Computing Ethics Class 05

We talked about consequentialism and the trolley problem

SOFT6007 Class 05

We looked at nested lists. Nesting lists demonstrates some important points about the structure of HTML.


I gave students a nested list exercise to code on paper. I advised students who correctly completed the exercise that they could leave early. Some students when they were nearly finished. That's the kind of attitude that causes students to nearly pass.

Computing Ethics Class 04

We discussed the origins of right and wrong. We talked about supernaturalism, intuitionism, and started to think about consequentialism.

Slides were taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/guide/

I asked students to find examples of supernaturalism in a debate about technology. (Apart from the obvious examples of genetic engineering and reproductive technology)

Students should listen to:
Defending The Faith, And Morality, Of NonBelievers
Would you Kill the Big Guy Parts I and II

In the next class we will discuss the trolley problem. What implications does the trolley problem have for CyberEthics.

SOFT6008 Class 06 & 07

Students continued working on the rollover exercise.

I asked those students who were finished to start work on a navigation bar of their own. It should demonstrate that the students understand show rollovers work.

I warned students of the dangers of copying and pasting code from the web.

SOFT6008 Class 05 Table Structure

SOFT6008 Class 05

I asked students to build a navigation bar with rollovers using the images I provided.


Some important points:
Need to have colspan and rowspan clear in your head
Set border cellpadding and cellspacing attributes all to zero
Beware of stray space characters
Using a table for layout in this way is a bit 90s. CSS would probably be the way to go. But that's not important right now



La Casa del Gringo exercise:

SOFT6007 Class 04

I was late because I went to the wrong room.

We looked again at how to include images in a web page and I told a few cautionary tales.

We took a brief look at lists. Lists are a lot less important than the time we will devote to them, but their use illustrates some very important points about the structure of html documents.

Students can subscribe to the class podcast in iTunes by choosing Advanced> Subscribe to a Podcast... and entering http://mcom.cit.ie/staff/computing/cmanning/soft6007.xml

Searching for Cork Institute of Technology might be easier.

Clicking here might work too

SOFT6008 Class 04

We looked at rollovers, dialog boxes, and prompts

Slides: JS02

SOFT6007 Class 02 & 03 Lab Group A

We started a bit late because someone stole the handouts I had left earlier in the day. Perhaps they were used to print on or recycled.

We looked at HTML Example 1 and Example 2. Students typed Example 2 and saw how it looked in the browser.

We added 2 links.

We added images.

I asked student to make a small website with 2 connecting pages. I allowed students who were done to leave early. Not all students finished by the end of class.

Many students were keen to leave before they were not finished.


Some important points:
It's all about the structure. To be compliant the html must be perfect. There is no half-right
Tags must be in lowercase
The header must include a title tag
All image tags must include width height and alt attributes

Computing Ethics Class 03

Is technology is neutral?

We started our look at ethics in general and started to think about where ethics and morals come from.


I asked students to set up their blogs and to e-mail me the URLs. For this week's entry I want each student to:

• Find an example of a cyberethics issue that can be effectively dealt with using current laws and morals
• Find an example of a cyberethics issue that cannot be effectively dealt with using current laws and morals and needs some new thinking
• Find an example of a cyberethics issue from popular culture (e.g. Is Lt. Data from Star Trek TNG entitled to the same civil rights as humans?) and identify which into phase of cyberethics evolution it belongs.
• Google "Is technology neutral" and attempt to summarize some of the ideas presented

Students should listen to the following programmes in reading list podcast.

"Would you kill the big guy?" Parts I & II
"Defending the faith, and morality, of non-believers"

SOFT6007 Class 02 & 03 Lab Group B

We looked at HTML Example 1 and Example 2. Students typed Example 2 and saw how it looked in the browser.

We added 2 links.

We added images.

I asked student to make a small website with 2 connecting pages. I allowed students who were done to leave at 1230.


Some important points:
It's all about the structure. To be compliant the html must be perfect. There is no half-right
Tags must be in lowercase
The header must include a title tag
All image tags must include width height and alt attributes

Computing Ethics Class 02

The projector in F1.2 wouldn't work so I had to do a bit of messing.

We talked about what is CyberEthics and whether or not it is a discipline worthy of study in its own right, apart from ethics generally.

SOFT6007 Class 01

history of the Internet. The web.

Introduction to HTML

Computing Ethics Class 01

We discussed the module and I spoke a bit about what the format of the classes would be.

We will spend most classes discussing issues. This is not a module for people who do not like to speak in class nor is if for those who cannot write.

I showed students how to subscribe to the 2 podcasts for the module.

I gave out a random selection of articles from various sources for student to read.

Slides Chapter00

SOFT6008 Class 03

We looked at the Random Image example. This example is tricky because of the escaped quotes.

I asked student to try this for themselves but using their own images and naming convention. Using my naming convention doesn't demonstrate much understand of what's going on.

I asked student to try the time based image exercise. Any well known landmark would be suitable, as images are likely easy to come by.

I messed up the video so the quality of the podcast is very poor.

SOFT6008 Class 02

I asked students to ensure they knew how to subscribe to the module podcast at
http://mcom.cit.ie/staff/computing/cmanning/soft6008.xml

However it took student so long to log into the machines that we got straight down to business once they did. In addition, some machine in that lab have no sound. I logged both problems with the Service Desk.

I talked about what JavaScript is and is not.

We did the Time Based Greeting example.

I asked students to type in this code and see it working. Many students got to see first hand just how fussy JavaScript is, and just how difficult it is to debug.

I messed up the video recording so the quality of the podcast is very poor.

SOFT6008 Class 01

Welcome to Interactive Web Development.

There are more then 20 students in this class so when the numbers finalize we might have to modify the timetable to accommodate a second lab group.

There was no projector in C134x so class was short.

After introducing myself I gave a very quick introduction to JavaScript and answered some questions.

Free Choice Module

Instructions for free choice module registration should be sent tomorrow

Colin Manning, Dept. of Computing
Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland

Visit to Lannion

I was in Lannion earlier his week.

Details later

LRC Meeting

I had my first meeting of the Learning Resources Committee today. It was very interesting. The people involved are very keen.

We looked a bit at the terms of reference of the LRC. They are a bit old now.

We talked about Blackboard.

There's a lot of overlap between the membership of the LRC and the Teaching & Learning Unit.