Implementing the Tenth Strand - Page 15 of 18
Classroom Techniques
The presentation of the five knowledge units, whether in a single course devoted to
computer ethics or in modules distributed throughout the computer science curriculum, should
provide a sound theoretical foundation and develop the student's ability to apply these
skills. In addition to traditional lectures, guest speakers, and videos to cover the
content of the knowledge units and related topics, we recommend a balanced mix of group
activities and lecture/class discussion. The major goal of these teaching methods should be
to provide students with multiple opportunities to identify and evaluate social and ethical
issues in computing. The three techniques described below can be used to these ends.
Cooperative Learning Techniques: Collaborative and co-operative techniques, in
which students work in small groups with their peers, have proven to be very effective in
helping students to identify and analyze social and ethical issues. Since most classes are
too large to work with the class as a single group, the class should be divided into small
working and discussion groups of 3-5 students. When dividing students into groups, there
are several important strategies which will insure successful group interaction :
1) There should be a preliminary ice-breaker to get the students talking with each
other.
2) There should be a minimal structure to the group; including a discussion
director who helps to keep the groups focus or a scribe to record the group decisions.
3) If the project they will be working on is complex, it is best to have the
students work individually on the subject at home before coming together in groups in class.
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 ES5 need to be kept in mind when using these techniques.
Student-Developed Computer Access and Usage Policies: Projects that students have
found interesting include the development of a computer access policy for a university or
the development of a computer ethics policy for a campus. One group can be assigned the
task to develop the policy from the perspective of the college administration and the other
group assigned the task to develop the policy from the perspective of the general student
population. These policies should include prohibited actions and specific sanctions for
violations of the policy. Similar exercises include the development of laws against
computer trespass or the development of laws against "software lemons" similar to laws which
protect consumers against defective automobiles.
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