Ethical issues involving the Internet

ABSTRACT

During the 90's, the “Information Superhighway” has received widespread publicity. Many campuses have participated in this drive to an information based society by becoming participating nodes on the Internet. As an information provider, the Internet has the potential to change the college experience in many ways, both good and bad. It also poses a number of problems for college students in areas such as privacy, access, and honesty. It provides professors with a dynamic information storage and retrieval tool that offers the opportunity to modernize both curriculum experiences and pedagogical approaches. On some campuses, Internet access and capability has become so important that course modules and whole courses are being built. The panelists will each discuss a different issue involved with making the Internet more integral to the collegiate environment.

The first panelist will consider risks and threats that an institution of higher learning must consider as it approaches Internet use will be presented. The steps an institution took to build policies and deal with “inevitable incidents” that will occur as the Internet is opened to full use by both students and faculty.

The second panelist will present four computer ethics modules. Each module uses the abundance and dynamism of Internet information to provide challenging “Ethics in the Computer Workplace” experiences that could not easily be done by traditional means.

The third panelist will discuss a course module that explores both the positive and negative potential of the Internet. The costs and ease of Internet access, as well as normally available Internet tools, are also presented. This module has been used in a course called “Ethical and Social Issues in Computer Science” and will be used in a general-education course to be offered beginning in 1994–95.

References

1. 1.Kay, David G. "A Course in Computer Law" Proceedings, 23rd ACM SigCSE Conference, Kansas City, MO., March 1992.
2. 2.Scott, Thomas J. and R.B. Voss and C.Pancake, "Teaching an Ethics Component to Computer Science Majors" Proceedings, 24th ACM SigCSE Conference, Indianapolis, IN., Feb. 1993.
3. 3.Scott, Thomas J. and R.B. Voss "Teaching Computer Ethics Electronically" Proceedings, Computers on Campus Conference, Myrtle Beach, S.C., Nov., 1993.
4. 4.Kallman, Ernest P. and J.P. Grillo "Teaching Ethics in IS Courses" Proceedings, 25th ACM SigCSE Conference, Phoenix, AZ, March, 1994.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Education

• Networks

  • Network architectures

• Security and privacy

  • Human and societal aspects of security and privacy

• Social and professional topics

  • Computing / technology policy

    • Computer crime

    • Privacy policies

  • Professional topics

    • Computing education

      • Model curricula

    • Computing profession

      • Codes of ethics