HY309 - Electric Renaissance

An experiment in learning

Dr. E. L. Skip Knox

Course Description

Resources and References

Student Papers and Projects

Course Description

The subject matter of this course is the history of Europe from around 1300 to around 1500. The course emphasizes Italy and especially the Italian Renaissance, but we will pay some attention to events north of the Alps as well. How will this course work? We will meet once face-to-face on the first scheduled class meeting on January 17, 1995. From then on, students will use the required readings as their primary source of information. They will supplement these with some readings, including short essays by the professor (Skip Knox), that will be available on-line. Class discussions will be conducted electronically as well. For more information on the computer technical details, click here.

Grading

35% Term Paper
30% Discussion and on-line work
20% Diplomatic Reports
15% Essay

Required Books

Everyone

Gene Brucker, Renaissance Florence
DeLamar Jensen, Renaissance Europe
Jakob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy**
Denys Hay & John Law, Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1380-1530
Denys Hay, Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

** Burckhardt is also available on the Web.

Required for Graduates, recommended for undergraduates

Ross & McLaughlin, eds., Renaissance Reader
Kohl & Smith, eds., Major Problems in the History of the Italian Renaissance

Assignments

Term Paper

The term paper is to be a minimum of 10 pages long (15 pages for graduate students), not including front and end matter. It can be on any topic within our period, but you must use at least three different book-length sources (graduates must also use journal literature). For term papers I prefer end notes over footnotes.

I would like your term paper turned in both electronically and physically. The physical version must be double spaced.

Discussion

Class discussion is handled on the list. I expect everyone to participate fully. While I will not grade on sheer volume, I regard two contributions a week to be a bare minimum and expect to see three to five from most of you.

The quality of the participation is the most important factor. Quality covers originality or insight demonstrated, as well as the clarity of the communication. While on-line discussion is not formal writing, the more thoughtful your participation and the better expressed, the better your grade will be.

Diplomatic Reports

These are short reports written weekly. Each of you will choose a city or state that will be yours for the semester. Each week you will write a report on what of significance and/or interest was going on your state during a quarter century span (see the Course Schedule).

These reports are not scholarly works. Write them as if you were a diplomat from Florence making a report to the signoria on conditions in foreign lands. Such reports naturally covered political conditions, but they often also contained information on economic trends, peculiar social customs, and (naturally) court gossip.

The intent of these reports is that the whole class can become better informed about various places in Europe. Have some fun with this. You do not need to cite sources for this exercise, but of course you cannot make things up, either!

Course Schedule

Click here for detailed information about the reading assignments.

January 17, 1995 -- live class meeting, 7-9pm in SMITC 210.

1/31: 1300-1325 report
2/07: 1325-1350 report
2/14: 1350-1375 report
2/21: 1375-1400 report
2/28: 1400-1425 report
3/07: 1425-1450 report
3/14: 1450-1475 report
3/21: 1475-1500 report

3/27-3/31 Spring Break!

4/04: 1500-1525 report
4/11: 1525-1550 report
4/18: First draft of term paper due
4/25: Latest date for submitting your essay
5/02: Lesson plans due
5/09: Final draft of term paper due. Nothing accepted after this date

Computer Details

Resources On-Line

A number of resources will be available on-line via the Internet. Some of these will be supplementary, but others will be required reading. Since you are reading this document you already know how to get to the resources -- use some sort of WWW browser (Lynx, Mosaic, Cello). You can access the browser on campus from any of several labs. You can access from home by dialing into BSUINFO.

Class Discussions

All class discussion will be handled through a Bitnet list. To participate, you must have an e-mail account (available from the Data Center in B-116). Once you have the account, send a message to

listserv@idbsu.idbsu.edu

. Leave the subject line blank. The text of the message must be

sub hy309-l first last

where first is your first name and last is your last name.

You should get a message back within a few minutes telling you that you've been added to the list. That message will contain further instructions on how to use the list most effectively. Once you've joined the list you are welcome to post messages, even if the semester has not yet started.

Working from Home You can get to mail and to the Web from home. You must have a computer with at least a 9600 baud modem (14.4 much preferred), and you must get the Trumpet software -- regular communication software won't do the job. If you have your own SLIP software it may work, but BSU cannot support it. Get Trumpet.

Start by going to the Data Center in B-116. There you can get your e-mail account and the booklet with the orange cover about student computing at BSU. Around page 15 is instructions on how to get Trumpet, install and configure it, and how to dial in.

Trumpet is actually two programs. One, TCPMAN, does the dialling but nothing more. The other part (Trumpet) lets you read mail. You will, in addition, need a Web browser. You can use either Netscape or Mosaic. These can be found at the same site as you found Trumpet. They are in the Internet directory.

If you have questions about this, or need help, call me or come by the Faculty Computer Lab in SMITC-209.