CSci 1030 Summer 2013 Class Schedule and Course Summary

GW Website

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Department of Computer Science
CSci 1030 -- Technology and Society
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mfeldman/csci1030/summer13
Prof. Michael B. Feldman, course instructor
mfeldman@gwu.edu

IMPORTANT PRELIMINARY NOTES
COURSE SCHEDULE
COURSE OBJECTIVES
BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF ASSIGNMENTS



IMPORTANT PRELIMINARY NOTES

  • We'll use Blackboard only for Assignment Submission, Discussion Boards, and Gradebook. All other class materials will be distributed from this (SEAS) website. Bookmark this page, which links to everything else!

  • This is a 6-week Distance-Learning course. It runs 2.5 times as fast as a normal 14-week semester course. Be prepared to read your e-mail every day, and to spend at least 20 hours on this course in each of the 6 weeks.

  • Each week, you are required to participate in one or more Blackboard discussion forums. These are not real-time discussions, but rather like e-mail exchanges. I will take attendance in each of these forums and count that toward your participation score.

  • Each week will require two written "deliverables": 
    • a short individual paper (1000-2000 words, i.e. 3-6 double-spaced pages), generally due by 11:59 PM EDT Thursday
    • a project phase deliverable. The first phase is individual, the others are group-by-group, generally due by 11:59 PM EDT Sunday

  • Because there is no exam in this course, all the other work is important and you are expected to deliver it on schedule. Late submissions cannot be accepted. I must treat all students fairly, so please do not try to persuade me that your reason for lateness is better than other students' reasons.

  • Grading is based on a 100-point maximum. Term Project counts a total of 32 points; other assignments count 8 points each.

  • Participation in forum discussions (via Blackboard) counts 28 points.

  • I am an "e-mail junkie", so please don't hesitate to contact me. I will always respond within 24 hours, usually much less. I check mail frequently — at a minimum, last thing at night and first thing in the morning. Please keep in mind that I'm physically located in Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific time zone, so when it's 9 AM at GW, it's only 6 AM here and I'm still asleep.

  • Enjoy the course! Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), you'll get out of it in direct proportion to what you put into it!



COURSE SCHEDULE

NON-PROJECT WORK
(click for details)
READING TOPIC
(see weekly details for reading assignments)
INDIVIDUAL DELIVERABLES
(delivered via your Assignment Menu  by 11:59 PM EDT)
PROJECT WORK AND
GROUP DELIVERABLES
(one per group, delivered via Assignment Menu)
(due by 11:59 PM EDT)
Week 1 Details
7/8 - 7/14
Introduction, History, Ethics
(deadline Friday 7/12)
Digital photo (JPEG or GIF) of yourself; introduce yourself to class members; personal ethical evaluation (8 pts)

(deadline Tuesday  7/16)
Forum discussion of ethics scenario

Week 2 Details
7/15 - 7/21
Privacy
(deadline Thursday 7/18)
Ethics Scenario Analysis (8 pts)
(deadline Sunday 7/21)
Research Report on Term Project Topic (8 pts)
Week 3 Details
  7/22 - 7/28
Free Speech and the Internet
(deadline Thursday 7/25)
Current Issue Paper #1 (8 pts)
(deadline Sunday 7/28)
Draft of Opinion Surveys (8 pts)
Week 4 Details
7/29 - 8/4
Reliability of Critical Software Systems
(deadline Thursday 8/1)
Sci-Fi Paper (8 pts)
(deadline Sunday 8/4)
Surveys Deployed on Survey Site
Week 5 Details
8/5 - 8/11
Can We Trust the Computer?
(deadline Thursday 8/8)
Current Issue Paper #2 (8 pts)
(deadline Sunday 8/11)
Preliminary Report on Survey Results (8 pts)
Week 6 Details
8/12 - 8/17
Software as Intellectual Property

(deadline Saturday 8/17 -- NOT Sunday!)
Final Group Reports on Term Project (8 pts)


COURSE OBJECTIVES

            1. Develop awareness of the historical, social, and ethical issues of the technological age
            2. Develop ethical analysis skills to evaluate the design / implementation of technological systems
            3. Develop social analysis skills to evaluate the impact of technological systems in context
            4. Use professional codes of ethics in decision-making
            5. Improve communication skills

Required Textbooks

Baase, Sara.
A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal and Ethical Issues of Computing (4th Edition).

Pearson, 2013.
ISBN 978-0-13-249267-9

Spinello, R. A.
CyberEthics (5th edition)

Jones & Bartlett 2014.
ISBN 978-1-4496-8841-7

Time commitment for this course: 20 hours per week, for 6 weeks.


BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF ASSIGNMENTS

REQUIRED FORMAT:

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, .docx), or PDF (.pdf) format. File names MUST be of the form Smith-Jane-sci-fi.doc (or .txt or .pdf). Do NOT use ANY spaces in the file name. Files that do not have proper file names will be rejected and not graded.

IMPORTANT NOTE: