Summer 2005 lecture series:
PERSONAL COMPUTERS
AS EVERYDAY TOOLS
FOR AVERAGE FOLKS

This free education is being provided at the library on most Saturdays during summer 2005, starting at noon. The typical lesson will be two 45-minute sessions, with a short break between them. Dr. Ron Feigenblatt, an experienced computer professional, will lead these classes. All questions will be welcome.

Computers and the Internet make possible amazing economies in the storage, searching and communication of all sorts of information, and are redefining what it means to be literate in the modern world. They open up stunning new possibilities for sharing knowledge and wisdom about all sorts of things which never before could be passed between people affordably. Please come and let us help you explore and conquer this exciting new world!

• Lesson ONE: Overview (25 June)

  This 100-minute lesson comes in two sessions: the first session describes critical computing concepts (50 min); the second session starts with an optional review of Cartesian graphs (10 min) and then quantitatively summarizes progress in digital technology and how it is profoundly remaking the world today (40 min). An mp3-based podcast of its audio content only is found within: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter1/Podcast/ .
  
  (Changes in Web page post-formating by our Web site hosting firm, ancestry.com, have destroyed the functionality described by the following struck text for the forseeable future - 2011.12)
  A silent visual version omitting most of the graphics is here: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter1/TextShow .
  (Users of Internet Explorer will probably have to hit the F11 button to reveal the navigation buttons at the top of the screen.)
  
  

  The entire lesson, with sound, including all visual materials, is only accessible by personally visiting the Buchanan-Haralson Public Library during its regular hours of operation. Go to PC 16 and click on the desktop link which uses the icon at the left.

  
  Also find a special postscript dealing with the impact of the digital revolution on American society online at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter1/Society.htm

  Noted added 2011.12: A very large related Web page, updated through October 2009+, is:
  The rise of USA broadband Internet access, including Haralson County and Georgia data
  
  

• Lesson TWO: How to access the World Wide Web (9 July)

  This practical how-to lesson is available online in two versions. A highly abbreviated ("one minute") version is at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter2/WebLesson-OneMinute.html . The comprehensive ("one hour") version is at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter2/WebLesson-OneHour.html .
  
  

• Lesson THREE: Organizing digital spaces - examples: The Web & e-mail (16 & 23 July)

  This lesson first discusses how a typical computer organizes its persistent memory (e.g. hard magnetic disk drive) and then how the Internet is organized. These concepts lay the basis for understanding World Wide Web and e-mail addresses and document archives. This lesson includes a look at the history of electrical communications, illuminating the strengths and weaknesses of current and future tools of this sort. Find this lesson online at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter3 .
  
  Recess videos et alia (at live lecture only):
  (1) Robotic dog teams playing soccer
  (2) Photorealistic humans in video games
  
  

• Lesson FOUR: Asynchronous Groupware: From bulletin boards to team blogs (30 July)

  This lesson explores the limitations of e-mail in conducting discussions of interest to a large group of people. It introduces the notion of asynchronous groupware, which crudely can be thought of as an automated collective e-mail archive. First, it traces the origin of such tools in pre-Internet days. Then it focuses on Web-based tools in widespread use today. Find this lesson online at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter4 .
  
  Recess videos et alia (at live lecture only):
  (1) Advanced accessories for handheld computers: fold-up & virtual keyboards, eyepiece displays
  (2) One-use-recycled solid-state camcorder
  (3) Demo of live speech recognition
  (4) Demo of live speech synthesis
  (5) Videogame landscapes & buildings
  
  

• Lesson FIVE: Synchronous Groupware: From Internet Relay Chat to Instant Messaging   (6 August)

  Traditional telephony has long made remote conversation possible. This week, we focus on how text-based multiparty Internet chat functions as synchronous groupware which offers an alternative to traditional conference telephony, at lesser cost and with selective advantages, too. Auxiliary tools let one recover the simplicity of speech-based expression as well. Find this lesson online at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter5 .
  
  Recess videos et alia (some at live lecture only):
  (1) High-end speech synthesis
  (2) Electronic books ("e-books") - audio & video examples
  
  

• Lesson SIX: Care and use of your PC or alternative device   (3 September - sic.)

  PCs have earned the reputation of being problematic to operate and maintain. We teach specific strategies for dramatically reducing the amount of pain many users experience, simply by exploiting affordable tools and activities. We also examine alternative zero-maintenance devices and the use of off-site professional maintenance. Finally, we review the basics of installing and running programs and getting help when needed. Find this lesson online at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter6 .
  
  Recess videos et alia (at live lecture only):
  (1) "Windows RG" parody: No, you're NOT crazy - your PC software is!
  
  

• Lesson SEVEN: Multimedia applications   (13 August)

  Live and prerecorded ("on demand") audio and video sent via the Internet allows special audiences to be served via "narrowcasting." IP-based telephony, whiteboard sharing and television are powerful, affordable forms of synchronous groupware. This lesson examines how the modern PC goes beyond numbers and text to deliver graphical, audio and video experiences of great utility and even emotion. Find this lesson online at: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gahchs/BHPL/FOTL/DigTech/Chapter7 .
  
  Recess videos et alia (some at live lecture only):
  (1) One of the Library of Congress Internet videos on the Digital Future:
  "Universal Access to Knowledge" by Brewster Kahle
  
  

• Lesson EIGHT: Creating & publishing Web pages (10 September)

  "Blogs" make authoring Web-based diaries fill-form simple. Fancier Web pages are easily made with any word processor. Ad-supported hosting firms happily publish your Web pages free. We will learn the basics of exploiting these possibilities.
  (Notes never published; sorry!)
  
  Recess videos et alia:
  (None)

Click here to watch selected short YouTube videos about the Internet.

The Digital Future (hosted by the US Library of Congress, televised by C-SPAN)
"[From] November... 2004 until March 2005, C-SPAN will televise live a series of [seven] discussions hosted by the Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center [and then publish these programs in a video-on-demand archive on the Internet.] The series will examine how the digital age is changing the most basic ways information is organized and classified. The goal is to educate the public on the what the digital age means to their lives.

• Digital Future: Web Logs and Knowledge (Nov 15, 2004)
• Digital Future: Archiving (Dec 13, 2004)
• Digital Future: Quantum Computing (Jan 24, 2005)
• Digital Future: Meaning of Digital (Jan 31, 2005)
• Digital Future: The Experience of Reading (Feb 14, 2005)
• Digital Future: Copyright Issues (Mar 3, 2005)
• Digital Future: Distribution of Knowledge (Mar 14, 2005)
• Digital Future Conclusion (Mar 28, 2005)

This course focuses on critical concepts and highlights useful tools and possibilities, particularly those the instructor feels are not adequately addressed in current books. The limited time available for our course means that it leaves many mundane topics to existing published sources, like Web sites and books.

Your instructor does not agree with every last word written in each of the following cited works. But they contain a lot of useful material which may well be your attention, and they don't cost a lot.

• Free online resources et alia (drafted by RF, mainly in 2004)
  
  
• Book: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Computer Basics (2002, 2nd Edition)
  384 pages, ISBN 0789728966, $13ish+ new
  A reasonable how-to which tries to stay terse and on-target, rather than overwhelm with detail. We keep a reference copy at the Buchanan-Haralson Public Library.
  
  
• Book: Business @ ["at"] The Speed of Thought (2000, paperback edition)
  470 pages, ISBN 0446675962, $12ish+ new
  By Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (with assistance), this is a guide to the application of digital technology like computers and the Internet, addressed to business and institutional leaders.
  
  
• Book: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (2005+, paperback edition)
  592 pages, ISBN 0312425074, $11ish+ new
  By three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman, this book articulately explains to the average person how digital technology is unleashing the re-engineering of the economy through globalization.
  
  
• Book: The Pattern on the Stone (1999, paperback edition)
  164 pages, ISBN 046502596X, $11ish+ new
  By the eminent computer scientist Danny Hillis, who writes:
  "This is the book which I wish I had read when I first started learning about the field of computing. Unlike most books on computers - which are either about how to use them or about... [the stuff] of which they're built... - this is a book about ideas."

• West Central Technical College (summer 2005 session)
  (If you attend any of the courses mentioned, please share your experiences with us!)

• Social Machines: Online Learning Communities (ED298) (added December 2006)
  School of Education, Stanford University

  Part of the Learning Design & Technology master's program, "EDUC 298 attempts to apply theories of learning to online communities � from the Math Forum to Flickr to Second Life - and asks how learning is cultivated among their participants."

• Understanding Online Interaction
  Department of Instructional Technology, Utah State University (USU)

  A graduate-level course "...designed to provide an introductory level of understanding of the manner in which individuals interact with one another via the network..."

  USU OCW does not grant credits or degrees, and does not provide access to USU faculty. USU OCW gives you open access to the materials used in a variety of USU courses.
  - source

• Department of Media Arts and Sciences - OCW courses
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

  "If anything can be certain about the future, it is that the influence of technology, especially digital technology, will continue to grow and to profoundly change how we express ourselves, how we communicate with each other and how we perceive, think about and interact with our world... At MIT, the phrase Media Arts and Sciences signifies the study, invention and creative use of enabling technologies for understanding and expression by people and machines."

  "MIT OCW [Open CourseWare]:
  > Is a [large-scale, Web-based] publication of MIT course materials
  > Does not require any registration
  > Is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity
  > Does not provide access to MIT faculty"
  - source