CS 480: Computers and Society

Catalog description : Computer and network security measures; encryption protocols. Ethical theory and applications in computing. Seminar discussion on social impact, and human factors, and about use and misuse of computers. Four hours lecture.

Translation: This course is about the ways in which computers and information technology affect our lives and society. Given the advances of computer technologies, did they make our society better, worse, or different? If so, how? As producers and consumers of computer technology, we should be aware of social impact and implications of the technology, e.g. digital divide. We will study encryption/decryption and other network security and privacy related technologies, and also human factors in computer technologies.

The service learning will be your chance to experience the social impact of the technologies and reflect on it. You'll spend about 2 hours every week at the community site, in total of 25-30 hours during the semester. The instructor will provide a list of potential projects with community partners and help with the matching.

What's the class like? The class is scheduled to meet MWF. Monday and Wednesday are classroom days, and Friday after January is an on-site day, where you will be performing Service Learning in conjunction with a community partner. (More on that below.) Classroom days will be a mix of lecture, student-led and guided discussion, and guest speakers. This will definitely be an 'active learning' class; rather than sitting and listening, learning will come through discussion and debate. I hope to also learn a lot from you!

What's this service thing about? CS 480 is a Service-Learning course, and has the SL core designation. During this course, you will be working with a San Francisco-based agency in one of the two different ways.

You will help the agency with providing computer access, training, and support to local communities. You may give a lecture or work as a tutor at the agency.
You will help the schools by teaching middle-school girls computer science for 6-8 weeks. The curriculum is provided, and you will be teaching one or two sessions and TA'ing for the rest. You will also spend 2 weeks setting up the lab before teaching.

This experience will allow you to apply your knowledge to directly help others, and also give you first-hand experience about the ways in which technology (and the lack thereof) can affect the lives of the disenfranchised.

Service learning is an educational methodology that provides students with experiental education that is grounded in a project with a community partner. It is important to note that this is different from volunteering; you are not working in the community just to be nice, or solely to help out the underprivileged (although that's a part of it). It's also meant to be an educational experience for you; you'll be learning from the commuity partner as well as providing them with a service. By working with a community partner, you will learn about the way in which the issues we discuss in class are actually manifested in real-world community settings.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

Distinguish the needs of the different parties having a stake in the privacy/security of a computer system.
Understand the issues, causes, and consequences of digital divide.
Relate privacy and security considerations to real and constructed ethics cases.
Explain the issues and problems involved with placing trust in computational entities.
Characterize the issues and controversies surrounding free speech, intellectual property, and fair use with respect to computers and the Internet.
Discuss the growth and development of online communities and their potential benefits and dangers.
Develop a greater understanding of the ways in which a student's skill set and career can influence and impact the larger world.
Think and write critically about contemporary moral and ethical issues relating to computers and technology.

Requirements

The course will consist of the following graded components with the percent contribution to the grade listed. Grades (including +/-) are assigned as follows: A 92% and above; A- 90-92%; B+ 89-90%; B 82-88%; B- 80-81%; C+ 78-79%; C 72-78%; C-70-71%; D 60-69%; F 59% and below. For CS majors, C = 72% is the lowest passing grade.

Programming assignments (20%): There will be 4~5 programming assignments throughout the semester. They are due in Canvas by 11:55pm of the due date. No late submissions are accepted without doctor's verification note.

Midterm (20%): This will be a take-home exam, due in Canvas by midnight on Wednesday, March 5th.

Final (20%): 5:30-7:30pm, Wednesday May 14, 2014.

Attendance and participation. (10%): Students are expected to attend all classes and participate in class discussion. If you must miss class for a valid reason, you should notify the instructor in advance.

Blog (10%): Each student must keep a blog devoted solely to this class. Each student is expected to post at least one entry per week. A week ends on Saturday. Submissions after Saturday without a prior approval from the instructor are not accepted. Some weeks I will give you specific topics to write about (such as "tell us about your community partner") and other weeks you may write about whatever you wish. Your entry may link to external sources, such as newspaper articles, Slashdot threads, other students' blogs, or web pages. (In fact, this is encouraged!) However, you should be sure to add your own commentary: just saying 'check this out!' is not sufficient. As always, you are expected to post and conduct discussions with respect for all participants. Flaming, name-calling, or insults will not be tolerated.

Service Learning component (20%, pass or fail the course). Fridays provide scheduled time for service learning, to be performed at a local nonprofit organization. The organizations we will work with this semester include CS4SF at Aptos and MLK middle schools, The Women's Building, and Tenderloin Technology Lab at St. Anthony's Foundation. Students are expected to spend at least 2 hours every week (total 25-30 hours) onsite at this organization, assisting them with their computer-related and IT needs. Potential tasks will depend on your skills and the partner's needs, but may include working with users, providing tutoring, teaching classes, and developing curriculums. This activity will satisfy students' Service Learning Core requirement.

Student performance on this aspect of the class will be evaluated by both the instructor(s) and the onsite liason at the end of the semester. Students who do not satisfactorily complete this portion of the course will not receive a passing grade in the class.

Grading Rubric

One thing to be aware of is that many of the assignments for this course involve a written component or a presentation. This requires a more subjective grading assessment than, for example, a computer program does.

I will grade your written and presentational work as follows:

50% quantitative: Did you satisfy the parameters of the assignment? For example, is your blog posting the correct length? Did you discuss all required topics?
50% qualitative: This is where I judge the depth or quality of your answers. This is necessarily subjective, but I will be interested in thoughtful, introspective reflections, well-argued or well-supported presentations, discussions that draw together points from different aspects of the class, and show depth and clarity of thought.

Readings

The texts are:

Lisa C. Kaczmarczyk, Computers and Society: Computing for Good, 2012.

We will also have supplementary reading (provided online) from time to time.