One of the most important and most difficult tasks for anyone who teaches is helping students learn to recognize ethical issues when they arise. Serious questions of value and obligation-and serious threats to personal and professional integrity-can lie hidden in situations that may seem to call for nothing more than a technical decision, a management decision, an economic decision, or even just an appeal to individual taste.

We do our students a great favor when we send them out into their professional lives with a finely-tuned awareness of ethical pitfalls and possibilities. To accomplish this, faculty in all fields need to make a habit of regularly pointing out such pitfalls and possibilities as they arise. (Or, even better, we can help students learn to discover these situations by themselves.) Here, for example, is a technical decision that might have implications for the well-being of end users. There is a management decision that might lead to a conflict of interest. And over yonder is an opportunity for good works.

In this seminar, we will discuss the character of ethical decisions and how the ethical dimensions of everyday situations may be hidden behind other considerations. Then, drawing from participants' understanding and experience, we will look for opportunities to develop our own and our students' ethical awareness.

Presenter:

Robert Kirkman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy
Director of the Center for Ethics and Technology

Lunch will be provided

To register, go to: http://www.cetl.gatech.edu/faculty/events/seminar.htm