Help Me Build a Class Reading List

[Setherick]

Alright people, I'm teaching UWM's Research and Writing class online next semester. I figure this will work out great because I'm already on the internets for any number of hours of the day doing different things. Anyway, I've decided to build the core/common readings for the class around "memes." I can't assign all of Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene as a reading, but I'll probably pull a few articles by Susan Blackmore and others as well as provide any number of internet links.


I haven't decided on the articles I want to grab yet, but here's a quick list of links I'm thinking of including as places where students could look. The way I teach this course, I attempt to blend both "academic" research with "popular culture," which accounts for the hodgepodge of links.

Know Your Meme: www.knowyourmeme.com
Urban Dictionary's (a meta-meme) definitions of memes: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=meme
Wikipedia's entry on memes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme (I actually have an assignment that teaches students how to use Wikipedia to find other sources. I figure if students are going to use it anyway, teach them how to use it right.)

Stanford's Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Replication with a focus on the section on memes: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/replication/#MemImmSys

Susan Blackmore's TED talk on "Memes" and "Temes": http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html
Dan Dennett's TED talk on "Dangerous Memes": http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes.html

What should I add?

[clockworkjoe]

http://mediactive.com/about/

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/13/dan-gillmors-mediact.html

Dan "We, the Media" Gillmor's latest book, Mediactive is a master-class in media literacy for the 21st century. Gillmor, a former star reporter at the San Jose Mercury News, serial entrepreneur, and journalism professor, has produced an extraordinary text that disrupts the current poor-me narrative of failing journalistic business models and counters it with a set of sensible, entrepreneurial proposals for an Internet era news-media that invites broad participation without surrendering critical thinking and healthy skepticism.

[AmishNinja]

Alright people, I'm teaching UWM's Research and Writing class online next semester.

Sorry for not contributing yet (I'm at work) but I didn't know you were at UWM. I'm in Madison.

[Setherick]

Alright people, I'm teaching UWM's Research and Writing class online next semester.

Sorry for not contributing yet (I'm at work) but I didn't know you were at UWM. I'm in Madison.

I thought there was another cheesehead on the forums.

[Cthuluzord]

"Here Comes Everybody" or "The Cognitive Surplus" by Clay Shirky would be great.  If you don't want to sift through those for excerpts.  Shirky has a TED talk called "Gin and the Cognitive Surplus" and a few others that really provide a good framework for any Web 2.0-ish concept.

[Setherick]

"Here Comes Everybody" or "The Cognitive Surplus" by Clay Shirky would be great.  If you don't want to sift through those for excerpts.  Shirky has a TED talk called "Gin and the Cognitive Surplus" and a few others that really provide a good framework for any Web 2.0-ish concept.

I'll probably grab the TED talk. I don't like to assign longer things because I want my students to find them and read them on their own. I'm more looking for short pieces that I can use as examples of places where students can start.

[Setherick]

Well, this is going on the reading list: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/26150/