Module 15

Social Issues and Professional Practice (SP)

While technical issues are central to the computing curriculum, they do not constitute a complete educational program in the field. Students must also be exposed to the larger societal context of computing to develop an understanding of the relevant social, ethical, legal and professional issues. This need to incorporate the study of these non-technical issues into the ACM curriculum was formally recognized in 1991, as can be seen from the following excerpt [2]:

Undergraduates also need to understand the basic cultural, social, legal, and ethical issues inherent in the discipline of computing. They should understand where the discipline has been, where it is, and where it is heading. They should also understand their individual roles in this process, as well as appreciate the philosophical questions, technical problems, and aesthetic values that play an important part in the development of the discipline. Students also need to develop the ability to ask serious questions about the social impact of computing and to evaluate proposed answers to those questions. Future practitioners must be able to anticipate the impact of introducing a given product into a given environment. Will that product enhance or degrade the quality of life? What will the impact be upon individuals, groups, and institutions? Finally, students need to be aware of the basic legal rights of software and hardware vendors and users, and they also need to appreciate the ethical values that are the basis for those rights. Future practitioners must understand the responsibility that they will bear, and the possible consequences of failure. They must understand their own limitations as well as the limitations of their tools. All practitioners must make a long-term commitment to remaining current in their chosen specialties and in the discipline of computing as a whole.

As technological advances continue to significantly impact the way we live and work, the critical importance of social issues and professional practice continues to increase; new computer-based products and venues pose ever more challenging problems each year. It is our students who must enter the workforce and academia with intentional regard for the identification and resolution of these problems.

Sustainability is characterized by the United Nations [1] as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Sustainability was first introduced in the CS2008 curricular guidelines. Topics in this emerging area can be naturally integrated into other familiarity areas and units, such as human-computer interaction and software evolution. See cross-referencing with the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Software Engineering (SE) Knowledge Areas.

References

[1] “Our Common Future.” http://grawemeyer.org/worldorder/previous-winners/1991-theunited-nations-world-commission-on-environment-and-development.html

[2] Tucker, A. (ed), B. Barnes, R. Aiken, K. Barker, K. Bruce, J. Cain, S. Conry, G. Engel, R. Epstein, D. Lidtke, M. Mulder, J. Rogers, E. Spafford, A. Turner, Computing Curricula 1991: Report of the Joint Curriculum Task Force, ACM Press and IEEE-CS Press, 1991.