10/3/08 Miller CSC309

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Overview

10/10/08 Miller CSC309

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Evolution of this Course

Accreditation was the motivation for this course and I probably started being the lead teacher on it in 1986.When I left the Hattiesburg campus and started full time at the coast in 2003, I left documentation on the course I had developed. The current Hattiesburg CSC309 and the one youwill take have the same structure and requirements.

10/3/08 Miller CSC309

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Evolution of this CourseThe text that was used most recently in this course was the 1st edition of "A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing" by Sara Baase. It was an excellent book that was being used less and less as the new numbers and issues came in. The current course basically follows the organization of that book.

10/3/08 Miller CSC309

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Evolution of this CourseA slight modification was made to meet the requirements for “writing intensive” and recent changes in curriculum have added an emphasis in “presentations”.

Changes in computing capabilities and the world in general are reflected in changes in the emphasis placed on the varying topics.

10/3/08 Miller CSC309

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Course Outline

• Overview• Ethical Foundations• The Gift (Chapter 1)• Privacy (Chapter 2)• Wiretapping (Chapter 3a)• Encryption (Chapter 3b)• Trust Computers? (Chapter 4)

10/3/08 Miller CSC309

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Course Outline

• Intellectual property (Chapter 5)• Constitutional Issues (Chapter 6)• Computer Crime (Chapter 7)• Computers and Work (Chapter 8)• Broader Issues (Chapter 9)• Professional Ethics (Chapter 10)

10/9/08 Miller CSC309

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Ethical ScenariosTaken from “Ethical Conflicts in information and Computer Science, Technology, and Business” byDonn Parker, Susan Swope, and Bruce Baker. (QED Information Sciences, Inc. Wellesley, Massachusetts, 1990)

Of special interest will be those where the changing technology has resulted in a change in what is considered responding ethically.

12/8/09 Miller CSC309

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Another Excellent Text“Ethics and Computing: living responsibly in a computerized world” edited by Kevin Bowyer, IEEE press, does as good a job on “whistle-blowing” as I’ve been able to find anywhere. The rest of the book is solid. He does not cover classical ethical theories but instead spends time on a topic he feels is more relevant: “Critical-Thinking Skills”. Boyer emphatically states “The goal of studying ‘ethics and computing’ must be to cause you to become a more ethical person, particularly in your career as a computing professional.”

1/8/09 Miller CSC309

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Lagniappe You will see some history of computing that will better allow you to better understand the present and to anticipate the future.

You will be exposed to some of the classic articles in the field and look at a number of this fields disasters and near-disasters.

Then there will be “story time” where the emphasis will be not on entertainment but on becoming a true professional.

10/10/08 Miller CSC309

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LagnaippeDownload copies of the overheads are found at:http://orca.st.usm.edu/~millerOn the web are all of the old exams I still have copies of. Downloading them (Save a tree/ limit your printing) is probably worth the time and effort.

Note on the overheads that each slide has a date on it of when it was created or last modified and web site contains the date the last modifications to each file were uploaded.