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International Computing Issues as a Freshman Seminar

International Computing Issues as a Freshman Seminar. Chris Healy Furman University CCSC-E October 31, 2009. Introduction. Freshman seminar program The need for verbal-oriented course Global & green issues was my focus ACM/IEEE curriculum 2001 SP2 (Social context of computing)

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International Computing Issues as a Freshman Seminar

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  1. International Computing Issues as a Freshman Seminar Chris Healy Furman University CCSC-E October 31, 2009

  2. Introduction • Freshman seminar program • The need for verbal-oriented course • Global & green issues was my focus • ACM/IEEE curriculum 2001 • SP2 (Social context of computing) • SP7 (Privacy and civil liberties) • SP9 (Economic issues in computing)

  3. Approach • Articles, mostly from IEEE Computer and CACM • Sought quality articles for careful reading • Suggested questions, types of things to look for in a paper • Two essays: vertical and horizontal views of IT development in the world • Class participation

  4. Example papers • “From Subject of Change to Agent of Change – Women and IT in Brazil” • “Engineering the Irish Software Tiger” • “Google’s China Problem” • “Recycling E-Waste: The Sky is the Limit” • “Competitiveness and ICTs in Africa” • “The Effect of National Culture and Economic Wealth on Global Software Piracy Rates” • “Web Searching in a Multilingual World” • “Computing in Post-War Afghanistan” • “Little Finland’s Transformation to a Wireless Giant”

  5. Retrospect • Easy to find good papers • Economic issues • IT by region, e.g. China, India, Africa, Middle East, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland, Russia, Finland • 56 papers were assigned in total • World Economic Forum • Communications of the ACM • IEEE Computer; IEEE Spectrum

  6. Retrospect (2) • Participation activity • Award points for contributions • standard error = ¼ letter grade • Laptop & wireless network • Benefits of course • Freedom: Independent of rest of curriculum • Suite of seminars helped to increase total enrollment 30% over previous year • Grade distribution: unipolar but still challenging

  7. Student Survey • Positive responses • Appropriate articles and sufficient variety • Appropriate work load (preparation, essays) • Lukewarm • Easy to understand • “I learned a lot”; “Opened my eyes” • Negative • Routine • Don’t want to take another CS course ?

  8. Conclusion • Seminar: More variety at the front door of the department’s offerings • Show students professional, “human”, and inter-disciplinary issues • Accessible • Practice critical reading, thinking, writing • Captive audience may be double-edged sword • Course Web site: http://cs.furman.edu/~chealy/fys1107

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