Tracy L. Westeyn (instructor) { turtle@gatech.edu} Jeremy Brudvik (TA) { jbrudvik@gatech.edu} Office Hours by email/verbal appointment {404.385.0255}

Tuesday & Thursday (T/R) 4:35 - 5:55pm Instructional Center (IC) Room 111

Computers and Society is a required course for undergraduate students majoring in computer science and is intended to be taken during the senior year. Unlike most computer science courses, this class does not require any programing. Instead, this course explores both the ethical issues and the social impact that computing technology has on society. In particular, this course is designed to help students identify, understand, and articulate the potential consequences of existing computing technologies and those that might come to fruition in the future. As professionals in the field of computer science, it is important to be aware of the both the benefits and problems created by computing technology as well as understand that technical decisions are not the only issues with which we are faced.

A Gift of Fire (3rd Edition) Sara Baase, Pearson Education Inc., 2006 (AGOF)

Writing Arguments:
A Rhetoric with Readings, Concise Edition (4th Edition) John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. (WACE)

item	weight
Attendance	10%
Book Reflection & Review	15%
Exams	20%
Final (Term Paper)	30%
Homework Assignments	15%
Class Participation	10%
Extra Credit	up to +3%

This course will consist of two exams, ten homework assignments, several in-class discussions, a book reflection with review assignment, as well as a final term paper and an associated presentation. When completing assignments always keep in mind that you are not graded on the conclusion you make, but on a reasoned discussion of why you reached that conclusion.

The primary purpose of this course is to help you develop into responsible and effective professionals by helping you to discover the ethical and social responsibilities shared by all computing professionals as well as the social implications of the technology you will be creating and promoting after graduation.

This course will make intensive use of classroom discussions and analytical writing assignments. You will be given many opportunities to express your positions on various situations where computerization is having an impact on such topics as: the economy and labor markets, work life, public safety, consumer rights, intellectual property, privacy, social stratification, democracy, education, gender bias, national security, health, etc.

You will be expected to participate actively in discussions. On any given issues, you may be asked to summarize and criticize reading assignments from the text or articles that you have read for your project papers.

In this class, engagement will take several forms. You will be expected to read and interpret the book for yourself and others. You will be expected to read and interpret the articles in the book 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 other 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.

When in Doubt Please Come Talk to Me: Never be afraid to come talk to me. You can come talk to me for any reason. Always remember, I am here to help you learn and succeed in this course. If you have extenuating circumstances that may impact your performance in the class, please come see me. In these situations, the sooner is always better than later.

Attendance is Mandatory: Due to the discussion oriented nature of this course, attendance is mandatory. An attendance sheet will be passed around within the first 10 minutes of class. If you do not sign this sheet, you are considered absent from the class. Each class period is worth 3% of your attendance grade. For each class missed, 3 points will be deducted from your attendance grade (which starts at 100 points). 5D.

Late Assignments are not Accepted: Assignments are typically due 30 minutes before the start of class. The due date and time for each assignment is specified in the T-square system. The T-Square system is configured to not accept late assignments. Failure to submit an assignment by the deadline provided by the T-square system will result in a zero for that assignment. There are three exceptions that might permit a late submission:

1. Family or Medical Emergency (corroborated by the Dean of Students)
2. You have letter/permission from the Dean of Students
3. You have approached me at least one class period before a deadline with circumstances that you feel require special consideration

Exams Must Be Attended: In general, if you do not attend a class period where an exam is issued, you will receive a zero for that exam. There are four instances where a Make-Up exam might be permissible:

1. Family or Medical Emergency (corroborated by the Dean of Students)
2. You have letter/permission from the Dean of Students
3. You have more than two exams scheduled for the same day
4. You have approached me at least one week before an exam with circumstances that require special consideration

Exam/Assignment Regrades: A general grading criteria is provided for each assignment when the assignment is posted. Each topic listed in the criteria indicates the maximum possible points that might be awarded given the satisfaction of that topic by the student. If a student has a question on how to interpret the criteria, they are encouraged to ask the TA or instructor for clarification before the assignment is due. On rare occasion, a mistake may be made in the grading of your assignment. If a simple error has been made that effects your grade, contact the TA to have it corrected. If you disagree with the way in which any portion of an assignment was graded, use the following procedure to submit it to the TA for regrading:

1. Check to ensure you did not violate an obvious class policy or assignment policy that accounts for the reduction in points
2. Write a succinct essay indicating:
1. Which assignment and question you would like regraded
2. Why you feel the original grade is incorrect and how it should be corrected
3. Support your claim with evidence from the class text or notes. If your only supporting evidence is the grade another classmate received on their assignment, make sure you have their permission to use it as evidence! This line of reasoning can subject both papers to a regrade (and could potentially reduce the grade of your friend's paper if the portion in dispute happened to be an error).
3. Mail the essay to the TA

I stand behind the grades made by my TA. If for some reason after the above process you feel the assignment still requires a regrade, write a second essay, again, depicting why you feel the regrade was in appropriate and mail me both essays, the original assignment, and the chain of correspondence between you and the TA. In addition to the portion in dispute, I may also regrade all portions of the exam/assignment submitted. Hence your grade could potentially be raised or lowered by this process. If the reason for a regrade is based off a grade assigned to another student, their assignment could be subject to a regrade as well.

Academic Honesty: All students are expected to maintain traditional standards of academic integrity by giving proper credit for all work referenced, quoted, etc. This includes but is not limited to the policies specied in the Georgia Tech General Catalog. Unless otherwise stated, all work is individual work by each student. Students are encouraged to discuss and debate the issues with the instructor, the teaching assistants, and each other but the work submitted must be that student's thought and writing. All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be aggressively pursued.

Date	Readings	Topics	Lecture Notes	Assignment Deadlines
Aug. 19		Intro to course
Aug. 21	WACE 1, Skim AGOF 1 pg 3-27	Intro to course		HW 1
Week 2
Aug. 26	AGOF 8.2, Vaughan article	Case Study: Therac and Challenger/Columbia
Aug. 28	AGOF 1 pg 28-39; WACE 2	Reading Arguments & Ethical Frameworks		HW 2 & Book Choice
Week 3
Sept. 2	AGOF 9, WACE 14 p234-244	Stakeholder Analysis; Foundations of Ethics	PPT, PDF
Sept. 4	AGOF Appendix A	Ethics - making ethical decisions	ACM Code of Ethics	HW 3
Week 4
Sept. 9	WACE 3	Writing Arguments	PPT, PDF
Sept. 11	WACE 4 and 5	Core of an argument; logical structure of arguments		HW 4
Week 5
Sept. 16	WACE 7	Appealing to your Audience
Sept. 18	WACE 9: pp 137-154; 155-161	Conducting Visual Arguments		Come to class with an image to use in your term paper and be prepared to discuss it.
Week 6
Sept. 23		Term Paper Topic Discussions; Exam Review		HW 5: Term Paper Proposal
Sept. 25		Test 1	Last chance to have your Weekend of No Technology
Week 7
Sep. 30	AGOF 2	Discussion of Test 1; Privacy
Oct. 2		Privacy Continued		HW 6: Weekend of No Technology
Week 8
Oct. 7	AGOF 3	Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace & Encryption of Communication	PDF, PPT
Oct. 9	AGOF 7.2-7.3	Digital Divide	Last Class Before Drop Day	HW 7: Cookies
Week 9
Oct. 14	NO CLASS: FALL BREAK
Oct. 16	AGOF 4	Intellectual Property: Copyrights, Fair use, Legal Cases		Book reflections and review
Week 10
Oct. 21		Intellectual Property: Patents	PPT, PDF
Oct. 23	Top 100 Inventions of the 20th Century	Possible impact of new technologies		HW 8: Term Paper References
Week 11
Oct. 28	WACE 6	Using Evidence Effectively
Oct. 30	AGOF 5	Computer Crime		HW 9: Term Paper Rough Drafts
Week 12
Nov. 4		Computer Crime Continued
Nov. 6	AGOF 8; Christmas Unplugged by Amy Bruckman	Computers and Work; Computers and Leisure		Discuss effect of computers on job of someone you know
Week 13
Nov. 11		Term Paper mechanics; work session; Exam 2 Review		HW 10: Term Paper Critiques
Nov. 13		Test 2
Week 14
Nov. 18	Tufte	Exam 2 Discussion; Visual and Statistical Thinking
Nov. 20		Offshoring and outsourcing: preparing for life out there		Term Papers Due!!
Week 15 -- No Class
Nov. 25	Class canceled for Thanksgiving			Last Day for Extra Credit
Nov. 27	Happy Thanksgiving
Dead Week
Dec. 2		Term Paper Presentations
Dec. 4		Term Paper Presentations
Finals Week
Dec. 11	8:00-10:50	Term Paper Presentations during Final Exam Period 10