December Exam

1- Explain, justifying your examples, in which circumstances you would use:
A) Biometric access systems.
B) Cryptography.
C) A Wide Area Network (WAN)

2- Explain how a teacher can use technology and the Internet to enhance his teaching. What are the drawbacks or risks involved?

3- Describe in as much detail as you can how a hacker gains access to a computer. How can users protect themselves against a hacking attack?

4- Explain how a search engine works. How can the owner of a web site secure a high ranking in Google?

5- Using the example that we observed in a video of a robotic arm that sorts out chocolates and inserts them in their correct wrappings, explain how a robot works and what its essential elements are.

Final Exam!!!!!

Answer all questions in Section A and three questions in Section B

Section A

1- Explain, for each of the following actions, using the appropriate relevant terms, how each of the following actions takes place in terms of the data transfer, software and hardware used, protocols.
a) A user tries to access an unauthorized web site and is prevented from doing so by the network operating system.
b) A user installs a special videoconference software and when trying to run the software the system refuses to execute for security reasons.
c) An email is sent from a computer in Argentina to another computer in England.

2- Give an account of what specific functions are performed by the operating system from the moment in which the computer is turned on until it is ready to receive user input. How does the CPU/Operating System achieve multitasking?

3- How are AI bots programmed to respond to user questions and simulate intelligence?

Section B

4- How can robots be programmed to simulate feelings? What are the implications on individuals and society?

5- In which case would a tutorial or wizard be preferable over conventional learning? Give specific examples.

6- How is e-commerce different from over-the-counter buying and selling? What advice would you give to a startup entrepreneur?

7- Analyze why technology has not advanced in education as much as in other activities. How can teachers effectively use technology in the classroom?

8- Outline advantages and disadvantages of using simulations for training. On what criteria would you rate a simulation?

9- What measures should a firm take to prevent the consequences of hacking? What can these consequences be?

Creating your own ITGS Blog

From now until the end of our regular classes, we will be working, in an attempt to revise and consolidate what we have learnt throughout the year, on creating your own ITGS blog.
Working in pairs, you will create a new blog in Blogspot. This blog will feature news articles, videos and ay other resources that you consider interesting and relevant to the topics we have covered. The theme of your blog will be the impact of technology on individuals and societies, and your target audience are web surfers who are interested in analyzing those implications and want to know more about the impact of technology.
You are expected to write a short commentary on the resources posted, and create a discussion thread for each article that you publish. You will be expected to respond to user comments on each of these threads.
You will be assessed on the quality of the posts, how they successfully cover the syllabus, and how you respond to user comments, thus encouraging a positive discussion on the topic.
Individually, you are expected to post at least three comments per lesson on other people’s blogs, and send a copy of each comment to itgs.sass@gmail.com
By the end of the lesson today, you have to send an email that contains:
- Names of the students in the group and the URL of the newly created blog.
- User name or Google account which you will use to post comments.

The 21st Century Business

Like no other area, technology has impacted businesses very significantly, and resulted in increased productivity. However, there are issues associated with the generalized use of technology in the workplace that have affected both positively and negatively individuals and society.

We will analyze the influence of technology in business and how it can affect jobs. You are a consultant and you have been hired by a client to develop the technological support for his new firm. This is a 2000-employee retail store that sells goods direct to the general public, and will have branches at various shopping centers within Buenos Aires. Your client is set on incorporating the latest available technology to his firm and as such, it is your job to provide him with the latest advances in the following areas:

- Transportation and logistics: storage and transport of goods, inventory control, purchase processing.
- Employment: electronic employee monitoring, payroll processing, ergonomics and health, job obsolescence and retraining, online job search, employee surveillance.
- Banking and finance: ATMs, Internet banking and brokerage, electronic cash, insurance.
- E-commerce: teleshopping, online marketing, data mining,
- Retailing: advertising, media.

For each of these areas, you must find at least one application that will position his firm on the cutting edge. By creating a Power Point presentation, you will highlight for each of these applications:
- Characteristics and main functions.
- How it can help boost productivity and gain efficiency.
- Eventual ethical or social issues associated with their use, concerns that employees might have.

You can work in pairs, and the assignment must be submitted to itgs.sass@gmail.com by the end of our lesson next Friday.

Computers in Education

Based on what we have discussed in class on 2 occasions (the day of the power cut and this past Friday), discuss the following statement:

• "Computers will revolutionize education for the last 25 years"
• "Technology in Education: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?"
• "A paper written back in 1993 by University Professor Larry Cuban was entitled: The Computer meets the Classroom, and the classroom wins. What did he mean and do you agree?"

Choose only one of the above statements and, working in pairs, discuss their validity by writing a personal reflection on the topic. You should complete it within the periods today and submit it via a Word file to itgs.sass@blogspot.com

Creating an assessment instrument

After designing a plan to learn about the optional topic, our next stage involves creating an assessment instrument that will target on how to effectively demonstrate the acquisition of the knowledge and skills required.

Our assignment for the day consists of:
- Create an assignment that will cover the range of topics and skills needed and that takes into account the nature of the course, incorporating into analysis, critical thinking, and specifically the evaluation of the social and ethical implications of the topic chosen.
- The assignment must involve the use of technology and/or software in some form.
- Crete a detailed rubric that will serve as a reference criteria for awarding grades to the project.

Compile all of the above into a single Word document and submit before the end of the lesson to itgs.sass@gmail.com

Creating the log

The next step in planning the learning of the topic involves doing research and finding relevant web sites that relate to the topics chosen.

Your assignment today will entail:
- Finding at least 6 web sites that can be used as reference for the topics chosen.
- At least 2 of these sites should include videos o some other sort of multimedia elements.
- Before the end of this lesson you are expected to produce a document that contains:
o URL of each web site.
o Validation of the authors / contents.
o An annotated commentary or brief reference of what the web site or resource contains.
o Enumeration of the topics from the IB list that are covered by that web site.

The assignment should be submitted to itgs.sass@blogspot.com before the end of the lesson.

Optional Topics

The ITGS syllabus allows students to choose one other topic for further study and development.

The following is a list of topics, including the issues that the syllabus highlights as essential within each unit:

3.3 Health
• Telemedicine: service delivery to isolated and remote areas
• Electronic health records: privacy, data analysis, public health
• Diagnostic and therapeutic tools: robotic surgery, prosthetic devices, diagnostic software, drug
development and marketing
• Medical advice on the Internet or a CD-ROM
• Monitoring patients
• IT solutions for disabled people

3.4 Arts, entertainment and leisure
• Digital art: electronic music, interactive visual art, desktop publishing
• Film: digital actor simulations, characters and animation
• Live arts: digital effects, choreography, lighting, marketing
• New media: DVD, CD, VR, stereolithography
• Broadcast media: digital radio and television, electronic news, magazines and books
• Toys and games: CD or online games, online gambling

3.5 Science and the environment
• Modelling and simulation: digital experimentation, demographic and environmental simulation
• Visualization: mapping
• Data search, collection, processing and analysis
• Forecasting
• Data logging

3.6 Politics and government
• Political process: voting and elections, lobbying, open government and free movement of information
• Government administration: record keeping, tax collection, policy implementation
• Legislation: policy development, enactment, enforcement and analysis
• Police: DNA data collection, video surveillance
• Military: cyberwarfare, smart weapons development, espionage
• Rebel and terrorist use of IT

Working in pairs, you will select one of these topics and start creating your digital log of resources to help you achieve the learning objectives. Please remember that the focus of the subject is to acquire mastery of the topics outline but, more importantly, to analyze ethical and social implications of these topics on individuals and society.

Specifically, your initial assignment involves:

1) Choose one of the topics listed above.
2) Without exploring any web sites write one paragraph summarizing your current knowledge of the unit, including one sentence explanations of the sub topics listed if you know what they refer to.
3) Write a second paragraph with a preliminary analysis of the general social and ethical implications of the topics included within the unit.
4) Write at least five questions related to what else you expect to learn about the topics listed and their social and ethical implications.

You are expected to complete this assignment before the end of the lesson, and to submit it to itgs.sass@gmail.com

Tutorials and Wizards assignment

Based on an idea submitted by Cristian Bazarian, you will work on the following assignment.

- Choose any of the topics that have been covered within our syllabus and develop a step-by-step tutorial using Powerpoint that would allow a learner to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to fully develop the topic.
- Answer the following questions:
o How do you compare learning the conventional way with the tutorial experience? Summarize advantages and disadvantages.
o Are tutorials adequate for all topics or are they more apt for certain types of topics or skills? Give specific examples.
o Based on what you were able to research on the Internet, do you see tutorials and wizards gaining way into formal education and job training?
o What would you say are the essential characteristics of a good and effective tutorial?

You will be working in pairs on this asignment during today's and Friday's lessons. This assignment must be submitted to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of our class on Friday.

Area of impact: Education

One of the areas of impact that we will be studying within the syllabus is Education. The day of the power cut we introduced the topic and briefly discussed some of the social implications of the technological advances in Education.
The following is the list of topics for the unit as stated by IB:
• Telelearning: isolated and remote areas; use in hospitals, prisons, retirement homes
• Modification of hardware and software for special needs: voice recognition software, text-to-speech, special input and output devices, Internet resources
• Software in the classroom: science experiments, social studies modelling and simulation, instructional tools and media, computer-aided instruction, computer-aided learning
• School library systems: catalogues, security systems, online research
• Hardware in the classroom: laptops, notebooks, teleconferencing
• Software in school administration: record keeping, scheduling, Intranets, public information
• Training, tutorials, simulators

Your assignment this time will consist in the production of a short video based freely on one of these topics. The video should be entirely based on evidence gathered at the school, interviews and/or other filming done at school and should address the implications of the chosen topic based on research to be performed at school.
Steps:
- Supporting web based research, sequence and overall plan for the video (to be submitted at the end of today’s lesson)
- Script and plan of interviews (to be submitted by the end of Friday)
- Video in digital format (to be submitted by Friday, September 19th)

Creating your own blog entry

As we mentioned last Friday, our next step is to research web sites and find resources that cover the topics listed in the previous entry related to Tutorials and Wizards. Your assignments consists in:
- Creating a blog entry similar to the ones that I have posted in the past for other units, with an introduction and comments relative to the resources found, highlighting why you think they are relevant.
- Design an assignment that will allow students in the class to learn and deepen their understanding on the topics chosen.
Both these tasks must be completed by Wednesady (we will not work on this on Wednesday) and emailed to itgs.sass@gmail.com
You will be assessed on the relevancy and qaulity of the resources found, the related explanations, and the originality and usefulness of the assignment proposed.

Tutorials and Wizards

Our next topic is tutorials, wizards and how the apply to training. The objective is to try to understand how the use of technology affects the way people learn, both in the academic environment (schools, universities) as well as in job training. Throughout this unit we will be covering the following issues:

Social and ethical issues
Study and evaluate the social and ethical issues involved in the use of tutorials, training
and wizards. These may include:
• the balance in responsibility between an individual and an organization for training
• the need for IT companies to consider global and cultural diversity when preparing training and tutorial software
• the requirement of organizations to provide training when implementing change.
Related technological concepts include:
• key terms—tutorial software, training software, wizards and assistants, help menu and help features,“Read Me” files
• using wizards, assistants and online assistants in the design and creation of a product, for example, desktop-published documents, slideshows, web sites.

We will start discussing the topics by watching two videos that reflect on how education has changed:

• Sir Ken Robinson: "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"
• Richard Baraniuk: "Open Source Learning"

Our first activity for this topic will be the discussion of some of the implications of the two videos.

Assesment Exercise: Robotics

Answer all of the following questions:

1. Give 3 examples of situations in which a robot would be used over a human and explain, in detail, the reasons why a robot would be the preferred choice.
2. During one of the videos that we watched, a robot machine sorted out chocolates and placed them within their correct wrappings. Explain clearly how the robot can achieve this. You are expected to use the relevant technical terms when appropriate.
3. How is an expert system developed? What special characteristic does an expert system have?
4. Explain how a bot is developed and how it can increase its ability to recognize natural language.
5. How would you program a robot to simulate feelings? Explain what Roboethics deals with and the potential implications on individuals and society.
6. Robots will surpass human intelligence. Discuss briefly.

Email your answers to itgssass@gmail.com Be sure to check that the answers have arrived before you leave the room.

Creating your own simulation

Even though creating a simulation is a very complex endeavour, and one that requires a specialized team researching a problem and coming up with a model to be later coded, we will attempt to create a very simple simulation based ion an existing model.

We will access the Forio web site and select the option to Create your Web simulation, then select Broadcast Express. Once there, you will create an account and work on a simulation that follows the Epidemics model.

Your task will be to modify both the model and the interface to adapt the Epidemics simulation to the spreading of a rumor. The goal of the simulation is, given a user-defined probability that a person hearing the rumor will retransmit it, to predict how many people will get to know of the rumor after a certain period of time.

You have to send the URL of the simulation to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of the lesson on Friday afternoon.

Assignment #12: Evaluating Simulations

Before we set out to do a simulation of our own, it is a good idea to see practical examples of applications of simulations and evaluate their effectiveness and implications. Some common fields that have been subjected to modeling and simulation are:
- Weather forecasting
- Stock Exchange
- Genetics and evolution
- Flight simulators used for training pilots

Working in pairs, your assigned task will be to choose one of these fields and answer the following questions:
Find web sites or direct references to computer simulations within the chosen field.
How complex is the underlying model and on what theory/equations is it based?
To what extent are the above simulations being used for real-life or research/training purposes and why?
Based on the above, what is the reliability and effectiveness of the model and related simulation? (This is the most important question!)

You will be working on this assignment during the second part of the lesson today and the first block on Wednesday. You should be ready to submit the assignment on Wednesday.

Simulations and Modeling

The next topic that we will be covering involves computer simulations and modeling. The unit will focus on the effectiveness, usefulness, limitations, and (of course!) the social and ethical impact of the increased use of simulations.

We will initially discuss the basics of computer simulations by reading the article on Computer Simulations prepared by staff at Osaka International School.

Some other simple but very complete resources that can serve as reference for the topic are Simulation Models and Analysis, the What is Simulation? tutorial at Simulism as well as the presentation on Introduction to Simulation and Modeling of Queueing Systems. Another important resource is a list of applications of computer simulations that can be found on Table 1(Page 2) of Growing Importance of Modelling and Simulation: Professional and Ethical Implications.

The following video shows some common applications of computer-based simulations:



Towards the end of our lesson today, we will be exploring a tantalizing possibility by reading the New York Times article entitled Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch.

AI / Expert Systems Recap

Upon our return from the winter break, we will recap what we have learned on Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems. Working in pairs, the goal is to develop an open book assessment instrument (test) by using the Test Designer site.

The test must include a total of no less than eight multiple choice, short answer and essay questions, and cover the following keywords and topics:
- AI, Turing test, machine learning, natural language, pattern recognition, expert system, knowledge base, inference engine, heuristics, fuzzy logic, knowledge engineer.
- Roboethics, implications of the evolution of robots and their relations with humans.
- Development of AI engines, construction of a knowledge base.

The assignment consists of the questions themselves and the writing of model correct answers for all of the questions. You will be graded based on
- Coverage of all topics included.
- How well the questions lend themselves to an open book environment and stimulate analysis and learning of the above topics.

The tests, together with their answers, must be submitted to itgs.sass@gmail.com before Saturday, August 9, 2008.

Creating your SASS Bot

It is time now to put in practice some of the principles of Artificial Intelligence.

The objective of this activity is to create a chat bot that features some of the characteristics of a member of our community.

We will go to The Personality Forge and learn how to create a bot by building predefined phrases at the Language Center. Then it will be time to give life to a new bot.

• Form groups of two students each.
• Create an account for the group.
• Come to my desk to get a personality assignment.
• Work on creating a profile for the bot, that is, a series of stetements that define the personality of the bot based on the characteristics of the person assigned. Send it in a Word file to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of the lesson.
• Work on your bot during all of next week. You will be assessed on how well the bot responds to the characteristics assigned and how you have incorporated the features available with the AI engine.
• I will check your bot as from Monday, July 14th.

Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems

A logical next step in the study of Robotics and its ethical and social implications is to focus on the software that makes robots acquire quasi human capabilities. The software that runs robots, as well as other modern technology applications, is based on Artificial Intelligence.

As a primer, we will refer to “What is Artificial Intelligence?” by Stanford University Professor of Computer Science Dr. John McCarthy, one of the pioneers of AI.
We will also be referring briefly to the first Chapter in the book “Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence”, by Robert S. Engelmore and Edward Feigenbaum.

We will also watch an old, but very clear video that provides an adequate introduction to the concept of AI: The Age of Intelligent Machines: The Film
by Raymond Kurzweil


Finally, so that you can get some first person interaction with AI bots, we will transfer to The Personality Forge, where you will be chatting with an AI program and try to catch it into betraying itself to be a robot!

Assignment 11

Following up on our discussion on Roboethics and what we have learned on the evolution of robots, your assignment is to design a PowerPoint presentation that addresses one of the following statements:

- Robots that create the illusion of feelings and self awareness should be banned because humans become too attached to them.
- Human intelligence will improve by creating robots that extend human capabilities.
- In the near future, man’s best friend will inevitably be a robot.

You can work in groups of 3. Please follow the following directions regarding the completion of your assignment:
- Presentations should include a cover page and not more than five other pages.
- Do not include long texts, rather bullet points and images and / or videos to support your statements.
- Include references that you have used to complete the presentation.

Name your file with the surnames of the members of the group and submit it before the end of the lesson to itgs.sass@gmail.com .

Ethical and social implications of the evolution of robots

After our first approach to the subject, we will be analyzing the ethical and social implications associated with the development and evolution of robotics.

Our first step will be to watch two short videos from Georgia Tech University that focus on the evolution of robots:

- Will Robots Replace Humans?
- The Evolution of Robots

Subsequently, we will analyze some of the issues associated with the emerging field of study Roboethics through the following YouTube video:



We will then read Seed Magazine´s very interesting article on The Rise of Roboethics.

And finally, we will be going back to the Tech Museum of Innovation to look at Ethics and Robotics in the 21st Century.

Robotics

Our next topic will be Robotics, and our goal is to analyze the various applications on robotics in modern society as well as the ethical and social implications of a more widespread use of robotic technology.

We will be initially using the Tech Museum’s Robotics: Sensing, Thinking, Acting page as the main source to learn about this very important technological development.

Assignment 10

Solve completely the mysteries at the CRYPTOCOM game. Then answer the following questions:
1) Explain the steps you took to arrive to the final solution.
2) Which method would you think is most effective for cryptography and why?
3) What common mistakes are usually made and that lead to the decryption of protected information?
4) What conclusions could you draw from playing this game with regards to cryptography?
Answers must be submitted to itgs.sass@gmail.com by the end of the lesson on Friday.

Assignment 9

Based on the SlaveHack game that we are playing, complete the following assignment and submit it to itgs.sass@gmail.com by the end of the lesson on Friday.
1) Answer the two questions included in the “Learning about Hacking” post that refer to the Tutorial.
2) Submit the completed log with all operations that you have performed.
3) Based on your playing experience, what are the main weaknesses of a web site against hacking? If you were the owner of a web site, what measures would you take to prevent your site from being hacked?
4) What conclusions could you draw from playing this game with regards to hacking?

Data Security / Encryption

After learning about hacking and how it compromises data security, we will learn about the next step in protecting data, by means of encryption. The very ancient and often used in technique of cryptography involves scrambling messages in such a way that only the parties within the communication or, in our case, a computer algorithm and users know how to decode them effectively.
We will first learn the basics on cryptography from the Encryption Tutorial at Webmonkey. Another simple source is What is Cryptography? at WiseGeek.
Subsequently, we will try our skills at decrypting through the CRYPTOCOM Game.

Learning about hacking

In order to learn more about hacking, we will play SlaveHack, a custom made web-based game that teaches hacking techniques through a virtual platform.
During this first lesson, you need to do the following:
- Working in pairs, you must create an account. The user name must be made up of the surnames of both members of the groups exclusively.
- Complete the tutorial.
- Start the development of your hacking log. In it, you will answer certain questions and keep a detailed record of your operations.
- As an initial entry to your log, you will answer the following questions referred to what you have carried out during the tutorial:
o What software tools have been used to achieve the break-ins and what was their purpose?
o Which essential operation needed to be performed every time you enter an unauthorized site and why?
- After completing the tutorial, you will be “free” to start hacking other computers in the ITGS group. The objective of the game is to create slaves and gain access to other computers, but do not interfere with virtual computers from other users not belonging to our class. You need to keep a detailed log of all the operations you perform as you progress in the game.

Hacking

After studying networks and the various ways in which businesses and organizations share valuable information, we will analyze the subculture of hacking, its potential threats and implications for individuals and societies.

We will start by watching the following video on the History of Hacking, produced by Discovery Channel:



We will then read an article on the 15 Greatest Hacking Exploits.

After this, we will access the SlaveHack web site. This site features a completely safe and virtual environment that allows you to learn about hacking by participating in an online game that teaches you some of the techniques that hackers use to break into computers.

Assignment 8

This is a very important assignment, which will be done in class. A fundamental learning outcome of this course, that intends to mirror a real-life scenario, is to help us to develop skills in going through extensive contents and determining what is relevant.
Your task today, to be done in groups of three members, is to come up with the list of relevant topics that we will be evaluating next week. The suggested procedure is:
Go through the entries in the blog and check the websites that we have seen in class.
Skim through the contents in these sites and, referencing the assignments and what was discussed in class, jot down those topics that we made emphasis on.
Come up with a suggested list of possible ways in which you might be evaluated, taking into account that you will be able to use the Internet, notes and/or any other resources.

DO NOT LEAVE THE CLASS UNTIL I HAVE CHECKED YOU OFF THE LIST AND VERIFIED YOUR TOPICS.

Assignment 7: Network Design

This assignment should be done in pairs utilizing the Wired Lan Modelling feature at the WebLan Designer. Images resulting from the modeling process can be copied and imported into any drawing program, that can be used to add on the lines and labels needed. The assignment should be submitted to itgs.sass@gmail.com before next Wednesday, May 14th.

1) A school has two small campuses that operate at different physical locations. The North campus has a computer lab with 5 workstations and a printer that is connected via a Token Ring Network, and 4 administrative computers and two printers that are networked to each other. A file server and colour printer are accessed by all computers in this campus, which are also connected to the Internet by means of a dedicated cablemodem. The South campus has two computer labs with 6 and 8 computers respectively, plus 5 other computers that are used for teaching and administrative purposes. There is one file server and network printer that must be accessed by all computers in the network. The North Campus will access the Internet via a dedicated cablemodem. Both campuses must be linked.
Draw a detailed diagram of how the network is set up and configured, and write down a brief rationale that explains your network design.


2) A multinational company has branches in Argentina and the US. The Argentina branch has 8 networked computers that are used to handle customer requests and post-sale service, whereas the US office deals with sales and production through 12 computers. Each branch has two network printers and a file server, and they must be connected to each other. Design a network that satisfies the requirements and explain which hardware and/or software solutions you need to adopt.

More on Networks

Our Friday Special will again be based on networks. Initially, we will be revising some of the concepts we learned last week by means of the Ethernet Tutorial at TechNick. Once we go through this tutorial and we learn more about network toplogies and how to improve speed, our objective will be to try to answer the Multiple Choice Quiz within the WebLan Designer Project.

You need to research and find the answers to questions 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,12,19,21,22.

E-Commerce

Our next topic in the sequence is E-Commerce. We are all somewhat familiar and have some first-hand experience on E-Commerce, however, we need to analyze some of the technical and theoretical background related to its development and evolution.

Two web sites that provide general information on e-commerce are:

• Basic Guide to E-Commerce
• Business Link Guide to E-Commerce
  
  Another article from Business Link is interesting to alert users about the Risks of E-Commerce.
  

ASSIGNMENT
Our assignment for the day, to be covered in class, consists in answering the following multiple-choice questionnaire:

• Introduction to E-Commerce Multiple Choice Quiz

In pairs, research the answers to each question until you score all right answers. When you have done so, check your answers with me since I will be asking you a few oral questions on the topic. DO NOT LEAVE THE CLASS WITHOUT ME TICKING YOU OFF THE LIST FOR HAVING COMPLETED THE ASSIGNMENT

Networking

The next topic that we will be dealing with is networks. We will be analyzing the fundamentals of networks, different topologies and other technical concepts as a first step towards discussing the implications of networks on society and individuals.
We will start, as an introduction, by watching the following animation that depicts graphically how Internet works:



Then we will cover the basics and fundamentals of Networking through How Stuff Works.

How Ethernet Works

Assignment 6

We have covered several technical topics lately, and this assignment will focus on discussing some of the implications on individuals and societies of the their technological applications.
Working in groups of 3 students, you will develop a PowerPoint presentation that addresses one of the following topics/statements:

- Users are forced into buying expensive computers in order to sustain operating systems that do not give extended functionality. Open source operating systems would not require a constant upgrading.
- Most organizations or firms do not adequately address the issue of ergonomics and as such millions of dollars are lost every year as a consequence of repetitive stress injuries.
- In the future, most people will work from home and many important social interactions will be lost, as well as the ability to function as a team.
- Passwords are an unsafe and inadequate method to gain data access. Biometric recognition will be the standard in the near future, since affordable and accurate biometric recognition methods are now available.

Each presentation must address the above issues including external links, at least two multimedia elements (videos) linked from the presentation, and arrive at a conclusion with respect to the statement presented. You must email your finished presentation to itgs.sass@gmail.com before Wednesday, April 23rd. (PLEASE REMEMBER TO NAME IT “AS6 SURNAMES OF GROUP MEMBERS”) During the first lesson, the plan for the presentation must be drawn up and approved. You will not actually start working on the presentation but rather identify how you will tackle it as well as finding the links and resources that you plan to include.

Ergonomics – Telework – Password Protection – Biometrics

During the next few classes, we will be discussing some general issues related to technology use and access, as well as their implications.
Ergonomics: is the application of scientific information concerning objects, systems and environment for human use (definition adopted by the International Ergonomics Association in 2007). However, the field of Ergonomics is mostly associated with the design of hardware in such a way that it prevents commonly known repetitive stress injuries RSI. Healthy Computing is a web site that contains interesting and easily readable information on Ergonomics as applied to computer software.
Teleworking: Globalization and recent changes and technological advances have made it possible for an increasing number of people to be able to work from home. Managing Strategies For Telework - The Virtual Workforce is an article that provides a good summary of the advantages and disadvantages of working from home.
Password Protection – Biometrics: Any organization that possesses valuable information needs to put into effect some sort of validation process that ensures that only authorized users can gain access to relevant information. There are many different authentication methods, from the very simple and straightforward Passwords) to more complex ones based on biometrics. We will watch the following two videos to jumpstart our discussion:

Assessment Exercise 1

INSTRUCTIONS
Read and answer all questions carefully. Answers must be written on a Word file, spell-checked and submitted before the end of the lesson to itgs.sass@gmail.com DO NOT LEAVE THE CLASSROOM UNTIL YOU HAVE RECEIVED DIRECT CONFIRMATION FROM ME THAT THE FILE HAS ARRIVED.

Marking criteria
Each question is worth 10 points. Assessment criteria include:

• Answering to the point. Read the questions carefully and answer what is asked, not more, not less.
• Clarity and precision of answers.
• Ability to apply the concepts learned revealing good technical knowledge of concepts involved. Do not include definitions, no credit will be given for definitions. No copy/pasting is allowed, I will check for the originality of your answers.

1. A computer user operating at our school (from one of the terminals within the school network) types in the address www.google.com and then performs a search. Explain, including all relevant technical details, how information arrives back at the computer with the desired results. The following terms need to be used in your explanation: crawler, inverted index, server, router, DNS, IP, packets.
2. You are about to start up a new business that sells dog food in Buenos Aires with plans to extend to the rest of the country. Explain how you would make sure that your page ranks high when potential clients (dog owners) are searching for places to buy food for their pets. What specific strategies would you use?
3. Choose one of the following statements and discuss it:
   a) Search engines have a great influence on society but they were not created with that purpose in mind.
   b) Individuals can suffer the consequences of search engine manipulation.
   c) The extended use of search engines has resulted in misinformation and users being tricked into wrong decisions.
4. Explain clearly how you assess the validity of a given source when performing a search.
5. Give a brief summary of the contents of the Yahoo! Search video lecture.
6. Go to Google and search for Vitamin supplements and then for “Vitamin supplements”.
   a) Take the first and the tenth site on each search and explain why the difference in the order of appearance.
   a) Explain why the results returned by Google in the first search were different from the second one.

Introduction to Technical Concepts

During this subsequent unit we will cover some technical topics that we need to cover so as to afterwards be able to discuss and analyze the implications of computer systems on individuals and societies.
We will approach this unit by first reading about these issues and then working on a series of assignments that will let us derive and infer their implications based on a sounder technical base.
Analog and digital data: How Analog and Digital Recording Works, from HowStuffWorks, an interesting tutorial on analog and digital recording that covers well the difference between analog and digital data. If you Google “analog and digital data” you will come across many reliable sources that will yield information on the differences between both types of data.
Difference between data and information: Again, a very clear distinction can be made between data, that is, recorded numbers, readings, etc. which in themselves are meaningless as opposed to information which can be derived from the processing and analysis of that data, in our context through computer software in a process known as data processing. There are abundant sources on this topic, a well-summarized and concise reference can be found at Understanding the Difference Between Data and Information.
Operating Systems: We will once more be referring to HowStuffWorks for a general introduction on How Operating Systems Work. It provides a good and thorough introduction to this very important concept.

Assignment #5

This assignment is not for a mark, but it must be completed individually before our class assignment on Wednesday, April 9th. I want honest answers, to help me fine-tune the course and understand the extent to which we have accomplished the learning objectives
Answer the following questions very briefly:
• What, if anything, of what you learnt during this first part of the course is applicable to your experience as a school student when you do research for other subjects?
• What is the most important thing you have learned throughout the unit and why?
• Are there any further questions / related topics that you feel should be covered or you are interested in and we have not discussed?

Please submit your answers to these questions to itgs.sass@gmail.com

RECAP

During this first part of our course, we have studied search engines, their underlying mechanism, characteristics and some of the potential implications on individuals and society of their manipulation.
The topics that we have covered include:
• Basic knowledge of the Internet, servers and clients, protocols, data packets, IP, DNS.
• The nature of search engines, their four main characteristics, indexing algorithms, what makes a search engine better than others.
• Validating sources.
• A brief glimpse into the nature of search engine algorithms. Search Engine Optimization. Pagerank. Google bombing.
• How search engines can be manipulated and their potential effects on individuals and society.
• User constructed search engine queries, search engine design criteria, tendencies, differences between novice and advanced users.

WARNING: I will not be doing this in successive units, since one of the learning objectives of this course is to be able to distinguish relevant and non-relevant information as well as developing the ability to sort out data that is not necessarily in written form.

Assignment#4: constructing web search queries

Our last lecture focused on how search engines study user habits and characteristics when designing their web searches.
Suppose you had to write a paper for your Biology class on possibilities for life existing on other planets. Working in pairs (once again, different from the previous two groups), your task is to identify four good sources to help you in the assignment.

Your assignment should include:
- A description of how you constructed/refined your successive queries.
- An analysis of why/how the search engine responded to your search terms, relevancy of the sites returned, a comparison of the efficiency of each query.
- The URLs of the sources.
- If you were the instructor of the class and had to give advice to your students on performing the search, without mentioning specific web sites, what would you tell them on how to build the query?

Assignments should be emailed to itgs.sass@gmail.com before Friday, March 28th.

Yahoo! Search video lecture

The following video provides interesting insight on search engine queries and their implications. The speaker is Dr. David Rose, from Yahoo! Search, and it will serve as a basis for our next assignment.

Assignment #3: search engine rankings

During the video that we watched, several key issues related to the inner workings of web search engines are discussed, as well as how web engines process their indexes.
We will use this assignment to try to visualize in a practical way how search engines, in this case Google, have such a powerful influence in how businesses and even individuals fare in society.
Answer the following questions in pairs, which have to be different from the groups you formed for the first assignment, and email them to itgs.sass@gmail.com before Wednesday, March 19th.
1) Suppose you want to find out about alternate energy and its applications, so perform a search query on electric cars on Google and one other web search engine and answer the following questions:
a. Compare the two search engines on the four criteria outlined in the video (Length, depth, frequency, types of files indexed)
b. Analyze the results from the first page and explain the reasons for the first four sites to be ranked on each engine.
c. What can you conclude about each search engine’s ranking algorithms?
2) Explain what Pagerank and SEO are and briefly outline how web site owners can utilize strategies to rank higher on search engines.
3) Conduct the following searches on Google:
- Arabian Gulf
- Talentless hack
- Miserable failure
and, with regards to the above searches, explain what “Google bombing” is as well as its potential implications for individuals and organizations.

How Search Engines Work

Our first topic for analysis and discussion is how search engines work. Search engines have become an essential component of everyday life and their influence is undoubtedly far reaching. We will learn about the topic by watching the following video from a lecture by Dr. Marti Hearst at the University of California at Berkeley.


There is plenty of information available on the inner workings of search engines. Two such links include:

- The Animated Internet: How Search Engines Work
- How Internet Search Engines Work at howstuffworks.

Assignment #2

Take two statements from the Terra 2050 Videos and, using web search engines, try to assess their validity. In order to do this, you must write a short document citing the sources used and the reasons why you arrive at a certain conclusion.
All assignments should include:
- Statement.
- Annotated links with a short discussion on how they tend to prove or disprove the statement.
- A brief analysis of the validity of each source.
- A conclusion that sums up the above.
The assignment must be done in pairs, and submitted to itgs.sass@gmail.com before Wednesday, March 12th, 2008.
Criteria for grading include:
- Clarity of presentation, including summarization techniques.
- Quality and depth of the analysis.
- Use of valid sources.

Assignment #1

Your first assignment is very simple. You have to watch the three videos again so as to be ready to contribute to the class discussion on Wednesday. If necessary, take brief notes which you can bring to class, and/or write questions that arise from the videos.

Introductory Class

Our first class consists of a brief presentation of the course syllabus and components followed by a general discussion.

The link to the course syllabus is:

• Click here to access Course Overview

This Power Point presentation, in PDF format, was developed by the Fleming-Ruffner Magnet Center in Roanoke, Virginia.

General Discussion

The second part of our lesson is a general discussion on the effects of technology on society, which is largely the main topic of the course. We will be watching in class three short videos which can be accessed in YouTube:






We will utilize these videos to try to illustrate the dynamics of our course, assignments, and general procedures.