Ethical Considerations Essay Example for Free

Ethical Considerations Essay The conduct of the members of any profession must be of very high standards in professional terms. The Australian Computer Society (ACS) requires very high standards in its Code of Conduct for members so as to be able to earn the credibility as well as the prestige IT professionals deserve. The ACS Code of Conduct does not include many detailed rules as it only focuses on the most essential matters and as such it requires a much broader interpretation. It is mandatory for all members of ACS to comply with the Code of Conduct. The code bears relevance in law in terms of legislation. Awareness of the Code’s requirements by IT professionals is crucial as non-adherence by a member in their field may lead to claims of professional negligence by clients. The regulatory regime of the Internet Censorship Body of Australia gives powers to its subsidiary, the Australian Communications and Media Authority to enforce restriction of Internet Content that is hosted within the country as well as maintaining a black-list of foreign websites by using filtering software. Foreign websites which have or are likely to be refused classification in Australia are target for mandatory filtering in Internet Censorship proposal by the Australian Labor Party-led government since 2008. The import of this proposal is that providers of internet services would be forced to ensure that they block black-listed websites from reaching its customers. Two years later, the policy still awaits enactment as a result of the inexistence of legislation to this effect (Moses 2010). As expected, the proposal for the introduction of mandatory filtering has been met with considerable opposition. Some amount of tension has been generated in Australia. Its opponents have raised various concerns but a few people who are in strong support of the policy welcomed it. In Australia, Internet content is bound by federal as well as state laws on the censorship of internet content. The ACS has an internet filtering body coupled with a taskforce for E-security. The task force provides advice on technical issues and policies concerning internet content and the material that is unsuitable for the viewing by the general society. This provides the basis for the legislation on internet content in Australia. The decision by the Australian government through information minister Senator Stephen Conroy to filter the pages viewed by internet users is consistent with the requirements of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Code of Conduct and Ethics. The ethical code, in section 4. 1, starts by clearly stating its efforts aimed at advancing the dignity, honor a swell as the effectiveness Information Technology as a profession. It states that in observance of its ethical conduct and high competence standards, every member is supposed to be honest in addition to being forthright and impartial. Members are supposed to be loyal in their service to the community (ACS Code of Ethics 1998). It further states that every member has to put all efforts aimed at increasing the profession’s competence as well its prestige. Every member is required to use the special skill and knowledge they possess towards advancing human welfare. The code of conduct is binding in its requirements. Section NR 4. 3 and section N4. 4 categorically states that the code binds all members with regard to their professional conduct. The implication of this requirement is that once the legislation for the filtering scheme is enacted, all members will have no option other than to oblige. It will automatically take effect because it is backed by both the federal and the state government. This is good news to many parents and school teachers who have always battled delinquent behavior in learners without success. Foreign and unacceptable behaviors on some web pages have been accessed and acquired by minors who are otherwise not supposed to view them and as a result the parents and teachers have been unable to control them (Computerworld Australia 2008). Learning is seriously compromised by the content of these offending websites and filtering them is the only effective solution to ensure that it does not reach the school children. The are some specific internet contents which the government has already outlawed and indeed does filtering. These are the contents that have to do with political parties, euthanasia, video games and racism. On the ethical side of consideration on the government’s decision to filter the content that the public should be allowed to view, this is actually a move in the right direction because left uncontrolled, the public can view anything, just about everything. This automatically leads to moral rot. The advent of the internet has led to a sudden decline in morals in many societies globally and the Australian government is justified in suggesting an ambitious plan to ensure that internet content that is hosted within the country is restricted. It is upon the realization of the dangers posed by overseas websites, more than anything else, that the proposals read out by the information minister were made. It will be of no benefit for the Australian Communications and Media Authority to enforce a restriction on internet content that is hosted from within the country and leave content from outside unchecked as people can always view the pages that thrill them from the foreign websites (The Sydney Morning Herald 2009. It is not surprising that the proposal for mandatory filtering of all internet content whether local or from overseas has been met with mixed reactions (ABC News 2007). The proponents of the filtering of internet content are genuinely concerned that the benefits that these internet pages have are by far outweighed by the harm they bring upon the community, not only in Australia, but in all other countries in the world. The minister was justified in bringing the filtering proposals in his genuine concern to rid the society of the moral rot that, courtesy of unrestricted internet access, has been spreading like the country’s infamous bush fires. The opponents of the proposed legislation on mandatory filtering of both locally hosted and overseas internet pages are on their part justified to object to these requirements in such loud voices as they have. Their objection to this legislation is by a very big percentage motivated by their selfish interest to continue being in the market for all the wrong reasons. Any person or a group of people in business are motivated by the sole interest of making as much profit as they can and as such what they give to their viewers does not matter as much as the profit they stand to get out of it. It gets even worse because they are prepared to go out of their way to give their viewers anything that they view most, bad as it may be (The Digital Liberty Coalition 2008). The ACS code of conduct and ethics in 4. 3 stipulates the values and ideals expected of the members. Members are expected to be professionally responsible and display integrity in their actions. They are supposed to deal with clients and the community, students and employees in a responsible way and with integrity. This requirement is good in terms of ethics and it can minimize the number of obscene and violent web content if adhered to by all internet providers. The general society needs to be protected from some pages whose influence is negative to the society. Section 4. 3. 4 further binds the members of ACS by ensuring social responsibility in their work to the society. It states that all members should make it their duty to ensure that they uplift and improve their clients’ quality of life. This is a big calling but it must be adherered to in order to preserve and improve the lives of all the people they work for. It is unethical for any IT specialist to upload a morally corrupting page on the internet to be viewed by others who would otherwise do a lot better without it. The proposal by the information minister borrows mainly from the ACS code of conduct as it spells out clearly all the rules that IT professionals should follow so that they can preserve the prestige and dignity the profession is supposed to have. This is in section 4. 3. 5 under Information Technology Profession in which every member is expected to promote the integrity of their profession. The members must do their work in respect of the profession and for one another. Section 4. 5. 1 of the ethics code makes it mandatory for all members to preserve continuity in the services of information technology as well as to put information flow in their care. This clearly means that all members are bound by the requirement to strive to ensure that the consumers of their services get only what they are supposed to get. They must give only the useful information to the general public which constitutes their client base. Material that has been refused classification by the regulatory authority should not be uploaded because of the dangers it portents (Electronic Frontiers Australia 2008). The IT profession is a beneficiary of such a move as proposed by the information minister as it would regain its name as a respectable profession and people would have more respect for IT professionals which has of late been declining due to the actions of some unscrupulous IT specialists who have made it their habit to posting pages whose content can not do any good to the society (ABC News 2007). The general society as a whole will be the overall winners from this legislation to the detriment of those who have made it their business by sending to the innocent viewers corruptible web content. The hands of the IT professionals who may harbor ill motives are tied by clause number 4. 6. 5 which clearly states that all members of ACS must bear the responsibility of their work. If any of them posts a page that is in the opinion of the ACS disciplinary board; immoral or unsuitable for viewing by the general public, then their conduct shall be found to be unethical and the appropriate disciplinary action will be carried out on them.

The relationship between Rhoda and Gertrude in The Withered Arm Essay

Discuss the relationship between Rhoda and Gertrude in The Withered Arm. The Withered Arm is a pre-20th century book by Thomas Hardy; the plot of the story is in and around the writers' imaginary village of Holmstoke and town of Casterbridge. One of the main themes of The Withered Arm was Jealousy it was portrayed through Rhoda Brook, 'a thin fading woman of thirty' 'that had once been handsome', who had an affair with Farmer Lodge and bore him a son. Farmer Lodge left Rhoda to bring up their son on her own and later married a new wife, who was 'years younger than him', called Gertrude. In this essay I am going to discuss the relationship between Rhoda and Gertrude in The Withered Arm. The relationship between Rhoda and Gertrude is a triangular one. It is between Rhoda, her ex-partner Farmer Lodge and his wife Gertrude. Rhoda heard about the coming of Farmer Lodge's new wife Gertrude through her fellow 'milkers' who were gossiping while at work. She then sent her son several times to go and 'give her a look'; she was mainly interested in the appearance of the new wife. She specifically asked her son to see "if she's dark or fair show marks of the lady' and to 'notice if her hand be white or are like a milkers hands like' hers. It was obvious that Rhoda wanted to compare herself with Gertrude but was disappointed when her son came back with news of the new wife being 'A lady complete', 'and her face as comely as a doll's' as she kept on asking her son questions like 'Her eyes not dark like mine?' and 'Is she tall?' 'as tall as I'. All the answers Rhoda got about Gertrude were so positive that when she heard that Gertrude was 'rather short' she said to her son 'with satisfaction', 'that's al... ...onduct. In fear of loosing Farmer Lodges love, Gertrude resorts to most despicable cure, which led to her death. In The Withered Arm Thomas Hardy used Rhoda's son to start a good relationship between Rhoda Brook and Gertrude. The quirk of fate in the situation is that Rhoda's son, the ill fated boy's life mutually brought Gertrude and Rhoda together in the beginning of the story and his death made them meet again, this time the last, not as friends but as enemies. The boy's carving of the chair instead of helping his mother cook and his poaching, which eventually led to his death were suggestions of his early and tragic death. It seems that as long as the two women were alive their link kept their relationship going whether good or bad, and it was only after Gertrude's death that the relationship between her and Rhoda brook finally came to an end.

Working Conditions in Bradford 19th Century

Worksheet: Living and working conditions in 19th century Bradford. This short piece of writing will be describing and explaining why and how the living and working conditions were so appalling in 19th century Bradford. A quote from the poet George Weerth in 1842 gives a graphic idea of what life was like in Bradford 19th century. He gives quite a detailed verse saying in one part that ‘you think you have been lodged with the devil incarnate’ (Bradford health-General, no date) this gives the impression that he would rather be residing or is the same as hell because of the immense disease and vile stench.He compares Bradford to Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester. The reason for these horrendous conditions was the adaptation of industrialisation and urbanisation. Industrialisation was when people moved to the cities, and machines produced things instead of by hand. When industry started to adapt, Bradford started to become worse, in 1800 Bradford had 1 spinning mill 50 years later it had 129 mills. This huge growth in industry and population had some catastrophic effects on Bradford.In 1769 the waterframe was invented, it was powered by water but, it was not a very good machine as with water there are floods, droughts, and foul smells from rivers. One of the main problems came when the use of steam came into force, as coal mills sprang up extremely fast, this transformed human relationships (capitalism). Many of the factories were dominated by women and children, as women were easily controlled and received less than a quarter of the wages that males received. In 1830 in John Woods spinning mill (which was the biggest spinning mill in Bradford) had 528 workers, 489 were women and 38 men.As the industry expanded, even more the openings of wool houses and dye houses came, later then came more shops and houses, they were built anywhere and everywhere. These houses were one up and one down, had no kitchen, no water and no toilet. People bought water private ly in barrels; little did they know that this water could have come from anywhere. At this point there was no sewerage and the dye from the dye houses flooded the town and rivers. It is said that people could set fire to Bradford canal and the water from Bradford could turn silver watch cases black.While the women and children dominated the industry, illness and sickness rates shot through the roof, while there was no sewerage and the population was uncontrollable the average age of death was 18 years old, over fifty percent of children never reached the age of five, and the majority never reached the age of one. In one district alone over five hundred people shared one toilet. In 1850 Bradford won prizes for being the biggest area for textiles, taking over places such as, Manchester and Leeds.At this point in time Bradford was at its worst ,in 1850 the graveyard was full of bodies, houses were too crowded and people kept pigs, chickens and human excrement outside their doors until farmers came and took it away (at the right cost). In the 1841-1851 census it was recorded that up to 20 people were living in one house. Unaware of the dangers of no sewerage, people thought there was no harm in this way of living, as everyone believed these diseases were miasmic diseases and the diseases were caught by overcrowded areas.They believed that decomposing animal and vegetable substances (Thompson, 1982, pp137-138) caused diseases such as smallpox, typhus, cholera and other horrific, frightful diseases. The Bradford Registration District said about twenty percent of all mortality was attributable to ‘Miasmic Diseases’ (Thompson, 1982, pp137-138) so a cleanup of the environment was needed to improve life expectancy. As a conclusion to this piece of writing, it is proven that although the mass growth in industry made Bradford into the biggest textile production area, it also caused colossal social tragedy in Bradford.The main reason for the adaptation in Brad ford was for immediate profit but unfortunately in caused disastrous effects on society.Bibliography Thompson, B (1982) â€Å"Public Provision and Private Neglect: Public Health† in â€Å"Wright, DG jowitt, JA (eds. ) Victorian Bradford. Bradford: City of Bradford Metropolitan Council, pp 137-138. Bradford Health- general (no date). Available at: http://wwwschoolhistory. org. ukgcse/medicine/publichealth/bradford (Accessed: 24 September 2009)

Understanding Evolution Resources

Lately, there has been a large push by the federal government to incorporate more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in the classroom. The latest incarnation of this initiative is the Next Generation Science Standards. Many states have already adopted these standards and teachers everywhere are reworking their curriculum to make sure all students are proficient at all standards set forth. One of the life science standards that must be integrated into courses (along with various Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering standards) is HS-LS4 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity. There are many resources right here at About.com Evolution that can be used to enhance, reinforce, or apply these standards. These are just a few suggestions for how these standards can be taught. HS-LS4 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity Students who demonstrate understanding can: HS-LS4-1 Communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence. The first standard that falls under the umbrella of evolution starts off right away with the evidence that backs up evolution. It specifically says multiple lines of evidence. The clarification statement for this standard gives examples like similar DNA sequences, anatomical structures, and embryonic development. Obviously, there is a lot more that can be included that fall into the category of evidence for evolution, like the fossil record and the Endosymbiont Theory. The inclusion of the phrase common ancestry would also include information about the origin of life on Earth and could possibly even encompass how life has changed over Geological Time. With the big push for hands-on learning, it will be important to use activities and labs to increase the understanding of these topics. Lab write-ups would also cover the communicate directive of this standard. There are also Disciplinary Core Ideas that are listed under each standard. For this particular standard, these ideas include LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity. It does, again, put an emphasis on DNA or molecular similarities of all living things. HS-LS4-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution primarily results from four factors: (1) the potential for a species to increase in number, (2) the heritable genetic variation of individuals in a species due to mutation and sexual reproduction, (3) competition for limited resources, and (4) the proliferation of those organisms that are better able to survive and reproduce in the environment. This standard looks like a lot at first, but after reading through the expectations outlined in it, it is actually quite simple. This is the standard that will be met after explaining natural selection. An emphasis outlined in the framework is on adaptations and especially those in behaviors, morphology, and physiology that help individuals, and ultimately the entire species, survive. It is important to point out there are assessment limitations listed in the standard that other mechanisms of evolution like genetic drift, gene flow through migration, and co-evolution are not covered by assessments for this particular standard. Even though all of the above may affect the natural selection and push it in one direction or another, it is not to be assessed at this level for this standard. The Disciplinary Core Ideas listed that pertain to this standard include LS4.B: Natural Selection and LS4.C: Adaptation. In fact, most of the remaining standards listed under this big idea of Biological Evolution also pertain mostly to natural selection and adaptations. Those standards follow: HS-LS4-3 Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait. HS-LS4-4 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how natural selection leads to adaptation of populations. (Emphasis for this standard includes using data to show how changes in the environment contribute to a change in gene frequency and thus leads to adaptation. HS-LS4-5 Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species. The final standard listed under HS-LS4 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity deals with the application of knowledge to an engineering problem. HS-LS4-6 Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity. The emphasis for this final standard should be on designing solutions for a proposed problem related to threatened or endangered species or to genetic variation of organisms for multiple species. This standard may take many forms, such as a long-term project that pulls together knowledge from several of these, and other Next Generation Science Standards. One possible type of project that may be adapted to fit this requirement is an Evolution Think-Tac-Toe. Of course, having students choose a topic that interests them and develop a project around that is perhaps the best way to go about meeting this standard.