Scenarios for Teaching Ethics

 Describe the underlying netiquette/ethics issue(s) in each scenario.

 What is your opinion of the behaviors involved?
 What equitable solutions can you suggest?
 Describe a parallel situation in which computers are NOT involved.

1. Jules has walked away from a lab computer without logging off. Trish sits down and, still
logged in as Jules, sends inflammatory e-mail messages out to a number of students and posts
similar messages on the class newsgroup.

2. Lester sends e-mail to the entire student body inviting them to a BYOB party at his house
while his parents are out of town. Lester receives a message from a system administrator
calling him in for a meeting with school officials. He objects because he feels that his e-mail
is his own private business.

3. Sharon and Timothy are students at Big Suburban High School. They have designed a Web
page devoted to their favorite rock band using their personal disk space on the school's Web
server. They have posted song clips, lyrics, photographs of each band member, and articles
they have found in various Web news sources. However, school authorities have asked them
to shut down their site because of the obscene content of many of the lyrics. Sharon and
Timothy object, noting that their First Amendment (free speech) rights are being violated.

4. Tracy had a report to write on acid rain. She used several sources -- books, magazines,
newspaper articles, and an electronic encyclopedia. She listed all these sources in her
bibliography at the end of the report. She found the encyclopedia to be the most convenient
source because she could highlight portions of the text and paste them into her word
processing document.

5. Libby posts some complaints about Mr. Johnson on her Facebook page. She says he’s a
terrible teacher and that he plays favorites. Roger responds by posting a doctored photo of
Mr. Johnson with devil horns and blood coming out of his mouth. Theresa’s follow-up
comment is that Mr. Johnson “should be fired and put on the police list of sex offenders.”
More and more people post comments (some with images) until Libby’s page comes to the
attention of the school administration. Libby and several of the people who posted comments
are called in for disciplinary action. The school administration blocks Facebook from the
school network.

6. Roberta and Todd are the DJs for the next school dance. They surf the web for their favorite
MP3s and download several songs, which they burn onto a CD to play at the dance. Some of
the songs are from big name groups and others are from new artists who are using the web to
build an audience.

7. Paula and Ron went out for a few months. During that time, they sent each other some pretty
personal e-mail. But their break up was messy. The final straw came when Ron found out
that Paula was sending copies of their old messages to his new girlfriend. Pretty soon, copies
of the messages seemed to be all over the school and his new girlfriend wouldn't speak to
him.
 Scenarios for Teaching Ethics

8. Russ has been an active participant at a chat site for teens. He knows a few of the people in
"real life," but many live in other cities. One of them, Stuart, will be coming through town in
a few weeks and wants to get together. He asks Russ for his home phone number and
address. Russ suggests that they just meet at the mall, and Stuart agrees, but wants Russ's
home info anyway in case he's delayed.

9. Mr. Boxley asks the school librarian to check some references in Belinda's research paper.
Mr. Boxley believes that the writing is far better than Belinda's usual work, almost spookily
better. The librarian does a quick search and discovers that Belinda has copied whole
paragraphs from the online articles she cites. However, in each sentence, at least two words
have been changed. When confronted, Belinda argues that she has paraphrased and cited her
sources. She does not believe she has plagiarized from other people's work.

10. Marla figures out that when she is logged into the server she can look at others' directories,
make copies of files, and deposit new files. The operating system was designed to allow this
functionality so that people could share their work. Mr. Klausinsky objects when he observes
Marla poking around in another student's directory. But Marla responds by saying, “If the
system allows me to do it and there's no specific rule against it, what's the problem?”

11. The sophomore class officers decide to make a commemorative video of the year’s activities.
The video will consist of a combination of still photos taken during the year as well as video
interviews of class members. The background music for the photo shots will include several
popular songs that really enhance the mood of the video. Students will be able to watch the
video online or purchase it for $.50 (the cost of the DVD).

12. Some students find a way to obtain system administrator passwords to the school computer
network. They learn how to mask the identity of the computers they are logging in from, so
no one can trace their actions or figure out who they are. The students use the passwords to
poke around the system, including reading and copying some teachers’ files and tests. When
they finally get caught, they are in big trouble. The students know they have broken the rules,
but they claim that they did not delete or change files, look at personal e-mail or student
records, or even personally benefit from seeing the tests. Therefore, they feel their
punishment should not be too severe.

RESOURCE: http://www.uni.illinois.edu//library/computerlit/scenarios.php