A lot of people, including those right here in Greenwood have heard both of the terms computer science and ethics. However, the two subjects don’t sound like they go together like two peas in a pod. Yet, they do. As such, more and more schools are attaching ethics courses to their computer science syllabuses.
Ethics are moral principles or codes that people and groups live by to govern behavior. Therefore, ethics in computer science revolve around the decisions that individuals make socially or professionally while on a network. In other words, students need to learn how to act online for their academic and professional careers.
If Greenwood pupils don’t obtain this knowledge, they could find themselves in hot water. All it takes is a slip of the tongue, one disturbing image posted, or an inappropriate video getting uploaded for people to get into trouble. Interested Greenwood parties should read further to discover more about computer science and ethics.
How Computer Science Ethics Were Taught In The Past
For many previous college students, Philosophy 101 was all that was offered in the way of ethical training. Of course, there was nothing wrong with this method as it certainly got people by for years. The lessons included…
- Case Studies
- Theories
- Films
- And More
However, as the years progressed and technology advanced, it became apparent that schools needed to take things a step further. Thus, they have made, or are making changes, to the way ethics and computer science are being taught. Stay put to check out a couple of different tactics professors are applying today.
Emanuelle Burton’s Ethics Course
Emanuelle Burton, a teacher at the University of Illinois-Chicago, usually has a room full of programmers in every class. She has a curriculum that is jam-packed with science fiction. The educator believes that stories are an ideal way to get the pupils to slow down and take a step back from their 24-hour codefests or hackathons. This idea allows individuals to think about the items that they will one day sell or build from a narrative and character perspective. In turn, hopefully, the syllabus will even help them develop into more ethical engineers and programmers.
Judy Goldsmith’s Computer Science Class
The University of Kentucky is where Judy Goldsmith teaches. Over a decade ago, students began complaining about exam assignments. So, the professor did a little out of the box thinking and gave the pupils the opportunity to analyze science fiction works instead. This activity brought about an entirely new course, “Science Fiction and Computer Ethics.”
Goldsmith had a background in abstract mathematics of algorithms though, not philosophy, which meant she felt somewhat lost and clueless in the beginning. Eventually, she hooked up with Burton, who wrote her dissertation on The Chronicles of Narnia and ethics. Together, the pair revamped Goldsmith’s course to ensure that the instructor no longer felt confused and the students would grasp all of the information that the class had to offer.
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