Butler Community College
Career and Technical Education
Division
COURSE OUTLINE
Information Technology Ethics
Skyler Lovelace
Revised Spring 2010
Implemented Spring 2011
Textbook Update Fall 2014
Course Description
IN 275. Information Technology Ethics. 3 hours credit. Prerequisite: Completion of 12 credit hours of Information Technology department courses, with a C or better earned in each course. This course will enable the student to appraise ethical issues that information technology professionals face in a corporate setting. The student will examine the classical normative ethical theories based on notions of duties, rights, consequences and virtue based ethics as well as the contemporary codes of conduct established by professional organizations. The student will explore, analyze, and critique case studies in order to develop skills in ethical thought and written communication.
Course Relevance
Ethical decision-making when working with technology has become increasingly important because corporate risks associated with inappropriate decisions have grown. Information technology professionals should be able to identify various ethical problems in advance of a corporate crisis and be able to propose appropriate responses with clearly articulated justifications for action. In order to make appropriate decisions, information technology professionals should be able to use the conceptual tools found in modern philosophical ethics and be informed about the ethical standards of their profession.
Required Materials
Quinn, M., Ethics for the information age. Boston, MA: Addison Wesley.
* - For complete textbook information, refer to http://www.butlercc.bkstr.com
Learning Outcomes
The intention is for the student to be able to:
1. Apply ethical principles to technology issues.
2. Present views on ethical issues in a clear and precise manner in discussion and written documents.
Learning PACT Skills that will be developed and documented in this course
Through involvement in this course, the student will develop ability in the following PACT skill area(s):
Analytical Thinking Skills
1. Critical thinking
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Through reading about and discussing ethical issues, the student will build skills in formulating responses grounded in sound critical thinking.
Communication Skills
1. Creation and delivery of messages
Through writing responses to case studies, the student will practice writing skills and use of standard English.
Major Summative Assessment Task(s)
These learning outcome(s) and the Learning PACT skill(s) will be demonstrated by:
1. Preparing a researched case study that describes how to reduce organizational vulnerability by applying ethical decision-making.
Course Content
I. Skills or Competencies – Actions that are essential to achieve the course outcomes: A. Identify classical normative ethical theories
B. Discuss professional codes of conduct
C. Discuss ethics, professionalism, and whistle blowing
D. Discuss anonymity, security, and privacy
E. Discuss intellectual property rights and computer technology
F. Critically appraise ethical issues that arise in informational technology
G. Apply ethical principles to case studies in information technology
II. Themes
– Key recurring concepts that run throughout this course:
A. Ethics and technology
B. Ethics and the workplace
III. Issues
– Key areas of conflict that must be understood in order to achieve the intended outcome:
A. Privacy
B. Intellectual property
C. Computer security and computer crime
IV. Concepts – Key concepts that must be understood to address the issues
A. Traditional ethical theory
B. Professional codes of conduct
C. Social impact of computer technology
Learning Units
I. Historical perspectives on information technology
A. Computing
B. Networking
C. Information storage and retrieval
II. Classic ethical theories
A. Subjective relativism
B. Cultural relativism
C. Divine command theory
D. Kant
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E. Act utilitarianism
F. Rule utilitarianism
G. Social contract theory
H. Morality of breaking the law
III. Report writing
A. Report structure
B. Source citation
C. Collaborative feedback
D. Revision
IV. Networked communications
A. Email and spam
B. The World Wide Web
C. Ethical perspectives on pornography
D. Censorship
E. Freedom of expression
F. Children and the Web
G. Breaking trust on the Internet
H. Internet addiction
V. Intellectual property
A. Intellectual property rights
B. Protecting intellectual property
C. Fair use
D. New restrictions on use
E. Peer-to-peer networks
F. Protections for software
G. Open-source software
H. Legitimacy of intellectual property protection for software
VI. Privacy
A. Perspectives on privacy
B. Disclosing information
C. Public information
D. US legislation
E. Public records
F. Covert government surveillance
G. US legislation authorizing wiretapping
H. Data mining
I. Identity theft
J. Encryption
VII. Computer and network security
A. Viruses, worms and Trojan horses
B. Phreaks and hackers
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C. Denial-of-service attacks
D. Online voting
VIII. Computer Reliability
A. Data-entry or data-retrieval errors
B. Software and billing errors
C. Notable software system failure
D. Therac-25
E. Computer simulations
F. Software engineering
G. Software warranties
IX. Professional ethics
A. Are computer experts professionals
B. Software engineering code of ethics
C. Case studies
D. Whistleblowing
X. Work and wealth
A. Automation and unemployment
B. Workplace changes
C. Globalization
D. The digital divide
E.
The “winner-take-all” society
F. Access to public colleges
Learning Activities
Learning activities will be assigned to assist the student to achieve the intended learning outcome(s) through lecture, instructor-led class discussion, instructor-led demos, guest speakers, group activities, drills/skill practice and other activities at the discretion of the instructor.
Grade Determination
The student will be graded on learning activities and assessment tasks. Grade determinants may include the following: daily work, quizzes, chapter or unit tests, comprehensive examinations, projects, presentations, class participation, and other methods of evaluation at the discretion of the instructor.
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