The course consists of an integrated series of lectures and tutorials (with occasional video footage). Students are expected to attend two one-hour lectures and a one-hour tutorial per week. Assessment will be based closely on the content of the lectures and tutorials. To view the Lecture program, click here. To view the Tutorial program, click here.

A one-page PowerPoint summary with supplementary readings will be handed out prior to each lecture. These can also be obtained from outside the School Office, from the library or through your webCT site.

Lectures:

Tutorials:

At the ANU, lectures begin at 5 minutes past the hour and finish no later that 5 minutes before the hour. This is to allow you to move comfortably from one class to another.

Lectures will be always available on Wattle. However, these materials are not a substitute for attending lectures. Furthermore, occasionally, through technical problems or human error, the DLDrecordings are inaudible.

The lecturer will also permit you to use your own cassette recorder in the lecture theatre.

There are some useful hints available here for taking notes in lectures.

MY PHILOSOPHY ON USING POWERPOINT

Prior to second semester 2002, all my lectures were conducted using black-and-white overheads and a one-page lecture summary. However, Richard Baker from Geography introduced me to the possibilities of PowerPoint when we co-taught SRES1001 in the first semester of 2002.

There are many people who are wary of using PowerPoint and have questioned its use as a teaching tool. Richard Denniss from The Australia Institute is a marvellous speaker and he avoids Powerpoint. According to him, 'Power corrupts, and Powerpoint corrupts absolutely'.

I would support many of sentiments voiced by Tara Brabazon in her book Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2002. This extract is taken from The Australian, Wednesday 4 December, 2002, p. 27:

If I could uninvent one software program, it would be PowerPoint. Without exception, the worst prenentations, lectures and budget briefings I attend are conducted using this tragic package. Presenters break all the rules of public speaking: repeating verbatim the words on the screen; letting the technology determnine the pace and order of the presentation; and even requiring a darkened room. Many of these presentations either do not run or start late because of problems with the technology. For students, new problems emerge. Students desire access to the overheads of a lecture - this access means that they do not have to attend the lecture. More seriously, the students who check their notes against the PowerPoint slides will invariably copy down any points they missed - word for word. This is not critical thinking; it is not even thinking. Further, the illusion of access promoted by computers creates confusion between the presentation of information and the capacity to use, sort and interpret it. Information is not the issue; the methodologies available to access it must be granted more attention.

Like Brabazon, some of the worst presentations I have encountered have used PowerPoint. However, I do not believe that this condemns the tool - it merely demonstates that there are appropriate and inappropriate ways of using PowerPoint. I have witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly and believe that the good can be achieved through following these pratices:

In SOCY1002, PowerPoint is used as a means of illustrating an argument. Most of the slides are illustrations (i.e., cartoons or paintings) that back up the points that I am making. When I look back at a black-and-white overhead and compare it with the PowerPoint equivalent, it becomes clear how valuable and expressive PowerPoint can become. Most of the text on my Powerpoint will either be quotations, which again act as illustrations of the points I am making. As you will have handouts of the PowerPoint, you will not have to write these down. This allows you to listen to the lecture and the context within which the quotation is placed. Powerpoint also allows me to draw more accurate diagrams than those I can create with a felt-tip pen and an overhead. Finally, I have overhead copies of my PowerPoint slides and if the technology fails, then the lecture will commence at five minutes past the hour using these overheads. No time will be lost due to technological failure. Through using PowerPoint in this way, I aim to avoid the very real problems that Brabazon highlights. In my view, the problems she outlines are a result of the operator, not the technology.