From Awareness to Action - Page 17 of 20

Reaction to the work of the ImpactCS Project has been overwhelmingly positive. One exception was a letter to the editor in the April, 1997 Communications of the ACM stating that "[the] most glaring problem is that proposed subject matter is not computer science...the content is devoid of every standard element present in computer science research and education.... proposed laboratories to prioritize a list of organ-transplant candidates, role-playing and debating....It’s hard to imagine a computer scientist teaching these things [25]." Their list of criteria for deciding whether something is computer science does not hold up as either necessary or sufficient. This narrow view of computer science would seem to imply that areas such as software engineering and human-computer interaction would largely fall outside computer science. The authors of the letter also object to computer science professors teaching ethics and social impart, arguing that only philosophers or sociologists should worry about ethical and social concerns. Just as history teaches us that Einstein argued vehemently that it is a physicist’s duty to discuss the moral implications of atomic weapons, computing professionals are similarly needed to tackle the difficult problems that come with computing. Thus, it is essential that we provide skills in social and ethical analysis to our students, the future computer professionals who will have to continue to deal with these difficult issues.

Fortunately, the view stated in the letter has been a minority reaction. A sample of other faculty reactions to the three reports are shown below:

"The module descriptions will be very useful to us as we start to integrate computer ethics into our curriculum. As you might have guessed, CSAB "dinged" us for not including these concepts in courses. This was not intentional, just a major oversight. Most of us have never through deeply about integration of ethics into our courses, so the efforts of you and your colleagues are greatly appreciated (WDS)."

"I think you all did a great job on the [final] report. I believe the quality is outstanding. I can use a lot of the information to develop my computer ethics class to a higher level (LJB)."

"It has been a year since you sent your collection of articles to me. I did read them and they were helpful. Indeed we recently had an inspection by the British Computer Society to reassess the credibility of our course. They were well pleased with my Professional Practice and Ethics course...On reflection I realized that a significant amount of my theoretical understanding of teaching computer ethics derived from the papers you sent to me. So I must say, Thanks! (RCJ)"

"After I read the [final] report, I found myself reflecting on how differently I feel about the practice of teaching computer ethics than I did five years ago. Then, I felt that computer ethics was overly influenced by preachy, almost whiny, people who were more interested in searching for believers than getting to the bedrock of moral truth in the field. Now I feel that the field is much more professional, much more valuable, and much more effective. Much of this, I believe, is directly attributable to ...the ImpactCS Project. The ImpactCS Reports have provided a framework for exploration and moral development within the field...which I believe is a tremendous accomplishment...I believe that teaching ethics will forever be improved through your efforts on this project(JMA)."