Incorporating ethics in computing courses and extra class activities

Fani Zlatarova, Elizabethtown College

Abstract

Teaching ethics in undergraduate computing-oriented courses is important because the specific nature of the development and application of software products affects the professional and personal interests of so many people. Two different approaches in teaching ethics for computer science and information systems students are described here. The first approach consists of incorporating ethical concepts into the teaching material of several computing courses. The second approach implements miscellaneous forms of extra class activities. Both approaches can be united through service learning applications related to the respective academic community. The description of practical solutions relevant to the different methods of teaching cyberethics is discussed below. © 2004 IEEE.