This semester, a new class added to the School of Information Studies course list allows students to study technology that is literally out of this world.

The class, IST 300: ‘Star Trek and the Information Age,’ explores the messages of science and communication in the ‘Star Trek’ series and attempts to apply them to everyday life.

Adjunct professor Anthony Rotolo, who specializes in social media, designed the course. Though he wasn’t a fan of the show as a child, Rotolo said,he has been a ‘Star Trek’ enthusiast for most of his adult life. Rotolo realized the show’s content was worthy enough to be studied at a university and planned a curriculum around the series.

Jeff Stanton, dean of research at the iSchool, said the innovative class combines pop culture and social media to study modern technology — a smart way to generate more interest in the iSchool program.

‘We’re very experimental (at the iSchool),’ Stanton said. ‘The staff is just bubbling over with ideas, so when we get one that’s worth trying and has a shot of getting some students to take it, then we go for it.’

With the iSchool’s approval, Rotolo had a new class for the spring semester.

In the IST 300 course, Rotolo and his students watch episodes on one projection screen while simultaneously engaging in a live discussion on Twitter that’s displayed on another screen. Students can pose questions in the form of a tweet without interrupting the class, and their peers can respond. Members of the class must also participate in a collaborative blog at trekclass.com, where they post their thoughts and evaluate what they’ve seen in class. Rotolo calls this the ‘blended instructional model’ because his students are interacting both online and face-to-face.

‘This course is focused very much on real-world contemporary issues, pulling examples from ‘Star Trek’ that we can use to relate to issues that particularly professionals in the information field are trying to answer right now,’ Rotolo said.

Erin Kidd, a junior illustration major, said she particularly enjoys the class because she has realized the characters in ‘Star Trek’ are trying to make a social statement.

‘I find it interesting because, as an illustrator, I have to comment on society and, in turn, challenge society to be different, which is sort of what ‘Star Trek’ is doing, just in a different way,’ Kidd said.

Brian Norris, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he always loved ‘Star Trek’ and that this class is the perfect mix of science and technology. This course has also reinforced Norris’ belief that much of our technology today has been inspired by ‘Star Trek.’

Rotolo agrees with Norris but attributes most of our technological innovations to all of science fiction, not just the ‘Star Trek’ series.

‘A lot of the folks who work at companies like Apple and Microsoft are people who may have grown up watching shows like ‘Star Trek,’ and oftentimes they see things like a hand-held tablet device used in ‘The Next Generation,’ and certainly some of those concepts are going to show up in the designs that they make,’ Rotolo said.

While classes that incorporate social media have captured student interest, neither Rotolo nor the iSchool could have predicted how popular the IST 300 course would become. The first day of registration had the course booked within hours, and a 70-person cap was eventually put on enrollment. For future semesters, the class is open to all undergraduate students, regardless of their majors.

‘What I see this as, from the perspective of the iSchool, is that whether the student is in our program or not, if the student has an interest in discussing these types of topics, they

likely have an interest in much more than we do here,’ Rotolo said. ‘I see this as a gateway to possibilities.’

egsawyer@syr.edu

Published on January 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Liz: egsawyer@syr.edu | @3sawyer