Centering Ethics in Computing Student’s Mind: A Question Directed Approach for Teaching and Learning Tech Ethics CC
There continues to be growing interest in including ethics in undergraduate computer science and engineering education. While this impulse is greatly welcome, the subject of ethics and how it relates to the profession and professional practice can be somewhat abstract. The style of teaching and learning about ethics varies from theoretical philosophy courses to courses that carefully examine the harms and impacts of systems and technologies. Students do not necessarily leave with models of how to continue thinking about ethics in the profession or a framework that they can easily apply in the future. This poster presents a question directed framework that is used in teaching of a tech ethics course. The questions are easy to understand and repeat instruction makes it natural for students to always use the questions to guide their thinking towards ethical matters throughout the course. The questions are memorable, and it is expected that students will continue applying this ethical framework in the future as they step into a profession in which they will inevitably have to grapple with ethical questions due to how closely our profession is tied to human life now and in the future. The framework also specifically addresses the how of ethical professional practice which teaches students about how to build community and social capital in the workplace and thus make it easier to advocate for ethical behavior.