An entirely fictional ethics case for INST 610, developed by Rebecca Follman
| The IT Director | The Teacher | The Student |
|---|---|---|
| You are the IT coordinator for an independent K-12 school of about 1,000 students. You began ten years ago as a science teacher at the school, but gradually your duties as IT coordinator took so much of your time that the headmaster made you full time staff instead of a teacher. Unfortunately, there is far more work than one person can get through, especially since people seem inclined to call you when something stupid happens -- the printer is out of ink, the toilet is stopped up -- which means that sometimes you have to cut corners and that you are almost always suffering from a feeling of ill-use and grumpiness. You know this makes it difficult for people to ask you legitimate questions, but you're so tired all the time, you don't really care. | You are an English teacher in the high school. You are quite unhappy about the introduction of the electronic grade book for several reasons. For one thing, you are uncomfortable using computers. As you often say, "this computer just hates me!" You also tend to grade your assignments holistically. To your students, this means they are never really sure about the basis for their grade, but to you this means that you are able to grade in a way that reflects elements like student attitude and effort. However, you do feel that your teaching is important, and you always want to do your best for your students. When the electronic grade book software is installed, you are pleased to find that it is not as difficult to use as you feared it would be. However, you are required to have a different password for this software from your regular network password, and remembering passwords has always been a challenge for you. | Your mother teaches English in the high school. Like many other teachers at the school, she chose to work there so that you could attend the school at half-tuition. Because you have attended the school since pre-K and you are a senior now, you know all the staff, including the IT Director, and all the students. Though you are the president of the student government, you're not at the very top of the social order at the school -- partly because of who your mother is, and partly because of a certain reluctance on your part to be as reckless as these other students are. They are the Tom and Daisy Buchanans of your class, while you are more like Nick Carraway. However, because it's your senior year and most of your difficult class work is finished, you have done a few things to try to get accepted by this group -- things of which you are not proud; things which would make your mother and father very disappointed, and perhaps very angry. You have been doing a lot of work in the technology department, and you got top marks on your two AP computer science classes. |