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.