ICS 131--Social Analysis of Computerization

Fall 2000

Julian Feldman and XXXXXXXXX

Course Numbers, Rooms, and Meeting Times

Lecture A (36160) RH 104 TT 11:00-12:20

Discus 1 (36161) ELH 110 MWF 12:00-12:50

Discus 2 (36162) ELH 110 MWF 1:00-1:50

Staff

Instructor: Julian Feldman, 464A CS, 949-824-7078, feldman@ics.uci.edu, office hours: 12:30-1:30 TT

Teaching

Assistant: XXXXX

Librarian: Julia Gelfand, 228 Science Library, 824-4971, jgelfand@uci.edu

Lectures, Discussions, Library briefing. Lecture periods will be used for presentation of material by the instructor, and for student questions. Discussion sections will be used to work on term projects and to present term projects and for discussion of material presented in lectures and readings. Library briefing. Wednesday, 4 October, in discussion sections

Reading material. The primary sources of reading material will be BusinessWeek and either the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times. Students will have an opportunity to subscribe to BW, WSJ, and NY Times during the first lecture. Information about on-line access to these three sources will be provided in the first lecture.

Deliverables

Term project (100 points). The principal deliverable will be a term project. The term project is an essay suitable for submission to the essay contest sponsored by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. See attachment 1 and www.cpsr.org.

During Week 1 in discussion sections, we will try to answer your questions about the various topics . On Wednesday of Week 2 please hand in the topic you have selected and a short statement on why you selected the topic. Presentations will take place in discussion sections in weeks 8, 9 and 10. Schedule of partial deliverables and their value--TBA

Final exam (50 points). Probably one hour of multiple choice questions and one hour of short essay questions covering required readings and lectures Evidence of additional readings or other relevant information will be considered favorably. Answers must be legible. The answer to each essay question should not exceed one 8.5’’ x 11" pages. Paper will be supplied. Final questions will be similar to quiz questions.

Quizzes (50 points). You will have five opportunities to show that you are keeping up with the readings and lectures by answering questions in the quizzes. The quizzes will be given at the beginning or at the end of the Tuesday lecture on the days indicated in the schedule. The quiz on a given Tuesday will cover the material in all of the readings and lectures through the period covered by the previous quiz.

Grading. Guaranteed cut points: 180/200 is an A; 170/200 is a B; 160/200 is a C.

Three things to be careful of

Academic Dishonesty--Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery, dishonest conduct, plagiarism, and collusion in dishonest activities erode the University’s educational and social roles. These behaviors cheapen the learning experience and its legitimacy not only for the perpetrators but for the entire community. It is essential that you subscribe to the ideal of academic integrity and accept individual responsibility for your work. [Adapted from a statement by the Office of the Dean of Students]

Additional material on academic dishonesty is available from the lecturer, the Dean of Students, and the UCI Fall 2000 Schedule of Classes, pp 135-137.

Sexual harassment. We have had some problems with sexual harassment in previous offerings of ICS courses. We urge you to read the campus brochure on sexual harassment (a copy will be provided at the end of the first lecture) and report any instances of sexual harassment.

VDT health and safety. Computing equipment is not always benign nor is the computing environment always benign. We will discuss this problem in greater detail during the course. In the meantime, here are a few hints:

•You should take a break for 5 or 10 minutes after each hour of continuous use of a workstation/pc/

computer terminal. Get up and stretch, look around the room, work on the plan for your project, etc.

•You should adjust your chair so that your forearms and thighs are parallel to the floor. This may require a foot rest or reasonable facsimile. Keep your wrists straight. You may want to purchase a wrist rest. If you can't keep this recommended position, don't keep any other position for very long.

•If you have not had your vision checked in the past twelve months, you might want to do that; and tell your vision care specialist that you will be spending several hours a day in front of a display.

•To avoid unnecessary radiation, you should stay 20-24" away from the front of a screen and about 48" away from the back and sides of a display. This advice is based on old displays and is reasonably conservative. Newer monitors like those in the ICS undergraduate labs give off less radiation. Laptops and notebooks are even better.

How to get in touch with the lecturer

Trying to talk to the lecturer at the beginning or end of the lecture are not usually the best times. Before the lecture, he is nervous getting ready to talk to a group of critical students. After the lecture, he’s tired. Two better ways of talking to the lecturer are the following:

Office hours. Office hours. JF will hold office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays after lecture from 12:30 to 1:30. He will be available most Tuesdays and Thursdays, but please note the Tuesdays and Thursdays JF will be out of town. See class schedule.

The Tuesday office hour will be held at the Phoenix Grille. We can take advantage of the "Take a professor to lunch" program. Each participating students gets a $1.00 discount on lunch, and JF will provide an additional discount from the $5.00 credit he gets under this program. We need a minimum of three students to take advantage of the program. Maximum number of students at each lunch is five. Please reserve your lunch date as soon as possible by contacting JF in person or via e-mail. We'll go directly from class to the Phoenix Grille.

Thursday office hour in JF's office--464 A CS. JF's office phone number is 949-824-7078.

Every student in the class must either come to lunch at least once or see JF in his Thursday office hour for at least fifteen minutes. Your choice of topics to discuss in your fifteen minutes of .... If you can't make the scheduled office hours, please contact JF to find another time.

Electronic mail. E-mail is an alternative communication option for the course, i.e., a way of sending messages to the lecturer and TA. JF’s e-mail address is feldman@ics.uci.edu. I don’t promise to read my electronic mail every day, but I will check it two or three times a week.

Adds, Drops, Change of Grade Options, Incompletes

You can drop the course during the first two weeks of the quarter--no questions asked. You will be able to add the course during the first two weeks as space becomes available. If you don’t come to either of the first two lectures and either of the first two discussions, we will assume you will drop the course, and we will fill your seat. However, you must file a signed drop card to actually drop the course.

The only opportunity to drop after the end of week 2 will be during week 7--6 Nov-10 Nov. And if you drop during week 7, you get a W. Why? We have a waiting list of people who want to get into the course, but we have a cap on enrollment. If you drop late, you are taking up a place somebody else could have used.

I have had one recent case of drop card forgery, please don’t create another one. Grade options can’t be changed after the end of week 2.

Incompletes. JF does not give incompletes. In more than thirty years of teaching, I can count the number of incompletes I have given on the fingers on one hand. Don’t count on me to start counting on my other hand at my advanced age.

What is this course about?

The pretest will give you a small sample of some of the questions we will address.

Schedule of deliverables for term project

Will be announced soon.

 

jf/5sep00/16sep00