Chuck Huff

Gender, software design, and occupational equity

After reviewing the work on gender bias in software design, a model of gender-role influenced achievement choice taken from Eccles [7] is presented. The paper concludes that (1) though laudable, reduction of gender bias in software design is not the most straightforward way to reduce gender inequity in the choice of computing as a career, (2) the model itself makes more clear some of the ethical issues involved in attempting to achieve gender equity on computing, and (3) efforts to reduce gender inequity in the choice of computing as a career need to be evaluated in the light of this model.

Good computing: a pedagogically focused model of virtue in the practice of computing (part 1)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a four component model of ethical behavior (PRIMES) that integrates literature in moral psychology, computing ethics, and virtue ethics as informed by research on moral exemplars in computing. This is part 1 of a two‐part contribution.Design/methodology/approach – This psychologically based and philosophically informed model argues that moral action is: grounded in relatively stable PeRsonality characteristics (PR); guided by integration of morality into the self‐system; shaped by the context of the surrounding moral ecology; and facilitated by morally relevant skills and knowledge (S).Findings – The model seeks to explain the daily successful (and unsuccessful) performance of moral action by computing professionals and to provide groundwork for a pedagogy that emphasizes ethically effective performance.Practical implications – The model has significant implications for how ethical action might be taught to computer professionals and other design professio...

Adapting the Internet: Comments from a Women-Only Electronic Forum

This study examines the culture of electronic communication from the standpoint of a women-only electronic forum of computer scientists called Systers. Surveys completed electronically by 491 members of the forum are analyzed, and extensive quotes from their responses are presented. The respondents’ reactions to the culture of the Internet, and their comments on the segregated forum they have created in response, provide a detailed description of the complexities of EC and the social worlds it allows us to create. Their comments suggest that electronic communication can give undue influence to extreme opinions and can make it easier for sexual harassment to occur. It can also make it easy for women who are unwilling to involve themselves in mixed-sex forums to interact with each other in a climate they find more congenial. Thus, the technology may increase the reach both of those who make the Internet a difficult place and of those who wish to make it a safer place. One conclusion we draw is that basic patterns of gender based communication are at least replicated, if not magnified, in electronic communication.

Unintentional power in the design of computer systems

Unintentional power is the ability to affect others even though one does not intend, or even foresee, the likely effect. Software designers and other computer professionals have this kind of power because computers instrument human action, and thus control it, or at the least guide it. Examples of this power are provided from accidents with medical technology and in the case of gender bias embedded within educational software. I also make some suggestions about what computer professionals can do, and ought to do, about the power their role gives

Practical guidance for teaching the social impact statement (SIS)

The idea for including an S1S in a class on social and ethical issues in computing came from a desire to have students see ethical and social issues as real problems that they might have to face in their careers. By identifying these problems in real systems--with some guidance from the instructor--they will have a chance to locate them within the complexity of the technical issues of the system. This exercise provides students with the skills of locating these issues and thinking carefully about them, and the luxury of having the time to do so.

Toward a pedagogy of ethical practice

Teaching computing ethics in a manner that allows students to address both abstract ethical knowledge and actual ethical practice.

Virtual harms and real responsibility

This is a preliminary sort of the ethical and metaphysical issues arising and in general from virtual reality environments. The lessons we learned seem promising, but more analysis remains. Perhaps the most important lesson is that virtual actions and interactions have consequences for flesh-and-blood persons and hence, the flesh controllers of virtual action, whether they control directly (as in playing a character) or indirectly (as in designing a virtual world), have responsibilities for their actions.

Curriculum guidelines for teaching the consequences of computing

This article describes the work of Project ImpaetCS, which was initiated to define the core content and pedagogical objectives for integrating social impact and ethics into the computer science curriculum. Over a three year period the project will address three major problems that hamper the implementation of across-the-board curricular change: the lack of a well-specified definition of what the core content and learning objectives should include, the lack of a strategy for adapting and adopting existing materials that address the core topics into the existing CS curriculum, and the lack of awareness and expertise on the part of most CS faculty regarding the need and methodology for presenting such material in their courses. This report provides the conceptual framework and describes the learning objectives, called knowledge units, for defining a new content area in the computer science curriculum. It also discusses strategies and innovative pedagogical techniques for implementing the knowledge units into the curriculum

From meaning well to doing well: ethical expertise in the GIS domain

There is evidence to support the idea that moral action can be thought of in terms of expertise in a domain. This paper reviews work on the development of moral expertise across five levels, from novice to expertise. It addresses the role of habit in expertise and self-regulation strategies that signal when habitual action is not working and that respond with consciously guided action. It suggests moral skills one might need to acquire, both general and specific to the domain of GIS. It suggests how an expertise approach builds on current pedagogy while adding skilled practice.

Some (provocative) thoughts on “teaching computers and society”

Teaching about technology and social impacts can be categorized along several lines. At the last meeting of NSF Project ImpactCS, a group which has been discussing the curriculum for related topics in computer science, I found the following to be the most fruitful for those of us who must actually engage students in this material: 1) Ethical Values vs. Social Impacts; 2) Value Free Instruction vs. Stated Values Instruction. At the invitation of our editors, I am stating my perhaps extreme feelings on these matters in the hopes of engendering debate and reflection among my colleagues.