0.1 Eac toolkit instructor module: practical and professional ethics  (Page 5/5)

For example some specific examples from our students are following:

• "I don’t want to be treated as a slave or robot.”
• “These people get paid well to work.”
• “Some work hard, while others surf the Internet?”
• “As long as my boss doesn’t see me …”
• “I minimize the browser …”
• “Maybe someone opens an e-mail with a virus …"
• “Maybe the person doesn’t have a PC at home?”
• “Isn’t this similar to using the phone to call a friend?”
• “Everybody does it!”

This exercise gives students practice framing moral arguments. Students will offer analogies based on the telephone, fax, or regular mail. Many offer examples from their own real-world experiences. Discussing the scenarios familiarizes students with the complexity of the issues, gives them practice in drawing analogies with their own experiences, and helps them to frame moral arguments.

Step 3: ethical decision-making tests provide insight and focus

Ethics tests

• Reversibility: Would I think this a good choice if I were among those affected by it?
• Publicity: Would I want this action published in the newspaper?
• Harm: Does this action do less harm than a possible alternative?
• Code Test: Does this action violate a code provision?

• These tests help students to formulate supporting arguments that evaluate the scenarios. Often during the informal group discussion, these tests have already been employed either by the students themselves or informally by the instructor. In either case, it is important for students to realize that they are thinking already in ethical terms and that their ethical reflection is complex and sophisticated. It is also helpful to use local idioms for expressing these notions (especially in Puerto Rico). For example, the expression, "putting yourself in someone else's shoes" is a good way of presenting the reversibility test. This helps students realize that their parents, teachers, and religious leaders have passed on much of this "wisdom" to them.
• It is very helpful to refer to students’ remarks as a means to explain the tests and help them realize that they already incorporate these notions in their decision-making.

Step 4: student groups re-evaluate scenarios with ethics tests

Step 5: brief discussion of the importance of ethics

Step 6: some students want to learn more…where to go from here?

Conclusion

• The goal is to promote ethical-empowerment in our students. What has impressed us most by this exercise is the way in which it changes the student's perspective on ethics in the direction of empowerment. In fact, it promotes ethical-empowerment in several ways:
• Students learn to recognize ethical problems in the real-world.
• Students discover that they unconsciously employ ethical concepts and principles in their thinking. Thus, using the ethics tests helps students to recognize and practice the ethics skills they already possess.
• It gives students practice (and confidence) in formulating ethical arguments.
• It excites an interest in ethics that often leads to follow-up activities.
• Instructors who are not experts in ethics can use this exercise and integrate it into their classes. In fact, by carefully selecting scenarios, instructors can help students to see how ethics is a natural and essential part of real-world engineering practice.

Appendix (annotated)

Additional information or annotations for instructors regarding the Student Module Appendix