CSU Long Beach
ENGR 350
Computers, Ethics, and Society

Syllabus
Schedule
Grading
Portfolio
Homework:
  Guidelines
  Standards
  1 - Images
  2 - Risks
    -- example
  3 - Infobahn
    -- example
  4 - Dataveillance
    -- example
  5 - Worklife
    -- example
  6 - Killer Robot
Term project

Syllabus

This course is designed to help you become an effective working computer professional. You will encounter the major social issues involving computerization, deal with diverse professional and technical literatures, learn how controversies are represented, and understand the ethical frameworks and value systems that underlie differing points of view. You will refine your personal point of view on these issues, and learn to determine the impacts of your own professional activities on co-workers, employers, clients, system users, and society in general. This course will also help you develop the communication skills -- written, verbal, and electronic -- that you will need to function in a modern, socially diverse workplace.

ENGR 350 is required for Computer Science majors; it is an approved upper-division elective for Computer Engineering majors and Computer Science minors. It also may be an approved elective for some interdisciplinary majors -- ask your program advisor.

Latest Update: Sat 23 Jan 99

Instructor: Tom Jewett

Please see my CECS Department Web listing for contact information.

Course Materials

1. Rob Kling (ed.), Computerization and Controversy (2nd edition). Boston: Academic Press, 1996. (required)
2. Packet of additional readings (required), on the bookstore shelf with the text.
3. Course schedule
4. Assignments are linked from the schedule; see also pages on:
• Grading
• Class Portfolio Guidelines
• Homework Guidelines

Preparation

Please read and prepare the assigned material before each class meeting. Turn in assignments on time; I won't accept late work except for genuine emergency cases. The schedule is attached.

Details of each assignment, with grading standards, are always available through this web page (see materials list above).

Warning: many of the activities in this class will require you to work with other students in teams or small groups. In many cases, I want you to compare your work, share ideas, and help each other. But the individual assignments you turn in (including homework, e-work, and term project report) must be your own individual writing. Any form of plagiarism or cheating -- including copying from someone else, copying from a book or magazine without proper citation, turning someone else's work in as you own, and so on -- will result in a failing grade on the assignment (at a minimum), and could result in a failing grade in the course or even university disciplinary action.

Attendance, Adds and Drops

Attendance is required (just like a job!) -- I will record it daily. If you want to add this class, you must fill out a request form. I will prioritize these, and sign add slips in the third week only for the number of drops or no-shows that have happened by then. You will not be able to add with VRR. I will consider drop requests on a case-by-case basis.