CS301 Course Outline Recti cultus pectora roborant

Computer Science 301 Computer Ethics

Course outline

Land Acknowledgement

Bishop's University is located on traditional, unceded land of the Abanaki people.
K'wlipai8ba W8banakiak wdakiw8k

Professor: Lin Jensen
e-Mail:
Office: Johnson 103
Office hours are on my website, https://cs.ubishops.ca/ljensen
phone extension: 2361

Assigned Book: Computers and Society, Ronald M. Baecker, ISBN 978-0-19-882709-2

This book is affordable, thorough, and up to date. The Canadian author has made it globally focused. There are thousands of notes and references. Web references have been checked for recent avalibility.

The bookstore has paper and electronic copies. The library has also purchased an electronic copy. They say:
We have purchased the eBook of Computers and Society. Here is the link to it.

Other books in the library, (Many more interesting books are in the stacks at QA76.9 .C66 and QA76.9 .M65):

Computers, Ethics, and Society, Second & Third editions, David Ermann et al., Oxford University Press, QA76.9 .C66 C6575
A Gift of Fire, Sara Baase, QA76.9 .C66 B3
Computer Ethics, Deborah Johnson, QA76.9 .M65 J64
Computers and Ethics in the Cyberage, D. Micah Hester & Paul Ford, QA76.9 .M65 C66
Ethical Conflicts, Donn B. Parker et al., HF5387 .P367
Cyberethics: Morality and law in cyberspace, by Richard Spinello, TK 5105.875 .I57 S68
Readings in CyberEthics edited by Richard A. Spinello and Herman T. Tavani, TK 5105.5 .R3722 2001

In addition there are many on-line sources .

I will not use "Moodle" for this course

Instead, Assignments will be posted on the course webpage, where work can be submitted either by a form in the assignment, or by file upload, or sent to me by email.

Ethics is a branch of philosophy. The use of computers introduces arguably unique ethical issues in the way their use affects society. Technically minded professionals often give little attention to ethical issues.

This course explores the basis for ethical reasoning, examines ethical issues such as invasion of privacy, mischief including viruses, piracy and liability of software. It also considers broader issues of impacts on the individual and society, control of the technology and the question of the difference between human understanding and rule-based processing of data.

The book's 12 chapters are grouped into sections: Opportunities, Risks, and Choices. We will try to cover about 1 chapter per week.

Students will be expected to participate in class discussions, and role-playing scenarios ("Panels" - possibly), and to write a term paper. Late assignments may be ignored.

Grading Scheme

Class participation	40%
Term paper	20%
Written assignments	40%
No Final exam	0%

The Class participation mark consists of attendance, well-prepared presentations in panel discussions, and reasonable participation in discussion.