CS 492/692 - Spring 2022 - Week 9 Readings Summary

Our two topics this week are a) Gender balance and marginalization (Jun 29) and b) Video games (Jun 27). We are all together on both dates.

On the topic Gender Balance, we will have a Gender Balance workshop. I will organize the class into small groups for consultation and discussion before bringing us all together to hear opinions.

A very brief summary of key points from the readings are below. For the most part, the readings may inspire you to react in certain ways during the workshop. Some papers mention a downturn in popularity of CS to women at one point in time. Some efforts have been made with first year CS. Increasing attendance at the Grace Hopper event each year has helped. Effort has been made as well to encourage those majoring in other subjects to explore the intersection with CS. There are real issues with retention of women in CS, however. We can target girls and industry can step up its efforts to make the workplace more accepting. I point out as well: UW has had a more general HeforShe promotion recently. You may or may not have noticed it.

Gender Balance Workshop:
We will toss out a series of questions to reflect upon. Readings are only very modest "food for thought". Draw on personal experiences and try to "think outside the box".

Other Underrepresented Groups in CS
Other subgroups of society face challenges in joining the ranks of computer scientists. I will open this topic up for discussion as well. You can choose to comment on any community whom you feel is underrepresented. At my end I can mention: I have attended the W4A (Web for All) conference which promotes accessibility on computers (a group of blind computer scientists attended, for instance), I have recently seen broadcasts from black computer scientists with reactions to ACM's efforts on equality, and students in CS492 the last two times I taught talked about events organized each year from the LGBTQ community of computer scientists. We can discuss what we might be able to do in order to continue to encourage an inclusive environment in computer science.

There are two readings on marginalization this week: one that discusses racial imbalance and the other that informs you of efforts to provide support to LGBTQ computer scientists.

Here are notes for our class on video games.

Video Game Addiction

You are provided with two papers to read: one indicating possible positives with video games and the other telling the rather tragic story of a teen who was seriously addicted to video games. I urged you to also check out the Top Gun episode of Fifth Estate which you can find online, for more on what happened with Brendan Crisp.

I will gather the class into small groups and ask you to consider some specific questions; after this, the class will reconvene for groups to share what they concluded. I will challenge you to think of a response that no one else has suggested.

Announcements: - A5 and A6 are on the go; July 22 is our last class unless we need to gather to cover a class or an RPE that was cancelled, on Jul 25. Remember that all students must hand in A5 by 1am on Jul 20 and be prepared to complete A5B during class time; we will do course evaluations that day as well, with some general comments about the class this term beforehand (a post on Piazza a few days before will explain all details of Jul 20) - Jul 22 is the class where will be able to look to the future, provide some awards for exceptional students, meet the TAs - some notes re handback: Class participation, A5 and A6 come back on LEARN around the 3rd week of August and a notice in the Instructor folder makes you aware when ready; RPE grades should be settled shortly after end of term (though RPE teams are supposed to be emailed some general feedback from TAs on how they performed, not long after the last component of the RPE (joint communique) has been handed in).

Before these final classes we have a guest lecture on July 8, a series of RPEs (think A6 selection if not already done) and the If I Ruled the World class which challenges you to name a problem that has arisen from computerization AND a way we can start to address it, using computer technology of some sort. Note that on July 8 the 830am class has a guest speaker talking about bringing computerization to rural India, while the 930am class has an HCI expert talking about helping users with assistive needs on the web. Students are welcome to attend both guest lectures, if they are free.

Aim of course: to expose you to a series of topics which enlighten you about the challenges of the social implications of computing; opportunities to think and to write about these topics, at times in groups; opportunities to react to commentary of peers and to think on your feet; detailed feeback on writing towards improving communication skills; sense of community within the course: first names

Look out for a longer "speech" from me about the aims of the course in the Instructor folder and read it before doing course evaluations.