Assignments
News Discussion
Impact of Computers
Presentation
Web Project
Computers in the Arts
Database Project
Solving a Social Problem

News Discussion (counts as part of class participation -- approximately half)

There are no required presentation materials for this assignment.  I do want to you give me the reference for the news item and I will post it to the calendar as a record of what was discussed.

What you should present:  the content of the news article and what you consider the interesting questions that it raises.  Following this brief description, your job is to engage the class in a discussion.  You will not be graded on the class's performance but you do need to be prepared to ask follow up questions or to state a point of view to engage the class. 

What you should learn from this assignment:

Impact of Computers (10% of your grade)

This is a 5 page double-spaced report that explores the impact of computers on a particular field.  There are several approached that you can take to this paper:  you can examine how computers have changed this area or you can examine the as yet unmet promises of what computers can do.   In some cases, a single topic could be addressed either way:  for example, there have been a lot of changes in the area of publishing and education, but there is a vast amount of as yet untapped opportunity.

If it is an area that computers have actually created, you should discuss what area it replaced or what it has brought new to society.  For example, computers created the field of space exploration: prior to computers, we were earthbound and could only study the planets and stars through telescopes and observations.  As a non-computer example, the automobile replaced the horse and buggy. 

Your paper should have significant facts to support your observations, but I want you to go beyond the facts and talk about the impact that those facts and changes have made.  Have the changes in how we should changed the way we work or the way we interact with people?  Has advertising changes changed how we spend our time and money?

I expect a proper bibliography for the paper.  If you are having trouble finding source material for your report, let me know and I'll give you a hand.  When you look at source material, be especially cognizant of the date of the material.  If you use no recent resources, you'll have missed significant changes.

I also want you to give me your views and use your own experience in the report.  You simply need to make it clear where you are giving your opinion rather than facts or someone else's opinions.  If you use other people's ideas, give them proper credit.  A simple rule to follow in ALL writing is when in doubt, give credit.

You will be graded both on content and form.  I am not concerned about your style, but the paper needs to read smoothly.  Given existing word processing tools, there is no reason for any misspelled words or typos.  Pay attention to punctuation and grammar.  Sentence fragments are occasionally useful, but a paper full of them is not well-formed. 

If anyone wants to give me a draft by October 4, I will give you general comments back.

Presentation (Impact of Computers or  Representation in the Arts) (10% of your grade)

You will already have been graded on the content of  your paper.  The grade for the presentation is on your ability to present the concepts orally in a clear and concise manner.  Your presentation should take approximately 15 minutes and should cover the content of your paper.  You should use graphics (pictures or charts) to illustrate your points and can use live demonstrations if you wish.  Important aspects of your presentation are speaking style (e.g., maintaining eye contact with the audience, speaking clearly) , organization, and creativity in how you present.  Presentations should not be an exact recitation of your paper.

Web Project (10% of your grade)

You are to build a web page that includes the following components:
The content of the page is up to you.  If you do not have an idea that you want to implement, you can build a "store front", where the user can purchase one type of item, but can choose how many to buy (the input).  The output will be the total cost.  Use the first 5 elements listed above for information about the product. 

You should try to make your web page interesting and appealing.  You will not be graded on the aesthetics of your page, but you will get credit for effort.  Also, we will discuss what was easy and hard to do and what is easy and hard for the user.  Having tried different ideas will give you a lot of insight into why there are so many variations on web pages.

You have two choices on how to get your web page to me:  both by email.  You can send me the actual page (or pages) or if you put it out on an externally available site, you can send just send me the URL.

Computers in the Arts (10% of your grade)

This is a 2-3 page double-spaced report that explores how computers are portrayed in the arts.  Choose a movie, television show, nove, or short story.  Describe how computers are portrayed in the piece that you choose and discuss whether the portrayal is realistic.  Be sure to make it clear what piece you are reviewing and if it is not obvious how I would find it, please give me a pointer.

Possible topics:  There are pieces in which the computer plays a significant role (like the Matrix series) and ones where it has an interesting, but less significant role (such as Minority Report).  There are television shows, like CSI where the role of the computer is important and many others where the role is less significant.  If you are interested in reporting on a short story or novel, you may want to consider science fiction and see if the computer usage is part of the "fiction".  The other good source of computer usage is the "paper" mystery, where much of the work involves following paper trails.

You should also discuss the significance of the computer in your chosen piece.  Does it have a significant role or is it simply a tool that people use?  Is it portrayed as something friendly or menacing?

Consider whether the functions that are used in the computer are realistic.  Does the computer "know" things that are unrealistic?  Is there a spectacular event when the computer fails?  Does the computer perform incredibly intelligent feats in basically no time.

As you are writing the paper, you are apt to have questions about whether something is realistic.  If that happens, please talk to me about it!  Use this as an opportunity to explore the capabilities of computers that interest you..

There is source material about specific pieces available on the web.  Feel free to use it, but remember to give proper credit.

All caveats from the impact paper still hold.  Also, please remember to title your paper, number pages, and staple it.  Please plan on giving me both hard and soft copy of the report.

I strongly recommend that you write a paper on how computers are potrayed and used in the work of art rather than how they are used in producing the art, but I will accept papers on how they are used in the production.

Database Project (10% of your grade)

You are to write an Access database that consists of 3 tables and 4 queries.  The tables need to contain an example of each type of data:  autonumber, text, number, and date.  The 4 queries need to have at least 2 that have selection criteria in them.  You will receive extra credit if you use forms and reports, but you should NOT work on the extra credit components until you have all of the basic components working.  The class calendar points at the university example that we worked on in class. 

You are free to define any database that you want.  If you would like, you may build the following database:

Tables:
 Queries:  Possible queries are
You are to email the database to me.  Access stores it as a single file so this should be straightforward.

Final Project:  Solving a Social Problem (25% of your grade)

The ouput of this project is a 10-15 minute presentation and a 2-3 page double-spaced report that analyzes a problem of interest to you and describes how computers can be used to address it.  I am not looking for a report on how OTHER  people have solved the problem, but on how YOU would solve it.  You are welcome to build on other people's solutions, but you should be pulling it together as you see fit.  The purpose of this project is to bring together what you have learned about computers and to apply it to a real problem. 

You will need to email me your paper and presentation materials the day of the final.

You should consider whether your solution is feasible in turns of computer trechnology, cost and user acceptability.  (For example, a $100,000 computer in everyone's home would not be a reasonable solution.)  Describe the limitations of your solution and potential problems with it.  I want to see both sides of the  story -- not just a "sell job" on how good a solution it is.  Be weary of overly complex solutions;  use the simplest technology that solves the problem.  Also be sure to consider security and privacy issues.

You will be presenting to the class before I read the paper.  The paper should be a summary of what you presented.