As I was raised by schoolteachers, I have been conditioned with a fine blend of excitement and dread when the calendar turns to August. The first time I see Crayola markers and Mead notebooks and Elmer’s glue on the front of the Target circular, I get a little giddy. Now that I’m on the tenure track, that giddiness is a delectable frosting atop a dense, caked panic about how I’mnotreadyI’mnotreadyI’mnotready. I look at my summer to-do list and drag my eyes across the names of a dozen unwritten papers and untouched datasets that were supposed to be blackened with the stroke of a Sharpie by now.

Rather than muse about what’s undone, though, I’m going to reframe to think about what will get done in the next couple of weeks: course syllabi. Somehow, dropping that final version off for copies makes it feel like I’ve done all the teaching prep I need to do until school starts. (Lies.) So, if you’re out there plugging away at a comm tech syllabus, perhaps you’ll find these useful (and of course, while you’re there, check out the professors’ research). I’ve divided them by general topics and made a note if they’re graduate level. If you’ve got one to share, please email me and I’d be happy to link to it.

General

Introduction to Communication Technologies (Henry Jenkins, U. of Southern California)

Communication Technology (grad survey course) (me)

Comm Tech & Society

Digital Media & Society (Fred Turner, Stanford)

Digital Media & Society (Kennedy School @ Harvard)

Social Media

Social Media (me)

Social Media & Society (Jessica Vitak, U. of Maryland)

Video Games/Virtual Environments

Video Games & the Individual (me)

Video Game Effects (grad) (Mike Schmierbach, Penn State U)

Digital Games: Theory and Research (grad) (Mia Consalvo, Concordia U.)

Cheating, Games, and the Ethics of Play (Mia Consalvo, Concordia U.)

HCI

Principles of Human-Computer Interaction (me)

 Computer Interfaces and Human Identity (J. Roselyn Lee, Ohio State U)

Organizational Communication

Information Technology and Organizational Communication (Axel Westerwick, Ohio State U)

Health Communication

Health Communication and New Media (David DeAndrea, Ohio State U)

Visual Communication

Media Aesthetics (Danielle Stern, Christopher Newport U)