Module Description

Once modern digital computers were developed in the twentieth century, it became necessary to figure out how to get them to communicate with each other, and then how to build a usable information ecosystem atop the ever-expanding network of interconnected machines. This module introduces you to some basic concepts for understanding how these problems were solved, to the encoding languages emerging from these solutions that now stand at the heart of the digital ecosystem—HTML and CSS— and to remedies for inequities and injustices that continue to haunt that ecosystem.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this module you should

  1. Understand the difference between the World Wide Web and the Internet
  2. Have a critical perspective on the broad outlines of early web and internet history
  3. Understand, at a very basic level, the architecture and protocols that make the web run
  4. Be able to write basic web pages in HTML
  5. Be able to style basic web pages with CSS

Dates and Activities

Monday, March 9

Before class

In class

  • We’ll discuss Broad Band and 🏄 the web.

Class work: In your folder for 3-9, share your journal file for the day with notes about how the internet and web evolved. What did you already know about this evolution? What did you learn for the first time? Was there anything you thought you knew that turned out to be wrong? Did you have to modify any knowledge or beliefs in light of what you learned?

Wednesday, March 11

Before class

In class

  • We’ll play with HTML and CSS.

Class work: In your folder for 3-11, share your journal file for the day with notes about HTML and CSS.

Friday, March 13

Before class

  • No additional reading.

In class

  • I’ll hold an AMA in Teams. Ask me anything!

Class work: In your folder for 3-13, share your journal file for the day with any notes you like.

🌱🌱 Spring Break 🌱🌱

Monday, March 23

Before class

  • Read Broad Band, 129-174.

In class

  • We’ll discuss Broad Band and continue to play with HTML and CSS.

  • Class work: In your folder for 3-23, share your journal file for the day with notes on our discussion of Broad Band and HTML and CSS.

Wednesday, March 25

Before class

  • Write a first draft of your first blog post.

In class

  • We’ll work on blog posts together and make sure everyone knows what they have to do to complete the assignment successfully.

  • We’ll play more with HTML and CSS.

  • Class work: In your folder for 3-25, share the first draft of your blog post.

Friday, March 27

Before class

  • Read Walden, “Brute Neighbors,” “House-Warming,” “Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors.”
  • Leave a comment in the margin of a passage from Walden that’s in one of the chapters assigned for 3-27.

In class

  • We’ll discuss Walden and continue playing with HTML and CSS.

Monday, March 30

Before class

  • Read Walden, “Winter Animals,” “The Pond in Winter”
  • Leave a comment in the margin of any part of Walden assigned for 3-30 that makes you curious to know more about how that passage might have changed during Thoreau’s composition process.

In class

  • We’ll discuss Walden

Class work: In your folder for 3-30, share your journal file for the day with your notes on our discussion of *Walden.

Wednesday, April 1

Before class

  • Read Walden, “Spring.”
  • Watch episodes 1 and 2 of the Ken Burns PBS documentary “Henry David Thoreau”. (Link is to the preview and will be updated as show time approaches.)

In class

  • We’ll discuss Walden and explore images of the Walden manuscript.

Class work: In your folder for 4-1, share your journal file for the day with notes on any thoughts you have about the Walden manuscript images.

Friday, April 3

Before class

  • Watch episode 3 of the Ken Burns PBS documentary “Henry David Thoreau”. (Link is to the preview and will be updated as show time approaches.)

In class

  • We’ll discuss Walden and the documentary.

Class work: In your folder for 4-3, share your journal file for the day with your notes on our discussion of *Walden and the documentary.