Introduction to Computer Science: Survey
28-625-101 Course Syllabus

Instructor: Larry Waldrop

Office: Room 1 Flory Center
Phone 745-5775
Email address: Waldrole@email.uc.edu
This class has a web site located at http://classware.uc.edu
Office hours will be announced in class

Required Text: A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing
by Sara Baase, Prentice Hall 1997. This text has a web site located at http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/giftfire

Optional Text:  Microsoft Office 2000 at a Glance, Microsoft Press 1999

Video Tapes: The Machine That Changed the World. (5 volumes) Available for viewing in the library.

Software manuals are available in room 210.

Overview: A survey of some of the issues, problems, and accomplishments of computing as well as a practical introduction to using the Internet, email, and personal productivity software. We will discuss the evolution of computer hardware and software, the variety of applications computers are used for, future possibilities afforded by computer technology, and the social issues that arise as a result of our reliance on computers. You can expect the following learning outcomes to occur as a result of this course.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this course. Although you might find that some experience using computers is helpful, we do not assume any specific computer experience for this course.

Most sections of this course meet at regularly scheduled times but section 701 of this course is a telecourse designed for independent learners. While 701 telecourse students have access to the instructor, lab assistants and fellow class members, this section does not have weekly meetings. We have found that success in telecourses (and other forms of distance education) requires a high level of personal motivation and good organizational skills. If you are uncomfortable with your ability to do well in such a setting, you should change to a section that has weekly scheduled meeting times. Please see me immediately if you have any questions.

Assignments: You have several types of assignments to turn in during the quarter.

  1. You will spend some of your time in one of the computer labs learning how to use the computer and productivity software. There are lab assignments that you must complete and turn in for most units. The software used for these labs assignments includes Eudora ( or some other email software), Netscape or Internet Explorer, Windows 95, Word, and Excel. There are microcomputer labs in rooms 208, 210, and 349. Labs are staffed by student assistants and tutors. Their job is to help you with general problems. They have been instructed not to do your assignments for you. Please don’t ask them to do your work. You may also use work or home facilities if these are more convenient and you can use different software packages than the ones listed above to complete lab assignments. But please note, we do not have facilities or personnel to help you install, troubleshoot, and maintain software on you home or office machines. Open lab hours are posted next to each lab.
  2. There is a midterm and a final essay exam that cover the material in the text, videos, and discussions. I highly recommend that you form study groups and use the class bulletin board to discuss class material before you take the exams.
  3. There are graded unit questions that are to be turned in at the end of each unit. These questions cover the most important themes from the texts and the videos.
  4. You need to check the class electronic bulletin board regularly. The bulletin board contains class and exam announcements, your questions and comments, and serves as a place where you and other students can meet for discussion or socialization.

 Turning in assignments: There are several ways to turn in assignments:

Be sure your name is on all assignments you turn in and keep backup copies of all assignments. Media and equipment failure are a fact of life in computerized environments. You need to take active measures to minimize the effects of such failures. Make backup copies of all of your work. Please note, media and equipment failure do not relieve you of the responsibility for delivering assignments on time. Please see me or give me a call if there are any questions on how to handle assignments.

Grades: Your final grade will be determined by a weighted average of your laboratory work (35%), unit questions (35%), and exams (30%). There are two essay exams - a midterm and final exam. Please note, I do not give incompletes. Grades are recorded as a percentage using the standard scale 90 - 100 A, 80 -89 B, 70 - 79 C, etc. If you wish to withdraw from the course you will receive a grade of W (withdrawal passing).

I usually allow one revision of an assignment if you think it is necessary. However, the revision must be resubmitted within one week of the date that you receive the graded assignment. I do not guarantee that a revision will necessarily receive a higher grade but it won’t result in a lower grade and it does give you a chance to rethink anything that might be a problem. There are no revisions for exams.

Each assignment must represent your own work. While we encourage you to consult with your colleagues on common problems, you are not free to incorporate someone else’s work into your own, in whole or in part, without permission and public acknowledgment. Copying a substantial part of another person’s work and submitting it as your own work constitutes plagiarism and will receive a grade of zero with no re-submissions allowed. This includes copying and not citing material from speakers, books, journals, magazines, videos, and web sites.

Keeping in touch: Each of you will be given an email account. This account is good as long as you are a registered UC student. I will show you how to use this account during the introductory meeting. The class will also have a computer bulletin board where class members can post discussions, comments, and questions. The class bulletin board is public. Anything you post to this board can be seen by all members of the class. The bulletin board is a good place to post questions that concern class content or procedure because everyone benefits from the answer to your questions. If you would like to have a private conversation with me or a class member, use email or the telephone. When you need help, try the following (in no particular order):

Attendance: You are expected to attend all regularly scheduled classes. You are responsible for all material covered in class and all assignments made during class. You are expected to check your email and class bulletin board regularly. Please note that for us class means lectures, labs, the class bulletin board, and email. Any changes in class routine will be posted on the class bulletin board. Please check the bulletin board weekly.

The telecourse (section 701) section of this course has three scheduled meetings during the quarter. The first is an introductory meeting where I explain how the class works and show you how to use email and a web browser. We then have a meeting for the midterm exam and the final exam. One block of weekly office hours will be scheduled (typically 9 – 11:30 on Saturday) for this section. Use these office hours if you need personal help from me or if you want to meet as a group for discussion or questions.

Reading and Viewing Schedule: Please follow the reading and viewing schedule below. The reading assignments are from Baase. The video assignments are from the PBS five-part series The Machine that Changed the World. The tapes are available in the library and the Media Services office. Telecourse students receive their own copies of the tapes. Please try to turn in assignments on time. I am not overly concerned about missed due dates if they are not missed by much. I do however, like to see regular progress and I will become concerned if due dates are missed by more than a few days. I have no problems with you turning in assignments early.

 The class content is structured around five units. Each unit is about two weeks of work and requires you to view a video tape, read a chapter of the text, read some notes, and complete laboratory and unit assignments.

 Unit 1 (weeks 1 and 2)

Unit 2 (weeks 3 and 4)

Unit 3 (weeks 5 and 6)

 

Midterm Exam (week 6. Covers the videos and readings from Units 1, 2, 3))

Unit 4 (weeks 7 and 8)

Unit 5 (weeks 9 and 10)

Final Exam (week 11. Covers the videos and readings from Units 4, 5)

Technorealism

The italicized material below is reproduced from the web site http://www.technorealism.org/. See this site for more information on Technorealism.

Overview [posted 12 March 1998]

In this heady age of rapid technological change, we all struggle to maintain our bearings. The developments that unfold each day in communications and computing can be thrilling and disorienting. One understandable reaction is to wonder: Are these changes good or bad? Should we welcome or fear them?

The answer is both. Technology is making life more convenient and enjoyable, and many of us healthier, wealthier, and wiser. But it is also affecting work, family, and the economy in unpredictable ways, introducing new forms of tension and distraction, and posing new threats to the cohesion of our physical communities.

Despite the complicated and often contradictory implications of technology, the conventional wisdom is woefully simplistic. Pundits, politicians, and self-appointed visionaries do us a disservice when they try to reduce these complexities to breathless tales of either high-tech doom or cyber-elation. Such polarized thinking leads to dashed hopes and unnecessary anxiety, and prevents us from understanding our own culture.

Over the past few years, even as the debate over technology has been dominated by the louder voices at the extremes, a new, more balanced consensus has quietly taken shape. This document seeks to articulate some of the shared beliefs behind that consensus, which we have come to call technorealism.

Technorealism demands that we think critically about the role that tools and interfaces play in human evolution and everyday life. Integral to this perspective is our understanding that the current tide of technological transformation, while important and powerful, is actually a continuation of waves of change that have taken place throughout history. Looking, for example, at the history of the automobile, television, or the telephone -- not just the devices but the institutions they became -- we see profound benefits as well as substantial costs. Similarly, we anticipate mixed blessings from today's emerging technologies, and expect to forever be on guard for unexpected consequences -- which must be addressed by thoughtful design and appropriate use.

As technorealists, we seek to expand the fertile middle ground between techno-utopianism and neo-Luddism. We are technology "critics" in the same way, and for the same reasons, that others are food critics, art critics, or literary critics. We can be passionately optimistic about some technologies, skeptical and disdainful of others. Still, our goal is neither to champion nor dismiss technology, but rather to understand it and apply it in a manner more consistent with basic human values.

Below are some evolving basic principles that help explain technorealism.

PRINCIPLES OF TECHNOREALISM

1. Technologies are not neutral.
A great misconception of our time is the idea that technologies are completely free of bias -- that because they are inanimate artifacts, they don't promote certain kinds of behaviors over others. In truth, technologies come loaded with both intended and unintended social, political, and economic leanings. Every tool provides its users with a particular manner of seeing the world and specific ways of interacting with others. It is important for each of us to consider the biases of various technologies and to seek out those that reflect our values and aspirations.

2. The Internet is revolutionary, but not Utopian.
The Net is an extraordinary communications tool that provides a range of new opportunities for people, communities, businesses, and government. Yet as cyberspace becomes more populated, it increasingly resembles society at large, in all its complexity. For every empowering or enlightening aspect of the wired life, there will also be dimensions that are malicious, perverse, or rather ordinary.

3. Government has an important role to play on the electronic frontier.
Contrary to some claims, cyberspace is not formally a place or jurisdiction separate from Earth. While governments should respect the rules and customs that have arisen in cyberspace, and should not stifle this new world with inefficient regulation or censorship, it is foolish to say that the public has no sovereignty over what an errant citizen or fraudulent corporation does online. As the representative of the people and the guardian of democratic values, the state has the right and responsibility to help integrate cyberspace and conventional society.

Technology standards and privacy issues, for example, are too important to be entrusted to the marketplace alone. Competing software firms have little interest in preserving the open standards that are essential to a fully functioning interactive network. Markets encourage innovation, but they do not necessarily insure the public interest.

4. Information is not knowledge.
All around us, information is moving faster and becoming cheaper to acquire, and the benefits are manifest. That said, the proliferation of data is also a serious challenge, requiring new measures of human discipline and skepticism. We must not confuse the thrill of acquiring or distributing information quickly with the more daunting task of converting it into knowledge and wisdom. Regardless of how advanced our computers become, we should never use them as a substitute for our own basic cognitive skills of awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.

5. Wiring the schools will not save them.
The problems with America's public schools -- disparate funding, social promotion, bloated class size, crumbling infrastructure, lack of standards -- have almost nothing to do with technology. Consequently, no amount of technology will lead to the educational revolution prophesied by President Clinton and others. The art of teaching cannot be replicated by computers, the Net, or by "distance learning." These tools can, of course, augment an already high-quality educational experience. But to rely on them as any sort of panacea would be a costly mistake.

6. Information wants to be protected.
It's true that cyberspace and other recent developments are challenging our copyright laws and frameworks for protecting intellectual property. The answer, though, is not to scrap existing statutes and principles. Instead, we must update old laws and interpretations so that information receives roughly the same protection it did in the context of old media. The goal is the same: to give authors sufficient control over their work so that they have an incentive to create, while maintaining the right of the public to make fair use of that information. In neither context does information want "to be free." Rather, it needs to be protected.

7. The public owns the airwaves; the public should benefit from their use.
The recent digital spectrum giveaway to broadcasters underscores the corrupt and inefficient misuse of public resources in the arena of technology. The citizenry should benefit and profit from the use of public frequencies, and should retain a portion of the spectrum for educational, cultural, and public access uses. We should demand more for private use of public property.

8. Understanding technology should be an essential component of global citizenship.
In a world driven by the flow of information, the interfaces -- and the underlying code -- that make information visible are becoming enormously powerful social forces. Understanding their strengths and limitations, and even participating in the creation of better tools, should be an important part of being an involved citizen. These tools affect our lives as much as laws do, and we should subject them to a similar democratic scrutiny.