Creative ways to teach ethics and assess learning

Abstract

Teaching ethics in Information Technology proves to be a daunting task. Can ethics be taught? Why ¿IT¿ ethics? What is so unique about this field that one needs to focus solely on IT ethics? Aren't current ethical theories sufficient? What does the digitization of the world, life on the 'net, change, that creates a need for IT ethics classes? And if they are truly needed, how can they be taught? How can learning be assessed? Traditional methods, such as lecturing, do not provide the students with the interactive questioning and answering that is needed to help draw conclusions based on ethical theories. Lecturing does not provide sufficient engagement of the student body. Ethics cannot be enforced, with a list of items lectured, that one can `check off' to see if behaviour is ethical. Teaching ethics is sharing ideas and applying theories. And you need great ideas to be able to reach your audience in a non-traditional fashion. This paper will show a variety of methods and some examples of their outcomes, for teaching Ethics in Information Technology.