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Role-playing and Debates:
Other techniques for opening a discussion about social
and ethical impact issues include role-playing and debates. As in the collaborative
techniques, the major goals of these techniques are to encourage students to identify and
evaluate ethical and social impact issues in computing. Common classroom situations can
be used as source for debates and role-playing. For example, some faculty teach software
maintenance by having students make modifications to completed programs written by other
students. This frequently causes students to be concerned about fairness--they may receive
a poorly written program. A debate about this practice relates software quality to ethical
issues. Both role-playing and debates require gentle guidance when students become more
interested in pushing their position, than in arriving at a solution based on the best
reasons. The KU's of ES3 and ES 5 need to be kept in mind when using these techniques.
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