Computer Science 312 Syllabus for Spring 2012
Dr. Carol E. Wolf Office
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: Technologies, Social Media, and Society, 2011-12, Paul De Palma, editor, 17th edition. McGraw Hill Contemporary Learning Series, 2010,
ISBN: 978-0-07-352858-7
Date |
Group |
Chapter |
Topic |
Jan 18 |
|
1 |
Overview of course, creation of groups |
Jan 23 |
A |
2 |
Moore’s Law and Technological Determinism |
|
B |
3 |
A Passion for Objects |
Jan 25 |
C |
4 |
Online Salvation |
Jan 30 |
D |
5 |
Publish or Perish: Can the iPad Topple the Kindle |
|
E |
6 |
The Great Wall of Facebook |
Feb 1 |
F |
7 |
Personally Controlled Online Health Data |
Feb 6 |
G |
8 |
Computer Software Engineers, Occupational Outlook Handbook |
|
A |
9 |
Women, Mathematics and Computing |
Feb 8 |
B |
10 |
Out of Time:
Reflections on the Programming Life |
Feb 13 |
C |
11 |
Dilberts of the World, Unite! |
|
D |
12 |
How Deep Can You Probe? |
Feb 15 |
E |
13 |
Is Google Making Us Stupid? |
Feb 22 |
F |
14 |
The End of Solitude |
Feb 27 |
G |
15 |
It’s Not Easy to Stand up to Cyberbullies |
|
A |
16 |
The End of Forgetting |
Feb 29 |
B |
17 |
Archiving Writers’ Work in the Age of E-Mail |
Mar 5 |
C |
18 |
Wikipedia in the Newsroom |
Mar 7 |
|
|
Midterm Exam |
Mar 9 |
|
|
Library Research Document Due |
Mar 12 |
Mar 17 |
|
Spring Break |
Mar 19 |
D |
19 |
E-Mail in Academia: Expectations, Use, and Instructional Impact |
|
E |
20 |
The Trouble with Twittering |
Mar 21 |
F |
21 |
The Evolution of Cyber Warfare |
|
|
|
Survey Document Due |
Mar 26 |
G |
22 |
War in the Fifth Domain |
|
A |
23 |
Geeks and Hackers |
Mar 28 |
B |
24 |
Untangling Attribution: Moving Accountability in Cyberspace |
|
C |
25 |
The Web’s Goldmine: Your Secrets |
Apr 2 |
D |
26 |
The Software Wars |
|
E |
27 |
The BP Oil Spill: Could Software be a Culprit? |
Apr 4 |
F |
28 |
The Conundrum of Visibility |
|
G |
29 |
The List: Look Who’s Censoring the Internet Now |
Apr 9 |
A |
30 |
Google and Saving Face in China |
|
A |
31 |
A Fantasy World is Creating Problems in South Korea |
Apr 11 |
B |
32 |
In Good Company: On the Threshold of Robotic Companions |
Apr 16 |
C |
33 |
The Coming Superbrain |
|
D |
34 |
Cloud Computing |
Apr 18 |
E |
35 |
Chrome the Conqueror |
Apr 23 |
F |
36 |
Publishing: The Revolutionary Future |
|
G |
37 |
Computers Learn to Listen, and Some Talk Back |
Apr 30 |
|
|
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. Make sure that you use a spell checker and proof read the paper before handing it in. The summaries will be graded for both grammar and content. After they have been returned with corrections, the corrected versions should re-submitted.
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 will be presented in class on the last day. At the end of the semester, send me the entire project including the PowerPoint slides.
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 in advance. Students will not receive a grade for the course until all papers and projects have been submitted.
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/
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
CS 312 Suggestions for Group
Projects
1.
Why do so few
women and minorities choose to work in IT?
2.
How private is
data on the Internet? Are people buying
more on-line than before?
3.
What do people do
to protect their computers from viruses and worms? What are “botnets” and what are
they used for?
4.
Does using a
computer cause isolation or greater interaction with others?
5.
Is Internet
dating effective, and who is doing it?
6.
How successful
are robots? Who uses them?
7.
What effect are
social networking sites like Facebook and Google+ having on relationships? How safe is it to use them?
8.
Where do people
get news and political information? Will
print newspapers and magazines become obsolete?
9. How have smart phones and other PDA’s changed
people’s lives?
10. What part did computer technology play in causing the
great recession? What are CDO’s
and CDS’s, and could they be created without computer programs?
11. What are companies doing to protect their music, books
and movies from piracy?
12. What is COPA? Will
it result in censorship of the Internet?
How much protection do children need?
13. What is cyber-bullying, and what can be done about it?
14. How have drones and the Stuxnet worm changed cyber
warfare? How serious is the threat? Will cyber warfare replace conventional war?
15. Are PCs dead?
Will tablets and smart phones replace them? Where do netbooks fit in?
16. Are computers taking away jobs, which are not being
replaced by new ones? Has productivity
stopped increasing?
17. Did social networking influence the outcomes of the “Arab
Spring”? Would it have happened
without the Internet?