Introduction

Four hundred years of history is a drop in the ocean of time, even if there are 12 chapters of material to look at! Four hundred years is also the span of time this course will cover! Don't panic, at least not yet! As a survey course we will skin the surface and every so often take a plunge into the depths of history. So you will not need to know all of the history of every past civilization. After all, this is a survey course. Like an express train we must bypass many of those interesting local stops. In time however you might want to take the local train and do some further exploring -- that's what elective courses are for. But for us, the course will focus on broad themes and topics that have had a tremendous influence on human civilization and which can still be seen anytime you read a newspaper, watch the news, or surf the net.

"Themes and topics." This sounds scholarly and somewhat boring. But these things deal with the issues that have faced humans from our very beginnings. People in the past had concerns that were similar to ours. They asked the same types of questions that we ask now. Things like, is there a god? What is right and wrong? What makes up a family? How can we make a vibrant and vital community? If We build it, will THEY come? Who controls society? In the past, humanity answered these and other questions in ways that satisfied their needs. We will look at some of these responses and the ways in which they have changed and evolved.

This course will challenge you. But this course will also reward you for meeting this challenge. You will be learning more than just historical facts. You will use your imagination and a growing number of skills to enter the minds and lives of the peoples of the past. This course will also help you to write clearly, distinctly, and persuasively. You will present yourself through your written words. Think about that. The words you type will be seen by your instructor and by your fellow students. (You can start to panic a little bit now.) But this expericence will help you become an effective writer and communicator.

This course will also teach you to "read." Perhaps you think you already know how to do this. But reading is much more than just understanding words on a page. Reading is active. It is interpretive, and this is what you will learn. In this course, you will not only "read" texts, but also images. Understanding texts is very important, but we are also a very visual species. We are constantly bombarded with images, from TV, movies, and advertising. Being able to critically understand the importance of images, graphics, videos, and other visual materials gives you more insight into a particular time, or people, or culture.

Learning should be fun. This course will try to make many profound ideas and issues fun. There will occasionally be humor, and all of us will get used to how this can be expressed over the Web. Here's a (bad) example: A plane crashes on the US/Canadian border. Where do they bury the survivors? Of course they don't bury SURVIVORS! This tells you (hopefully) that there is something funny going on. This is a bad joke. Nevertheless, someone with a bad sense of humor might respond with this, "ROFL" which means "Rolling on the Floor Laughing." No one is going to roll on the floor with our lousy joke, but we all can learn to communicate emotions over the internet. In fact, we must do this so that we can make ourselves better understood. Consider this your first lesson on how to write clearly. : )

As you already know, this is an unusual class. We will rarely see one another. We will get to know each other however. We all will have a constant presence on the Web, and we will transmit our thoughts and ideas to one another constantly. Your instructor hopes that you will enjoy this new approach to learning and of course that you will learn much. We appreciate your comments during the semester. We are not psychic, and any feedback that you give us will be useful. (Just don't tell us that there is too much work. We always hear that there is too much work.)

Enough of this! Get to work!

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