Digital Ethics Assignment 2

Due date: Your completed assignment must be submitted via TurnItIn

Instructions

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY

This assignment as per the course outline relates to the three learning outcomes for this course.

1. Critically analyse ethical issues related to ICT
2. Demonstrate an understanding of and be able to apply ethical theories and ICT Codes of ethics to an ethical problem
3. Analyse a current ICT ethical problem using critical thinking techniques and provide solutions within the context of the analysis

Ensure that your name and student number are on each page, and that your pages are numbered.

Ensure your essay has a title.

You must use APA referencing guidelines. Marks will be deducted if this is not correct.

Critical Research Essay

Your Task

1. This assessment requires you to research and write an essay between 2 and 3 thousand words on a topical issue related to IT or Technology that is relevant, novel and related to the material we have discussed in class. Write a well-structured critical It should have a clear introduction in which you identify your “research questions” a well written body that is broken into logical paragraphs building your argument and a conclusion that justifies any recommendations made in your essay.
2. The topic could be based on topical debates, journal and or popular media articles in Digital or IT/Computing ethics or one of the topics suggested by your lecturer.
3. Undertake further research (using a wide range of relevant and appropriate resources) about your chosen case to assist you in analysing and discussing it in your essay.
4. Note headings, citations, references and appendices do not count towards the word limit.
5. Provide some back ground to your topic then analyse your topic from the perspective of at least two classical ethical theories (eg, Virtue Ethics, Utilitarianism, Deontology) and present wellreasoned arguments for your assessments and recommendations. You must integrate the discussion of the ethical theories into your essay, do not create a heading for each, integrate the discussion into your essay.

References

• Include a reference list (bibliography) at the end of your work using correct APA referencing style, which corresponds to all in-text citations.
• You must include at least eight (8) quality references from different sources. Please note I do not consider Wikipedia or google searched web sites as a quality reference, also note that these eight references are in addition to those provided to you through this subject on Moodle. You may still reference the Tavani text but this can only be one (1) of your quality references. This requirement relates to Criteria 2 (Evidence, 20%) and Criteria 5 (Mechanics 10%).
• Only use references that have been cited in the body of your assignment and ones that support what you have presented in your essay.

TurnItIn and Plagiarism. 

As you all know, TurnItIn picks up all cut and paste as well as spinbot paraphrased material.  Rarely if ever does spinbot software generate legible English. I will not mark any cut and paste material or material that has been put through spinbot software.  If against my advice you do this, I will simply not mark your work and you will find yourself in a very worrying anxious situation regarding the completion of the course involving program managers etc.  So, DO NOT DO IT.

Properly cite all work, quotations must be kept to a minimum and support your arguments or statements. I would not expect a similarity percentage of more than about 17%, give or take a percent point or two.

Do not try to game TurnItIn. After your second submission you will be locked out of submitting again for 24 hours.

Topic Suggestions.

It is best to choose a topic that you find interesting. If you are not sure about your topic, run it by me first. However, I DO NOT NEED TO APPROVE your topic, so do not wait for that.  This list of broad topics is by no means complete, there may be something totally different to the suggestions here that you are keen to write an essay about. Please DO NOT ask me to provide you with a topic. Part of the requirements of this assessment is that you come up with your topic. Part of the requirements of level 7 in a bachelor degree is that you start demonstrating the ability to undertake independent research – and this assessment is all about that.

Once you have chosen a topic you then need to formulate some very specific research questions.  DO NOT say to me “I’m going to do research on social media”.  You need to develop a tightly scoped question. So, a question such as “What kind of privacy, confidentiality and security issues does the use of social media present?”  Or,  “What are the ethical implications in using ‘big data’ that is produced via social media for predictive modelling, trend analysis and consequently for decision making and influence.”

1. Any ethical issues or concerns to do with Social Media. It’s use, and misuse.
2. Privacy on the internet, in the workplace. Privacy issues related to any other IT or Computing context.
3. Wearable devices, ethical implications and considerations.
4. AI, Robots and autonomous agents.
5. Driverless cars
6. Big Data
7. Internet of things
8. Ethical Governance in the age of AI
9. Hacking and Hacktivism
10. Cybercrime, Cyberwarfare, Lethal Autonomous Weapons
11. Copywrite and Digital Media
12. Hate crime, free speech and the internet
13. Big data and predictive modelling