Leading a Discussion

Everyone will have a turn leading a discussion (with a partner) on a particular scenario, starting the second week of class. You will need to select a scenario for discussion at least a week ahead of time. Try to choose a scenario related to our readings at the time if at all possible. You can find many different scenarios on the web. For a starting point, take a look at the links from the main page.

Take a look at a description by John Artz of applying the Socratic method to discussing computer ethics. Under the "Putting it Together" section, Artz describes the steps you should take in facilitating discussion, using the example of the topic of software piracy. There are two steps to the discussion, Value Clarification and Concept Analysis.

Value Clarification

      1. Have each student list 3 examples where copying software is unethical, 3 examples where it is ethical, and 3 where they aren't sure.
      2. Have students volunteer some of their examples. Write them on the board and vote to see into which category they belong.
      3. Have students come up with the most extreme examples they can think of for both ethical and unethical instances.
      4. Have students rank the activities on the board in a contiuum from most ethical to most unethical

Concept Analysis

    1. For various activities listed on the board, ask what is it that makes one of them more unethical than the next.
    2. Try and clarify terms that are used (e.g. what is "stealing")
    3. Try and move toward a group consensus

A description of how to analyze a scenario will help you to prepare. As the discussion leader, you should do the above steps on your own ahead of time. Additionally, you should try to gather relevant facts that may be pertinent to the discussion.

Be sure and time yourself as you prepare. The tendency when you are well-prepared is to go too long.

Grading

You will be graded as follows (5 pts. for each category):


EECS Dept., University of Illinois at Chicago, 375 Home page, Prof. Reed