CS 349 Contemporary Issues: Class Policies and Information

CS 349 Contemporary Issues in Computer Science
Alan Cline

Elaine Rich
Spring, 2013

Class Information:

Unique

Time

Room

53478

T, Th 2:00-3:15

PAI 3.14

53480

T, Th 3:30- 4:45

PAI 3.14

The two sections will both be team taught by Elaine Rich and Alan Cline.

Textbooks

· Quinn, Michael, Ethics for the Information Age, 5^th Edition.

· Ford, Martin, The Lights in the Tunnel. (Note that this entire book is available free online.)

Staff

		Office	Office Hours
Alan Cline	cline@cs.utexas.edu	GDH 5.808	T, W 11:00 - noon and F 1:00 – 2:00
Elaine Rich	ear@cs.utexas.edu	GDH 5.810	W 10:00 - noon
Swati Rallapalli	swati@cs.utexas.edu		By appointment
Stephen Pryor	spryor02@utexas.edu		By appointment

Flags

This course carries both the Writing and the Ethics and Leadership flags.

Writing Flag courses are designed to give students experience with writing in an academic discipline. In this class, you can expect to write short pieces regularly during the semester. You’ll also complete one substantial writing project. Throughout the semester you’ll receive feedback from your instructor to help you improve your writing. In some cases, we’ll encourage you to visit UT’s Writing Center for additional help. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from your written work.

Writing Flag courses are designed to give students experience with writing in an academic discipline. In this class, you can expect to write regularly during the semester, complete substantial writing projects, and receive feedback from us to help you improve your writing. You will also have the opportunity to revise one or more assignments, and you may be asked to read and discuss your peers’ work. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from your written work. Writing Flag classes meet the Core Communications objectives of Critical Thinking, Communication, Teamwork, and Personal Responsibility, established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

i>Clicker

We will use the i>clicker interactive response system in class. (Click here to find out more about it.) If you don’t already have an i>clicker, you need to get one from the Coop. The i>clicker2 will give you more features, but the i>clicker1 will also work. Your i>clicker responses will form the bulk of your class participation grade. Thus it is a serious violation of our academic integrity policy to let anyone else use your i>clicker.

Piazza

Piazza is a free online gathering place where students can ask, answer, and explore 24/7. Read more at http://www.piazza.com. We will use Piazza for important class announcements. In addition, you can use it for discussions with other students and with the instructors. Once registration has settled down, we will enroll everyone in the class Piazza forum.

Grading

We all wish that we could have courses without grades. You hate worrying about grades. We hate having to assign grades. But grades are essential to insuring that your degree has the value it deserves. So we have to have a grading system and that system has to have three essential properties:

It has to motivate everyone to learn as much as possible.
It has to be fair to everyone in the class.
It has to be a true measure of how much each student knows about the class material.

In this class, grades will be assigned as follows:

Project	53%
Homeworks and note cards	32%
News articles	7%
Class participation	8%

Project

Everyone will choose a topic for a term project. The project will have two parts:

A written report.
A movie.

Homeworks

Short homeworks will be assigned most weeks. You can see what they are and when they are due by going to the Class Schedule page. Homeworks are due in class on the day specified. Late homeworks will not be accepted. If you cannot make it to class, you may submit your homework early, either at an earlier class or to us in our office. Electronic submissions are a problem for several reasons. Therefore we have established the following policy for them: Everyone gets one free electronic submission. We will only accept additional electronic submissions in cases of emergency. Note that out of town job interviews and things of that sort are not emergencies. In those cases, plan ahead.

The following short documents describe how we will grade the homeworks and they offer tips for writing good papers:

Note one important thing: Homeworks must be typed and double spaced. Double spacing is important since it allows us space to write comments on your papers.

News Articles

As you’re reading the news, be on the lookout for articles that touch on the issues that we are covering in class. Every Thursday, unless instructed otherwise in class, you should come to class with a printout of an article that you found interesting. You should be prepared to present your article to the class. You cannot get credit for turning in an article if you are not present in class.

Notecards

It is important that you come to class having done the assigned reading. To help assure that everyone has done so, you will often be asked to turn in, at the beginning of class, one 4 x 6 card on which you have written a short description of an idea that you found interesting as you were doing the reading. Once you’ve chosen an idea, do a bit more research on it. Come to class prepared to present what you have learned. We will flip through the cards at the beginning of class and choose a few. Yes, printing your response on a piece of paper is also okay. We specify the notecard just to give you an idea of how much you need to write.

Piazza

Piazza is a free online gathering place where students can ask, answer, and explore 24/7. Read more at www.piazza.com. We will use Piazza for important class announcements. In addition, you can use it to post questions and get answers both from other students and from the instructors. Once registration has settled down, we will enroll everyone in the class Piazza forum.

Writing Flag

This course carries the Writing flag. Writing flag courses are designed to give students experience with writing in an academic discipline. In this class, you can expect to write regularly during the semester, complete substantial writing projects, and receive feedback from your instructor to help you improve your writing. You will also have the opportunity to revise one or more assignments, and to read and discuss your peers' work. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from your written work.

Writing Center

We strongly encourage you to use the Undergraduate Writing Center, FAC 211, 471-6222: http://www.uwc.utexas.edu/). The Undergraduate Writing Center offers free, individualized, expert help with writing for any UT undergraduate, by appointment or on a drop-in basis. Any undergraduate enrolled in a course at UT can visit the UWC for assistance with any writing project. The consultants there work with students from every department on campus, for both academic and non-academic writing. Whether you are writing a lab report, a resume, a term paper, a statement for an application, or your own poetry, UWC consultants will be happy to work with you. Their services are not just for writing that has "problems." Getting feedback from an informed audience is a normal part of a successful writing project. Consultants help students develop strategies to improve their writing. The assistance they provide is intended to foster independence. Each student determines how to use the consultant's advice. The consultants are trained to help you work on your writing in ways that preserve the integrity of your work.

Ethics and Leadership Flag

This course carries the Ethics and Leadership flag. Ethics and Leadership courses are designed to equip you with skills that are necessary for making ethical decisions in your adult and professional life. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments involving ethical issues and the process of applying ethical reasoning to real-life situations.

Students with Disabilities

Any student with a documented disability (physical or cognitive) who requires academic accommodations should contact the Services for Students with Disabilities area of the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 (voice) or 471-4641 (TTY for users who are deaf or hard of hearing) as soon as possible to request an official letter outlining authorized accommodations.

Academic Integrity

You should read carefully the class policy on academic integrity. Cheating of any form will not be tolerated and will result in a failing grade in the class.

Additional Class Policies

You should read CS Department Code of Conduct. The policies described there will be followed in this class.