Realities of Teaching Social and Ethical Issues in Computing - What Level of Expertise Should Students Acquire? - The Research Center on Computing & Society

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Doris Keefe Lidtke

What Level of Expertise Should Students Acquire?

Many of the students in computing sciences have had little exposure to philosophical and social issues. In their study of computer science and mathematics they have come to believe that an “answer” is right or wrong, a program runs or does not run. Too often this attitude is conveyed to the students by the faculty, they seldom see a variety of solutions which solve a particular problem or different approaches which solve a problem. Even less often are ethical and social issues a part of their course of study. Yet these students must go out into the profession to design systems which are life critical, which may be used to heal or to harm people, which may be used to assist law enforcement in tracking criminals or to reveal intimate details of the personal lives of particular individuals. Students must be prepared to develop their own personal and professional values and must be trained how to act upon these values. This requires that students be trained to see the implications of their work, to evaluate the impacts of this work, and to decide whether or not this is appropriate for them. Students must develop the competence to deal with a variety of common ethical situation.

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