 If you've enrolled in Geography 581, you may be a graduate student pursuing Penn State's Master of Science in Spatial Data Science or the Master of Geographic Information Systems degree. Penn State's graduate school mandates formal ethics training for all graduate students. This course satisfies the requirement. You probably know that there's an easier way. You could have passed a non-credit, no-cost, two-week workshop instead. If you opted for Geography 581, I assume that you're curious and concerned about the ethical and legal ramifications of geospatial technologies which are heightened in the era of big data. You and I have that in common. I'm the course author and instructor David DiBiase. That's me and my dog, Theo. My first exposure to ethics was a rigorous course in environmental ethics at the University of Wisconsin where I earned bachelor's and master's degrees in cartography back in the 1980s. Later, a Wisconsin scholar named J. B. Harley sparked my interest in cartographic ethics with his influential article Deconstructing the Map in 1989. In 1990, as founding editor of the journal Cartographic Perspectives, I organized an ethics roundtable that brought together commentaries by academics, practitioners, and two anonymous employees of a federal mapping agency who couldn't get permission to contribute to the commentary openly. Later I co-led a multi-institutional virtual seminar on ethics in GIS for the University Consortium on Geographic Information Science. Those experiences led to a proposal to the National Science Foundation to fund development of some of the ethics case studies you'll use in this course. The starting point for getting to know the course is the syllabus. I assume you've read the description of Geography 581 in the syllabus before you even registered for the course. If not, you should check out the syllabus immediately after this presentation. Geography 581 is a revised version of a graduate seminar on professionalism and geographic information science and technology that I originally developed for the MGIS degree. I created this new version entitled Spatial Data Science Ethics to serve students in both the MGIS and the MS in Spatial Data Science Master's Programs. Spatial Data Science is the emergent next stage in the evolution of geospatial technologies and methods enabled by big data, including location information, prediction algorithms, and geo-visual analytics. New ethical challenges are emerging with it. As a student of Spatial Data Science and GIS, you are responsible for identifying, investigating, and responding with integrity to challenges like these. In your studies you should aim to master the moral reasoning skills needed to address these challenges, not just the technical skills developed in other courses. In your future scientific and professional roles, you are also responsible for modeling balanced and sustainable digital lives and for championing ethical cultures within your organizations. Geography 581 is designed to help you do that. Here's an overview of the course. Following this introductory module are six lessons. We begin with a week-long focus on research ethics. That's the main topic of concern for Penn State's graduate school. It's a point of departure for us. In lesson two, we'll broaden our focus and probe the distinction between ordinary morality, that is, the moral obligations incumbent on everyone, and the special obligations associated with professions. In lesson three, we'll consider ethical challenges associated with the geospatial professions, and we'll practice a methodical approach to ethical decision making using a collection of realistic case studies. Lesson four presents challenges associated with the relatively new field of data science. Lesson five focuses on ethical issues arising from the convergence of these two fields with special attention to ethical challenges at the organizational level. As the course progresses, you'll identify a suitable term project and present that work at the end of the term. My final presentation will propose an ethics of digital care as part of a guiding vision for the spatial data science organizations in which you practice and perhaps lead. Lesson one is research ethics. Students in the Spatial Data Science Masters need to complete the city program training in human subjects. This requirement follows from the fact that the SDS is a master of science degree that involves a culminating research project. You need to complete the city training before Penn State's institutional review board will approve your proposal to involve human subjects. By contrast, the master of GIS degree is a professional degree that culminates with an applied project. MGIS students may complete the city training and probably should if their capstone project will involve human subjects. If you're not interested in the city training, another assignment option is available. You can read all about it in the research ethics module. In addition to those assignments, I'll ask you to read two articles, one by geographer Dan Griffith, another by former University Administrator and New York Times columnist Stanley Fish. This pair presents starkly different perspectives on plagiarism, the most obvious violation of research ethics. I'd like you to share thoughts about these points of view along with your personal introduction later in the introduction module. Another goal I have for this course is that you may experience something like a real graduate seminar. By that, I mean the experience of reading and thinking deeply about a given topic, then gathering with fellow scholars to share your insights and questions. To this end, we will meet every couple of weeks by Zoom to present and discuss our work. I totally understand that the far flung adult students in this course have full schedules already and may not be able to participate regularly in live class meetings no matter when we schedule them. Even so, I ask that you express your preferences for the least inconvenient days and times at which we might schedule bi-weekly class meetings. You'll find the Google Form in the introduction module. I promise I'll do my best to make these meetings worth your while. To recap, the introduction module includes this instructor presentation, an assignments overview, and a Google Form to collect your scheduling preferences for Zoom meetings, as well as a page of options for recording your presentations. The introduction opened one week ahead of the official start date during our optional course preview and orientation. Lesson one deals with research ethics. Spatial data science students will complete Penn State's city program training. MGIS students may complete this training but also have the option of submitting a paraphrase essay instead. At the end of our first official week, you'll post a recorded personal introduction in which you share thoughts about the readings by Griffith and Fish. If you have any questions after viewing this presentation and looking over the content of the introduction in lesson one, post it in the discussion forum. I look forward to learning with you in Geography 581.