Final Exam

Please answer all of the following questions, and then email them to itgs.sass@gmail.com

DO NOT LEAVE THE ROOM UNTIL YOU CHECK WITH ME THAT I HAVE RECEIVED THE EXAM IN MY ACCOUNT.

1- A businessman has just launched a new online service, by which he sells school uniforms to interested families. Families can access the website, select their school and the related items of clothing and order online to be delivered to their homes.
Explain in detail:
a. How a search engine like Google gets to know of the existence of this page so that when users eventually search for school uniforms they are able to find this new service.
b. How it ranks these pages so as to return them in order of decreasing relevance.
c. How the owner of the firm can try to get his page to appear higher in the search engine rankings.
d. How, in the future, users might search for these services taking advantages of developments in search engine capabilities.

2- A school student is on the Internet in one if the school labs.
a. How can she and many other students be accessing at the same time a single cable modem connection from the school?
b. How are users prevented from accessing unauthorized web sites?
c. What technical measures could be in place for making sure that outside hackers do not get access to the network?

3- You are hired to design an access system for customers of a bank. Customers would be able to access their accounts online and also their security boxes in the bank where they store their valuables. Determine, for each of the needed accesses, what the best method would be and explain why you have chosen it. Include, within your answer, possible use of encrypted information.

4- Choose one of these topics and comment how technology can enhance activities within that sector, as well as the impact that these technological applications may have on individuals and society.
a. Health
b. Arts, Entertainment and Leisure
c. Science and the environment
d. Politics and government

5- 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?

6- Give three specific examples of how hackers can access computers and/or networks, and explain, for each of those examples, how they may benefit from it. How can a web site prevent a denial of service attack?

7- 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.

8- Treasure Hunt
There is a famous quote that reads “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”, which is the first line of a famous book. In the year that another writer was born, a close friend and influence of the author of the book where the quote can be found, a very important battle takes place in October. On the same day that the loser of that battle attempted to commit suicide, but 161 years later, an actress and singer died. Give the name of the actress.

Your own 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, focused on the social impact of the use of technology.
Working in pairs, you will create a new blog in Blogspot. This blog will feature news articles, videos and any other resources that deal with the social and ethical impact of the use of technology. 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.
Your blog must contain at least one post per topic posted on the ITGS Blog.
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.

Your games in the classroom

After having reviewed the suggested games for classroom implementation, it is time to go the teachers themselves. You will select one classroom teacher who will be, in your assessment, the most likely to be able to use the game in the classroom.

By Wednesday next week, you should submit, in a Word file:
- The name and grade level of the teacher you have interviewed.
- A summary of the interview.
- A specific reference with regards to whether the teacher thinks the game is applicable or not, and the reasons for that.

Finding games for the classroom

After studying about the application of technology to education in general, and to our school in particular, you may have reflected on the possibilities that, amongst other technologies, video games have to offer.

Your assignment today will be, working in pairs, to identify a video game available online that can be used for learning purposes in any of the subjects that you have studied for the last two years.

The games must fulfill the following conditions:

• Be downloadable online
• Free or low cost (under u$s 50)

Your assignment consists in identifying the game, and including in your report:

• URL of the downloadable game.
• Subject for which it can be applied.
• Brief description of the game and why you think it can be applied.
• Ideas on how the teacher would be able to assess student learning after playing the game.

Please submit your assignment to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of the lesson.

Evolution of technology / Singularity

We will be analyzing two videos that refer to the evolution of technology.

The first one refers to a new development on what is known as Sixth Sense:

The second video is from well-known futurist Ray Kurzweil on his concept of the Singularity:

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 Wednesday.

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.
- Create 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

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.

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 topic 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.

Creating your own blog entry

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 will work in pairs, and the assignment will entail:

- 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 the end of our lesson on Friday and emailed to itgs.sass@gmail.com You will be assessed on the relevancy and quality of the resources found, the related explanations, and the originality and usefulness of the assignment proposed.

AI & Robotics

1- How can a program simulate feelings? Explain in detail. (10 points)
2- The owner of car dealership wants to build an expert system that gives counsel to users who want to buy cars. This system would answer consumers’ question and provide them with advice as to what cars best suit their needs. Once consumers buy these cars, they will have to submit a review so as to improve the software’s ability to advise other customers. Explain how this expert system would be created, the roles of developers involved in the process, and how it would progressively increase its knowledge. (15 points)
3- Can robots simulate consciousness? Explain how. (10 points)
4- Explain in detail how a robot process outside information and responds accordingly, utilizing technical terms? (5 points)
5- Discuss, based on technical information, both of the following statements:
a. Robots will surpass human intelligence and they will eventually dominate the world.
b. Humans can become emotionally attached to robots.
(15 points)
6- What is your own personal opinion on the evolution of robots and AI? (5 points)

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.

Working in pairs, you will 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 outlined but, more importantly, to analyze ethical and social implications of these topics on individuals and society.

Specifically, your initial assignment involves:

1) 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.
2) Write a second paragraph with a preliminary analysis of the general social and ethical implications of the topics included within the unit.
3) 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

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
- Training simulators, excluding Flight Simulators

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 Friday. You should be ready to submit the assignment on Friday.

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 What is Modeling and Simulation from the University of Central Florida.

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

Today, 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 the end of the lesson today.

Creating a SASS Bot

We will now put into 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 the end of next class.

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

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.

In order to see the possibilities of AI for mainstream gaming applications, we will take a look at Project Milo.

Another short clip illustrates the concept of the Uncanny Valley and its relation to evolution of AI.



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!

Roboethics assignment

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.

The presentation should be submitted by the end of the lesson to itgs.sass@gmail.com

Roboethics

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.

Encryption software

After studying some of the methods and algorithms for encryption, we need to understand how this is done in real life.

Suppose you are an IT security consultant, and one of your clients asks you to review for him the varios options (free and paid) that exist for encrypting sensitive data in his hard drive. Answer the following questions:

- Identify at least one software for personal and one for professional use that are available for encrypting sensitive data.
- For each of them, write a detailed sequence of instructions as to how to effectively encrypt the data.

Working in pairs, answer the question in a Word file. This file must be sent to itgs.sass@gmail.com before Wednesday, in encrypted form, together with another file that explains how to decrypt it, and why you have chosen that particular software.

Data Security and 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. Another simple source is What is Cryptography? at WiseGeek.
Subsequently, we will try our skills at decrypting through the CRYPTOCOM Game.

Presentation on hacking

In pairs, create a PowerPoint presentation that discusses one of the following issues:

- When can hacking be considered ethical, if ever?
- In the movie, there is a statement that says: “The hackers were the heroes of a Computer era that they created but that outlawed them”
- Should a hacker go to jail? Under what circumstances?

Use supporting references (web sites) and complete the presentation by the end of today. Submit it to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of today's lesson.

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.

Evaluation Topics

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 on June 4th, covering Biometrics, Teleworking and Ergonomics, as well as Operating Systems, Data and Information and Analog and Digital Data.
The suggested procedure is:
Divide up the topics amongst the three members of the group, 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.
Also, submit 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.

The evaluation will take place on Friday, June 4th. Please submit the assignment before the end of the lesson to itgs.sass@gmail.com, and you will receive my comments on the list, as well as the corrected assignment on network design.

Network Design

A brief recap of switches, hubs and routers can be found at Routers, Switches and Hubs, and a lengthier and more complete one at http://www2.edc.org/cope/networkprimer/primch5.pdf.

The objective of today's assignment is to solve a real life problem and design a network. Using the knowledge that you acquired over the past lessons, for each of the two cases below you should:

a) Draw a diagram that depicts the schematics of the network, including images of the various components (hubs, switches, etc.) that you can easily obtain from the Internet.
b) Write a rationale for the design decisions that were made, explaining teh reasons for them in each case.

Bear in mind, when making your design decisions, the costs of all components involved, remember that routers are more expensive than switches and that these are more expensive than hubs. Also include, whenever necessary, proxy servers and firewalls. The assignment should be completed by the end of Friday without exception.

1) A school has two small campuses that operate at different physical locations, 10 km apart. The North campus has a computer lab with 9 workstations and a printer that are connected via a 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.


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 about networks

We will attempt to consolidate our learning on newteoks by browsing the Networks Basic Interactive Tutorial to further understand some of the basics about networking.

After that, you will complete the Networking Basics Tutorial at 3com. You must complete the final quiz.

Finally, in pairs, you will write two questions about doubts you still have on networking and send them to itgs.sass@gmail.com You will be graded on how teh questions reflect your knowledge and understanding of networks.

Networks

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

Presentation

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 by the end of teh lesson on Wednesday, April 21st.
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.

In order to learn about effective and ineffective PowerPoint presentations, we will browse the Death by PowerPoint presentation.

Assessment 1

Answer all questions, save them to a Word file, name it with your surname and submit it to itgs.sass@gmail.com

DO NOT LEAVE THE LAB UNTIL YOU HAVE CHECKED THAT I RECEIVED THE FILE.

The questions have been written so that you are able to analyze and respond by demonstrating your mastery of the topics. PLEASE DO NOT COPY FROM WEB SITES.

1- Explain how when a URL is typed at a web browser the correct web page gets loaded at the client computer. Give technical details of every stage in the process.
2- The owner of a new online sports good store wants to promote his business and hires you to ensure that when people search for sports goods on a search engine his store appears prominently. Explain in detail how you would help him achieve this through two different strategies.
3- Giving technical reasons, explain why Google has established itself as the best search engine. How do you rate a search engine?
4- Based on what we saw in the Yahoo video and what was discussed in class, what can we expect search engines to do in the future that they cannot do now?
5- How is a search engine constructed? Outline the different stages in the process. Why is so much hardware needed? What costs need to be covered in running a search engine?
6- You are teaching a 5th grade class how to use a search engine. What advice would you give them in terms of rating the reliability of a site and constructing a query so that they get to the desired outcome?

Teleworking - Biometrics - Ergonomics

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. Ergonomics at work is a video that illustrates some of these concepts.
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:

Technical Concepts

During this subsequent unit we will go over 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 be watching a couple of videos from www.commoncraft.com
Then, 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.

Recap for Evaluation

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.

Constructing 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 mailto:itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of Friday, March 26th.

User interfaces

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.

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 the end of the lesson on Friday, March 12th.
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.

Validating sources

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 the end of the lesson today. Do not leave the classroom until you have verified with me that your assignment has arrived in my mailbox.
Criteria for grading include:
- Clarity of presentation, including summarization techniques.
- Quality and depth of the analysis.
- Use of valid sources.

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.