Computer Ethics

English Articles of Computer Ethics

The ethical use of computers and other types of electronic information technology (IT) devices is known as ‘‘computer ethics’’ or ‘‘cyber ethics.’’ These concepts informally emerged beginning in the 1950s with the invention of mainframe computers initially used by U.S. government agencies, followed by colleges and universities. However, the term ‘‘computer ethics’’ was not articulated until Walter Maner did so in the mid-1970s. The ideas behind computer ethics involve complex considerations about how to behave properly—i.e., according to the laws, social customs, and moral standards of society—when using IT devices and information systems including the Internet. All forms of technology, including IT, used by people that allow people to access and use public and privately owned networks along with information should involve responsible use of computers, cell phones, PDAs, and other devices. For example, if a person uses a computer to access and share information over the Internet, he should do so in ways that comply with applicable civil and criminal laws and/or in ways that do not violate the rights of or harm other people. This, the essence of cyber ethics, can be difficult to achieve in certain instances. Today the ability to access information quickly online has created an ‘‘on-demand society’’ consisting of many people who frequently do not consider the possible harm they may be causing to other people.

The first users of computers faced many unprecedented challenges having to do with network access along with the use and exchange of data. As computer use and complexity increased, opportunities arose that allowed even more and comparatively unrestricted access to information via the Internet. Over time users were empowered with newer technologies and also were conditioned to access and respond to information in a variety of ways, according to their own interests, often with little adult or managerial oversight. Consider the modern practice of ‘‘flaming’’ that occurs when people disrespectfully interact with each other online. Frequently this happens when a person comments or posts something in a defamatory, insulting, or hostile manner about another person or organization only to have it negatively reacted to. Such online ‘‘shouting’’ can disrupt chat forums, blogs, and other online community exchanges, causing emotional harm or worse to people or organizations involved or named.

Computer/cyber ethics is a critical issue in modern societies in which millions of people now use many types of IT devices in their everyday lives. Cybercrime statistics along with an increasing number of research studies indicate that young people as well as adults do not behave ethically online, and that, beginning with a person’s earliest exposure to computers, he can easily become a victim and victimizer of other people.

Academic misconduct, piracy, cyber bullying, and other forms of online abuse and cybercrime cause harm in various ways, but what is considered responsible use of IT devices and information systems varies among people and situations. Not everyone, for example, believes that pirating music is wrong, even though it is illegal: while many young people would never think of stealing a music CD from a store in a shopping mall, they will use peer-to-peer networks to illegally download songs without paying to do so. What do you think about this issue? Can you think of other cybercrime issues or online behaviors that are controversial? Today society debates cyber ethics in areas pertaining to copyright and other intellectual property rights issues, the creation and enforcement of laws, formulation of public policies, professional codes of conduct, information security practices, software license agreements, and hardware reseller’s mandates, among other issues. Technology use struggles against regulation, with consumers, businesses, and governments all seeking to predominate over what constitutes the ethical use of computers. With no uniform standards on computer use, a few employment sectors and professional membership associations are creating their own codes of conduct. At the organizational level these frequently take the form of ‘‘acceptable computer/network use policies’’ and may be complemented with cyber ethics training. Unfortunately, the results amount to a ‘‘wild west approach’’ to cyber ethics, with conflicting interests among different populations and groups of computer users. In cyber ethics, there is no such thing as ‘‘model traffic laws’’ as exist throughout the United States when it comes to operating motor vehicles. All too often ITusers make up their own ‘‘rules’’ when using the Internet, which is the social equivalent of everyone driving any way they desire with little or no regard for other motorists.

The results of this lack of uniformity is that overall guidance on good behavior and best practices tends to be absent from users’ initial computer experiences and in their continued decision-making processes. Thus children, when first taught how to use computers or portable gaming devices, are seldom provided with age-appropriate instruction in cyber ethics. The same is true for millions of youth and young adults who may go through their entire educational preparation in middle school, high school, and college without receiving any cyber ethics training. Since most users of computer technology lack any formalized ethical instruction, it is no surprise that the social and economic impacts and levels of harm caused by cybercrimes are increasing.

As users age, their exposure, experience, and technical capabilities to engage in cybercrime activities increase. Lacking cyber ethics education along with instruction in information security and Internet safety contributes to online  victimization and offenses. In recognizing this, many institutions and organizations are providing guidance, information, and model practices and policies related to sound use of IT devices. I-SAFE, Inc. and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) are two nonprofit organizations that develop online instructional resources for teachers, parents, and youth that relate to using computers responsibly. Adults need to review the current information on technology and educate themselves on impact in areas of concern. For example, businesspeople and business owners need to understand their firm’s policies on the use of technology, or, if a person owns a business, he needs to ensure that he has a policy aligned with his corporate goals. Educators and government officials need to create ways to enable parents and members of the community to learn basic computer etiquette, and then provide uniform instruction options for students and others. To stay current on the issue, a person need only search the Internet on the term ‘‘ethical computer use,’’ ‘‘computer ethics,’’ and ‘‘cyber ethics,’’ or, where available, take a course having to do with the philosophy of ethics that emphasizes controversial online behaviors.

»»  Continue Reading...

Child Labor

English Articles Child Labor

According to the INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION (ILO), some 250 million children between the ages of Bonded labor is otherwise known as debt bondage or peonage. It is outlawed by the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of SLAVERY, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery. Bonded labor involves a business transaction whereby an advance payment is made to a (usually destitute) family, who in exchange hands over their child to an employer. The amount paid may be as little as $15 depending on the type of work and the age and skill of the child. In theory the child can work off his debt, but in practice this almost never occurs; the child is unable to work off the debt, and the family is seldom able to buy the child back. Unscrupulous employers debit a variety of “expenses” or deduct “interest” from their paychecks, effectively keeping them in debt indefinitely. In some cases, bonded labor agreements are multigenerational, meaning that each generation in a family is obliged by the contract to turn over a child to an employer, often for no payment at all. As the child gets older, he or she may be freed but only on condition that another younger child from the family is offered as a replacement.

Millions of children work as bonded child laborers in countries around the world—15 million in India alone, where the practice has a long tradition. (If all forms of child labor in the country are taken into account, as many as 60–115 million children may be employed, the largest number of working children in the world.) These children, some as young as four or five, are put to work in fields, stone quarries, and mills or sent out into the streets to pick rags. Some work as indentured domestic servants. Their fates are grim: old age by 40, death by 50.

»»  Continue Reading...

Silent Reading

English Articles Silent Reading

Reading to oneself, without producing any sound or moving the tongue or lips. A relatively new technique of reading, in historic terms, silent reading contrasts with and has different purposes from oral reading, which is concerned with pronunciation, enunciation, voice control and communication. Until the early 20th century, students universally learned to read orally, because reading was the core of family recreation in the home before radio and television. As a result of eye-movement research just before World War I, silent reading was found to increase reading rates, reading comprehension and the ability to infer word meanings from their context. For several decades thereafter, silent reading replaced oral reading as the sole goal of reading instruction. More recently, however, most schools have taught both oral and silent reading, each of which provides students with different sets of essential skills.

»»  Continue Reading...

Schools Without Walls

English Articles Schools Without Walls

So-called openspace schools, with few interior partitions, allowing groups of students to work in separate areas of a huge, open space. An outgrowth of escalation in school construction costs in the decades following World War II. Especially effective in elementary schools, schools without walls are particularly conducive to team teaching. Seated in different parts of a huge room, on carpeted floors that minimize noise, groups of students and their teachers work on one topic at a time, and, when appropriate, a second teacher specializing in another subject may arrive to introduce applications of the first subject to a second subject. Groups of students will join or separate, according to what they are studying. In simplest terms, a group studying Egyptian history with one teacher would learn the plane and solid geometry of the pyramid from another, the origins of language and hieroglyphics from a third teacher, art from a fourth and geography and political science from a fifth. Various groups might work together or apart, according to a schedule of team teaching determined by the faculty.

From the construction point of view, schools without walls eliminate all costs of partitions and their attendant insulation and wiring. When needed, portable folding partitions, portable chalkboards and other movable equipment can substitute for all materials that conventional walls might support. White-taped “alleyways” solve the problems of student traffic flow during and between classes. OPEN EDUCATION, or open classroom techniques, that developed in preschools of the 1930s and 1940s, schools without walls provided enormous appeal to both progressive educators and to taxpayers and school boards eager to cut the escalation in school construction costs in the decades following World War II. Especially effective in elementary schools, schools without walls are particularly conducive to team teaching. Seated in different parts of a huge room, on carpeted floors that minimize noise, groups of students and their teachers work on one topic at a time, and, when appropriate, a second teacher specializing in another subject may arrive to introduce applications of the first subject to a second subject. Groups of students will join or separate, according to what they are studying. In simplest terms, a group studying Egyptian history with one teacher would learn the plane and solid geometry of the  pyramid from another, the origins of language and hieroglyphics from a third teacher, art from a fourth and geography and political science from a fifth. Various groups might work together or apart, according to a schedule of team teaching determined by the faculty.  From the construction point of view, schools without walls eliminate all costs of partitions and their attendant insulation and wiring. When needed, portable folding partitions, portable chalkboards and other movable equipment can substitute for all materials that conventional walls might support. White-taped “alleyways” solve the problems of student traffic flow during and between classes.

»»  Continue Reading...