Computers and Society Feature Article Page 4 June 1995 Some (Provocative) Thoughts on "Teaching Computers and Society" David Bellin NC A&T Slale University dbe ll in@ga136e ld ncat. edu 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. philosophy of ethics. It is exactly this point which makes the Inside Risks CACMcolumn and the comp. software, risks newsgroup so provocative. 2. Value Free Instruction vs. Stated Values Instruction This argument seems to spring eternal. I have heard physicists discussing quantum mechanics, commencing with statements of their basic "beliefs" about the physical universe. Can anyone argue that questions of society and ethics are less debatable than those of the physical universe? I
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