Ethics at Work

Good Work: Theory and Practice

A summary of the research around Good Work.

The Good Work Toolkit

The GoodWork Toolkit is an approach to engage individuals and groups in conversation and reflection about good work. The Toolkit consists of a flexible set of materials, including vignettes of individuals who struggle to carry out good work, and accompanying questions and activities. Since 2007, educators at all levels—elementary school to graduate school—from around the world have implemented these materials in their coursework in a variety of ways.

Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum

Common Sense Media's Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum was originally developed in collaboration with Project Zero's Good Play Project. Informed by the Good Play research findings, this curriculum emphasizes the ways in which youth can leverage the positive affordances of digital media while protecting themselves and making socially responsible, ethical decisions. The curriculum covers issues from online privacy to building positive community online to copyright and creation.

Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media: A Synthesis from the GoodPlay Project

From the abstract:

The new digital media are a frontier that is rich with opportunities and risks, particularly for young people. Through digital technologies, young people are participating in a range of activities, including social networking, blogging, vlogging, gaming, instant messaging, downloading music and other content, uploading and sharing their own creations, and collaborating with others in various ways...

In this report, we explore the ethical fault lines that are raised by such digital pursuits. We argue that five key issues are at stake in the new media—identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. Drawing on evidence from informant interviews, emerging scholarship on new media, and theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies, we explore the ways in which youth are redefining these five concepts as they engage with the new digital media. For each issue, we describe and compare offline and online understandings and then explore the particular ethical promises and perils that surface online.

Responsibility at Work: How Leading Professionals Act (or Don't Act) Responsibly

Filled with original essays by Howard Gardner, William Damon, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Jeanne Nakamura and based on a large-scale research project, the GoodWork Project, Responsibility at Work reflects the information gleaned from in-depth interviews with more than 1,200 people from nine different professions: journalism, genetics, theatre, higher education, philanthropy, law, medicine, business, and pre-collegiate education. The book reveals how motivation, culture, and professional norms can intersect to produce work that is personally, socially, and economically beneficial. At the heart of the study is the revelation that the key to good work is responsibility—taking ownership for ones work and its wider impact. ISBN: 978-0787994754