Introduction

Welcome to the Fall 1999 session of one of the offerings of Tutorial from Grinnell College's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. The title of this particular tutorial is Hypermedia: Some Technology, Some Implications. You can find out more about this particular tutorial from its blurb and about the tutorial itself from an explanatory document.

In short, this semester we'll be working on building your skills in thinking, writing, reading, and speaking while studying hypermedia and considering its implications.

Because of the skills/subject pairing, we will split most class sessions into two parts: for the first fifty minutes we'll discuss some issue pertaining to academic skills (e.g., a particular aspect of writing or editing); for the last fifty minutes, we'll discuss some issue pertaining to hypermedia, its technology, or its implications. The first part will typically be held in the MathLAN (Science 2417) and the second in our assigned room (Science 2424).

In an attempt to provide up-to-date information, and to spare a few trees, we are making this as much of a ``paperless'' course as we can. At the beginning of the semester, I'll provide a few basic handouts in paper form. For the rest of the term, you should look for things on the course web at http://www.math.grin.edu/~rebelsky/Tutorial/ or http://www.math.grin.edu/~rebelsky/Courses/Tutorial/99F/. You may also want to read the basic instructions for using this course web.

Because hypermedia is the focus of this tutorial, you will be required to post all of your work online. This means that it will be accessible to your fellow students and to the broader Web community. If you have difficulty with this requirement, please discuss it with us.

Meets: TuTh 8:00-9:50 in Science 2424 and 2417.

Instructors:

• Samuel A. Rebelsky, Science 2427. Office hours MWF 11:00-12:00; Tu 10:00-12:00; by appoinment; walk-ins. Tutee meetings, Th 1:15-3:15, F 9:00-10:00.
• Rebecca Stuhr. Burling Library. Office hours M 3:00-5:00 and by appointment.

Grading:

• Class participation: 10%
• Questions on the readings: 5%
• Introductory essay: 10%
• Academic honesty exercise: 5%
• Teaching and learnign web: 10%
• Bibliography: 10%
• Reaction to hyperfiction: 15%
• Introduction to research paper: 5%
• Annotated bibliography for research paper: 15%
• Research paper: 15%

When you read a computer manual and it says silly things, please remember that it needn't have been like that. Somebody designed the program, and they did it a silly way. Don't be embarrassed that you can't understand Word [or any other program]; it isn't your fault, it's theirs. (Harold Thimbleby, ``Spare the rod, spoil the computer?''.)