Location and time:

Online and asynchronous.

Course Description

This course explores the social, legal, and cultural fallout from the exponen9al explosion in         communica9on, storage, and increasing uses of data and data produc9on. In this class, we         emphasize the opposing poten9als of informa9on technologies to make knowledge widely         available and to distort and restrict our percep9ons. In a world of rapid technological change,    topics include (but are not limited to): eavesdropping and secret communica9ons, privacy;         Internet censorship and filtering, cyberwarfare, computer ethics and ethical behavior, copyright protec9on and peer-to-peer networks, broadcast and telecommunica9ons regula9on, including net neutrality, data leakage, and the power and control of search engines.

This course addresses ISTA Student Competencies F1, DAISBS2.1, EV1 and EV2.

Instructor and Contact Informa?on

Instructor: Rami El Ali

Email: ramielali@arizona.edu

Office: online.

Office Hours: online by appointment. Email the instructor to schedule an appointment.

Course homepage: D2L.

Course Format and Teaching Methods

This course will consist of weekly online asynchronous lectures posted to D2L. All other course    materials, which include PDFs and links, will also be made available on D2L weekly. Usually these materials will appear by 3pm on Monday each week.

Students assignments will be submiYed weekly on D2L. Students will have un9l 2pm on Monday to submit them each week aZer the first week.

Course Objec?ves

This course explores the ethics of the digital world in five steps. First we’ll begin by learning          about ethics and ethical reasoning. Then we’ll apply this reasoning to four different domains: the internet, the virtual world, data and algorithms, and the digital future. The topics we’ll discuss     include the ethics of search engines, fake news, echo chambers, the gamer’s dilemma, big data,  digital privacy, and AI alignment (for a full outline, please see the schedule of topics below).

The course’s aim is to give students:

-the opportunity to read and learn about recent trends, policy issues, and ethical dilemmas in the digital world.

-In their wriYen work, students will (i) analyze and ar9culate the ethical reasoning of relevant experts and (ii) construct and ar9culate their own ethical and policy arguments.

The graded components are the weekly assignment, and quiz on the third week. These are as follows:

4 Weekly assignments (70% total) : Each week students will receive an assignment on Monday   during the recorded lecture. Students need to submit their assignment by the following Monday before 2pm. These will be submiYed under ‘Discussions’ on D2L, under a thread I will create for that week.

The assignments will involve some wri9ng and informa9on collected online. In general, you can expect to write around 500-700 words weekly depending on your wri9ng style. But this will also depend on the specifics of your assignment. If you do this assignment and with a sincere effort, you’ll receive the full points for that week. If the assignment is rushed, you’ll receive half the      points for that week. If you do not submit an assignment, you’ll receive no points for that week.

The topics for the assignments are:

-Week 1 (June 5): Two short comments. The first includes an introduc9on of yourself, and the second applies the ethical reasoning we’ll discuss to a digital issue that interests you.

-Week 2 (June 12): Discussion and response. You will select an issue on the internet that you think raises ethical concerns, and consider one way in which we might try to solve it, or fail  to. You’ll also comment on one feature of a classmate’s response.

-Week 3 (June 19): Argument and response. You will argue for a poten9al solu9on to the gamer’s dilemma and comment on one feature of a classmate’s response.

-Week 4 (June 26): Discussion and assessment. You will present one social issue that is affected by algorithms, big data, or ar9ficial intelligence and suggest a way of addressing it, or further diagnose the problem.

Final paper (20%) At the beginning of week 4 (June 26), you’ll receive a final paper assignment with an associated rubric. This will be a paper between 1000-1500 words detailing one digital  ethics issue that par9cularly interests you, and either developing the issue, or proposing           poten9al theore9cal or applied solu9ons. This paper can also be a development of one of your ideas in the preceding weekly comments. This paper will be due at the end of the semester.

Quiz (10%) On week 3 I will give you a short quiz (around 10 ques9ons) composed of either       short answer or mul9ple choice ques9ons on the issues discussed so far. The quiz allows you to use notes or other resources but will be 9me-limited.

Grading Scale and Policies

Final grades will be assigned as follows: 100-90% = A; 89-80% = B; 79-70% = C; 69-60% = D;

59-0% = E

Your final grade will be determined by the assignments above. These are:

4 wri9ng assignments (17.5% each, 70% total)

1 final paper (20%)

1 quiz (10%)

University policy regarding grades and grading systems is available at hYp://catalog.arizona.edu/ policy/grades-and-grading-system

Extra Credit: I do not offer extra credit on an individual basis or allow students to redo par9cular assignments. I may offer extra credit opportuni9es to the whole class, but please do not rely on this possibility.

Late/Missed Assignments : If you contact me 24 hours or more before a deadline, you may   request an extension of up to 48 hours for any legi9mate reason without personal details or medical documenta9on. Unexcused late assignments will be accepted but penalized              immediately aZer the deadline has passed.

If an issue is medical, the students should contact the Dean’s office for an excuse. The university policy discourages instructors from reques9ng documenta9on of medical excuses for privacy      reasons, so I cannot personally excuse missed assignments for medical reasons.

Incomplete (I) or Withdrawal (W):

Requests for incomplete (I) or withdrawal (W) must be made in accordance with University

policies, which are available at hYp://catalog.arizona.edu/policy/grades-and-grading- system#incomplete and hYp://catalog.arizona.edu/policy/grades-and-grading- system#Withdrawal respec9vely.

Dispute of Grade Policy:

If you believe you received the wrong grade on an assignment, please file this dispute within one week of receiving the grade as the grade will not be changed aZer that period has passed.

Honors Credit

Students wishing to contract this course for Honors Credit should email me to set up an                  appointment to discuss the terms of the contract. Informa9on on Honors Contracts can be found

at hYps://www.honors.arizona.edu/honors-contracts.

Scheduled Topics/Activities