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CS 305 – Social, Ethical, and Legal Implications of Computing

Spring 2016

 

 

This course provides an insight into the social, ethical, and legal implications of computing.  The introduction of advanced computing hardware and software has had significant impact on society, both good and bad.  This course is intended to make students think critically about the impact of such technologies and the legal and ethical implications of the profession.  Students will be required to write a term-paper on a chosen area of computing and ethics or its impact on society.  Furthermore, students are required to present their topic to the class in a 10-15 minute presentation in the last half of the quarter.

 

Instructor Information

            Wu-chi Feng, wuchi@cs.pdx.edu

            FAB 120-22

            Office Hours: Friday 1-2pm

 

Class Information

            Fridays 10:10am-12:05pm

            FAB 170

            http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~wuchi/Teaching/305

 

 

Text    (Optional)

            Michael Quinn, Ethics for the Information Age

 

Course Objectives  (http://www.pdx.edu/computer-science/cs-305-social-ethical-and-legal-implications-of-computing)

  1. Identify the ethical issues that relate to computer science in real situations they may encounter.
  2. Decide whether a given action is ethical as regards computer science professional ethics, and justify that decision.
  3. Look up relevant ethical standards as developed by the ACM.
  4. Prepare and deliver a short (8-10 minute) professional-quality talk on a topic relating to ethical, legal, and social implications of computer science.
  5. Research and write a professional-quality paper about a topic relating to social, legal, and ethical implications of computer science.
  6. Recognize situations in which there may be legal issues as regards computer science and related topics such as intellectual property, and know some legal principles to apply.
  7. State several important impacts of computer science and related fields on contemporary society.
  8. State several examples of important ethical principles as they apply to computer science related situations.

 

Tentative Schedule

4/1        History of Computing, Intro to Ethics     

4/8        Ethics, Networking issues (censorship, spam, the web)

4/15      Intellectual property

4/22      Privacy and civil liberties

4/29      Reliability and safety

5/6        Computer crime

5/13      Class Presentations

5/20      Class Presentations

5/27      Class Presentations

6/3        Class Presentations

 

Presentation and Term Paper

·       You will select a presentation topic on social, ethical, and legal issues related to a computing and give a 10-15 minute in-class presentation on it.

·       You will then turn this presentation into a final term paper.

·       Deliverables

·       Propose a new topic or select from this list (Homework #2)

·       Preliminary slides and an abstract of your paper are due via the D2L dropbox the week before presentations begin

·       Your final presentation slides are due via the D2L dropbox before class on the day you are scheduled to present.

·       Your final term paper is due via the D2L dropbox before class on the last day of class.

 

Homeworks

·       Assignments include take-home quizzes and dropbox submissions via D2L.

·       Assignments must be completed by class time on their due date or will be counted late (10% deduction each day late)

 

 

Grading Policy

·       Final Exam                                    20%

·       Presentation                                  20%

·       Paper                                             20%

·       Homeworks                                  25%

·       Attendance/Participation             15%