Implementing the Tenth Strand - Page 14 of 18

Classroom Techniques: Teaching Basic Elements and Skills

It is clear that the study of ethical and social issues in computing is, and should be, interdisciplinary in nature. Ethicists from both philosophy and theology, historians, social analysts, sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists have all contributed heavily to the research in this area. Instead of suggesting the student learn each discipline separately, we suggest that from the perspective of computer science, every ethical concern is encountered at a particular level of social analysis. Only an analysis that takes account of at least three dimensions--the technical, the social, and the ethical--can adequately represent the issues as they concern computer science in practice. Considering each dimension separately provides some insight, but it is only in their interaction that we can begin to grasp the complexity of the issues. The knowledge units correspond to learning objectives, which will provide students with skills and general principles needed to be able to deal with complex topics as they arise in their education and in their career.

The knowledge units just described represent an imposing set of material with enough content for several courses, if the requirement is that all of the elements, skills and topics be done in detail and separately. This is particularly true when there are important topics like privacy, risks, and property to cover. But consider that in an introduction to programming class, students learn one (if not two) particular programming languages, elementary principles of program design, some database structures, and are introduced to many of the 'recurring principles' listed in Computing Curricula 1991. This is not done by teaching each of these separately and in detail, but by having students design, implement, and exercise programs that incorporate these principles.

In the same way, students can cover the topic of privacy by investigating electronic monitoring of workers. The framework we present allows this investigation to be grounded in the basics of ethical arguments about privacy, while recognizing the importance of the varying social contexts in which such monitoring can occur. Thus, using an integrated perspective, the elements and skills can be covered in a reasonable amount of time. To the extent that these issues can be covered more than once, or in more than one place in the curriculum, they will be better apprehended by students. But with careful introduction in special modules or a stand-alone course and with integration into other technical courses, the knowledge units in this subject area can be covered with sufficient depth and rigor within the constraints of a standard computer science undergraduate program.