Encouraging Global Awareness in a Computer Networking Course

Abstract

Contribution: This article demonstrates that social, cultural, economic, and political topics can be effectively addressed in the context of traditional computer science and engineering topics with few additional resources and little coordination. Background: Social, cultural, economic, and political influences are often secondary topics in computer science and engineering curricula. Superficial treatment of these topics can impede future graduates by limiting their understanding of how global factors influence the design of products, the availability of consumers, and future employment. Research Question: Are there ways to effectively integrate coverage of global issues and technical course material that sacrifice little class time and require few resources? If so, which activities and tools are most effective? Methodology: Computer networking students were introduced to the well-known networking tools Traceroute and WHOIS. Students were required to successfully use these tools for a graded assignment. After finding the country of origin with a visual Traceroute tool, students chose an article reporting on a technical topic in the social, cultural, political, or economic context of one of the origin countries. Students answered questions regarding their previous and new knowledge on the graded assignment and then reported the effectiveness of the activities in encouraging global awareness on an anonymous questionnaire. Findings: Students reported little previous knowledge of all countries included in the assignment but found the assignment useful in learning about global influences within the context of traditional networking tools. Furthermore, students reported differences in what activity during the assignment was most effective when learning about global issues.