Last updated: 4/22/01
Link to Instructor's web site (David Bowen)
Link to maps showing classroom location
Welcome to the web site for...
Times' Harvest
– an online course
With an optional attached Directed Study
Announcements:
- The link to notes from April 14 is under "Lectures and further information from
other sources"
- The links to the possible questions for the Team part of the AGS 3340 Final Exam are
under "Policies, Assignments, and Course Meetings."
- "This Year's Freshmen" is under "Lectures and further information from
other sources"
- For AGS 3340, the link to Team Report 3 is in the section on "Policies,
Assignments, and Course Meetings."
- For AGS 3340, the link to the Quiz 2 file is in the section on "Policies,
Assignments, and Course Meetings."
- For the page on the ISP, see the link under Lectures and further information from other
sources.
- For voting on extra session, see the link under Online Tools.
- See also the new picture following Kiki's suggestion, on the class photo album.
- The following pages were revised to show the reduced assignment schedule:
- AGS 3340 Syllabus
- AGS 3360 Syllabus
- Assignment Schedule
- Reading Questions
- The page on "Changes" in the news is under the heading "Lectures and
further information from other sources"
Sections for the course web site:
Policies, assignments, course
meetings
Online tools
Information about the class and
participants
Lectures and further information
from other sources
Course descriptions
The Time’s Harvest workshop course (AGS 3360) examines ideas about the historical
stages of human society and about its future. The interplay between science, technology
and society is central to this analysis. People who analyze the possibilities for the
future of human society are called futurists. Some futurists see a society in decline and
predict a disastrous future, while others see a fundamentally new society developing into
a desirable future. Students in this course will develop their own views. In the
Time’s Harvest attached Directed Study (AGS 3340) students will apply the analysis
from the workshop course to novels about the future, to their personal lives, and to
recent developments in the United States and elsewhere. The primary assignments will be
reading, writing and online discussion. The writing assignments will involve close and
accurate reading, as well as putting together ideas from different parts of a given book,
and from different books as well. Writing assignments will also require applying the ideas
from the readings to your own life, and supplying concrete detail.
Both AGS 3360 and AGS 3340 are both primarily online. We will use email
for assignments, and the World Wide Web for course materials and computer
conferencing.
Part of the course goals is to incorporate as many elements of the
changes expected for the future as can be managed. The elements that I have planned are
(but add your own suggestions!):
- Online nature of the course
- Use of email in submitting and returning course work
- Online discussions using the computer conference
- Being able to start early and end late, to the extent allowed by University policies
- Team component of grade (AGS 3340 only)
- Encouraging "online personalities" through class photo album, "introduce
yourself" topic on computer conference, and online
citizenship component of course grade
- Online grade reports available
- Incorporating student writing in the course materials
- Following the Wired Style Guide for online terms (e.g. treating new terms as
having now become normal. An example is email instead of e-mail)
- "You are here" features
For AGS 3360, there will be several class meetings during the beginning of the
semester, and an additional class meeting at the end of the semester. For specific dates,
see the Assignment Schedule (link above). For AGS 3340 there will be two additional class
meetings; a midterm exam, and a final exam, both on campus.
Participants should be aware from the start that online courses (at least with current
methods) make new demands on all concerned, and that failure to recognize and adapt to
this can lead to failure to complete the course in a satisfactory manner. (Taking an online class.)
General ISP and WSU information
Link to Mailman web interface for WSU email
accounts
Funny Stuff
Times'
Harvest Advanced Seminar (online)
