlier content of the book.
- You should have some idea about all of this applies to your life, personally or as a society — that is, how questions of authority, ownership, and power get connected to technologies when we become dependent on them. You should have an opinion on this subject.
I also asked you, in our last class, some questions which WON’T be on the exam. The main point of those questions was this:
- I asked you to think about the idea of a Commons, or what is sometimes called a Public Domain, when it comes to common and important technologies like The Internet.
- I asked you to consider who does, or should, have the authority to decide what can be published on the Internet, and how they ought to go about enforcing it.
- I asked you to consider whether the rights that the Civil Libertarians in The Hacker Crackdown were defendingshould apply to the Internet in Korea. I raised a few examples, such as Dog Poop Girl and photographs of a stranger’s foot, but you can think of other examples. I also asked you to consider whether free speech is more important, or less important, than security.
If you don’t have answers to these questions, that’s fine — they’re complicated, and we’ll be discussing them in detail in the second half of semester! But they’re worth thinking about, and considering them might make your answers on our exam more interesting. As I said, you’ll be writing a couple of short essays for me on our exam. I’ll see you Thursday!
Midterm Exam
Well, it’s exam time. Some students have emailed me asking if I could give any details about what they need to study.
As I said in class last Tuesday, you’re responsible for everything we’ve discussed. However, it might be a little easier if you think of it this way: the focus of the exam will be two essays.
For each, you’ll have a choice from within a group. The first group of questions will be about things related to our Panel Discussions. The second group will be related to things that were covered in my lecture, and the media I discussed.
There may also be a couple of multiple choice questions about general information from the lectures, things that you should know if you were listening. But the main focus is thinking about the things we’ve discussed up to now.
So this is one of those exams where your preparation was happening all the time up to now. But reviewing your notes is a good idea.
I will accept your reaction papers for the last Panel Discussion (on The West Wing) anytime before the next Panel Discussion. Don’t forget that after the exam, you’ll be responsible for a lot of media — our first week back after exams, you need to have watched all the media listed here:
April 29th: Who Watches the Watchmen: V for Vendetta and The Departed
May 1st: A Soldier’s Tale: Power, War, and The Warrior Code in Flags of Our Fathers and It’s Everybody’s War
You’ll also need Preparation Papers for both panels, and will have to write reaction papers after both. See you soon!
Midterm Exam
For your midterm exam, which is on the evening of April 22nd, you will be making a presentation on the following:
Imagine that, during the course of normal construction on campus, the University discovers a huge treasure of gold buried in the ground on University property. It is famous treasure, and of course will go to a National Museum. But the University will be compensated for the treasure, approximately 1 trillion won.
Of course, the majority of the money will go to construction, expansion, and improvement of University services: more books for the library, improved research facilities, more classroom, office, and dormitory space, and so on. But a certain amount — say, 5 billion won (about 5 million dollars) — will be set aside for students to decide what to do.
Your groups job is to “pitch” — that is, to suggest in an exciting way — a plan to the University. Maybe you think there should be an expanded study-abroad program? Maybe you think we need escalators on the hill between the front gate and the main campus? Or what about a fitness center for students? A bigger library? Smoking booths for smokers to protect us from their toxic pollution? More scholarships for outstanding students? A new biotech research complex that could combine ? A nicer cafeteria space?
It’s up to your group to decide on one project, and prepare a convincing pitch for it. You cannot use a powerpoint presentation or handouts, but you are allowed to use diagrams, pictures, and other props.
The best group (or, in the case of a tie, best two groups) will likely receive A (or maybe A+). Other groups will be competing for other grades as per the required university grading curve scheme. So remember, you’re not just in competition to create a great, reasonable, convincing, and exciting pitch for your project alone, but also you are competing against other groups.
Each group will have 15 minutes for their presentation as well as question-and-answers from the audience. (You should leave time and be prepared to answer questions, as your answers will also be counted towards the competitiveness of your group. Therefore, yor presentation should probably be 10-12 minutes long.)
We have already made groups for this presentation, and I will answer any more questions you have in the coming week. For now, start thinking about what kinds of realistic, exciting, and interesting projects you can suggest to your group.
Plagiarism Warning
Let my comment on this post on the Media Blog page be a warning to you all. I do not tolerate plagiarism in any form, and any occurrence after today will result in an F in the course, no exceptions.
The student who wrote the post deleted it, against my wishes. However, I will make one point very clear. Anyone who simply copies-and-pastes some content from the internet into this Media Diary risks getting an immediate F in this class. My tolerance for plagiarism is ZERO, no exceptions, no excuses. If you’re copying-and-pasting, your cheating. And I will kick you out of the class for doing it.
I will not be warning anyone again.
The Promised Handout
(UPDATE: The broken file link is now fixed! Sorry for anyone who couldn’t get the file! It’s there now!)
Hi there! I received a big pile of wonderful outlines for Lockhart’s essay. I’ll be looking at those this week, but as a class, it’s time for us to move on… that is, to Introductions and Conclusions.
On Monday night, we’re going to discuss crafting good introductions and conclusions. Here is the handout I will be distributing in class. We’ll be discussing Lockhart’s essay as well, so if you happen to have your copy, it will be a big help. Also, the handout involves some homework. Please don’t start the homework assignment until after our class discussion on Monday evening. (Though if you want to read ahead, that’s fine!) If there’s time, we’ll move on to a second exercise, about establishing flow in the body of an essay.
Then, also on Monday night, we’ll make groups and you’ll get email addresses for your group members, so that you can email your current draft of your essay to your partners. You will email your essay draft on Monday night, and begin reading your group members’ work.
Wednesday night will be an opportunity to work as a group on giving feedback and discussing how your group members’ essays could be improved. It will essentially be a small-group intensive workshop. Same rules as usual, except you will each have three minutes to speak, and I’ll be wandering from group to group.
Finishing up with The Hacker Crackdown
Next week, we’ll be finishing up our reading of The Hacker Crackdown by:
- discussing section 4 of the book (on Tuesday & Thursday, April 15th and 17th)
- discussing (on Thursday, April 17th) the overall ideas and themes in the book, and discussing some questions. I will make the questions available in the next couple of days, here on the website.
Remember that your reaction papers to the book are due on Tuesday, April 15th. Hopefully, this will help you prepare for our discussion on April 17th, as well as for our midterm exam.
Your midterm exam will be on the afternoon of Thursday, the 24th of April, and will be focused on general issues discussed in The Hacker Crackdown. The exam will definitely require you to have thought about the issues we’ll discuss in the past weeks, and next week; in addition, you will be required to express your opinion on one or more subjects in short-answer and short essay questions. So spend some time thinking about issues we’ve discussed, and spend some time outside class arguing with classmates about them.
Discussions Schedule
Here is the schedule you signed up for discussion leading:
15 April: Sang Woon Hong
29 April: Han-Kyu Lee
6 May: Hye-Jeong Lim
13 May: Ki-Wook Yeo
20 May: Soo Jin Kim
27 May: Jung Hee Seo
29 May: discussion of interview videos
3 June: So Ra Jo
5 June: Jung Myeong Lee, followed by Saem Yoo
10 June: Su-Hee Cho
12 June: Yong Heon Kim
Please remember to think of a topic in the next few weeks. You will have to warn the class about what you’ll be talking about, so they can prepare for the discussion, just like you have to do.
Han (Next week’s Panel Discussion)
Next week, we’ll be discussing The West Wing. While the discussion will be general, I’m asking everyone to watch one episode of the show. The pilot episode of Season 1 is an alright place to start, but most any episode will do.
Unless you’re one of the panelists, make sure NOT to watch Episode 4 of Season 5 (Han) because we’ll be watching at least some of it in class. It will be part of the discussion, but the discussion will be more general, and will be focused on presidents and powerful people in media, not necessarily only on The West Wing.
I do recommend you take a look at the transcript for the episode I’ve mentioned, however. It’s available here, as are transcripts for many other episodes. In the meantime, Check out the panel discussions schedule and make sure you’re prepared. I’ve made slight changes to the schedule, as mentioned in class. A recommended preparations schedule will be posted soon…
My and Sangwoon’s Discussion Topics
Sorry, I forgot to post this on the website on the weekend! Remember, we will not be meeting on Tuesday, April 8th.
I will be leading an example discussion on Thursday night (April 10th). My topic will be “Breaking Up” — about what happens after a couple breaks up.
Sangwoon’s topic, according to his email, is “Mainstream Culture.” Hopefully we can get a little more information out of him about what specifically he wants to talk about this Thursday night.
I will also discuss your midterm exam, on Thursday night, and you’ll be presenting with your group about your experiment with Time Management and your Priorities. (Following the game exercise we played last Wednesday night.)
Midterm Exam Presentation
For your midterm exam, which is on April 21st, you will be making a presentation on the following:
Imagine that, during the course of normal construction on campus, the University discovers a huge treasure of gold buried in the ground on University property. It is famous treasure, and of course will go to a National Museum. But the University will be compensated for the treasure, approximately 1 trillion won.
Of course, the majority of the money will go to construction, expansion, and improvement of University services: more books for the library, improved research facilities, more classroom, office, and dormitory space, and so on. But a certain amount — say, 5 billion won (5 million dollars) — will be set aside for students to decide what to do.
Your groups job is to “pitch” — that is, to suggest in an exciting way — a plan to the University. Maybe you think there should be an expanded study-abroad program? Maybe you think we need escalators on the hill between the front gate and the main campus? Or what about a fitness center for students? A bigger library? Smoking booths for smokers to protect us from their toxic pollution? More scholarships for outstanding students? A new biotech research complex that could combine ? A nicer cafeteria space?
It’s up to your group to decide on one project, and prepare a convincing pitch for it. You cannot use a powerpoint presentation or handouts, but you are allowed to use diagrams, pictures, and other props.
The best group (or, in the case of a tie, best two groups) will likely receive A (or maybe A+). Other groups will be competing for other grades as per the required university grading curve scheme. So remember, you’re not just in competition to create a great, reasonable, convincing, and exciting pitch for your project alone, but also you are competing against other groups.
After your (approximately 15-minute) presentation, there will be a few minutes for questions from the audience. You should be prepared to answer questions, as your answers will also be counted towards the competitiveness of your group.
We will form groups on April 14th for this presentation, and I will answer any more questions you have on that date. For now, start thinking about what kinds of realistic, exciting, and interesting projects you can suggest to your group.