Instructor

Prof. L. Felipe Perrone
Office: Dana 335
Phone: 570-577-1687
E-mail: perrone@bucknell.edu
Office hours: open door or by appointment (Calendly)
Web: http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~perrone

Meeting Times

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 09:00am-10:00am in Academic East 116.

On four Monday evenings during the semester, we will have an additional meeting. Be sure to look at the schedule. for more information.

Office Hours

You are welcome to drop by my office any time. If I am available at the time, I’ll be happy to talk to you. If you want to make sure that I am there and available at the time of your need, you can either check my online BMail calendar and/or call, message, or email to make an appointment. Remember that you have my cell phone number and that you can communicate by voice or text, either directly or through messaging apps like Telegram, Signal, or WhatsApp.

Course Outcomes

After completing this course students will be able to:

1. Collect and analyze information from a variety of sources about societal issues related to computers and computing, and present informed opinions based on the information and analysis; (EAC h, j; CAC e, g)
2. Analyze ethical issues concerning both computer technologies and the exercise of their professional responsibilities. (EAC f; CAC e)

Additionally, students will develop their skill in literature research and public speaking.

Structure of the Course

The course meets three times a week – some class periods will be led by the instructor and, periodically, it will be led by students. The instructor will use some combination of activities, which may include but are not limited to the following:

• Short presentation
  
• Video or audio presentation(s)
  
• Organized discussion
  
• Formal debate
  
• Group activities 

Students are expected to visit the online schedule frequently in order to find the assigned readings, which must be completed before class. The online schedule will also indicate the presenters for each class period.

There will be writing activities for this class including reflection journals, two short papers (due when students serve as discussion leaders), and a term project which comprises a poster and a term paper. Additional details are presented below.

In-Class Activities

Throughout the semester, we will have simple, quick activities to be completed during a class period. Whenever they take place, the activities will be posted on Moodle and will be graded according to the following rubric below. In order to earn 100% of the points allocated to in-class activities, a student needs an average of 1.0 across their submissions.

• 0 – either not submitted, off topic, not on time, and/or doesn’t show earnest effort.
• 1 – submitted, on topic, on time, and shows earnest effort to explore the given prompt leveraging information from class materials.
• 2 – submitted, on topic, on time, and shows outstanding effort (uses sources discovered on your own, shows deeper exploration of the topic, or goes above and beyond expectations in any other way).

Academic Engagement

Courses at Bucknell that receive one unit of academic credit have a minimum expectation of 12 hours per week of student academic engagement. Student academic engagement includes both the hours of direct faculty instruction (or its equivalent) and the hours spent on out of class student work.

In this course, academic engagement will be reflected through the following complementary components.

1. Attendance. Since this is a discussion-heavy class, in normal times, we would have said that attendance is mandatory. However, we are operating under very stressful conditions imposed on us by the COVID-19 pandemic. If you must miss a class period, please make an effort to reach out and let the instructor know you cannot be there: all it takes is a quick message. Each unexcused or unjustified absence beyond two will lose you 1% of the final grade.
2. Participation and professionalism. Again, with this being a discussion-centered course, you are expected to participate, to share you thoughts, to hear other students and react to their statements and opinions. Respect and civility are imperative, specially in the face of disagreement. Coming prepared to contribute to class discussions and speaking up are also imperative.
3. Reading assignments. There is no textbook for this course. Instead, a collection of reading materials will be made available to you through the course’s Moodle site. Note that in order to make the most of the learning experience you must complete reading assignments before coming to class. We will be using the Perusall app for reading our materials together. This app lets you annotate readings with comments that help you learn, that help other students learn with you, and that let the instructor see that you are indeed grappling with the material. Your reading and commenting in Perusall will count toward the Academic Engagement component of the course grade.
4. Bringing new, relevant material to class. This is a student-driven class and everything you do to make the class richer will be seen as evidence of academic engagement. For instance, finding an article or film to discuss in class, contributing to a community discussion in an electronic forum, attending an event and reporting to our group. If you are learning and sharing with us, it counts!

Student Led Class Periods

Students will organize activities for when they are scheduled to lead the discussion of a pre-determined topic. The schedule of topics for the semester is posted here. Students will be fully in charge of the class period as a well-coordinated team of discussion leaders. The following expectations must be met:

1. The student(s) will have done research in their topic to find at least 2 scholarly articles and as many journalistic articles as they want on their topic.
2. Students will meet with the instructor at the latest two class periods before the one they will lead. Together, the team and the instructor will evaluate whether any adjustments need to be made to their plan. By the time of this meeting, the majority of the content should be well defined.
3. One class period before they are discussion leaders, students will distribute to the instructor and to the rest of the class one electronically the articles they have selected for their activity.
4. Student led activities will be graded according to a rubric available here and will count toward the final class grade.

Journals

The course page on Moodle includes a resource for students to submit journals on a given prompt. Although the nature of the journal entries is that of a personal reflection, it must be well-informed and based on reliable sources of information which must be cited. The rules of academic responsibility must be respected in student blogs. The due date for each journal entry will be posted on Moodle. Journal entries are graded using the simple rubric below. In order to earn 100% of the points allocated to journals, a student needs an average of 1.0 across their journal entries.

• 0 – either not submitted, off topic, not on time, and/or doesn’t show earnest effort.
• 1 – submitted, on topic, on time, and shows earnest effort to explore the given prompt leveraging information from class materials.
• 2 – submitted, on topic, on time, and shows outstanding effort (uses sources discovered on your own, shows deeper exploration of the topic, or goes above and beyond expectations in any other way).

Term Paper

Students will choose a topic related to the learning objectives of this class and will write a proposal for their term paper. The proposal is due February 5th on Moodle and will count for 1/10 of the paper grade. It must present a tentative skeleton of the term paper and list the initial bibliography that will support the work. It is not essential that the term paper be constrained to what is presented in the proposal, but it is essential that the proposal shows that the student has already explored the topics and done some research in the literature for the work in progress.

The topic chosen must be related to the topics discussed in the class and the paper must address contemporary issues within the chosen theme. Formatting guidelines and rubric for the term paper will be available here.

Course Grade Distribution

Course grades will be assigned only at the end of the semester. Throughout the semester, you can monitor the Moodle grade book to track your progress.

• 10% In-Class Activities
• 15% Academic Engagement
• 30% Student Lead Classes
• 15% Journals
• 30% Term Paper (3% proposal, 7% draft, 20% final paper)

Policies

1. Late assignments will be accepted at the discretion of the instructor. If you need an extension, be sure to request it as early as you possibly can.
2. The principles of academic responsibility will be taken very seriously. Proper credit must be given to any sources uses in papers and presentations whether the sources are on-line or in-print. Unsolicited reading or copying of other student or faculty files is as wrong as looking at or removing papers from a student or faculty member’s desk. It is the faculty’s role to report acts of academic misconduct the Board of Review on Academic Responsibility.
3. Letter grade assignments will be given at the end of the semester. Conversion from the 100 point-scale to letters will follow the typical scale: 93-100 A, 90-92 A-, 87-89 B+, 83-86 B, 80-82 B-, 77-79 C+, 73-76 C, 70-72 C-, 60-69 D, 0-59 F.

Academic Responsibility

The principles of Academic Responsibility will be taken very seriously. Proper credit must be given to any sources uses in papers and presentations whether the sources are on-line or in-print. Unsolicited reading or copying of other student or faculty files is as wrong as looking at or removing papers from a student or faculty member’s desk. It is the faculty’s role to report acts of academic misconduct the Board of Review on Academic Responsibility. Students are expected to read and abide by the principles explained in the Student Handbook.

Mental Health

In this classroom and on Bucknell’s campus we support mental health efforts. Any student who is struggling and believes this may impact your performance in the course is encouraged to contact your Associate Academic Dean or the Dean of Students at 570-577-1601 for support. Furthermore, please approach me if you are comfortable in doing so. This will enable me to provide resources and support. If immediate mental health assistance is needed, call the Counseling & Student Development Center at 570-577-1604 (24/7).

Student-Athletes

If you are a student-athlete, remember that you are a student first and an athlete second. This means that academic work is your first priority. As per University rules, you will not be penalized for being away to take part in athletic events. It is your responsibility, however, to manage your time wisely so that you can do well in this and in your other classes. Please make sure to notify the instructors well in advance of your travel schedule and plan ahead to meet the deadlines for your assignments.

Access Statement

Any student who needs an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact Heather Fowler, Director of the Office of Accessibility Resources at hf007@bucknell.edu, 570-577-1188 or in room 212 Carnegie Building, who will coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. The college will make reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities.