Non-Apologetic Computer Ethics Education - Beyond the Computer Science Curriculum - The Research Center on Computing & Society

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Non-Apologetic Computer Ethics Education:
A Strategy for Integrating Social Impact and Ethics into the Computer Science Curriculum

C. Dianne Martin and Hilary J. Holz

3.1 Beyond the Computer Science Curriculum

Computer ethics education is made more complicated because there are computer users at all levels throughout our society. Twenty years ago computers were not nearly so numerous or networked together as they are today. Individuals who controlled computers functioned strictly as computer professionals or computer scientists serving other people by providing them with computer output. Now, because of the widespread use of computers, distinguishing between specialists who work only with computers and those who use them as tools for other disciplines lacks significance.

Computers have become as commonplace as telephones. The related ethical issues have thus become more democratically defined. More people have more to say about computer ethics simply because so many …people are computer-literate… the diffuseness of the impacts and the wide distribution of the technology mean that recognizing impacts, let alone solving an ethical dilemma, is much more difficult.... Ethical principles applied to millions of computer users effectively become the equivalent of common law. (Parker, et al., 1988. p. 3)

In this paper we have presented a strategy for integrating social and ethical concerns into computer science undergraduate education throughout the four year curriculum. We have proposed a freshman course, a series of case studies to be presented in all technical courses, and a final social and ethical analysis to be included as part of the senior software engineering project. However, computer use and education now begins in elementary school and is no longer a restricted technical specialty learned only by those who are going to design or program computers. The issue should be viewed from the perspective of society as a whole, as well as from the perspective of preparing future computer professionals. Therefore, the core of ethical precepts relating to computer technology needs to be communicated at all levels of computer education (ISTE, 1987). The principles we have suggested for putting technical study within the framework of social and ethical impacts can be applied to all computer education settings. We should not delude ourselves into thinking that simply teaching about ethics will be a panacea for the problems now faced by society due to computer technology, but we should demonstrate our commitment to ethical behavior by providing an ethical context across computer education at all levels.

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