Week 6: Ethical and Legal Issues in Technology
Premise:
The accessibility of technology today allows its users *unlimited
access to information and services. A consequence of the new
levels of shared information is the opportunities for illegal
uses of software and information. Concordantly there is an increased
need for understanding the legal and ethical challenges of technology.
Purpose:
To gain a familiarity with the ethical and legal issues surrounding
technology. To facilitate conversations about ethical and legal
issues in higher education today. To understand current resources
available to professionals to aid in the adjudicate these problems.
In Class Exercises:
We will have a guest speaker from the Office of University Counsel
to discuss and take questions on the subject of the appropriate
use of technology. For the second half of the class students
will work in small groups to develop intervention techniques
in response to violations of university standards for the use
of technology.
Readings to be completed before class:
Go to the library’s e-reserves and locate the following chapters:
Fried, J. (2003). Ethical standards and principles. In
Susan R. Komives and Dudley B. Woodard, Jr. (Eds.) Student services:
A handbook for the profession (pp. 107-127).
Barr, M. J. (2003). Legal foundations of student affairs
practice. In Susan R. Komives and Dudley B. Woodard, Jr. (Eds.)
Student services: A handbook for the profession (pp. 128-150).
Fincher, C. (1975). On the rational solution of dominant
issues in higher education. The Journal of Higher Education 46
(5), 491-505.
Abstract
The dominant issues confronting higher education are legal, economic,
and technological. Each issue is the culmination of trends and
developments over the past 25 years but involves a different
mode or style of rational problem-solving. The differential features
of legal, economic, and technical rationality are discussed and
the implications of their inherent conflict are considered. The
major conclusion is that each can provide only partial solutions
and in doing so, may create other problems and issues. If legal,
economic, and technological issues are to be resolved successfully,
their peculiar forms of rationality must not be permitted to
submerge the intellectual, cultural, and humanistic dimensions
of education.
Home Exercises:
Find one state Supreme Court, federal District Court, Appellate
Court, or US Supreme Court decision that impacts higher education.
Post information and discuss its implications for higher education
(Web CT).