Assignment 4 should be roughly 1000 words in length and is worth 10 marks. Please submit to the LEARN dropbox in pdf format and include a title page with your name and student id.
In recent history, there have been a number of new computerized innovations on the scene: blogs, on-line dating services, electronic tax filing, algorithmic trading software, datamining software, social networking technology (such as Facebook or Instagram), BitTorrent, MP3 files for music or novel hardware advances such as mobile handheld devices (iPhones, Blackberries, etc.) or e-readers (such as Kindle).
Select one specific computerized technology that has emerged roughly within the past 25 years and then investigate the social impact of this new advance. you are not limited to the list above. Your writeup should include: a description of the technology, situating it clearly within the field of computer science; an in-depth discussion of both the positive and negative consequences of this new technology (indicating segments of society which have been impacted); some significant reflection (recommendations) on how to best make use of the technology in the years to come. Note that you must provide a good balance of both positive and negative impacts in your essay; do not simply focus on one of these elements.
All students are expected to incorporate cited research (so not to simply state their opinions). This should happen not only for the part of the essay that discusses positive and negative impacts but also for the part of the essay that covers the technology (so cite references to clarify how you know how the technology works). Include a reference list at the end of the assignment and proper citations within the body of the text. Note that you may need to extrapolate from research that has been conducted in the past on other, related technologies.
Note that the technologies listed above are merely examples and you may choose quite freely to focus on any computerized technology that interests you. Be sure to demonstrate deep knowledge of your chosen technology, as a computer scientist.
This assignment requires students to reflect on several subtopics addressed within the course, in an open-ended exercise where the topic of study and the relevant social implications are both left open for the student to specify. Students will likely be reflecting on many of the core topics of the course such as: privacy, the effect of computers on work, reliability, social communication and security. As with other assignments, the aim is to have students combining research with original thought.