Being Digital: How the Internet Works/Why It Is Important

Catalog description

This course is designed to prepare digital-era students in all fields of study for professional achievement in a technologically sophisticated, global, networked environment. The course is structured around three central elements of “digital literacy” -- 1) human perception & cognition, 2) computers & electronic intelligence, & 2) the network architecture of the digital web. It is a rigorous intellectual introduction to the fundamental principles on which these technologies are based. There are no perquisites & those from the technologically challenged to the techno-geeks are welcome. Students will be introduced to the fundamentals of human attention, how sound waves, light waves & electromagnetic waves work & what computers and routers do. . This is a “flipped course” – what would normally be in-class lectures and demonstrations are available online as curricular modules & can be viewed at students’ convenience (& reviewed as appropriate) much like traditional reading assignments. In-person class sections are used for dialog, discussion & Q & A with the instructor.