Goals: This course seeks to enable the student to integrate
his/her academic autobiography, chosen areas of academic interest (focused on but
not limited to the academic major), and anticipated challenges in the world of
life and work as they relate to the student's major and professional aspirations
in the early decades of the 21st century.
In the process, the course seeks to enhance the student's abilities to
Readings from earlier versions of this course (& no longer required):
Requirements include I expect a total of 3 sources to be listed in the bibliography of the research
paper (in addition to course-assigned readings). Two of these must be
traditional academic sources; the third may be a web site, but I urge you to
choose and evaluate such sites very carefully (see my home page for 2 links concerning
the evaluation of web sites). The bibliography of these 3 items
must be annotated: a brief description and evaluation of each item's
interest/helpfulness/quality.
Because of the seminar format, I usually excuse no more than one
absence for the semester. Nor do I normally accept late work. Should you
experience various problems that prevent you from completing assignments on time,
you should make every effort to speak to me about this matter as the problems are
unfolding--not well after the fact.
With the exception of the oral presentation and the final research paper, all
work should be submitted via the web site for this course no later than 10 a.m.
of the day preceding the class in which we will actually discuss the week's
assignment. This early submission should allow everyone to read one
another's work prior to our actually coming together in the classroom. (I
reserve the right to administer occasional reading quizzes to ensure that
everyone is keeping up with the assignments and with the reading of classmates'
work. I also reserve the right to reduce grades significantly on any assignments
not submitted by due dates.)
The three-fold purpose of this sharing is to
The oral presentation and final research paper will be worth approximately 30% of
the course grade, class participation and reaction essays approximately 60%, and
the autobiographical essay approximately 10%.
A word about skim-reading: some of the assignments specifically allow you to
skim through various chapters of the texts. Skimming does not mean skipping. It
means careful scanning of the material in order to be able to relate it in a
meaningful way to your own perceptions of the rest of the assignment. In this
regard, Peter Schwartz's The Art of the Long View, pp. 61-62,
may be helpful: "I concentrate on educating myself; on passing information
through my mind so it affects my outlook: on tuning my attention as if it were
an instrument. Sometimes, admittedly, I let articles and reports pile up in
stacks; then I sift through the stacks to find what I need. And sometimes I must
go back and re-create the research I did several years before. But that, in
itself, is valuable, because in the fields I care about, the facts have changed
since I last went to look for them. Don't worry about your files [of reading
materials]; worry about your perceptions."
A word about plagiarism and academic (dis)honesty: university policy is clearly
stated in the UMass Dartmouth catalogue. I urge you to familiarize yourself with
this policy. Stated briefly, if you cheat or pass off another person's work as
your own, you will fail the course. Always acknowledge how and where the work of
others has helped to shape your own thinking.
Week 1 -- Introduction: writing component, expectations and
responsibilities, use of the World Wide Web and software written
for this class. Disciplined psychology and characteristics of thinking in the future tense.
Week 2 -- Back to the Future and Forward to the Past: Personal and Psychological Revelations
Week 3 -- Scenarios Thinking
Week 4 -- Political and Cultural Perspectives
Week 5 -- Historical, Geographical, & Demographic Perspectives
Week 6 -- Life Sciences Perspectives
Week 7 -- Academic Autobiography
Week 8 -- Structural Perspectives and the Future of Work
Week 9 -- Technology, Social Engineering, and the Humane Agenda
Week 10 -- Work, Family, and Education
Week 11 -- The Social Life of Information
Week 12 -- Social Psychology and Temporal Perspectives
Week 13 -- Oral Presentations
Week 14 -- Summaries, Conclusions, Final Papers
In addition to the autobiographical essay and the final research paper,
this course requires each of you to submit a 400-700
word essay for each week's assignment and to read everyone else's essays for the
week prior to coming to class. The three-fold purpose of this sharing is to
You may submit and read essays either by email or by accessing the related web site.
Please note that this process functions only for students who are registered for this course
and have been assigned a course username and password.
Usually, my evaluative comments about these essays will be addressed on an
individual basis, thus safeguarding privacy and student sensitivity while also
allowing the individual to forward those comments to classmates as (s)he sees
fit. However, when I believe that my comments to an individual will be helpful
to all students, I will post them to the immediately above link, which you should therefore
check periodically.
Analytical Questions for
Readings I. Reading the work and understanding the author II. Analyzing the author's thoughts
This HTML document created by: Lew Kamm 
Goals
Readings
Requirements, Responsibilities, & Grades
Syllabus
Analytical Questions for Readings
Submitting and Reading Student Essays
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A word about the work load of the course: On average, I require from 2-4 hours of reading
per week. Additionally, you will need time to write your weekly essay and to read the essays of your
classmates. This brings the anticipated weekly commitment to the course to 4-6 hours. That
is no more
than I expect of students in my regular courses. The difference here is that you as honors
students are responsible, through your essays and class participation, for the
shaping and defining of the very essence
of the course in the framework of the readings provided.
Grades will be based on my evaluation of your various writing assignments and
class participation. Written work will be graded on intent, content, reasoning,
language, neatness, effort, accuracy. Five points to keep in mind: 1) develop a
thesis statement, 2) discuss the main points covered in readings and in class
discussions and make connections with the thesis, 3) incorporate relevant
evidence to prove thesis, 4) make connections among related concepts, ideas, and
events, 5) reach a conclusion based on the analysis of the evidence.
Bronson: you are responsible for the whole book, but realistically, some chapters will strike each of you individually as more meaningful than others; in short, read the book judiciously.
Schwartz: same comments as re Bronson; read judiciously.
Postrel, Introduction, pp. 1-33, 55-61,
83-89, 111-17, 146-52, 167-73, 186-218
Cultural Creatives - the book;
CC - questionnaire;
CC - lifestyles;
CC - big picture;
CC - faq
Kaplan,
chapters 1-3, 5, 8, 14 (pp 149-55, 164-67), 15 (173-77), 22, 23 (to p. 253 bottom),
24 (267-75), 25, and pp. 302-04
Enriquez
MacKavey & Levin,
chapter 4; Rifkin, Introduction & Part I
Rifkin,
chapters 4, 7, 10-12,pp. 216-17, 233-35, ch. 16-17 (through p. 267)
Mackavey & Levin, Introduction,
preface, & chapters 1, 3, 5, 6, 8
Brown & Duguid, chapters 1, 4-6,
8. Before reading this assignment, please read the "Notes on Brown & Duguid"
in the Student Essays List.
Levine, chapters 1-6,
10; skim 7-9. Before reading this assignment, please read the Time Problems in the Student
Essays List.
III. Importance and Integration: How
important is this article? How well does it relate to course themes and
materials?
Lew Kamm
Chancellor Professor of French Literature & Computer
Science
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
285 Old Westport Rd.
N.
Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300
LKamm@umassd.edu
On: April 4, 1999
Last Revised:
04/14/06
