Contact Information:
Instructor: Valerie Henderson Summet
Office: CCB 113
Contact: valerie (at) gatech.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 10am-noon or by appointment

TA: Tammy Clegg
Contact: tlclegg (at) cc.gatech.edu
Office Hours: after class on Tuesday in the CoC commons or by appointment.

Catalog Description:
Examines the role and impact of information and communication technology in society, with emphasis on ethical, professional, and public policy issues.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the effects of computing and related technologies on individuals, organizations, and society
• Understand your responsibilities as a computing professional and their ethical underpinnings
• Effectively communicate with others in writing and speech. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of communication generated by others

Grading:
There is no curve in this class. I do not round grades up or down. The breakdown of grades is as follows:

Homework	15%
Attendance	10%
Group work and quizzes	10%
Midterm Exam	20%
Final Paper	25%
Debates	20%

Timely handling of grade disputes:
Disputes of grading on assignments, exams, etc must be discussed within one week of their return or posting. Should you find yourself having an issue with a grade, contact the grading TA. After you talk with your TA, if you are not satisfied you may contact the course instructor.

Attendance:
Attendance is mandatory. You will begin the semester with 105% for attendance. For every day you are absent, 5 points will be deducted from your attendance grade. Therefore, you can miss one class period with no penalty (or you may choose to attend all classes and keep the 5% extra credit). There will be a sign in sheet every class. It is your responsibility to make sure you sign the sheet before it is collected at the end of class. If your signature is not on the sheet, you will not get credit for attending class that day. Excused absences through the Office of the Dean of Students are the exception to this rule.

Late Work and Missed Exams:
Homeworks are due at the beginning of class. You may submit late homework assignments by the beginning of the next class period for a 20% deduction. Homeworks are not accepted after the next class period. Assignments other then homeworks are NOT accepted late without appropriate documentation from the Dean's office.

There are no makeups for missed exams. Any request for exceptions to this policy should be made in advance when at all possible.

Email Policy for this Course:
Please try to use your official Georgia Tech email when sending email to us. It is more likely to make it through GaTech's spam filters, and we are unable to send email concerning grade issues to non-official email addresses. Please attach [cs4001] to the beginning of the subject of your email! Please also indicate who you are within your email if it is not evident.

Class management:
The class will make use of some of the features of T-Square (https://t-square.gatech.edu/portal). Assignments will be submitted through T-Square in the "Assignments" tab. Emailing your assignments to the instructor or TA is unacceptable. We will also make use of the "Resources" tab as a repository for useful documents and readings and the "Quizzes and Tests" feature for weekly reading quizzes. Pertinent features will be demonstrated in class during the first and second weeks.

Document format:
Written assignments should be submitted using PDF. Do NOT submit .doc, .docx, .txt. .odt, etc. In general, assignments should be written in 12 pt, Times-Roman font (or similar) and double spaced.

Class participation:
Discovery does not arise from instruction but from personal engagement with the controversies and potentials of a computerized society. In this class, engagement will take several forms:

• You will be expected to read and interpret the articles in the books and the current awareness articles for yourself and others.
• You will be expected to present and persuasively defend your positions on controversial topics both orally and in writing.
• You will be expected to critique the perspectives/opinions of both authors and classmates in discussions and position papers.
• On any given day, you may be asked to summarize and critique readings from the book or elsewhere for the class. On such occasions, you are invited to refer to notes you've made in response to the readings.

Plagiarism is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work" [Wikipedia] and is considered academic dishonesty and an honor code violation.

My standard penalty for any academic misconduct is a 0 on the assignment in question and referral to the Office of Student Integrity. I reserve the right to recommend harsher penalties based on the severity of the offense. If you have any questions about what does/does not constitute plagiarism or academic misconduct, please contact the instructor or TA.

Mandatory Assignments:
In this class, the term paper and team debates constitute a significant portion of your grade. It is not possible to pass this course without completing either of these assignments as they fulfill crucial course objectives.

The term papers will be on a topic of your choice and will require a significant amount of research. It will be due approximately two weeks before the end of class, but consult the class schedule for specific dates. We will discuss this requirement in detail during class.

The team debate will occur during the last week of class and during the final exam period. Do not plan to leave campus before the final exam period. In the last several weeks of class your team will be given a small list of topics and must prepare to debate for and against each topic. The actual topics of your debate(s) will be selected randomly in class on the day of your debate. Your grade will be based upon your relative performance against the other debate teams.

Extra Credit:
There will be an opportunity for extra credit. See the "Assignments" in T-Square for more information. All extra credit is due by July 20, 2010 and will not be accepted after this date.

Assignments and ideas on this syllabus build on those from everyone who has taught it before, especially Amy Bruckman, Colin Potts, Mary Jean Harrold, Bill Ribarsky, Spencer Rugaber, and Jay Summet.