CS/IT 285L

COPPA is a class term, but must be researched and studied outside of class time. It is not in our lectures. Please add it and its definition to your notes.

You also need to know the general content (one-sentence summary) of what these whistleblowers leaked:

Frances Haugen, Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Reality Winner

In the continued spirit of maximizing the insufficient time we have to fully engage with our comprehensive subject matter, I’ve made a few changes to our Discussion Memos.

1. Only one class term will be required (fully defined and applied) instead of two.
2. Students can and should fill out the black parts of the DM prior to class. Only the green parts need to be filled out during the discussion.
3. You can circle your group number or indicate groups of convenience instead of writing it out.

These new templates are accessible now in Canvas. If you already printed out 10 of the original DM templates, that’s fine. You can just use both term boxes for one term and complete the administrative part of the memo before class.

Answers are in. Big thanks to those who shared their views. I take them seriously.

Results: Only one person reported the quizzes being so problematic as to require change, but others still had good suggestions, and I will therefore implement some.

Actions: In consideration of all the suggestions and individual comments, here’s the plan:

1. We will add 1-2 minutes to quiz taking time. Since we always start right on time anyway, I had to be creative in where this time could materialize. Everyone will now bring their own answer page to the quiz days, and I’ll project the questions on the board at the start time. This way we can ensure everyone gets an extra minute or two since you won’t have to wait for me to distribute the quizzes. You can also fill in your name and section time prior to class so you can start right on question 1 when the timer begins. The answer pages are now printable from Canvas right after the DM templates (Modules > Quiz Answer Pages). Please bring the Quiz C answer page to class on Tuesday, Feb 18.
2. I will drop the 2 lowest quiz scores instead of just one. As stated in the syllabus, this drop occurs at the end of the semester to keep your average as accurate as possible along the way. Any relevant average boost will come after Quiz I scores are recorded (not as we go).
3. I will allow up to 50 pages of handwritten notes on the final exam.
4. I will create ungraded practice quizzes and upload them to Canvas. This part may take a few weeks; I will update this page when they are ready. Update: D,E, and F practice quizzes available in Canvas.
5. Unrelated to survey: Students need to use blue or black ink on future quizzes. The pencils are still not showing up on the scans.
6. What if you finish in a few minutes and have to sit around and wait? I am removing the “no electronics for the duration of the quiz” rule. When you finish the quiz and turn it in, you can open notes for this day (not previous notes) or the reading for next time. Still no idle texting/scrolling allowed, and definitely no photos or communicating.

Understandings:

Some people expressed concern that they didn’t know exactly what answer I expected when they knew the idea but not the specific word that was required. For example, Quiz A had a question about ethical consensus including a clause that money cannot be the sole motivator of an ethical decision. Some students wrote words like “profit” instead of money. Those answers earned full credit despite not matching the slides word for word… but you take notes on the slide, so why not make it match in your notes? Still, some term definitions are more straightforward. The Turing Test slide from Day 1, for example, says the following:

The question was: “A computer or program passes the Turing test if it convinces a ___ that it, the computer, is ___.”

The answers should of course be “human subject” and “human.” Variations on those answers were given full credit (e.g. “human” instead of “human subject”). Some of you offered answers talking about robots and sentience, which were assigned partial credit commensurate with their coherence, but those are clearly not part of our definition and should therefore not be offered as an answer. All in all, if you write down the full definition of the term, there will be little doubt of your understanding and credit will be duly applied.

Final thoughts:

I got some interesting suggestions about things like moving quizzes to the end of class for late students, and changing format for students who didn’t write down the exact definition of terms. I appreciate the feedback and I thank you for it! I think these types of changes would definitely raise scores. However, please note that some things, including these, are not negotiable. You’re expected to be in class on time and will have consequences if you’re not; you need to write down your notes completely; you need to study for your quizzes. These are baseline expectations for all students at the college level – it’s nothing personal, not a quirk of this class, and hopefully, upon reflection, not considered unreasonable. It would be awesome to get super high scores when you didn’t do all the prep work for it, and sometimes life sets you up for that, but it’s not going to happen here.

Thanks again! I appreciate you!

I’m listening. Please do not complete this survey during class time. Answers will be considered as long as they are submitted by Saturday, February 15 at 6pm.

QR code to survey if link is not ideal:

If your class meets at a time other than 12:30pm, you can safely disregard this post.

Sections 02 and 12, aka the 12:30 section, rejoice! We no longer need to go deep in the belly of Healey library in order to have our class. For those who haven’t checked their Wiser notifications, the new meeting place is Wheatley, first floor, room 005 (W-1-0005). When you enter Wheatley from the Quad side, go straight through the big entry hallway and 0005 will be on your left. Don’t turn into the smaller hallways past the stairs.

Hi all! Looks like UMB is closing school tomorrow, February 6, so our class won’t meet on campus. In consideration of the timeline for the entire semester, I have mapped out the best way forward. Here’s the plan:

For the lecture content: I will hold a Zoom lecture for the Day 4 slides at 11:00am on Thursday, February 6, and the meeting will be recorded. The Zoom meeting is only accessible through Canvas and you should be signed in to join. Students from any section may attend this lecture. Real-time attendance is not mandatory for any student, but all students should review the recording before coming to class on Day 5. Terms from this lecture will be tested on Quiz B on Day 5 (Tuesday, February 11). See the screenshots below if you need help navigating to the meeting. I’ll post the recording on… you guessed it! The Recordings page as soon as it is available. Update 1:15pm – it’s available! Direct link here.

For the Discussion Memo (DM) assignment: Sadly we will miss the in-class component of this one, and submit it on Canvas instead. You can fill out your discussion memo by hand or type your answers into the PDF. Of course, you will leave the box about your group members blank this time. The DM is based on the article OpenAI Continues Its Mission of ‘Ethical’ AI by Partnering With a Killer Robot Company by Lucas Ropek for Gizmodo. By this point, everyone in class should have read it on their own in preparation for tomorrow’s class, but it’s on the topics page on our course website if you are behind and need to access it now. The due date remains Thursday, February 6 at 6pm, but I am instituting a 24 hour grace period so everyone has ample time to upload and submit their document. See the screenshots below if you need help navigating to the submission portal.

Maybe see you tomorrow if you choose to attend the Zoom lecture for Day 4 at 11am. Otherwise, see you on Tuesday ready for Quiz B!

Screenshots for Zoom meeting:

Screenshots for uploading your discussion memo:

If you have not attended class prior to today, or are not prepared for the quiz for another reason, please do your best… and make a plan to consult the page that applies to you: late enrollment, late to class, quiz page.

In preparation for the quiz, please:

Hello! It looks like some of the links in the syllabus were not up to date. Here is a fixed version.

The BOS quiz suffered from the same problem, with a mention of turning in homework on Canvas, which is not the case for you! If you already did the quiz, no problem, and the offending question has been fixed for those taking it now. To be clear: you’ll submit your project on Canvas, but homework (in the form of reading assigned articles, then completing an in-class discussion memo) is only checked in class. No Canvas submissions for homework this semester!

Welcome to CS/IT285L: Social Issues and Ethics in Computing. The Spring 2025 semester begins on January 28, 2025. This class is conducted on campus. Please check Wiser for your course time and location.

Please familiarize yourself with this website, as along with Canvas it will be the main online resource for you throughout the semester. It is imperative that you click through all the links you see on the right side of the page (or at the bottom of the page on mobile) so you’ll know what’s expected in this class.

I’m looking forward to having you in class!

-Dr. P.

Hi Friday students!
Our last day of class is this week, December 6. If you’d like to attend an optional final paper workshop session next week, you can join any of the Tuesday/Thursday sessions listed on the syllabus for December 5th and/or 10th. December 12th is a dedicated work-on-the-final-paper-from-home day.
Have a lovely rest of your semester!