paper -
16 Building Computer Ethics from the Ground Up
Gail
Kaiser, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Computer ethics is a topic of interest to many of us
on college and university campuses. As Postmaster at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute I see violations of our Electronic Citizenship policy by our
students. I also receive complaints from our students who have been victims of
harassment or SPAM or e-mail forgeries from their friends on other college campuses
or from their high school days.
When the students arrive on campus, they are informed
of our acceptable use polices, sign a document of agreement and are referred to
the complete Electronic Citizenship document on our web site. It is my belief
that a more opportune time to teach students about ethical computing would be
when they are younger, at the elementary school level, since it is then that
most of today's students learn how to use a computer.
Computing and Information Services (CIS) at Rensselaer
(RPI) currently has a proposal before our IT degree program for the production
of a multi-media program with an intended audience of elementary school
students for the purpose of teaching computer ethics in a format that young
students are familiar with. The
production would be designed and produced by a senior in our Information
Technology program who has chosen Electronic Arts as a minor. It is a degree
completion requirement of the IT to have a "capstone" project. We
will collaborate with the student to assure delivery of the message we wish to
convey.
I will report on the process and progress of this project.