Lee Honeycutt (honeyl@iastate.edu) Office: 247 Ross Hall Office Hours: T/R: 2:00 - 3:30 pm Office: 294-4617 Classroom: T/R Ross

Goals

Through both theory and practice, we will explore various computer technologies used to support professional communication within groups. In the first part of the course, we will study major theories of group interaction and computer-mediated communication to gain critical faculties for examining the use of technology by professional workgroups. In the second part, we will use these theories to investigate specific technologies, such as email, Lotus Notes, NetMeeting, and other groupware applications used in various professional contexts. You will leave this course with not only a working familiarity with such technologies, but also a theoretical framework for critiquing their use in future workplace settings.

Texts

• Donnellon, A. (1996). Team talk: Listening between the lines to improve team performance. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
  
  
• Fisher, K., & Fisher, M. D. (1998). The distributed mind: Achieving high performance through the collective intelligence of knowledge work teams. New York: Amacom.
  
  
• Galegher, J. R., Kraut, R. E., & Egido, C. (1990). Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological foundations of cooperative work. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum. (individual chapters)
  
  
• Smith, J. B. (1994). Collective intelligence in computer-based collaboration. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

In addition, we will read a number of articles in PDF format, which can be printed on a campus or home printer. To comply with fair use provisions of copyright law, each of these files is password protected.

Attendance

Because this is a seminar course, it is important that you attend class on a regular basis to support the growth of our collective ideas. If something comes up that prevents you from attending, please let me know via email. You will be responsible for contacting other students to find out what you missed in class.

Grading

Grades in this class are assigned on a 100-percent system, which is broken down as follows:

Class/Email Discussion	10
Annotated Bibliography	10
Group Theory Synthesis	15
CMC Theory Synthesis	15
Technology Assessment	20
Final Research Paper	30

Meetings

At midterm, we will meet in one-on-one conferences, during which I will give you a grade in-progress so you can get a sense of how you are doing in the course. These meetings will be very informal and will be held in my office according to a schedule we will put together at that time. Attendance for these conferences is mandatory; if something arises to prevent your attending, you must provide 24-hour notice and reschedule the meeting.

In addition to the above conference, you are always welcome to make an appointment during the office hours listed on the front of the syllabus. Rather than just dropping by, it usually works better if you schedule an appointment ahead of time so we can both prepare for our discussion. However, you are still welcome to just drop by if you have an urgent need to talk.

Technology

The world of business overwhelmingly uses the Windows operating system, and as a result, many groupware applications are written in this format only. For this reason, all of our computer sessions during Thursday’s class will be held in the new Windows computer lab in 115 Ross Hall. I’m working to convince the lab administrators to let us download and test drive a few groupware programs in this lab later in the semester. If you use a Macintosh computer (like I do) and want to move files to the Windows platform, you can either FTP them to your Vincent account and download them in the PC lab, or save them to a PC-formatted floppy disk on your Mac machine. If you have problems doing so, just let me know.

Late Papers

Late papers are sometimes necessary in graduate school, but should be avoided if at all possible. If you feel it is necessary to submit an assignment late, you can receive an extension if you email me before the assignment is due and explain the reason for the delay. You must also propose a reasonable deadline (less than one week), which you will then be expected to meet. You can submit late papers no more than once during the semester.