The importance of ethics and morals in IT - Can you help?

Are you someone who is passionate about the importance of ethics and morals in IT? Would you like to help young people understand how ethical principles, guided by a socially responsible culture, shape the way in which organisations and IT professionals should behave? If so, we would love to hear from you.

We are looking for enthusiastic people to share their experience and expertise around a wide range of issues concerning ethics, morals and organisational culture, with students in our Digital T Level support programme.

The BCS Digital T Level support programme helps add real-world context to classroom learning by providing teachers and students with industry insight, showing how curriculum topics actually apply within the world of work, and demonstrating desirable workplace behaviours. Through interviews, webinars and masterclasses with great people in industry, young people about to embark upon work placements and early careers can gain valuable insight in practical areas that can help them to understand what to expect and how to conduct themselves in the workplace.

T Levels are a relatively new post-GCSE qualification, having been introduced in 2020. Roughly equivalent to three A Levels, the T Level combines classroom and work-based learning, with students spending 80% of their two-year course learning in the classroom and 20% in relevant industry placements. Through this process, students learn valuable industry-specific and practical knowledge that can give them a head start when entering the work environment.

We are currently looking to create video-based content that can be used to help T Level students understand the work-based implications of ethical and moral responsibilities. In particular, we would love to speak to anyone who could provide expertise in discussing:

• Ethical qualities – what does being ethical really mean?
• Ethical responsibilities - including a wide range of areas, such as protecting data and intellectual property, cyber security, fair use of technology, reducing bias in AI
• The ethical impact of an increasing reliance on digital technology, in terms of things such as acceptable use, environmental issues, inclusion and diversity, changes in societal norms, the collection and use of data, autonomous operation
• Company culture – how this is established, communicated and sustained, and how it impacts open the individual
• Codes of conduct
• Human-centred design and inclusivity
• Corporate Social Responsibility and its benefits and challenges
• Threats to acting ethically and safeguards to prevent these threats
• Examples or case studies of ethical dilemmas
• The impact of unsafe or inappropriate use of digital technology and mitigation techniques to reduce impact

If you would like to help in any of these areas by being part of a video interview or delivering a presentation that could be used as part of a classroom teaching resource for 16 to 18 year-olds, we would love to hear from you, and your time would be greatly appreciated.

To register your interest, ask any questions or find out more information, please email us at tlevels@bcs.uk

 

Many thanks in advance.