HUMANITIES 131: CULTURAL CONNECTIONS Assistant Professor Kris Pursell Office: BW 240 Office Hours: T 10-11 & 1-4; R 10-11 & 1-2; by appointment Telephone: (517) 796-8532 E-Mail: [email protected] (see link on the course site) Include HUM 131 and A SPECIFIC SUBJECT in the subject line For example, HUM 131 first test grade. Your name also needs to appear on all attached documents. Please do not consider your e-mail address a way of identifying yourself. I will have no idea who [email protected] is unless you add your name to the body of the email. Thanks! Texts to Buy The Western Humanities: Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities; Vol II - This text comes with online music and other educational supports that we will be using. 7th Edition with readings; Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe Free Information JCC Humanities CD—I send these out to you free of charge the first week of class. If you enroll late, please send me an email request for the CD. I will mail CDs upon request. If you live close to JCC, you may pick up the CD out of my mailbox in Burt Walker Hall‘s Language, Literature, and the Arts Department: BW 233. Technology Required: Tri-weekly access to a computer connected to the Internet, technical equipment compatible with JCC‘s online delivery service, t he ability to view PowerPoint presentations, the ability to play music on your computer are all minimum course requirements. Access to a backup computer connected to the Internet is also important to your success in this class; you will need backup computer access if your regular computer crashes, gets a virus, or is in need of repairs. Backup access is available at JCC computer labs/library during regular JCC hours. If you need help with the technology , technical support is available to you by calling 1-888-522-8744 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. You may leave a message and they will return your call as soon as possible, or you can e-mail Distance Learning tech support at [email protected] . If you have not taken the online readiness quiz, go to http:// www.jccmi.edu/DistanceLearning/ currentstudents.htm , take the quiz and browse the page for more information from Distance Learning.Please let me know what I can do to help with your learning. The Course: Humanities 131 is an interdisciplinary course that examines western contemporary issues, their human and technological components and their historical precedents through art, music, literature, film, philosophy, and other forms of human expression. During this semester, we will focus on and learn how to ‗read‘ the creative expressions that stem from human beings living in the fourteenth through the twentieth centuries as they describe the world in which they—and we—live. The Classroom Experience: This class is an interactive, collaborative classroom experience—not an independent study. Expect to spend at least 9 hours a week on this class. This time includes an expectation that you will log onto the course for assignment information, read weekly assignments in a timely manner, engage the visual materials prepared for you both on the CD accompanying this class and the external links, view selected videos, and participate at least three times a week in discussion forums that I post weekly. The course materials and discussions will prepare you for the exam questions at the end of each unit. Procedures: The course has a brief introductory period of two days and a brief closure period of three days. The body of the course is divided into eight (8) units, each with a specific time-frame for completion. Please review the course calendar (also located in this unit) carefully and plan regular times to do the readings, to participate in online discussions, to upload your essay exams and take your multiple choice tests. Units open on the date posted in your calendar. Begin each unit by reading the lectures, text, and supplemental readings posted in each unit. Plan to view assigned visuals from the course CD and visit recommended websites as well. Plan to participate in the discussion boards posted for each unit. Each unit will include specific unit assignments, lectures, discussion board forums (whole group discussion), external links, tests, and due dates. Readings : You are responsible for the content of course. Plan to read text and supplemental pieces twice. Good study habits include a preliminary reading in which you skim and scan the written material once. In the initial reading, take note of headings , color plate images, maps, timelines, and text box materials; focus in on the first and last sentences of longer paragraphs to grasp main ideas. Look for things you understand. Try not to bog down in difficult material. Focus on what you do connect with in your first reading.In your second reading, highlight pivotal passages or controlling ideas and make margin notes using key words and brief summary statements. Record questions raised for you by the materials (see if you can answer them by reading carefully—if not, bring the questions to our discussion board), and look up unfamiliar vocabulary in the glossary or dictionary. Feel free to use the internet (be careful to use only websites with good authority such as those posted by Universities or Colleges; avoid personal websites and dot coms in general) to gain background information in areas that you find interesting or confusing. Summarize your notes for yourself prior to moving to the online discussion. Thorough reading and engaged study encourage thoughtful discussion and foster learning. Reading Literature: The pieces selected for this course, especially the early ones, can be difficult; they may even seem like a foreign language to some readers. However, in their original forms (or even in a good translation) , these pieces give us a flavor of the times in which they were created. They should also make you aware of how your current exposures to language influence the way you understand your world. For instance, we will read Hamlet by William Shakespeare with lines such as, For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th ’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th ’ unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bar bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after