Ethics in the Digital Era

1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate

● The digital world is increasingly changing the ways we interact with each other as citizens, friends, and consumers. This course investigates the ethical issues that emerge in our digital lives and seeks to give students tools for thinking through complex moral problems they may face as business leaders. We will analyze core values of privacy, consent, fairness, and legitimacy through case studies drawn from recent moral problems faced by the business giants of big data: Facebook, Google, and Uber. The goal of this course is to help prepare students to recognize, analyze, and grapple with ethical issues in the digital world. ● This course is run through Ethics Lab at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. We will use creative exercises drawn from the world of design to tackle complex moral problems. In addition to traditional reading and writing assignments, students will use tools such as empathy mapping, persona building, and engaged ethics design sprints to help them learn to identify and analyze complex moral problems in new ways. The final project will tackle a complex moral problem facing businesses in the digital age and will be built in stages of design sprints throughout the intensive course, to be presented in the final session of the ILE.