I really like the focus of this week’s blog. I think feeling out my personal ethics is a really important part of being in graduate school, but especially preparing for and entering the working force. As young professionals, we are not as familiar with the workings of the working world or the expectations of a company we might be with, so it’s important to use personal ethics to guide us through these somewhat ambiguous moments. It’s interesting to consider normative ethics. I guess I can’t really say I have a single principle that guides my decisions and actions, although now my mind is kind of churning to come up with one. Usually in most situations, if I’m not sure what to do, I tell myself to be honest. This guiding ethic applies to most situations but there are some situations that it might not…so I’ll definitely be thinking about this over the next few weeks. It seems like conflicting normative ethics contribute to the controversy inherent in applied ethics. As a future health care professional, I am sure I will run up against many issues pertaining to medical ethics, especially since we have discussed these frequently in my undergraduate and graduate coursework.
I get really frustrated by the idea of people using Koofers. Someone mentioned in last week’s blog that exceptional students can no longer stand out in the college classroom and it’s because of technology like Koofers. The CEO even said in the article that it evens the playing field. I don’t think that’s a good thing in academia because memorizing the answers to a previous test does NOT help you in the long run. This environment is meant to foster growth and learning and challenge students to be more qualified for their careers. On the flip side, I do believe professors have an obligation to be familiar with the content on sites like Koofers and change their exams when needed, to avoid situations like the one in the Physics department. The professor handled it according to his own personal ethics and as he said, it is truly a learning moment.