Weekly Short Writing Assignment

Each week, beginning with week 1, find and read at least one quality article on a topic in ethics, society, or law as it relates to technology. A quality article might appear in an academic journal, a reputable newspaper or online publishing platform (NY Times, Wall Street Journal, The Register, Medium.com, TechRadar.com, Youtube.com, etc...), or perhaps blog posts by professional researchers or ethics boards. Make sure the cite your sources.

Objectives: Learn to find appropriate resources for learning; practice reflection and writing; strengthen critical thinking and evaluation skills.

Keep a short writing assignment folder or blog reflecting on a topic you read about during the week. Your entries can be short or long and the topic can be as narrow or wide scope as you like; however, they must contain your genuine and thoughtful consideration, and they must be properly cited. So clearly a couple of sentences won't be enough. I suggest aiming for 200-400 words, but feel free to be outside this range.

You entries should be submitted in plain text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf), Adobe PDF (.pdf), or MS word (.doc or .docx). Google docs should work as well, so long as you download as one of these formats prior to submitting.

You should submit your weekly entries on D2L by the end of the weekend. You may also skip two short writing assignment for a total of 8 entries at the end of the 10 week quarter.

You should have at least one of each of the following type of entry:

• An opinion entry that contains an argument or defense of your own opinion on a topic
• An critical review of an opinion piece
• A case study (examine a situation, identify an ethical, legal, or social issues, and give some justified recommendations)
• Your last entry should be a reflection on this class. What was effective about the class? How can I improve the class? What interesting things/skills did you learn about or improve on? Do you think you'll face any of the ethical, legal, or social issues in your professional future? And whatever else you might like to reflect on.

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Here are some topic areas to get you started looking around (but feel free to wander from this list):

Ethics:

• Computer Security and Crime
• Privacy and Anonymity
• Intellectual Property
• Professional Responsibility
  • Conflicts of Interest
• Globalization
• Dishonesty
  • Cheating in Video Games
  • Vaporware/Dishonest Marketing
• Artificial Intelligence

Legal:

• Software Patents and Copyright
• Digital Ownership
• Privacy and Data Gathering
• Access Costs (Net Neutrality)
• Internet Free Speech/Censorship
• Open Source Software

Social:

• Social Biases
  • Workplace Biases
    • Gender and Ethnic Bias
  • Algorithmic and Computer System Biases
  • Social Network Biases
• Fake News
• Benefits/Drawbacks of Computing on Society
  • Healthcare
  • Voting
  • Autonomous Cars