ICT351 ICT Professional Practice

A lists four  different case studies about questionable situations in the ICT industry. You are to select one case, and using the title of the case as the title for an essay, essay that addresses each part of the ‘Doing Ethics Technique’.

The report design is to help you to build skills towards achieving the learning objectives, by requiring you to:

• identify an ICT-related ethical issue in a case study;
• analyse the structure of the argument about the ethical issue that the case study appears to be making; and
• write a description of the issue and your analysis of the argument.

Every decisions made during any course of work can be evaluated through the usage of doing of ethics technique. In this case, the working of Joe can be evaluated through the ethical point of view. Joe is working on a project regarding computer science (Paksoy and Robbins 2015). He has not finished the work within deadline. However, he could not reach to the instructors for the extension of the deadline. Joe had worked as student programmer for the campus computer center last year. That makes him familiar with the whole system in the campus and he has the admin access to the system. In this case, Joe accessed the master account and extends the deadline by himself for finishing the project. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the act of Joe on the basis of the doing of ethics technique. This will help to draw the conclusion if the act of Joe is ethical with respect to the ethical practices.

Joe is a computer science student who is working on his project. However, he was unable to finish the work within the deadline. He was unable to reach his instructor for the extension of the deadline.  Joe was a student programmer for the campus computer system last year (Leurs and Prabhakar 2018). In this case he was well aware about the systems in the campus and he has the access of the admin computers and the system  (Paksoy and Robbins 2015). In this situation, after not reaching to the instructors about the extension of the deadline, Joe accessed the master system and extends the deadline by himself. This act gives him more time to finish the work and he did not miss the deadline.

There are certain facts in this case. The first question arises regarding the access to the master system made by Joe. On the other hand the authorities of the campus were not very much concerned about changing the access after certain time which is not desirable (Shchipunov  2016). The instructor of the project should be available to the students so that they can clear their doubts and can contact them regarding the progress and state of the project(Natarajan and Fantahun Miss 2016). In that case, the instructor was not available. In case, if the instructor is available, Joe might not have access the master system. All these factors indicate the lack of management in the system.

The main issue regarding this topic is ethical practice while finishing the project. Extension of deadline for a project may be needed depending on the complexity of the project(Natarajan and Fantahun Miss 2016). However, extension of the deadline is needed to be done maintaining the rules and the regulations. In this case, Joe has violated the hierarchy system for approaching for the deadline (Paksoy and Robbins 2015). Moreover, the access to the master system by the student is not desirable for the campus and the college authority as it can be a constraint for maintaining the safety and security of the whole system. Moreover the instructor is needed to be available to the students for helping in the project. The main issues in this case are the access of the student into the master system, absence of instructor during the deadline extension and the act of Joe in which he permitted himself with extra time to finish the work.

Some of the person and entities are affected in this case. The main affected entity is the college campus. Joe has accesses the aster system which is not desirable for the college(Natarajan and Fantahun Miss 2016). The extension of the deadline is the decision made by the instructor of the project and the college authority. In that case, Joe had made the decision by himself which is not ethical. On the other hand the extension of the deadline may affect the other processes in the course (Flick  2016). Moreover, the other students are not getting the facility. Joe himself allowed taking the advantage as he was a student programmer in the campus system. This brings the inequity, which is not ethical. In this case, other students are also affected. It can be said that the action of Joe has its bad effect on whole system of the evaluation of academic performance.

The ethical issues regarding this matter have significance in broader sense. Joe is a computer science student who is working on a project (Warren and Burmeister 2017). He was running out of time. In that case he tried to approach the instructor(Natarajan and Fantahun Miss 2016). However, he could not contact with the instructor. In this situation he accessed the master system of the campus and assigned with a extend deadline (Hersh 2015).  In that case, being a student Joe should not access the master computer of the campus. He should maintain the hierarchy and certain approach for making the extension of the deadline (Markus and Mentzer 2014). The facility he can make avail himself because of that he was the student programmer at campus computer center (Nuzzaci  2016). However, other students could not avail this facility, which is inequity. On the other hand the college and the university campus should aware about the security system of the computers with master access and the access of those systems is needed to be updated over a period of time. The instructors of the course should be available to the students so that they can discuss their problems regarding the coursework and the extension of the deadline. The extension of the deadline can be happened on the basis of the decision of the instructor.

In order to mitigate and eliminate the issues in this case, certain steps can be taken.  The main step is to update the system access of the master system in the campus(Natarajan and Fantahun Miss 2016). Apart from that Joe has to make understand about the approaching hierarchy regarding the extension of the deadline. All the students who know about the accessing of the master system are needed to be aware of not using the access for the personal use or benefits (Fabris  2018). The instructors of the coursework are needed to be available so that the students can reach them when they are in need.

There are several options those can be applicable to eliminate or stop this kind of practice. The up gradation of the system in the campus can be done. On the other hand the students have to be made aware not to use the master system for any personal use and benefits.  In this case, Joe can be called for a show cause where he has to clarify his doings. However, he can say that he has tried to reach to the instructor for the extension of the deadline (Wong and Howard 2018). In this case, the reformation of the whole system can be done. The students can be made aware about the ethical doings while studying in the campus.  Another option is that were Joe should not be asked any questions for his doings and no further step is not taken.

There are three options on basis of which the action can be taken. In the first option, the up gradation of the system for the whole campus can be done, so that the students cannot access the master system for their personal benefits (Burmeister et al.2014). In the second option, Joe can be called for a show cause about his doings. In the third option, all the students who can have the master access to the system of the campus can be made aware about not to use the campus system for personal use.

The up gradation of the system of the campus along with making all the students aware about not using the master system for personal benefits and use can be best option (Natarajan and Fantahun Miss 2016).  The update for the whole system can be useful as the student cannot access the master computer (Paksoy and Robbins 2015). On the other hand making the students aware of not using the official system for personal benefits and usage will be significant as this awareness will help them to maintain ethical practice in future.

The working of the Joe regarding the deadline extension and the accessing the master system for doing this has been evaluated from the different aspects of doing ethics thing. The mitigation plan has been selected through the list of actions those can be done regarding this case. It can be said in the conclusion that the action taken by Joe is not ethical for the practice. However, there were other flaws and lack of monitoring from the campus’s end. These things can be made concerned so that these kinds of doings never happen in future.

Burmeister, O., Al-Saggaf, Y., Schwartz, M. and Johnson, L., 2014. Internet resources to help Australian ICT professionals identify and solve ethical challenges. ACIS.

Fabris, A., 2018. Basic Concepts. In Ethics of Information and Communication Technologies (pp. 1-19). Springer, Cham.

Flick, C., 2016. Ask an ethicist: reflections on an engagement technique for industry. ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, 45(3), pp.301-305.

Hersh, M., 2015. Ethical Engineering: Definitions, Theories and Techniques. In Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability (pp. 15-62). Springer, London.

Leurs, K. and Prabhakar, M., 2018. Doing digital migration studies: Methodological considerations for an emerging research focus. In Qualitative research in European migration studies (pp. 247-266). Springer, Cham.

Markus, M.L. and Mentzer, K., 2014. Foresight for a responsible future with ICT. Information Systems Frontiers, 16(3), pp.353-368.

Natarajan, M. and Fantahun Miss, B., 2016. Ethical usage of Internet facility by Students of Information science at Jimma University.

Nuzzaci, A., 2016. Ethical Use in the Teaching of ICT and Initial Teacher Training: A Preliminary Study on the Descriptors of the Observational Tools. International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence (IJDLDC), 7(4), pp.17-36.

Paksoy, C.H. and Robbins, S.S., 2015. Students’ Perception of Ethical Sales Practices: A Pilot Study. In Proceedings of the 1991 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 170-174). Springer, Cham.

Shchipunov, O.K., 2016. About the Methodology of Information Ethics Norbert Wiener. Contemporary Problems of Social Work, 2(4), pp.167-173.

Warren, M. and Burmeister, O.K., 2017. Research on Applied Ethics involving emerging ICT technologies. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 21.

Wong, R.S. and Howard, S., 2018. Think twice before using door-in-the-face tactics in repeated negotiation: Effects on negotiated outcomes, trust and perceived ethical behaviour. International Journal of Conflict Management, 29(2), pp.167-188.