[SIGCIS-Members] History courses in CS departments

Wed Feb 15 11:50:57 PST 2023

Dear Evan, 

In the spring I sent a description (copied below) of the online history graduate seminar I taught in the Computational Media department at UC Santa Cruz in 2020, within the School of Engineering. I may have sent it from the wrong email address in June, not sure it got through. The department there has rotated a number of historical seminars, including one by Ted Nelson. I can connect you with the founder of the department who might have some practiced arguments you can use for why history matters in CS. 

Starting fall of 2020, Andy van Dam at Brown and his former student and hypertext pioneer Norm Meyrowitz taught a course within CS that combined a very deep history of hypertext with practical hypertext programming; students created their own system as a final project. 

I personally tend to use other sciences as an example. Biology, physics, and chemistry all weave in the names and very brief accomplishments of scientists as part of normal courses. Lavoisier, Boyle, Krebs, Avogadro, Bunsen, why do I remember these names and sometimes a bit about them? Not from reading the history of science, but from high school and undergraduate science courses. CS curricula don’t do the equivalent, though apparently some used to decades ago (I recall Len Shustek saying Stanford did when he was a student). 

Best, Marc

Marc Weber <https://computerhistory.org/profile/marc-weber/> (he/him)
Curatorial Director, Internet History Program
Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
marc at webhistory.org  |  +1 415 282 6868
computerhistory.org/nethistory  |  Co-founder, Web History Center and Project

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Marc Weber <marcweber at att.net>
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Homework assignment types for computer history survey course?
> Date: June 30, 2022 at 15:45:26 PDT
> To: "Koblentz, Evan A" <evan.koblentz at njit.edu>
> Cc: "members at SIGCIS.org" <members at sigcis.org>
> 
> Hi Evan, 
> 
> Class sounds great, congratulations! 
> 
> For a seminar I taught at UC Santa Cruz on the history of the online world the main assignments were biweekly readings, which we then discussed in class, and a final project. The “midterm” was a description of the proposed final project. The finals consisted of both a live presentation and the project itself, which could either be a paper or, for the technically or artistically minded, software or other digital content. 
> 
> The seminar was in the Computational Media department, so students had a range of skills from modeling autonomous vehicles to game design. I don’t know if you can reasonably ask your CS students to do something different and potentially more technical than the others for a final project, but if so that might be something to consider. 
> 
> Because Covid switched the seminar to Zoom, I could easily bring in more guest speakers than originally planned including Ted Nelson, Andy van Dam, and Paul Lindner of Gopher. I asked students to prepare questions for the speakers, whom they had also read some background on. If you have a decent screen in your classroom you might try bringing in a couple of remote guest speakers that way. 
> 
> Best, Marc
> 
> 
>> On Jun 30, 2022, at 14:04, Nabeel Siddiqui <nasiddiqui at email.wm.edu <mailto:nasiddiqui at email.wm.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Evan,
>> 
>> Congratulations on your first time working as an adjunct instructor. Seems like you taught a wonderful class! 
>> 
>> In terms of the assignment, I don’t have any specific suggestions, but I would ask you to think about what you are hoping to accomplish in changing your assignments first before doing so. When advising faculty in our Center for Teaching and Learning, I usually ask faculty to go through a three prong process roughly based on backward-design:
>> 
>> 1. What are the learning objectives of the course?
>> 2. What assessments/assignments would allow a student to demonstrate that they are meeting those objectives?
>> 3. What are the readings/skills you need to impart on the student to allow them to complete the assessment/assignment?
>> 
>> Without the learning objective, it isn’t really clear why you are changing your assignments. Why does a student viewing a class as an easy A matter? Ideally, a student should be able to easily demonstrate the learning objectives if proper pedagogical practices are followed. I would caution against viewing harsher grading as a way to motivate your students. Have you reached out to NJIT's Institute for Teaching Excellence? I am also happy to talk to you about syllabus design and assignments through email privately if you would prefer.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> Nabeel
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jun 30, 2022, at 2:41 PM, Christine Finn <christine.finn at gmail.com <mailto:christine.finn at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Evan, 
>>> 
>>> For a decade, I taught Silicon Valley as a type of contemporary archaeology fieldwork at the University of Bristol, UK.
>>> 
>>> My first assignment each year was in the classroom, asking students to recall their personal tech history, ie what they used, what they discarded. It might sound a bit light, but it brought up some deep discussion, and you could set it as an essay. 
>>> 
>>> That question is the basis of the long duree sequel to "Artifacts".
>>> 
>>> cheers, 
>>> 
>>> Christine
>>> 
>>> Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
>>> Author: Artifacts: an archaeologist's year in Silicon Valley (MIT Press)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Thu, 30 Jun 2022 at 20:14, Koblentz, Evan A <evan.koblentz at njit.edu <mailto:evan.koblentz at njit.edu>> wrote:
>>> This week I received my course evaluations from our spring semester. It was my first time working as an adjunct instructor. The student evaluations of my knowledge and teaching were great, the only exception being that everyone ranked the assignments as average, easy, or very easy.
>>> 
>>> The assignments were:
>>> - multiple choice quiz at the start of each class, to ensure the students read the homework chapters
>>> - midterm with 10 open-ended questions
>>> - final paper
>>> 
>>> For those who teach similar courses (survey of the history of computing), what kind of assignments do you give? Also what sort of in-class group projects do you assign? I'm looking for new ideas. There is some concern that CS students might take my course with the expectation of it being an easy A. (It's not, but still I think it needs to be more challenging for them.)
>>> _______________________________________________
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>> _______________________________________________
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> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
> 
> 
>> On Feb 15, 2023, at 09:40, Evan Koblentz via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi everyone,
>> 
>> I've been teaching a special topics course in computer history for three semesters here at NJIT. The university policy is three semesters maximum, then the course must be made permanent or cancelled. So I'm going through the process of trying to make it permanent.
>> 
>> The department administration supports it, but it has to be voted on by the rank-and-file faculty, many of whom don't seem to understand the value of a history course -- or at least not of a history course in a technical department, rather than through our humanities college.
>> 
>> It would help if I can show them other examples. Can anyone point me existing examples of history courses in CS, EE, or other technical departments at U.S. universities?
>> -- 
>> Evan Koblentz
>> New Jersey Institute of Technology
>> - Senior Writer, Office of Strategic Communications
>> - Adjunct Instructor, Ying Wu College of Computing
>> - Faculty/Staff Advisor, NJIT Lego Club
>> 
>> evank at njit.edu <mailto:evank at njit.edu>
>> (973) 596-3065
>> https://web.njit.edu/~evank <https://web.njit.edu/~evank/>
>> _______________________________________________
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