Some Basics to Get Started

During the Spring, 2002, we will meet via ITV for an hour and fifteen minutes each week and via the Internet. So, you will need to have access to the Internet and a browser (e.g., Netscape). While you do not need to be a computer wizard, you need to be able to get to a web site and it would help to be able to use a word processor to create a simple file. We ought to be able to take it from there. We will meet at a designated site for the course in BlackBoard. The course is organized into weekly units, much like a classroom course, and you will be expected to keep up with assignments on a weekly basis, to read comments on our site and to write to our site. I will work hard to make this work well and you need to work hard, too. My courses get excellent evaluations from students. I will do what I can to continue that tradition with this ITV/online course. Oh yes, I am Professor Leonard Shedletsky, but my students call me "Lenny" and I am comfortable with Lenny.

Content of the Course

This course is about human communication. It is an introductory course in a vast field. We are supplied with information from psychology, anthropology, communication, psychiatry, linguistics, philosophy, mathematics, literature, sociology, political science, physiology, business, not to mention our own insights. We will attempt to pull together various perspectives on human behavior under the concept "communication." One aspect of this course that is bound to make the course challenging, and hopefully valuable, is its focus on theory. We will read about a variety of social scientific theories in their attempt to help us understand and describe human communication. Another aspect of this course that should make the course a good learning experience is its focus upon real-life communication incidents, which I will refer to as Critical Incidents. Your main task is to integrate theory and practice. Of course, there is far more material than we can study. The topics and approaches I've chosen do not exhaust the possibilities.

Introductory courses in communication vary widely depending upon (1) the amount of attention given to the experimental method, and (2) the view of human nature postulated. On the extremes we find the "Objective Scientific" approach which treats "the human as a machine," and the "Humanistic Celebration" approach which has an affinity with the nonacademic aspects of the counter group: consciousness raising, self-acceptance, assertiveness training, and generally the promotion of self-actualization. In this course, we will take an approach which borrows from the extremes-- it relies upon the scientific tradition of the social sciences but it also shares with the humanities a iew of the human being not as a machine, but rather as a thinking, creating, meaning-using actor: the "Humane Scientific" Approach. In rough outline, we will begin with a consideration of what a theory of communication could be and what it could be about. We'll consider the processes that go on within a person, such as labeling or naming, concept formation, memory, and learning. After a look at some of these intrapersonal processes, we will turn to social processes in face-to-face communication, interpersonal communication, and organizational communication. Finally, we will spend some time on processes of telecommunication. Specifically, I would like for us to consider what impact, if any, broadcasting and computer-mediated communication (CMC) have on us.

The course is built upon readings, exercises, essays (or analyses of critical incidents), a journal, discussions, and a final essay. I would like for our discussions to be a free give and take of ideas. For that to happen people must participate.

The assignments are listed along with each meeting. (Each assignment is marked with an asterisk in the left hand margin beginning on page 6.) Please do the assignment for each meeting and be prepared to discuss the day's reading.

My main objectives in this course are to introduce you to the study of communication and to get you thinking about communication. We will consider some questions that apply very generally, such as: What is the nature of human communication? And we will also consider some questions that apply very specifically, such as: How do I respond when I think that what I have to say will hurt someone else's feelings or may cause conflict or may make me appear some way that I don't want to appear? Even a full description of human communication does not insure that we will improve the communication in our lives. At the very least, we would have to put our knowledge to work. That is up to us. To aid in putting your knowledge to work (and at the same time deepening and expanding it), you are asked to keep a journal of your communication. I will say more about the journal. Also, you are asked to record for group discussion some Critical Incidents, i.e, communication moments that were problematical or in some way stood out for you. I will say more about the Critical Incidents later.

Some Objectives:

• Describe and analyze communication;
• Discuss theory and social scientific method as a way of knowing;
• Discuss an array of specific theories (and research findings) concerned with communication and related processes;
• Discuss some of the problems faced by the researcher in the social sciences;
• Relate theory to practice.

TEXTBOOK

GRADING

Write two Critical Incidents (5%)	2 Essays Analyzing Critical Incidents 20%
Participation 25%; (e.g., e-discussion; group work; your homepage)	Final Essay 40%
Journal Essay 10%

Date	Topic/Assignment
WEEK 8 Week of x	See the movie, "Nell"; optionally and additionally, you can also view "Children of a Lesser God"

JOURNAL (10% of the grade)

Keep a record of your communication; use a separate notebook and make entries on a regular basis. One way to organize your journal is to focus on a communication behavior of yours which you would like to change. Choose something manageable. The journal will be used for the Journal Essay.

JOURNAL ESSAY

Write a 2 - 4 page, typed, double-spaced essay based on your journal entries. The journal essay requires that you go back and reread your journal and decide on a central idea that you wish to present and develop that characterizes the writings in your journal, that help to organize some aspect of it. For instance, have you come to understand something about your communication or about communication generally? If you find that there is no such central idea there, you may wish to write about the journal keeping experience itself.

In your essay, you may wish to refer to one or more of the communication theories from our text, although this is only a suggestion, not a requirement. In short, write a coherent, well thought out essay based on your journal.

ANALYSES OF CRITICAL INCIDENTS (40% of the grade)

Analysis of critical incident: (two to four typed pages)

What I have in mind for analysis of critical incident papers is simply taking a position on an issue raised in the Critical Incidents. Your paper is to analyze the Critical Incident, making use of theory where possible. You are not simply trying to give advice; instead, you are trying to understand the event; you are trying to take a position on what is going on here.

Ideally, each day, as we read the text by Griffin, as we discuss our views online, and as you read outside of the required reading, as you have experiences, or reflect on your experiences, you will have ideas that you can elaborate on for the class. The analysis of critical incident paper is an opportunity to think out loud about practical issues connected to the course. Use the analysis of critical incident paper to connect theory and practice. You may wish to use the analysis of critical incident papers to ponder what confuses you in the reading (or discussion); to be creative about your views on communication; to show where the reading is not consistent or accurate; to defend an idea represented in our book; to offer an alternative view; to elaborate on something said in the course--but it is crucial to anchor your position in our text, i.e., in theory. Also, there may be times when I will pose a question for you to respond to in your analysis of critical incident paper.

Analysis of critical incident papers are intended to keep us all engaged with the material and to generate discussion in the course. Analysis of critical incident papers will be graded. The GROUP EXERCISES are a time to offer one another your analysis of critical incident papers so as to get feedback, to aid in writing the final draft. You will be working with a group of students in our course to exchange constructive criticism via e-mail in preparing your essay. It often helps to bounce ideas off of other people, to get feedback on writing. Analysis of critical incident papers may build ideas for you that culminate in your final essay, the TAKE-HOME FINAL.

Please date each analysis of critical incident paper and be prepared to hand it in at the end of each meeting.

COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION (CMC)

We don't have face-to-face communication in this course. We only have computer-mediated communication (CMC). We need to find ways in which CMC in this course will facilitate thought, discussion, and writing. Our online course is a special kind of format for coming together to learn. To my thinking, we benefit from discussion of a common text. If people engage in discussion without having read the text or unwilling or unable to talk about the text, then the class is seriously handicapped.

One way to inspire thinking and expression of thoughts may be discussion. CMC may be especially helpful in generating discussion, since it allows us to talk whenever we feel like it. It allows those who are reticent to try out their thoughts under non-face-to-face circumstances. I believe it allows us to "speak" directly.

Consequently, you are asked to make use of our web site to send messages to one another and/or the instructor--messages pertaining to the course. Ideally, we will engage one another in controversial topics related to the text, related to our discussion, related to course requirements. There certainly is nothing wrong with chatting about other matters if you like, but what is of concern to the course is your discussion of communication theory. So please log on to the computer at least every few days--every day would be better-- so that you can stay in the discussion. Your active participaton, both as a listener (reader) and speaker (writer) are crucial to this course.

More on CMC:

Computer mediated communication simply refers to using the computer to communicate with others. CMC is widely used in education these days. Frequently, people taking the same course at various campuses around the globe are encouraged to communicate with one another via computer. In some instances, people are taking courses via the computer, or are "attending" a conference. The reports I have seen on CMC suggest that it is an effective tool for learning. Some of the reasons for including CMC in this course, as already stated above, are to encourage thought and expression. There may well be benefits that we will learn about as we go. Consider the CMC an "experiment" deserving of an open attitude and willingness to explore. Ultimately, you will define just how you use CMC in this course. But my intention is simply that we use it to do whatever we would do in a face-to-face class--to stay in touch, to think out loud, discuss course materials, debate, help one another, try out ideas, ask questions, etc. As you use the computer to talk with others about course materials, you will be able to save your correspondence. What you save may become part of your journal for this course.

Some practical matters in connection with CMC: 1. Using the computer--I will show you how to use CMC; and I welcome and encourage those of you who already use CMC to show others in the course 2. Getting an account--This has been taken care of

FINAL ESSAY (30% OF THE GRADE)--to be presented online

Select a critical incident (or two) and discuss it in light of one (or more) of the communication theories we've studied. There are a number of goals you may pursue in this final paper. One, you may wish to focus upon how the theory helps to shed light on the incident, how it helps us to see what is going on and how one might respond to the situation; two, you may wish to focus upon how looking at this incident with the theory helps to suggest ways in which the theory works well and ways in which it may be modified. You might even wish to suggest how you might go on to test the ideas that grow out of your discussion. That is, could you establish as true particular principles of communication behavior by designing a research study to test specific ideas?

In short, by analyzing a critical incident with communication theory you are in a position to discuss the incident with greater understanding, you are in a position to discuss the theory (or theory generally), or both.