Updated:

Organisation and Structure of Debates

“Debates” will be run in weeks 7

Debates in this course will be run with a single team taking both sides of the debate topic. As well as removing the many obstacles to organising and scheduling two separate teams, this strategy allows a larger team –around 6 member– to pursue both sides of a proposition, and to present both sides to the audience. This may be, pedagogically, a better exercise than the conventional two team approach.

Each team may present both sides of their chosen proposition as they wish. The objective is not to win the debate, but to seek out both sides of the proposition.

Assessment of the debate presentation

The final mark for this component is 10% of the total (100%).

The marking will be done according to the following scheme and the result adjusted to a mark out of 10.

Coherance: 2 marks

consistency of the arguments presented for each side of the debate. In a real debate each side should pursue consistent arguments for their side of the debate. That is, the arguments hang together or cohere.

Coverage: 2 marks

how well was each side of the debate covered. In particular, each marker should be looking for positive and negative arguments that the team seems to have ignored in the particular debates delivered.

Method: 2 marks

method of presentation. An assessment of the method adopted by each team to win each side of the debate.

Manner: 2 marks

the manner in which the arguments for each side were presented in a way to win their side of the debate, or to discredit the oppositions side of the debate.

Matter: 2 marks

the quality of the actual content (the matter) of each side of the debate.

All marks maximum.

Additionally, there will be 1 mark for attendance at the debate sessions. This mark, or part of the mark, will be deducted from the total in the event that a student does not attend all debates for their seminar.

Assessment of the Debate wiki

Each debate team must also develop a wiki in which they present their arguments and reference material they have gathered for the debate.

The wiki will be marked separately by the facilitator for the seminar to which the debate team belongs.

Marking of wiki: 5 marks

This site is a reference for those unfamiliar with formal debates. Please have a look at the information under Introduction to Debating especially:

• Speaker roles
• Definitions
• Team line & split
• Matter, Method and Manner

Debate Topics

Other topics may be added to the following.

1. Academics of the School should have general right of access to student accounts
2. All Information should be Free
3. Computers Can’t Be Trusted
4. Ethics and Morals are Simply a State of Mind
5. Ethics and Professional Success are Incompatible
6. Ethics and Software Quality Control are Mutually Independent
7. Ethics is the Responsibility of Management, Not the Software Implementor
8. Security is More Important than Privacy
9. Software is Intrinsically Faulty and hence is Incompatible with Ethics
10. The Anarchy of the Internet makes it Intrinsically Unethical
11. The Internet is a Strongly Democratic Medium
12. The Internet is a Tool for the Good of Humankind
13. Computers Help People Communicate
14. The Internet is the School of the Future
15. The Internet Brings the World Closer Together
16. All software contains bugs, therefore it’s acceptable to deliver software with known bugs
17. It is unethical to develop a software solution when it is not the most appropriate solution
18. Safety critical software should be Open Source
19. Using unlicenced software may be illegal, but it can be ethical
20. Good software engineers are ethical professionals
21. Software development may be professionally sound and legal but still unethical
22. Software requires it own ethical theory
23. Ethics in software is theoretical not practical
24. Professional programmers should be licensed
25. Software engineers are real engineers/Computer science is a true science
26. Sometimes you can blame the computer
27. Digital Rights Management (DRM) may be legal, but it’s not ethical
28. To protect its citizens, Governments should have the right to monitor its citizens in cyberspace.
29. Internet filtering is ethical.
30. Software patents are unethical.
31. Laws to protect intellectual property stifles creativity and is unethical.
32. Software companies have a moral obligation to produce products that are ”fit for purpose”.
33. Software companies should never be held responsible for software failures.
34. Computing professionals are morally and ethically obliged to take personal responsibility for all the software they produce.
35. It’s not our fault! Software always fails, we cannot be held responsible.
36. “Hands off, my information is mine.” No one should have a right to it.
37. Identity theft is the fault of poor ethical practices.
38. Electronic surveillance is justified; it reduces crime
39. Internet companies are free to use my data as they wish
40. The prevalence of social media means the end of quality journalism