Abstract
D.Litt. et Phil.
The information technology (IT) revolution has brought about many global changes, revolutionalising the world in the way people live, learn, work and interact with one another. It has improved the conditions of living in a dramatic manner, from office paper work to computerised office space and automated manufacturing plants. The IT revolution has also brought with it ethical challenges, where human beings are tempted into using IT to commit crime and unethical behaviour. This has led to the challenges of IT ethics, and how to manage the challenges.
Ethical problems related to the inappropriate utilisation of IT have been transplanted from society to the university environment. Universities are experiencing the same and/or more drastic kinds of unethical behaviour. These behaviours have been committed through the inappropriate utilisation of IT by students. The increment is because of the ever-increasing sophistication of new IT devices. This research project sought answers for the better management of inappropriate utilisation of IT by students. The current literature was assessed in order to find out how students use IT to commit unethical behaviour, and the types of IT devices students utilise to do this. Students inter alia use wristwatches, cellphones, laptops, computers, cigarette lighters, ultra-violet lights, USBs, translation software, calculators, pagers, websites, printers, scanners, portable wireless devices, photoshop, electronic pens, video cameras, portable radios, faxes and emails.
Students use these devices to commit the following unethical activities, among others: online plagiarism, computer fraud, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, e-cheating, hacking, cybervandalism, distributions of viruses, flaming, cyberharrassment, pornography, sexting, hiring people online to write up academic projects on their behalf, sharing of individual academic projects against the instruction of their lecturers, online fights, theft of IT devices, damage to IT networks, piracy, and copyright infringements...