CSIS-200 or WSTU-300: Gender in Computer Science

Spring 2008

Instructor:	Dr. Mary Anne Egan Roger Bacon 319 782-6546
Email:	maegan@siena.edu
Webpage:	http://www.cs.siena.edu/~maegan
Office Hours:	Monday 11:30-12:30, 2:00-3:00 Tuesday 11:30-12:30 Thursday 11:30-12:30 Friday 11:30-12:30
Lecture Times:	Tue/Thur	10:00 – 11:20

Course Materials:

Text: Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing by Margolis and Fisher, 2003

Course Goals:

The goal of this course is to understand the nature of gender disparity in computer science and to propose a specific set of recommendations to improve the gender balance in the computer science field. Recent studies document disparities in status and number between women and men in computer science. What factors lead to such inequalities? How do they impact the computer science field technologically and sociologically? Are there interventions and educational reforms that might diminish these disparities?

Policies:

Attendance: Do not miss class. You are responsible for all announcements and material covered in class, whether or not you are physically present. It is your responsibility to obtain handouts, notes, and materials for any classes you may have missed. Do not miss an exam; make-up exams will not be given unless there is a valid reason for missing an exam, i.e. scheduled sports event (intramural events do not count), class trip, etc. Arrangements must be made in advance by contacting me at least two weeks before the scheduled exam date to arrange an alternative time.

Academic Honesty: You MUST do your own work on projects, homework and exams. Academic dishonesty includes cheating on an exam or handing in a project not entirely your own work. The penalty for academic dishonesty is a final grade of F for the course.

Hats: It is common etiquette that men do not wear any type of hat inside. You will not be allowed in my classroom if you are wearing a hat. For the sake of fairness, not etiquette, this policy will also hold for women.

Assessment:

Your grade for this course will be based upon your project work, performance on exams and class participation. Class participation includes class attendance, participation in class discussions and contributing information or current events related to the topic being discussed. The following weights will be used to determine grades:

Presentations 20%

Homework 30%

Final Project 25%

Participation 25%

Class Format:

A large portion of the success of this course depends on doing the readings and coming to class prepared. For each assigned reading you should answer questions the questions

Where could the readings have gone further?

What questions did they raise?

What are their greatest strengths?

Their greatest vulnerabilities?

And produce 3 discussion questions for each of the readings.

Class Participation:

This is a major part of your grade, so it is important that you do the readings and come to class prepared to contribute! Simply being there is crucial, but just as important is what you do while you’re in class. Participation includes answering and asking questions, making relevant comments, bringing the reading materials to class, and other activities I may require of you during the class meetings (written evaluations or responses, participation in group activities, etc) Express your opinions and interpretations, ask and answer questions, respond to someone else’s comments, etc, and you will be in good shape. Conversely, an inability to respond to readings-related questions can lower your participation grade.

Hands-on/Experimentation:

As the class proceeds, students will choose to engage in hands-on exploration of the following materials. They will be discussed in conjunction with the readings.

Chat rooms

Computer games – different kinds/genre (“slash & burn” vs. “girls games”)

Virtual worlds

Programmed toys – tamagotchi, furby, robosapien

Artificial Life – computer programs (ex. Sim series, nintendogs)

Final Paper:

A final paper is due in class on May 6th of approximately 8-10 pages. It should examine some aspect of the course in greater detail either through surveying current literature or conducting an experiment of your own.