Implementing the Tenth Strand - Page 16 of 18

Gathering Resources for Implementing the Knowledge Units

The collection of teaching resources in computer ethics is growing as computer scientists, engineers, ethicists, sociologists, and others become more interested in the field. In this section we discuss some sources we have found particularly useful. Daily newspapers, magazines, and Internet newsgroups and mailing lists routinely include articles about the relationship of computers, telecommunications, and society. These articles can be a rich source of examples, but we suggest two cautions:

(1) teachers (and particularly teachers of ethics!) should be careful not to violate the law when using copyrighted materials in their teaching; and
(2) articles from the popular press are used most effectively when they contribute directly to the topics and techniques planned for the course.

Teachers should avoid making the class a parade of superficial presentations of current events. Critical analysis and reasoned arguments should be emphasized.

Some periodicals are dedicated to examining the social and ethical context of computing. Two such periodicals are the Computers & Society Newsletter, published quarterly by SIGCAS of the ACM, and the IEEE Technology & Society magazine. There are also a variety of excellent videos available, including videos from the Freedom, Computers and Privacy Conferences (ACM, New York), several videos produced by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), and multimedia and video materials produced by the Research Center on Computers and Society in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Internet offers a plethora of materials that can be useful in teaching in this area. There exist mailing lists, newsgroups, ftp repositories, and World Wide Web pages dedicated to topics of computer ethics, societal impact, legal issues, and the like. However, any listing of these resources when given in a printed form (such as this report) is obsolete long before it is printed. Instead of promulgating such a list, the ImpactCS project is establishing a World Wide Web site for locating electronic resources for teaching computer ethics and societal concerns. The ImpactCS Web site will contain links to documents, lists of ftp sites, links to other Web pages, lists of gopher sites, and lists of mailing groups. This information will be kept as current and as comprehensive as possible. The information will be organized using the conceptual framework presented in Figure 1 of Consequences of Computing [3]. The ImpactCS home page will function as a search engine that will return a list of resources relevant to search parameters specified by the user.