How To Embed Ethics in Tech Curriculums – Just another NUsites site

Welcome

Use this hub as a guide for creating and integrating ethics modules into your tech lessons. The hub consists of the following:

Framework for curricular interventions (goals, concepts, questions and considerations)
Examples of curricular artifacts
Facilitation suggestions for ethical modules
Learning resources (case studies, ethical concepts and questions, identity and positionality, calls to action and justice)
External resources from the tech ethics ecosystem

Groups and individuals looking to embed ethics into your technology curriculum but don’t know where to start (e.g. university professors, workshop leads, project leads, etc.)
No previous ethical knowledge required

We are an intergenerational Northwestern organizing group of former TAs and students, current professors, and learners across disciplines (e.g., philosophy, computer science, learning sciences). Collectively, our expertise varies within and beyond computing into areas we believe are essential to thinking through ethics, including responsible AI, anti-Blackness in CS ed, dis/ability and accessibility, diversity and inclusion, and moral philosophy. These perspectives inform our approach to ethics, collectively understanding and addressing the systemic issues at play. Our community approach ensures everyone’s ideas and expertise are included while complementing each other’s strengths.

Societal context: Technology is deeply interwoven with history, culture, ideology, civics, ethics, and society.
Political context: Power asymmetries, current and historical assumptions, and unquestioned assumptions are embedded in our technologies. Technologies can either perpetuate or confront these contexts.
Differential impact on communities: Technologies do not affect everyone equally- some people’s interests are best served by technologies, and some people have a greater risk of being harmed.
Systemic impact: Technologies do not solely involve individual and community actors, but also systemic-level power structures.
Essential areas of thinking include responsible computing (e.g.: AI), anti-Blackness in CS ed, dis/ability and accessibility, diversity and inclusion, and moral philosophy.

Think critically about your own values and positionality relative to the technologies you create and use.
Put the focus onto yourself, not the machine.