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Computers and society: An interdisciplinary approach

Published:01 January 1973Publication History
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Abstract

Since their inception some 25 years ago, computers have become an all pervasive influence in society. Their impact has been felt not only in the sciences and social sciences, but in almost all fields of endeavor where there is a significant amount of information to be taken, stored and manipulated. Their use in the many spheres of business activity has contributed to the creation of a huge computer industry. In recognition of the immense social influences of computers and the concurrent influence of the technocrats who “control” the machines, computer science departments have recently tried to respond to the challenge by giving their students an awareness of these forces. Their response has taken basically 2 forms. The first approach has been to incorporate within existing courses a measure of social awareness and responsibility. This has been accomplished by examining, where appropriate case situations of computer related developments and trying to assess their implications in the social context. Experiments of this type have been reported by [NEI72]. The second approach has been to create a new course, often called Computers and Society, whose main goal is to expose the student to at least a subset of the relevant issues connected with computers. Though called by the same name, these courses often vary widely, and several proposals which describe various formats have appeared in the literature e.g. see [HOR72] and [LEE71]. This paper deals with a variation on this second approach.

References

  1. 1 Shneiderman, Ben, "Computer Science Education and Social Relevance", SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol, 3, No. 1, March, 1971, pp. 21-24. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. 2 Nielsen, Norman R., "Social Responsibility and Computer Education", SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol.4, No. 1, March, 1972, pp. 90-96. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  3. 3 Lee, Hans E., "Computers in Society—A Course Description, Purpose and Rationale", SIGCSE Bulletin, March 1972, pp. 97-102. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  4. 4 Horowitz, E., H.L. Morgan and A.C. Shaw, "Computers and Society: A Proposed Course for Computer Scientists", C.ACM, Vol. 15, No. 4, April 1972, pp. 257-261. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  5. 5 Mosmann, C., "Computer Science for the Anti-Computer Non-Scientist", EDUCOM Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 3, Fall 1972, Princeton, N.J., pp. 24-26.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
      ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 5, Issue 1
      Proceedings of the 3rd SIGCSE symposium on Computer science education
      February 1973
      171 pages
      ISSN:0097-8418
      DOI:10.1145/953053
      Issue’s Table of Contents
      • cover image ACM Conferences
        SIGCSE '73: Proceedings of the third SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
        January 1973
        185 pages
        ISBN:9781450373753
        DOI:10.1145/800010

      Copyright © 1973 ACM

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 1 January 1973

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