The Necessity of Including a subject on Social Issues in Computing in Computer Science Academic Curriculums

Since it is the end of semester, I will share my “formula” writing serious articles. My articles start with an assertion, then I justify such assertion through its necessity or importance, then I give arguments followed by boring explanations of my arguments. This is a “reserve” article I wrote in case tamarin ako mag-blog sa isang given week, I wrote titles for each part to mark the invisible boundaries I put in my articles:

Title:
The Necessity of Including a subject on Social Issues in Computing in Computer Science Academic Curriculums

Assertion:
There is a need to equip student with proper decision-making faculties in the practice of computer science.

Necessity of Proposal:
Computing affects all facets of living and society. Computer scientists are the gatekeepers holding the specialized knowledge to the information age. They should be aware of the responsibilities in the practice of their profession or at least be aware of the impacts of wielding their powerful knowledge to create and shape technology.

Main Argument:
Computing education is incomplete, if not useless, without guiding principles or virtues on how to exercise computing in everyday life and as a profession.

Main Argument Discussion:
For computer scientists to help society, technical expertise alone is insufficient. One can create intellectually superior programs but such programs will not necessarily benefit the society. For example, a skilled student can create an expertly-made virus; such is a credit to his education. But the effects of his creation do the society more harm than benefit.

Educating students without at least informing them that all their actions fall under either social “good” or “bad” creates unprincipled unwise robots – able to process information but not make wise decisions.

This is not to impose what is correct or not to students, merely the awareness of their actions do have effects and should be pondered upon first and the sense of what is the society’s “general will.”

First Supporting Argument:
Installing an ethical facet of computing will promote the science of computing to a formally recognized and respected profession.

First Supporting Argument Discussion:
A profession is a practice of a specialized body of knowledge that requires State regulation due to the social effects of the proper or improper practice thereof. For example, the legal profession is the practice of the specialized knowledge in the law. The State regulates the practice of this profession by allowing only those who pass the bar exam to become authorized practitioners. This is because lives and rights are at stake in the practice of this profession and unqualified individuals should, as public policy, not be allowed to affect the lives or rights of people.

All professions have ethical rules to regulate them. This is the backbone of the State regulation. Those authorized to practice the specialized body of knowledge must only conform to a code of conduct to ensure that the profession is practiced properly for the benefit of society. For example, Doctors have an ethical rule which prohibits them to diagnose illnesses outside the field of their specialization.

There is a need for computer science to be a regulated profession. All aspects of living are now affected by computing. Computer scientists greatly affect individual lives and the society as a whole.

One of the first steps to advocate the ripeness of computer science as a profession is to prove to the world that it has a body of ethical rules to regulate it. The body of ethical rules cannot be borne out of the computing industry – it must come from the academe where there is unbiased and scientific approach in formulating rules.

The very first step in jumpstarting the academe to forge a body of ethical rules is to include a socio-ethical course in its curriculum, to start and plant the trend of social awareness and sense in the minds of computer scientists.

Conclusion:
Schools should be mandated by the government to include a socio-ethical course in computing in their curriculums. Computing largely affects the society, an approach to practice computing without social awareness or the mere fact that it affects lives is blind and would open floodgates to dangerous and detrimental means of computing. Technology is created to benefit mankind, its purpose would be defeated if computer scientists create programs without social benefits in mind.

Solution:
The government and computer schools should be informed of the importance of social awareness in computing. The inclusion of a socio-ethical course in computing should be advocated. Start by communicating to government agencies concerned and key individuals in the academe the necessity of including a subject on social issues in computing in computer science academic curriculums.