DIGI 2305: Digital Humanities: September 2011 - April 2012
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Wiki Assignment

The Wiki Assignment is predominantly a group research assignment. You will be assigned to one of five broad topics. You will research the topic and present the results of your research on the class wiki, Nip-eScrawl.

There will be four or five people assigned to each topic. You are free to create, delete, and edit any pages that fall under your topic. Authorship is occluded: you will not assign your name to anything you write as part of the group, though the wiki software will keep track of your work (and others will be able to see the history of your changes to the wiki pages). You should feel free to edit, augment, and even remove material that others in your group have contributed (and they are free to do the same with your material). I recommend you do not get together with other members of your group to plan or even discuss the wiki project: I would prefer the whole project be conducted in this “virtual” environment. You are welcome to set up discussions on the wiki site itself with other members of your group.

The wiki is divided into five namespaces, each representing one of the topics. (Note: the namespace name is the keyword name for the topic preceded by “2011_”.) Only members of a particular group can contribute material to the corresponding namespace. Everyone is welcome to view/read pages of any group/namespace. You can navigate through the namespaces using the menu box in the upper-right part of the screen. Please ask your instructor or other classmates for help with using the wiki if you are having trouble.

HeroesRepresenting the hero in video games
How are the heroes of video games represented? What do they look like; what are their skills; how do they interact with their communities and their environments? You should focus in depth on at least five heroes. You must focus on issues of identity: what human characteristics contribute to the heroic character? Why does the game represent the hero in the manner it does? You are welcome to categorize different types of heroes.
VillainsRepresenting the villain in video games
How are the villains of video games represented? What do they look like; what are their skills; how do they interact with their communities, their environments, and their foes? You should focus in depth on at least five villains. You must focus on issues of identity: what human characteristics contribute to the villainous character? Why does the game represent the villain in the manner it does? You are welcome to categorize different types of villains.
HCIInterpretation of human-computer interfaces
The tools we use to interact with computers are metaphorical extensions of our own bodies. Analyse at least four categories of such tools, looking at specific examples within each category. Examine the name, appearance, manipulation, etc., of each device. Explain in detail the figurative/metaphorical interpretation of the interface and what this might say about humans and machines.
EducationUse of computer technology in education
Research and explain the main tools and techniques of incorporating computer technology in the classroom and in assignments, divided into three schooling levels: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Avoid talking about “special education”: adapting education for students with special needs. Clearly explain the uses, benefits, and limitations of these tools and techniques.
AIArtificially intelligent
Examine in detail five or more examples of actual (not fictional) programs/computers/machines that can be classified (at least in part) as artificially intelligent. Focus on the human-like aspects of these entities. How similar are these to humans? What human characteristics are retained and what are changed? To what extent are these improvements upon humans and what are their limitations?

You are welcome to write encyclopaedia-style entries for your topic, using Wikipedia as a model for these entries. You are also welcome to rethink the model and create wiki pages in the style you think will best reflect your topic. The pages for each topic need to cover at least three things: 1) definition and history/background, 2) examples, and 3) relevance to the study of Digital Humanities. Each topic has a main page, and I expect at least three other pages associated with the topic.

There is also a General namespace, to which anyone can contribute. You are welcome to add anything you wish to this namespace, and you are welcome to identify yourself by name as the contributor. Anything you add here may be picked up (without stealing) by another group to include in their own namespace pages.

Your username on the wiki website will be the same as your username for logging on to WebAdvisor. Your initial login password will be the three digits from your Nipissing email address followed (without a space) by 2305. You should change your password to something else, something more personal, to help protect your work.

The assignment ends on the night of March 24th, at which point logins to the wiki will be disabled and evaluation will commence. A grade will be assigned to each group, and all members will share the grade. This grade, however, may be raised or lowered for individual students to reflect the inordinate value of the contributions by individuals within the group. There will also be penalties for students who do not do at least a minimal amount of work, according to the following schedule:

Virtual-space collaboration is the guiding principle of this assignment.



Marc R. Plamondon, Ph.D. Department of English Studies Nipissing University