Module Types

Description

• Review a technology or scenario in class. If applicable, include a coding demo. Provide guided questions for breakout discussions. Regroup for a class-wide discussion, facilitated by the teaching staff.

Advantages

• Real-time discussions promote engagement- especially ones that utilize breakout conversations and discourage electronics.
• Prioritizing discussion in lecture reinforces ethics as a central consideration within technology.
• Students actively learn from other students’ perspectives and assumptions.
• Students practice having ethical conversations which they can apply in professional spaces.

Potential hurdles

• The teaching staff may feel unequipped to facilitate discussions. If so, see suggestions below.
• Students might be hesitant to engage in discussion depending on the established classroom environment.
  • Is the environment usually lecture-based? What have discussions looked like?
  • Are students usually encouraged come to the classroom as whole people, not just students?
• Students with more vulnerable and marginalized perspectives and values might be uncomfortable speaking up; meanwhile, those most willing to contribute might come from dominant positionalities.
• Class size might inhibit the effectiveness of a class-wide discussion.

Suggestions

• You do not need to be an ethics expert to facilitate ethical discussions; we are all learners. By acknowledging gaps in your knowledge, you’ll make students more comfortable to acknowledge their own gaps.
• When comfortable, get personal: by expressing your own experiences, identity, and values, you’ll encourage your students to do the same.
• Ideally, do not leave the discussion for the end of the lecture or curriculum. Reinforce that ethics is not an addendum, but a foundational consideration.
• Make your discussions maximally relevant and engaging by incorporating themes from assignments and reflections.
  • E.g. from past assignments, (anonymously) highlight two students’ perspectives with opposing considerations, differing assumptions, or trade-offs. In doing so, students can learn from each other’s perspectives and reflect on areas of ethics that they had not previously considered.
  • E.g. for future assignments, have students reflect on themes from the discussion.
• Discussion facilitation tips:
  • Actively learn about the topics and gather resources on your own. Students should be exposed to realistic scenarios, which requires a good amount of background knowledge about past issues related to the topic. If you’re familiar with examples like these, feel free to loop them in- students appreciated facilitator’s anecdotes and often referred to them in the responses.  Additionally, share useful resources with students to engage them with responsible computing education beyond the discussion.
  • Bring some post-its and a marker and have students make name tags for the front of their desk–it’s helpful for you, other students, and for taking attendance.
  • Be intentional about how you frame issues in ethics as not just critical, but rather a framework for thinking about things we encounter as technologists; we want to avoid a situation where students think of ethics as anti-progress but rather frame it as “progress needs to be in the right direction.” One way to do this is to talk about the intentions of the people involved in creating the technologies that become case studies for us – they were likely working on something they thought would be beneficial to the world!
  • Be prepared for the discussion to not go as planned. Sometimes the display might not work, students may not be enthusiastic, room might be hard to find etc. Preparation can only account for so much. But every discussion leader should always keep the main goals of discussion in mind and as long as those are fulfilled it doesn’t really matter if the exact study plan was followed. So try to be spontaneous and innovative! It’s always better to derail from the planned lesson than to have a room of uninterested students.
  • In general, be flexible! We want to meet students where they’re at and give them the freedom to explore the topic in a way that will stick, so try your best to be adaptable and have discussions that are tailored to the group’s interests.
  • Leave room for self-reflection. For example, leave 5-10 min at the end of the discussion for students to journal and adding some calming background music was a great hit throughout the quarter.
  • Documentation is key. Try to take notes about the discussion right after the discussion. This allows for 1. Improvement for the next discussion you lead  2. You will not forget how the discussion went. 
  • Approaching Difficult Conversations (Seny Kamara)
  • Effective Talking Points for Different Audiences (Subbu Vincent)

Description

• Present a question to the class that prompts students to think about an ethical consideration or application of a technology. Record (and possibly present) answers in an anonymous form. Possibly have students share their ideas with a partner. Consider using answers as a jumping off point for future discussions, assignments, or projects.

Advantages

• Real-time activities promote engagement with course materials
• One question will prompt critical thinking without taking too much time out of the lecture
• Anonymous responses may make students more comfortable in sharing their thoughts
• Student response data helps the teaching staff tailor examples and assignments to student interest/focus or areas that need more practice

Potential hurdles

• Student engagement with new ideas → students are likely to discuss these questions with the person next to them or keep their answers to themselves. How can we expose students to the diversity of thought within the classroom?
• Dismissive → if the survey responses are never discussed, graded or further thematized, students might perceive ethics as non-essential.
• Controversial opinions → in the anonymous format, students may feel inspired to share “hot takes” that may be harmful or offensive to their classmates. Prior to the survey, It is important to establish classroom guidelines to ensure all students feel safe and respected.
• Dissatisfaction → students might want more time to think about their responses and engage with the social issues invoked by the questions. Similarly, professors may not feel they have time to discuss the answers in depth, limiting the ability to challenge misconceptions or address student confusion about ethical/social topics they may be less familiar with.

Suggestions

• Discuss anonymous answers in class
  • Using virtual bulletin boards so students can view each other’s responses in a faster and more anonymous fashion
• Make use of the response data!
  • Observe students’ critical thinking and pinpoint areas that need to be reinforced
  • Identify student interests that could be explored in subsequent lectures and assignments
  • Use the response data’s structure to prompt ethical discussion
    • Ask students what could be done with response data…how do you handle non-numerical data types that contain a spectrum of ideas and opinions? How might the data be used in un/ethical ways?

Description

• Relate the assignment to relevant ethical questions for your students to reflect and write about.

Advantages

• Simple to integrate into an established curriculum.
• Outside of class, students have more time to reflect on the assignment.

Potential hurdles

• Teaching staff bandwidth to grade homework questions.

Suggestions

• Grade ethical reflections as pass/fail. Give credit to thoughtful responses while minimizing the teaching staff’s grading time and grading bias.
• Refrain from making the assignment extra credit. Reinforce that ethics is a not an addendum, but a foundational consideration.
• Use reflections from this assignment as artifacts to co-study in class. As a group, reflect on what you like from the responses and what further questions you might ask. In doing so, students can learn from each other and reflect on areas of ethics that they had not considered.

Description

• Ground your assignment in a technology of your or your students’ choosing. Intermix technical and ethical questions for your students to reflect upon. 

Advantages

• By prioritizing new ethics-focused assignments, you reinforce that ethics is a central consideration of technology.

Potential hurdles

• Course bandwidth to add a new homework assignment.
• Teaching staff bandwidth to grade homework assignment.

Suggestions

• Grade ethical reflections as pass/fail. Give credit to thoughtful responses while minimizing the teaching staff’s grading time and grading bias.
• Refrain from making the assignment extra credit. Reinforce that ethics is a not an addendum, but a foundational consideration.
• Use reflections from this assignment as artifacts to co-study in class. As a group, reflect on what you like from the responses and what further questions you might ask. In doing so, students can learn from each other and reflect on ares of ethics that they had not previously considered.

Description

• Each student will create an “Identity Journal” that will be updated throughout the course, both during and outside of class. The Identity Journal will be a personalized space to keep track of how core themes of the class relate directly to a student’s own lived experiences, identities, and perspectives. It will also serve as an artifact of the student’s learning that will be useful to them beyond the class (Northwestern’s “Computing, Ethics, and Society” course, Fall 2021).

Advantages

• By reflecting on their personal identity and positionality, students will better understand how technology positions people with more or less power.

Potential hurdles

• Grade journal entries as pass/fail. Give credit to thoughtful responses while minimizing the teaching staff’s grading time and grading bias.

Description

• Relate exam problems to relevant ethical questions for your students to reflect and write about.

Advantages

• Simple to integrate into an established curriculum.

Potential hurdles

• Teaching staff bandwidth to grade ethical questions.

Suggestions

• Grade ethical reflections as pass/fail. Give credit to thoughtful responses while minimizing the teaching staff’s grading time and grading bias.
• Refrain from making the assignment extra credit. Reinforce that ethics is a not an addendum, but a foundational consideration.

Description

• Integrate ethical considerations into supplementary lectures/videos by discussing the course content’s real world applications and implications.
• Implement course requirements to attend external seminars, information sessions, or discussions regarding the tech ethics.
• Invite guest lecturers to speak about tech ethics in their expert field.

Advantages

• Learn from outside perspectives and experts.

Potential Hurdles

• By not embedding ethical considerations into the course material itself, you encourage students to see your course and ethics as separable concepts.
• Course bandwidth for additional ethical lectures in the curriculum.