What Do We Teach When We Teach Tech Ethics? (original) (raw)

Integrating computer ethics into the computing curriculum: A framework for implementation

Proceedings of IS2003, …, 2003

The advent of the Information Age and global connectivity has placed ethics center stage in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). As the drive towards the establishment of a socalled IT profession gains momentum, ethical conduct and codes of ethics have recently been formulated and introduced formally. Initiatives in this regard can be attributed to, among others, the ACM and the IEEE. Of particular significance is the ImpactCS Project commissioned by the joint taskforce of the ACM and IEEE, and funded by the USA's National Science Foundation. The increased globalization and inherent nature of ICT transcend physical and cultural borders, making it increasingly difficult to enforce accepted laws, regulations, and codes of conduct. It is thus the responsibility of Computer Science and Information Systems instructors to teach and instill professional values and ethical analysis skills in each and every student. Therefore, we investigate some issues pertaining to the teaching of computer ethics. We conclude this paper by presenting a possible framework to be used in the teaching of computer ethics, and apply this framework to our own institution.

Integrating Ethics into Computer Science Education

54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education V. 1 (SIGCSE 2023), 2023

While calls to integrate ethics into computer science education go back decades, recent high-profile ethical failures related to computing technology by large technology companies, governments, and academic institutions have accelerated the adoption of computer ethics education at all levels of instruction. Discussions of how to integrate ethics into existing computer science programmes often focus on the structure of the intervention-embedded modules or dedicated courses, humanists or computer scientists as ethics instructors-or on the specific content to be included-lists of case studies and essential topics to cover. While proponents of computer ethics education often emphasize the importance of closely connecting ethical and technical content in these initiatives, most do not reflect in depth on the variety of ways in which the disciplines can be combined. In this paper, I deploy a framework from crossdisciplinary studies that categorizes academic projects that work across disciplines as multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary, depending on the degree of integration. When applied to computer ethics education, this framework is orthogonal to the structure and content of the initiative, as I illustrate using examples of dedicated ethics courses and embedded modules. It therefore highlights additional features of cross-disciplinary teaching that need to be considered when planning a computer ethics programme. I argue that computer ethics education should aim to be at least interdisciplinary-multidisciplinary initiatives are less aligned with the pedagogical aims of computer ethics-and that computer ethics educators should experiment with fully transdisciplinary education that could transform computer science as a whole for the better. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → Computer science education; Codes of ethics.

Integrating ethical content into computing curricula

2004

This paper contributes to the ongoing dialogue about the inclusion of ethics content within computing education. It presents a brief exposition of the challenges facing the teaching of ethics, favouring a highly integrated approach across the curriculum. As an example of how some of those challenges may be simply addressed, it introduces a non-intrusive means of motivating an ethical dimension within existing units of study by innovative use of a survey instrument. The focus of discussion is on the use of this instrument to explore issues related to plagiarism. Finally, the paper appraises this simple concept in terms of the challenges raised at the head of the paper.

Introducing computer ethics into the computing curriculum: two very different experiments

Ubiquitous computing and global connectivity via the internet and the worldwide web raise new ethical as well as social questions and issues, and often require new interpretations of, and a fresh look at existing ones. In this paper we consider the teaching of Computer Ethics (CE) to our computing students. We review issues such as why the teaching of CE is important, how this should be done in a systematic and integrated fashion, and we then present two different experiments undertaken at our institution.

Computer ethics: a syllabius for teaching ethics in computer science

2015

Teaching Ethics at Engineering and Computer Science at the European Universities is a essential for two reasons: we want students to do their job well as a service to the society, and more and more professional associations require it as part of their accreditation as a computer scientist (IEEE-CS, ACM). In this paper we are going to explain several topics: 1) the syllabus and methodology that we propose for a Computer Ethics course of 30 hours in the last course of an undergraduate degree; 2) the detailed content of the proposed syllabus; 3) the Computer Ethics resources that the teachers may use to prepare this course. We conclude that a Computer Ethics course must be put in place in all European universities and that we have the resources to do it now.

Preparing to Teach Computer Ethics: results from the DOLCE project

The Developing On/Off-line Computer Ethics (DOLCE) is an NSF sponsored project which held three summer workshops for university faculty members. DOLCE has created web-based materials for teaching computer ethics to undergraduate computer science majors. The materials are closely integrated with the third edition of Computer Ethics, by Deborah Johnson 3 , and are designed to be used in undergraduate computer science classes or modules. The materials emphasize computer ethics theory and analytical skills, societal issues in computing and telecommunication, and professional ethics. Gender issues in computer ethics are a specific focus. The participating faculty members completed pre and post assessments before and after the summer workshops. Many of the participating faculty members' students were also evaluated using pre and post assessments before and after completing their computer ethics courses or modules. This paper presents the design of the DOLCE workshops and the results of our assessment efforts. I.

The teaching of computer ethics on computer science and related degree programmes. a European survey

International Journal of Ethics Education

Within the Computer Science community, many ethical issues have emerged as significant and critical concerns. Computer ethics is an academic field in its own right and there are unique ethical issues associated with information technology. It encompasses a range of issues and concerns including privacy and agency around personal information, Artificial Intelligence and pervasive technology, the Internet of Things and surveillance applications. As computing technology impacts society at an ever growing pace, there are growing calls for more computer ethics content to be included in Computer Science curricula. In this paper we present the results of a survey that polled faculty from Computer Science and related disciplines about teaching practices for computer ethics at their institutions. The survey was completed by respondents from 61 universities across 23 European countries. Participants were surveyed on whether or not computer ethics is taught to Computer Science students at each...

Computer ethics in the undergraduate curriculum: Case studies and the joint software engineer's code

Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 2004

This paper illustrates how to use the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice [1, 2] in three case studies suitable for computer science instruction. This code of ethics was approved by both the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society in 1998. Since then, the code has been translated into seven more languages, and adopted by organizations in many countries. The paper argues that instruction in ethics is vital in computer science education, and that case studies ...