UWT/TCSS 325 Course Syllabus
Autumn 2009

Version 27 October 2009

Class meeting times: MW 6:30-8:35 pm
Location: BB104
Instructor: Josh Tenenberg
Office: CP335
Office Hours:MW 5:30-6:30 and by appointment

Course Overview

Technologies do not simply happen, nor are they neutral in their effects. Technologies are created, designed for specific purposes. Technologies are deliberately shaped by the human hand, head and heart, and influence social relationships, economic systems, and political power. Their effects have the potential to improve or worsen the human condition. Designers of technologies thus have ethical responsibilities associated with their professional activities. As a simple example, consider the technical choice for the software developer of how to store digital photos taken for a university ID on the university server. The ability to store digital photos of students, staff, and faculty raises the issue concerning who (if anyone) should have access to these images, and how access rights are granted and removed.

Technologies alone do not drive social development. Public policies (such as laws, codes, and regulations) are one of the main drivers of technological development. These policies are enacted through a political process. In a democratic society, citizens are (in theory) informed about the policies under consideration and publicly deliberate about these policy alternatives. To continue with the example just mentioned, should a university that takes digital photos for university ID's be prohibited from storing these photos on the university server?

I see you as much more than "intellectual beasts of burden", not only as programmers writing code for other people's ends. Rather, I see you as moral agents, capable of autonomous judgement and political action. As a result of this course, I would like for you to have a more explicit and reasoned account for your own ethical positions. I would like for you to see how both public policies and technologies reify and embed ethical positions. And that in the absence of personal virtue at the individual level (including integrity and courage), and absent public debate and action on the social level, socio-technological development will proceed in the interests of those with considerable political power. This may not be in the interests of you or of the greater good. As technologists you have special responsibilities, since your ethics and your politics become embedded in the technologies that you create and because your technical knowledge can inform policy debates. This course is designed to help you become more conscious of your personal and social agency, with the aim that the choices you make reflect an ethical concern for all life.

During this course, we will explore fundamental theories of ethics and examine evidence and argument for both truth claims and ethical claims. Ethical reasoning is hard intellectual work, and not simply a matter of consulting ones feelings or intuitions! Reading, writing, discussion, and critical reasoning will be the main tools that will be used during this course. Effective communication is increasingly becoming an essential skill both of professional software developers and of citizens in a democratic and literacy-dependent world. This course is reading- and writing-intensive, and it satisfies the upper-level writing requirement for bachelor's degrees at UWT (i.e. it is a "W" course).

We will also examine specific socio-technical developments (e.g. electronic waste, globalization of programming labor) having broad social impact, and which will serve as concrete applications of the ethical and sociotechnical ideas explored earlier. As the public policies related to these topics are far from settled, we will examine some of the controversies surrounding them, the ethical theories and social implications embedded in both the technologies and their related public policies, and the avenues for individual and democratic influence on the development of the technologies and policies.

Prerequisites

TCSS 143, 10 credits of undergraduate writing.

Readings

Coursework

• Writings on readings: 40% total, with each week equally weighted.
• Hiring exercise: 5%.
• Discussion facilitation: 5% total.
• Position papers: version 1 - 5%, version 2 - 10%, version 3 -- 24%.
• Position paper presentation: 3%.
• Reviews of position papers of two others; 8% total (4% for each review).

All assignments are to be handed in softcopy using the Catalyst CollectIt website by the start of class on the date due. In addition, some of these assignments are also due hardcopy, as indicated below and/or on the assignment sheet. Make sure that your name is on each sheet of all assignments, and that multiple-page hardcopy assignments are stapled.

Computer use during class sessions

Writings on readings

For every assigned reading in the schedule (each entry in the "Reading" column), you are to hand in a writing associated with the reading. These writings are due at the start of the first class of each calendar week unless otherwise indicated.

Each reading is either a regular reading or a viewpoint reading, and the associated writing for each is different. By default, a reading is regular; viewpoint readings are specifically indicated in the schedule.

For each regular reading, you are to write a reading summary. The summary is two paragraphs of five or six sentences apiece. This summary is descriptive rather than interpretive and will provide an overview of the contents of the article, not your reaction to it. Focus on the main themes in order of importance ("the central thesis is that long-sustained Commons share specific `design principles'"), rather than slavishly sticking to the order of the author's presentation ("first she talks about game theory, then she applies it to the case of small groups in one-shot social dilemmas, then she applies it to repeated games").

For each viewpoint reading, you are to 1) find and quote the sentence from the reading that best expresses the reading's thesis (i.e. main point), 2) indicate the page number, paragraph (counting the first partial or full paragraph as "1") and sentence where this can be found, and 3) provide a one paragraph (i.e. 5 or 6 sentences) discussion of why this is the reading's thesis.

After the summary or viewpoint writing, regardless of the number of readings, you should then add another one to two paragraphs of not less than 5 sentences that answer the following questions:

1. How do these readings relate to other course readings? For the first week, you should relate the readings to one another. For the second and subsequent weeks, you should mention at least two past readings.

The point of these writings is not simply mechanical; rather, it is to reinforce the importance of reflecting upon the ideas in the readings. These readings represent accumulated cultural knowledge. By understanding what past experts have already learned allows you to leverage some of the effort that they have already expended in learning about how to do understand commons governance. Thus, my judgement in grading these readings concerns the extent to which it appears that you have read and reflected upon the readings.

Your writings on each reading and your reaction section will all be weighted equally. E.g. if there are 2 regular readings and a viewpoint, each writing will be weighted 25% and the reaction will be weighted 25%. The writing for any two weeks are weighted equally with respect to your final grade, regardless of the number of readings.

These writings are to be handed in only electronically using CollectIt, and should be brought with you (either hardcopy or softcopy) to class sessions. Please do not email these to the instructor.

Finally, I will drop the lowest grade that you have received for a week in calculating your final grade.

Hiring exercise

You will carry out a brief exercise to stimulate your thinking about the tradeoffs involved in hiring within the field. There are two key documents that you will need for carrying this out:

1. a description of the hiring scenario, and
2. a worksheet that you will fill out. You will hand in both softcopy and hardcopy of this worksheet.

Discussion Facilitation

Once during the quarter, each of you will work in a group of a few students to prepare a set of questions related to that week's readings and to facilitate discussion in class. I will assign groups randomly. Your group must bring to class at least six substantial discussion questions related to the readings. You will hand these in hardcopy, with the names of the group members. In addition, each member of the group will hand these in softcopy on CollectIt by the start of class for the first class session. When you do this softcopy handin, write a few paragraphs that indicate: where and how you interacted (including your face to face meetings), and the answer to the question "given 100 points to distribute among the members of your group based on their contribution, how you would you distribute these points?" along with your reasons for this distribution. Include yourself in this distribution. I will assign your grade for these discussion questions based on your participation in the discussion as self-reported and reported by your classmates.

Here are the detailed requirements that you will use to construct these, and that I will use for their evaluation:

1. Questions should be open-ended (rather than yes/no), so as to open the floor to discussion. "Does Moor believe that Computer Ethics is separate from Applied Ethics?" is a closed question. Most closed questions can be opened up using the question words (why, what, how, when, where), as in "How does Moor believe that Computer Ethics is separate from Applied Ethics?"
2. At least half of your questions must draw on class readings from the past.
3. Every question should include approximately a paragraph of context that indicates why it is relevant and what led you to ask it. For example, you might preface the above question with "Philosophers have been defining the basis for ethical human action for millenia. As a result, there are a number of theories and approaches that philosophers have developed both for judging past human action and for planning future action. Computer ethics can thus be viewed simply as an area of application for existing ethical theories. Yet Moor argues that Computer Ethics should be regarded as something more than the simple application of ethical theories to computing. How does Moor believe that Computer Ethics is separate from Applied Ethics?"
4. There should be at least one question for each assigned reading.
5. Exactly one of the questions should be a "controversy" question. It needs to be constructed as the above questions (i.e. with a paragraph of context), but it needs to ask whether a particular public policy should be adopted. The topic needs to be substantive, and the policy should connect closely to the readings. It is acceptable for the policy to be adapted from a policy discussion in the readings.

Here is the default for how your groups will handle meeting. Changes to this procedure must be agreed to by all members of your group and approved by the instructor. A minimum of one week before the week in which your group is assigned to facilitate, you need to have a face-to-face planning meeting of about 15 minutes. During this meeting, you should agree on your individual responsibilities and determine (or confirm) your next face-to-face meeting time of about one hour prior to the first class session of the week in which you are to facilitate. During this next meeting, you should look at the individual work that you each did, critique this individual work, and finalize the questions that you will hand in.

Position papers

You will develop your "position paper" in three versions. The specific requirements for each version of the paper are detailed in the Position Paper Assignment handout.

Presentation

As indicated in the schedule, you will each do a brief presentation of your papers during the last week of classes. Unless otherwise specified, you will have six minutes to present your thesis and a summary of your argument, and two minutes for questions. Your presentation should include between 3 and 5 illustrative slides using presentation software (e.g. powerpoint). In order to get full credit for your presentation, you will also have to be present for all presentations of others. On the day you present, please come 10 minutes early to load your talk onto the class computer. You will not have time to do this during the time allocated for the talks.

Reviews of position papers of others

On the day in which version 2 is due, you will distribute your paper to two other students in the class (to be assigned). You will have one week in which to read the two papers that you receive and write a one-page review. Use the following review form. Bring in one hardcopy of each review on the due date to give to the student whose paper you are reviewing. On the day in which the reviews are due, you will work in a group with your reviewers (who will also be the people whose papers you reviewed) to listen to and help one another refine your writing and ideas.

Grading

Unless otherwise specified, each assignment will receive an integer score between 0 and 4, inclusive. Your grade on each assignment will be a weighted sum of the grade on each part. Your final grade for the course will be calculated by taking the weighted sum of grades on all work that you have handed in, and rounding to the closest 1/10th. That is, multiply each score that you receive by the weight of the assignment, add these together, then round to the nearest 0.1. The correspondence between numeric grades and letter grades (i.e., A, B, C, etc.) can be found in the UW University Handbook, v.4, Ch.11.

Here is a description of roughly what each numeric score means:

• 4: All main concepts and skills mastered and all questions answered (or problems solved), with at most minor misconceptions or errors. Your writing is grammatical, well organized, with a clearly stated thesis that is forcefully argued using examples from course readings that are properly cited.
• 3: Minor misconceptions/errors or incompleteness, minor problems with written organization or grammar, competent application of the ideas discussed in class and in reading, mostly clear thesis that is adequately argued from readings but which might have minor flaws in the chain of reasoning..
• 2: One or more of the main concepts has not been mastered or one or more of the questions or relevant issues missing. Problems with written organization and grammar, spotty application of course ideas, problems with your thesis and/or chain of reasoning.
• 1: Significant misconceptions and/or incompleteness. Significant problems with grammar or organization, poorly expressed thesis and chain of reasoning.
• 0: Didn't hand in, or little evidence that any of the main concepts and skills have been mastered. Significant problems with writing, lack of thesis and chain of reasoning.

Each handin is due at the start of class on the specified due date. During most school terms I have a policy of no late handins. But with the threat of a swine flu epidemic, I am adapting my policy in line with recommendations of the policy of no late handins. But with the threat of a swine flu epidemic, I am adapting my policy in line with recommendations of the US Center for Disease Control (http://www.cdc .gov/h1n1flu/institutions/guidance/). First, in the interest of public health, if you have a flu-like illness, remain home until 24 hours after resolution of your fever without the use of fever-reducing medications. Second, I will accept up to two assignments (of whatever type) up to one week late without penalty. You do not need to inform me--I will accept these automatically, no questions asked or documentation required. With due cause, exceptions to this policy will need to be negotiated with the instructor; emergency documentation may be required and/or late penalties may be given, depending upon the circumstances.

Services

CSS Mentors

The CSS mentors staff the Science Lab (SCIENCE 106) throughout the week. They can provide help with specific questions about specific classes. Please note, however, that they will not do your homework for you. Instead, they will help you when you get stuck (either in programming or in homework) and help you develop the reasoning skills you need to solve future problems. See the CSS Mentors website for information about when the mentors are in the labs and other information.

Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology

The Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology offers academic and technical support for students at all levels of expertise - review, upper division, graduate and TA. For your writing, reading, study skills and public speaking needs, please make an appointment online at www.tacoma.washington.edu/ctlt/ or visit KEY 202. For your Math needs,assistance is available on a drop-in basis, Monday - Thursday, hours to be posted. For multimedia or video projects, please visit the Multimedia Lab located in MAT 251.

Campus Student Support

Disability Support Service

If you would like to request academic accommodations due to a temporary or permanent disability, contact Disability Support Services (DSS) in the Mattress Factory Bldg, Room 253. An appointment can be made through the front desk of DSS, or you can call at (253-692-4522) 692-4413 (TTY), or by e-mail: dssuwt@u.washington.edu. Appropriate accommodations are arranged after you've conferred with the DSS Manager and presented the required documentation of your disability to DSS. For more information please see the Disability Support Services webpage at: http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/studentaffairs/SHW/dss_about.cfm.

Health insurance

All formally admitted matriculated students at UWT are eligible to enroll in group health insurance, either on a per quarter or academic year basis. Eligible students who enroll may also insure their spouse, Domestic Partner, and unmarried children under 25. Full details of the plan can be found in the current 2009-2010 Plan Brochure, and there is additional information on the Student Affairs website http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/studentaffairs/SHW/shw_insurance.cfm. Specific questions can be addressed to the Student Affairs office in MAT 253, 253-692-4522.

Counseling Center

The Student Counseling Center (SCC) is an on-campus resource that provides counseling to the students at UW Tacoma. It is common for students to experience times when they feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities of college, work, family, and relationships. The Student Counseling Center is here to help students cope with stresses and personal issues that can interfere with their ability to perform in school. Students can make an appointment by stopping by the SCC in MAT 253, or calling 253-692-4522. Additional information is on the SCC website: http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/studentaffairs/SHW/scc_appointment.cfm.

Child care

The Childcare Assistance Program (CAP) provides childcare assistance to qualifying students with financial need. The CAP provides vouchers to UW Tacoma low income and economically disenfranchised students with children, who continue to have unmet financial need even after the maximum amount of financial aid has been awarded. For more information, please contact Jennifer Magofna (jmagofna@u.washington.edu, 253-692-4601), Program Coordinator of Student Services.

Safety

Emergency Phoning

Inclement Weather

Additional Policies

Collaboration

Plagiarism

Class email list

I have established a course mailing list for course-related discussion, to which everyone in the class will be a member. The email list name is in the Email section of the course homepage. Please also read my policy on email list use prior to posting.

Change Log

• 27 October 2009. Fixed hiring exercise links.
• 19 October 2009. Added back the "two free lates" policy.
• 8 October 2009. Dropping lowest grade on weekly writing.
• 30 September 2009. Original version (adapted from previous terms).