Syllabus

Information Technology Applications (RISP 523Q)

Fall 2003

Instructor: William McIver, Ph.D, Assistant Professor
School of Information Science and Policy
University at Albany, State University of New York, USA

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Course title: Information Technology Applications
Course number: ISP 523Q
  Call number: 5571
     Day/Time: Wednesday / 19:15 - 22:05
     Location: Draper 147 & Draper 023 (second half of class),
               135 Western Avenue, Albany, New York 12222 USA [HTML]

Instructor: Professor William McIver, Jr.
   Address: School of Information Science & Policy
            University at Albany, State University of New York
            Albany, New York  12222
            USA

      Office: Draper 140B
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:00 - 12:00; 13:00 - 15:00; and by appointment

    e-mail: mciver@albany.edu
       URL: http://www.albany.edu/~mciver

       tel: +1 (518) 442.5123
       fax: +1 (518) 442.5367

Course Description

This course will explore the theoretical and practical applications of information technology in today's rapidly changing information culture. During lectures and interactive computer labs, students will explore a wide range of digital and Internet-based technologies, including the PC and PC applications, networking, and web page design.Tools will include Unix, PowerPoint, HTML editors, E-mail, and FTP applications. This course will examine issues surrounding the emergence of digital technologies in today's information culture in order to provide a critical context for student-centered activities and projects. Attention will also be given to issues relating to the use of information technology including technology selection and evaluation, information security, data accuracy and web content evaluation, and information availability and connectivity.

Expected Outcomes

Students who successfully complete RISP 523Q will have gained the following:

• a basic understanding of computers and their operation
• a basic understanding of major classes of computer applications
• the ability to reason about and learn new computer applications
• ability to ask critical questions  about and make assessments of information technology applications
• practical experience in using major types of computer programs

Materials

The texts for the course are:

Lawrence Snyder. (2003).
Fluency with Information Technology.
Publisher: Addison Wesley ISBN: 0-321-12201-1

The text is available at Mary Jane Books. [HTML]

Students will also need floppy disks formatted for IBM Compatible PCs.

Requirements

• term paper
• Web project
• presentation slides
• charts (data visualization for the term paper)
• presentation
• exams

Class Resources

The following resources are available to students for this course:

• a class e-mail discussion group, risp523-l@listserv.albany.edu  [mailto],
• PC Laboratories around campus [HTML],
• a class Web site [HTML], and
• the Writing Center in the Department of English [HTML]. Students are strongly encouraged to use this resource.

Calendar

Note: "readings" refer to items to be read for that day's class session unless noted otherwise.
      "assignments" refer to tasks that are given on the day of the class.

Date	Topics	Readings / Notes*	Assignments
Sept 3	Class Orientation A History of IT	Notes: A History of IT	Review Electronic Resources [HTML] Review Project Description [HTML]
Sept 10	Fundamental Information Technology Concepts The Human-Computer Interface	Chapters 1 and 2 Notes: Introduction to Information Applications Data and Files Graphical User Interfaces to Operating System	Lab: Exploration [HTML]
Sept 17	Networking Concepts	Chapter 3 Notes: Data communications Distributed Computing, Client/Server	Lab: Data Communication Tools & Unix [HTML]
Sept 24	Exam 1	Chapters 5, 6	Lab: Web Search [HTML]
Oct 1	HTML	Chapter 4, Appendix A Notes: Hypertext, Hypermedia, HTML HTML Tutorial	Lab: Web Page Authoring [HTML]
Oct 8	Computer Organization Operating Systems Concepts	Chapter 7, 8, 9 Notes: Computer Organization Operating Systems	Lab: Operating Systems [HTML]
Oct 15	Multimedia (I): Presentation Systems	Chapter 11 Notes: Multimedia (I)	Paper Drafts due for review Lab: Excel [HTML] Lab: PowerPoint [HTML]
Oct 22	Multimedia (II): Image Processing Systems	Chapter 11 Notes: Multimedia (II)	Lab: Photoshop [HTML]
Oct 29	Exam 2	Chapter 13	Lab: Open Lab for Projects
Nov 5	Database Concepts	Chapter 14, 15 Notes: Data, Files, and Database Management Systems	Lab: Databases [HTML]
Nov 12	Algorithmic Thinking Programming	Chapter 10, 18, 21 Notes: Algorithmic Thinking & Introduction to Programming	Lab: Introduction to      Programming [HTML]
Nov 19	Social Implications of IT Privacy & Security	Chapter 12, 17 Notes: Social Issues Security and Privacy	Lab: Open Lab
Nov 26	*** Holiday ***
Dec 3	Project presentations	Review project Web sites
Dec 10	Exam 3

Policies

• Students are expected to attend all class sessions and to be on time.
• Students are expected to be prepared to discuss all of the readings assigned for a given class session.
• Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. [HTML]
• The rights and privileges of students and the instructor with regard to attendance, academic dishonesty and student conduct in general will conform to the policies set forth in the current University at Albany Undergraduate Bulletin or University at Albany Graduate Bulletin, whichever is appropriate to the student.

• The components of the final grade as follows:

exams                           30%
term paper                      20%
charts                          10%
database                        10%
web site                        15%
presentation slides             10%
oral presentation                5%

• Final grades will be assigned according to the following scale:

A      100-95
A-     94-90
B+     89-86
B      85
B-     84-80
C+     79-76
C      75
C-     74-70
D+     69-66
D      65
D-     64-60
E      <= 59

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This page was last updated on 14 September 2003.