General introduction on the questions covered, and on the IT requirements for the exercises

Contents of the course, how to work on it

A) CONTENTS: The present exercises, based on the Georgian Cities resource, which deals with urban culture in 18th-century Britain, will cover the areas presented in Georgian Cities, ranging from studies of society and social life, religion, transport and trade, to descriptions of architecture and accounts of cultural activities such as music as well as issues concerning the role of science and the representation of cities in literature and in the arts. 

They are meant to introduce you to the multidisciplinary nature of urban studies, relating all the areas mentioned above and discussing their interactions. They are also meant to make you familiar with the digital presentation of such subjects, which include texts, images and sound, linked in different ways through hypermedia navigation, and illustrated by interactive animations. 

The exercices will familiarise you with the practice of English for academic purposes at a high level: "using language flexibly",  "producing well-structured, detailed texts on complex subjects", "showing controlled use of cohesive devices"  (skills corresponding to level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference - description abridged from the official definition). You will practise the type of style used in writings on cultural history, social sciences, literary studies and history of art - your major subjects - so as to help you read such writings in English on the topics you are studying. 

B) PURPOSE OF THE EXERCISES AND TOOLS NEEDED: The exercises are meant to encourage critical interpretations of  the material, after research on the Georgian Cities website, so that there will be several types of them to show the variety of possible approaches to the subject, and to familiarise you with present-day approaches and debates in social and cultural history, which will be mentioned and discussed in the chapters on the various topics. 

You will need several IT tools to prepare your answers: 

1) Some of the exercises require essays in answer to questions, they are meant to make you practice research on a topic and reflect on possible interpretations. Practically, you will need word-processing, which you may do on moodle or on your own-word processor and upload on moodle. When the exercise requires creating tables, you may use the basic software you have (i.e. in your word-processing program) or more professional speadsheets if you are familiar with them.

2) Some assignments raise questions concerning visual culture - the image/society relations at the time; they also require you to produce images of the social phenomena described, according to present-day modes of representation - diagrams, edited photos, for instance- showing your awareness of 'information visualisation' issues; you may use any simple image or paint program present on all computers, and upload your work on moodle.

3) Other exercises ask you to correlate data - link places and activities for instance, or specify which activity was the cause of a social phenomenon. Such quizzes are multiple-choice questions which you will answer directly on moodle. For the the database exercises, which you will also answer directly on moodle, the database has been prepared for you (i.e. you do not need to create one on a database program), you are just asked to add new records by writing in the fields after searching for examples. 

4) Forums are for you to debate interpretations on the social history of cities, and you will write your arguments directly on moodle.