CIS2: 10. Professional Ethics and Responsibilities

• consider the issues associated with professional ethics and responsibilities
• investigate simulations
• review and summarize a previous discussion
• work collaboratively to produce a final project paper

• What is "computer ethics"?
• Should computer professionals have special ethics guidelines? Are they different than ethics for others not in computer-related professions? How formally should these ethics be defined? Are they more likely to be followed if they are written in detail?
• What privacy protection is appropriate for computer professionals?
• What are the responsibilities for computer professionals creating software that is able to save lives or kill or injure patients if it malfunctions?

1. Read 10. Professional Ethics and Responsibilities notes for an overview for the topics that will be covered this week.

2. Read text book - Chapter 10: Professional Ethics and Responsibilities

3. Throughout the quarter, watch for news items about computers and society. For extra credit, post a link and a 1-2 sentence note about why you think that this news item is applicable to this class to the News Items discussion and submit the information to the X. News Item assignment.

4. Take the quiz Ethics and Responsibilities. Answer based on your reading from the textbook. When you have completed all the questions, submit your quiz for grading.
   For more information, review Information Literacy Tutorials. http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~ITL/InformationLiteracy/WebPages/

5. Write 3-4 sentence answering one of the questions in the Study Guide section for this Chapter. What questions does this raise for society? Post your answer to discussion Professional Ethics and Responsibilities.

6. Simulations are great learning tools. Find an example of a simulation on the web. There are lots of simulations listed in the educational resource MERLOT http://www.merlot.org web site. Post the web address and brief description to Simulations discussion.

7. Select one of the discussion topics from a previous week. Read through the posts and write a short summary of the important ideas discussed. Now that you have read the whole discussion, what questions do you have about the topic that were not answered? Your summary should be 3-4 sentences in length. Post your summary to Discussion Summaries discussion and to assignment Discussion Summary.

8. You should be working with your group on your Final Project. If you have questions, please check the Final Project description and the Final Project discussion for the latest updates and points of clarification.

9. Write a summary of your progress to date on your final project. Keep it simple, but address the following in your narrative:
   • SUBJECTIVE: What are your feelings about your project (optimism, pessimism, doubt, hope, etc.)? Have there been any encouraging/discouraging developments?
   • OBJECTIVE: Describe your progress to date. Are you on schedule with your work plan? What have you done so far?
   • ASSESSMENT: What do you think you need to complete your project? Do you anticipate a change in the work plan or project objectives? Do you think you're on track, ahead of schedule, or falling behind?
   • PLAN: What will be your next steps?
   Submit to the Final Project Progress assignment.

10. Reflection - What have you learned about Professional Ethics and Responsibilities as they apply to Computers and Society from the notes, readings and assignments? Are you more aware of computers around you? Are computers affecting society? This should be 1-2 paragraphs. Submit as the I think... assignment.