Computer Science 312                                                                        Syllabus for Spring 2009

Dr. Carol E. Wolf                                                                               Office 163 William St. 215

Website: http://csis.pace.edu/~wolf/                                                   E-mail: cwolf@pace.edu

Office Hours: Mondays 11:00 to 12:00 and Wednesdays 2:30 to 3:30

Text:    Annual Editions: Computers in Society, 2008-09, Paul De Palma, editor,

            McGraw Hill Contemporary Learning Series, 2007

 

23

 Date

Group 

Chapter 

Topic

Jan 21

 

 1

Overview of course, creation of groups
Five Things We Need to Know about Technological Change

Jan 26

A

2

Slouching Toward the Ordinary

 

B

3

On the Nature of Computing

Feb 2

C

4

The Subprime Loan Machine

 

D

5

Click Fraud

Feb 4

E

6

The Big Band Era

 

F

7

The Beauty of Simplicity

Feb 9

A

8

The Software Wars

 

B

9

Scan This Book!

Feb 11

C

10

National ID

 

C

11

Brain Circulation

Feb 18

D

12

The New Face of the Silicon Age

 

D

13

Computer Software Engineers, Occupational Outlook Handbook

Feb 23

E

14

The Computer Evolution

 

F

15

Making Yourself Understood

Feb 25

A

16

Privacy, Legislation, and Surveillance Software

Mar 4

B

17

Romance in the Information Age

 

B

18

How Do I Love Thee?

Mar 9

C

19

The Perfect Mark

 

D

20

Back-to-School Blogging

 

D

21

E-Mail Is for Old People

 Mar 11

    Midterm Exam

 

 

 

Library Research Document Due 

Mar 16,18

 

 

Spring Break
Mar 23

E

22

The Copyright Paradox

 

F

23

Piracy, Computer Crime, and IS Misuse at the University

 

F

24

Facing Down the E-Maelstrom 

Mar 25

A

25

Can Blogs Revolutionize Progressive Politics?

 

B

26

Center Stage

 

 

 

Survey Document Due

Mar 30

C

27

The Coming Robot Army

 

D

28

Why Spyware Poses Multiple Threats to Security

Apr 1

E

29

Terror’s Server

 

F

30

The Virus Underground

Apr 6

A

31

Secrets of the Digital Detectives

 

B

32

Data on the Elderly, Marketed to Thieves

Apr 8

C

33

The Fading Memory of the State

 

C

34

False Reporting on the Internet and the Spread of Rumors

Apr 13

D

35

China’s Tech Generation Finds a New Chairman to Venerate

 

D

36

Is the Crouching Tiger a Threat?

Apr 15

E

37

Restoring the Popularity of Computer Science

 

E

38

China’s Computer Wasteland

Apr 20

F

39

Cat and Mouse, on the Web

 

A

40

In Search of a PC for the People

Apr 22

A

41

A Nascent Robotics Culture

 

B

42

March of the Robolawyers

Apr 27

C

43

Best-Kept Secrets

 

D

44

Toward Nature-Inspired Computing

Apr 29

E

45

The Intelligent Internet

 

F

46

Mind Control

May 4

 

 

Presentation of Group Projects

When a group has been assigned a chapter to report on, one member of the group should write a summary of the chapter and prepare PowerPoint slides describing it. The other members of the group should find related material either in print or on the Internet pertaining to the topic in the chapter.  Each one should also prepare a 1 or 2 page written summary. The group will then make a presentation during the class time and hand in the written summaries.  If we run out of time for the entire presentation, the remainder will be presented during the next class session.  If you have any problems printing, email the summary to me, and I will print it out for you. You may also send me the PowerPoint slides and I will make sure that they can be shown on the classroom equipment.

Summaries should be double-spaced and brief. One or two pages are all right, but three pages will not be accepted. The slides should also be brief with no more than 4 or 5 bulleted items per slide. The summaries will be graded for both grammar and content.  After they have been returned with corrections, the corrected versions should be copied into html and posted on a group website. These websites may be either on a server chosen by the group or on a Pace University server.

The group project will consist of a library research paper, a survey, a statistical analysis of the survey results and a conclusion. The entire project is due at the end of the semester. It should both be presented in class and posted on the website.  At the end of the semester, zip up the entire contents of the website and send them to me.  I will then post them on my website. No one in the group will receive a final grade until all the material has been posted on the site.

Grades will be determined by two written exams, a midterm and a final, all the presentations during the semester and the final project. Each one of these categories will count for 25% of the grade. All written materials, including exams, should be double-spaced.  If your handwriting is hard to read, please print on your exams. Grammar will count on all documents, but spelling will only be graded on papers prepared ahead of time.

Additional Resources:

Herman T. Tavani, Ethics and Technology, Chapter 2, Wiley, 2004.

MLA Citation Style, 6th ed. (2003), http://www.pace.edu/library/pages/instruct/guides/mla6.htm

I. Lee. A Research Guide for Students. http://www.aresearchguide.com/ Feb. 4, 2004.

ACM Code of Ethics, http://www.acm.org/constitution/code.html

John L. Sullivan and Richard G. Niemi, editors, Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, Sage Publications Inc., 1983.

http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html

Link to Postman's Five Things We Need to Know about Technological Change

Helpful Grammar Handouts from Purdue On-Line Writing Lab


CS 312 Suggestions for Group Projects

 

1.      How does computer usage differ between rich and poor schools.

 

2.      Why do so few women and minorities choose to work in IT?

 

3.      What effect will the ITunes discontinuation of Digital Rights Management (DRM) have on music piracy?

 

4.      How private is data on the Internet?  Are people buying more on-line than before?

 

5.      What are people doing about spam?  Has it decreased or increased lately?

 

6.      What do people do to protect their computers from viruses and worms?

 

7.      What are employers now looking for?  What is the effect of ‘off-shoring’?

 

8.      Does using a computer cause isolation or greater interaction with others?

 

9.      Is Internet dating effective, and who is doing it?

 

10.  How successful are robots?  Who uses them?

 

11.  What effect are social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook having on relationships?  How safe is it to use them?

 

12.  Where do people get news and political information? 

 

13.  How safe is electronic voting, and did it affect the last election?

 

14.  Why are fewer students choosing IT as a major?

 

15.  How have IM, PDAs, IPods, etc. changed people’s lives?

 

16.  Do violent computer games and TV shows make our soldiers more aggressive?