School of Engineering and
Applied
Science Department of Computer Science CSci 110 -- Technology and Society http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/csci110/summer08 Prof. Michael B. Feldman, course instructor mfeldman@gwu.edu |
WEEK (click for details) |
TOPIC |
COURSE DELIVERABLES (due via your Assignment Menu by 11:59 PM EDT) |
PROJECT DELIVERABLES (due by 11:59 PM EDT) |
---|---|---|---|
7/7 - 7/13 |
Introduction, History, Ethics |
(due by Friday 7/11) Digital photo (JPEG or GIF) of yourself; introduce yourself to class members; personal ethical evaluation (8%) (due by Tuesday 7/15) Class discussion of ethics scenario |
|
7/14 - 7/20 |
Privacy |
(due by Friday 7/18) Ethics Scenario Analysis (8%) |
(due by Sunday 7/20) Research Report on Voting Technologies (8%) |
7/21 - 7/27 |
Free Speech and the Internet |
(due by Thursday 7/24) Current Issue Paper #1 (8%) |
(due by Sunday 7/27) Draft of Zoomerang Surveys (8%) |
Week 4 Details 7/28 - 8/3 |
Reliability of Critical Software
Systems |
(due by Thursday 7/31) Sci-Fi Paper (8%) |
(due by Sunday 8/3) Surveys Deployed on Zoomerang |
Week 5 Details 8/4 - 8/10 |
Can We Trust the Computer? |
(due by Thursday 8/7) Current Issue Paper #2 (8%) |
(due by Sunday 8/10 Preliminary Report on Survey Results (8%) |
8/11 - 8/16 |
Software as Intellectual Property |
(due by Saturday 8/16) Final Group Reports on Voting Technologies (8%) |
Objectives for students: Read! Think!
Write!
Required Textbooks
Baase, Sara.
A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal and Ethical Issues of Computing (2nd
Edition).
Prentice Hall, 2003.
ISBN 0-13-008215-5
Spinello,
R. A.
and Tavani, H. T.
Readings in CyberEthics (2nd Edition).
Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2004.
ISBN 0-76-372410
Time commitment for
this course: 20 hours per week, for 6 weeks.
BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF ASSIGNMENTS:
All
reports must be typeset in 12-point font, double-spaced, and submitted
via Blackboard's Assignment submission system, in plain text (.txt), Word (.doc), or PDF (.pdf) format. File names MUST
be of the form Smith-Jane-sci-fi.doc.
Do NOT use ANY spaces in the file name. Files that do not have proper file names
will be rejected and not graded.
Ethics Scenario Evaluation (8% of your grade): Evaluate an ethical scenario twice - once from the viewpoint of your personal ethical framework and once using the Code of Ethics of a professional society; then compare and contrast the two evaluations (total of 4-5 pages).
Science Fiction Report (8%): Read one science fiction short story or book or watch one science fiction film that presents a point of view about the relationship between technology and humans. Prepare a 3-5 page written report describing the point of view and your reaction to that point of view.
Current Issue Short Papers (8% each, 2 required): You will be provided with a list of possible current issues activities. You can choose from the list, or check with Prof. Feldman if you have another interesting topic you want to explore. You will write a 3-5 page paper on each f two issues.
Term Project on Social Impact Analysis (32%): This is a class research project on which you will work together in groups to gather data using Zoomerang surveys to determine public attitudes about voting technologies. Each group will write and submit ONE final report of its findings with conclusions and recommendations.
IMPORTANT NOTE: