Social informatics and service learning as teaching models

We have proposed a framework to integrate social and ethical issues into science and engineering curricula. We have also shown how such a framework might be implemented across a curriculum, and how it might be applied to the study of a specific scientific problem. Our framework is based on basic foundations of applied engineering ethics, adaptation of the structure of the meta-discipline of social informatics, and the use of a service-learning pedagogy based on Perry´s (1981) cognitive-structural model for intellectual development in college students. The structure of the taxonomy of social informatics research and issues offer a well-established framework that can be re-contextualized for many science and engineering fields. Service learning offers a clear model for giving students the opportunity to practice ethical and social concepts imparted to them in the classroom.