Consequences of Computing:
A Framework for Teaching

Introduction - Page 3 of 36

Connections to the Rest of the Discipline

The social and ethical context of computing is now integral to several subject areas of Curricula 1991, most particularly to Software Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, and Computer Architecture. With the advent of the software life cycle concept, total quality management, participatory design, and fault-tolerant design, much of Software Engineering requires consideration of both the social and ethical context in which designed software is created and used. The recent report of the SIGCHI task force on curriculum development [2] lists many topical subareas involving social and ethical context, including: social organization and work; models of small groups, organizations, and workflow; quality of work life and job satisfaction; models of communication; task analysis and design specification techniques; and evaluation techniques. Work in computer architecture requires careful consideration of fault tolerance, error checking, security of systems, privacy of transmissions, and risk assessment. All of these topics require an awareness of the context within which technology is used, an ability to evaluate that context, and the professional skill to make difficult choices based on that evaluation. These are, in turn, all goals of the subject area under consideration here, the social and ethical context of computing.

In addition to this intense integration with three areas of computer science, the social and ethical context also touches many other subject areas of Curricula 1991. Issues of reliability, accountability, and liability arise in every area. Quality of life, property, privacy, and equality of access issues also arise in many subject areas in the curriculum. Of the 12 recurring concepts that Curricula 1991 lists as touching every area of computer science, six of them (reuse, security, tradeoffs and consequences, evolution, complexity of large problems, and consistency and completeness) are intimately linked to an awareness of the social context in which technology is used and are thus informed by a social scientific analysis of computing. Thus the social and ethical context of computing is fundamental to the computer science curriculum and is central to the knowledge that a qualified graduate of a computer science program should command. It is, as Curricula 1991 indicates, a part of the common requirements for a degree in computer science.