CS 492/692 - Spring 2020 - Week 11 Readings Summary

Here are notes for our July 20 class on video games and our July 22 class on computers and mental health.

Video Game Addiction

You are provided with two papers to read: one indicating possible positives with video games and the other telling the rather tragic story of a teen who was seriously-addicted to video games. I urged you to also check out the Top Gun episode of Fifth Estate which you can find online, for more on what happened with Brendan Crisp.

Our polls will be to discover your answers to the questions below. I will challenge you to think of a response that no one else has suggested, when I invite you to post.

I will also have an extra question to ask you, not revealed until we have gone through discussion of the questions below. This will be another opportunity to respond, with limited pre-preparation.

1) Name significant positives with video games
2) Name significant negatives with video games
3) On the whole are you more postitive or negative?

Computers and Mental Health

View the guest speaker video from Prof. Golab beforehand in LEARN and check the July 22 folder for a possible note from our second guest, Dr. Xiang. We will discuss how computer technology can be designed to help with the social problem of mental health and we will learn more about how online connections between psychiatrists, patients and the public is proceeding. Dr. Xiang is a former CS492 student, now a psychiatrist. Prof. Golab is a Canada Research Chair in Data Science for Social Good.

Class time will allow you to ask either guest a question: come with a few prepared and please try to attend synchronously, to give back to the guests who are giving up time to be with us: I will do a brief lead-in to the discussion.

At times, I have asked you in this course to imagine creating new technology, so Prof. Golab's video will give you an idea of something that has actually been created to help with social issues. The video is brief and you may have some questions about who will be assisted and how. Dr. Xiang retains a strong interest in computer science and in this sense is a unique position when asked to adopt technology for healthcare. You may have questions about the pros and cons of this new arrangement for medical professionals (and its value during the pandemic).

Announcements: last RPE Jul 24 and use towards A6 if you have not yet taken notes: a very important topic -- be on time to class Jul 27 with A5s in Dropbox before class and be ready to receive an A5 by email, to evaluate (A5b) with A5b sheet available already on Handouts page - polls in class will enable us to confirm that you are on track with A5b and will be for synchronous and asynchronous students both - check out A5 formatting requests from TAs before submitting A5 and PLEASE NOTE: for A5 you need to have your name clearly indicated on a cover page (to enable A5B) - come to class Jul 29 for a retrospective and some awards plus meet the TAs and open discussion: last chance for participation - TAs will post brief Notes before class to let you know about their research, of relevance to CS492 and I will post one Note inviting you to ask me about advances with computers I've seen over the years