Professional Issues in IT

Overview

This unit assists students in identifying and understanding issues relating to the personal and organisational application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with particular emphasis on ethics and privacy. Students will develop a sense of professional responsibility through exploring the professional code of ethics articulated by professional accrediting bodies. Students will explore a range of social, legal, ethical and business issues that ICT professionals face in their careers.

Learning outcomes

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Assessment

Content

• Ethics including the philosophical foundations of professional ethics, data ethics and ethical policy vacuums.
• Privacy considerations in a networked world
• Formal codes of conduct and their impact on the work and behaviour of ICT professionals
• ICT trends and drivers within industries and the interconnectedness between industries
• Professionals’ roles, responsibilities, work behaviours and attitudes with a focus on the structure of ICT work as provided by the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA)
• Gender equality, diversity, inclusion and group dynamics in the ICT domain
• Business compliance imperatives and their impacts on the work of ICT professionals
• Issues in both employee and contractor relationships, including responsibilities and management issues involved in providing Information Technology (IT) contracting services
• Digital disruption and emerging technology implications for ICT professionals
• Life-long learning and career development as it relates to sound professional practice
• Social impacts of ICT with particular focus on end-users and consumers