| Cary G. Gray | |
| Office: | Science 159, x5875 |
| Office hours: | M 3:10–4:30 p.m. |
| T 1:30–3:30 p.m. | |
| WF 9:00–10:20 a.m. |
I am typically in my office much more than the posted times, and you are welcome to stop by whenever my door is open. Check with me ahead of time if you want to be sure that I’ll be there outside scheduled times.
Th 1:15–3:05 p.m., Sci 181
Final meeting: 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 3
Additional (and updated) course information will be available at the class page at
I will e-mail you at your college address when there are major updates. Be sure that you frequently read mail sent there.
CSCI 494. Social and Ethical Issues in Computing.
Study of the ways in which the computer and communications revolution is changing society. Develop an awareness
of and sensitivity to the ethical issues that arise in computer science and related professions. Prerequisite: Senior
standing in the major. (2 hours)
CSCI 494 is the capstone course for the computer science major; as such it is supposed to provide an opportunity to sum up your study of computing at Wheaton and how it relates to other disciplines you have studied and to your faith. Because this is a capstone course, you should be taking it near the end of your time at Wheaton: you should be close to completing both the computer science major and the general-education requirements. (If you have not taken one of the required courses in Philosophy or Christian Thought, in particular, you should take it this semster instead of this course.)
The way our capstone is defined by the catalog does not leave us much time for reviewing the discipline; we will instead focus on how computing and related technologies interact with humane concerns. In this class you will:
This is not a typical computer science course: it will involve primarily reading, discussion, and writing. There will be no programming assignments. The level of your prepared participation in class will be the principal factor that determines how much you get out of this course.
Your grade will be based on:
All written work should be typed, neatly formatted, and double-spaced. Turn in hardcopy unless specifically instructed otherwise; you may print two-sided to save paper. For purposes of counting pages, use a 10–12 point font with 1-inch margins. Make citations in standard form (such as MLA or a common form supported by LaTeX/bibTeX), with the special case that you you may reference all provided articles and textbook selections with the bracket form shown below and on the class readings page.
You should keep a copy of all of the writing you do for this course, as a record of your thinking. That will be especially helpful toward the end of the semester.
Because participation is such an important part of the course, there will also be a significant penalty for absences and late arrivals. Your late arrival would interfere with class for your fellow students; so attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class meeting, and you will not be counted present if you arrive late. (I suggest you plan to arrive a few minutes early.) You will be allowed up to two absences without penalty; for each subsequent absence your course grade will be penalized one-half letter per meeting. If you must miss, I can consider accommodating you only if you behave responsibly—including letting me know in a timely manner. If you have another obligation that interferes with your timely arrival, I expect you to keep me informed—just as you would an employer.
The textbook for this class is:
Hester and Ford, eds., Computers and Ethics in the Cyberage, Prentice-Hall, 2001.
In the schedule below, there are readings from the textbook and other sources. Some of the additional readings are available online, in which case you will find a link in the online version of the readings list. I will also distribute a packet to cover the readings that are not readily available online.
The assigned readings should be considered a minimum. You will find links or references for additional readings in the online list, and I will continue to update the list during the semester. You should be looking for articles in regular news sources; feel free to point me (or the whole class) to anything interesting and relevant that you find. Look for sources of high quality; some blogs do qualify (I’ve included pointers to some), but most would not.
You are required to keep up with one additional online source, the RISKS Digest. RISKS publishes irregularly; it is most easily accessed via the online archive at
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/
You are responsible for all issues from 26(28) (dated 12 January 2011) through Apr. 29. You should check and read RISKS at least once a week. I also strongly recommend reading the Freedom to Tinker weblog from Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy, at
Responses to readings In preparation for each class meeting that has assigned readings, you should write at least three questions, observations, or other responses to the readings (required or optional). Each item could be as brief as a single sentence. These should be emailed to me by noon the day before each class meeting, with the subject “CS 494 for date”. I recommend that you include those thoughts as part of the notes you bring to class.
For some class meetings, you may be given specific questions or topics for which to prepare. When that is the case, you should turn in to me (either by email or hardcopy) a snapshot of your written preparatory notes by noon the day before class.
I am still working on this semester’s schedule. Compared to previous years, I am dropping one major reading/writing assignment (a separate book review), replacing it with some additional readings for specific days and some additions to the other writing assignments. I hope to distribute the complete schedule by the end of January.
The major headings in previous editions of this course have been:
There may a bit of shifting, but this gives you an idea of what to expect.
Here are the readings for the first several meetings:
References and links for the citations in brackets will be on the class web page.
Write 1–2 pages on the following:
How has your study of computing influenced or otherwise affected your faith? Note that some effects may be indirect: has your study of computing affected the way you think or the way you look at the world?
Bring a copy to class on January 20. We’ll take some time at the beginning of class to talk about this before you hand it in.
You’ll come back to this topic at the end of the semester. Please pay attention to the assigned topic: you are not being asked here to write about how your faith has influenced your study of computing.
Do not forget to send in your response to the readings before noon on Wednesday. And be sure to include RISKS and Freedom to Tinker.
In the near future (once the class schedule firms up), you’ll be asked to sign up for a day on which you and a partner will be responsible for leading the class discussion. Be looking ahead at your schedule and thinking about topics that especially interest you.
Start thinking about a question/topic for your final paper.