research-article

Computing Ethics Narratives: Teaching Computing Ethics and the Impact of Predictive Algorithms

Authors:

Beleicia B. Bullock,

Fernando L. Nascimento,

Stacy A. DooreAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '21: Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Pages 1020 - 1026

https://doi.org/10.1145/3408877.3432468

Published: 05 March 2021 Publication History

Abstract

The prevention of criminal activity has changed dramatically over the past two decades, largely due to the increased reliance on systems that provide crime data analysis. Created specifically for police, judicial sentencing, and prison applications, these systems conduct both predictive and retrospective analysis to aid decision making within the criminal justice system. Furthermore, these software platforms typically combine spatial informatics packages and advanced statistical features behind user-friendly interfaces. Recent studies have demonstrated problems with both the flawed logic within these systems' algorithms and the inherent biases in the underlying data. In this paper, we present a novel repository of computing ethics teaching modules across a variety of narrative areas. These modules and curated narratives help faculty to establish 'ethical laboratories' that can guide computer science students in improving their ethical reasoning skills as it relates to the creation of current and future technologies. First, we provide an overview of the Computing Ethics Narratives (CEN) project, its narrative repository and the module framework through a sample module on predictive policing algorithms. Furthermore, we share preliminary findings from a pilot of this module, which was implemented in an intermediate algorithms course. The preliminary student and faculty feedback suggest the predictive policing module was able to help students contextualize the ethical issues around the topic, however, students recommended devoting more class time to evaluating the technical complexities of these critical systems.

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Index Terms

Computing Ethics Narratives: Teaching Computing Ethics and the Impact of Predictive Algorithms
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
    2. Computing profession
      1. Codes of ethics

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '21: Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 2021

1454 pages

ISBN:9781450380621

DOI:10.1145/3408877

General Chairs:
Mark Sherriff
University of Virginia, USA
,
Laurence D. Merkle
Air Force Institute of Technology, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Pamela Cutter
Kalamazoo College, USA
,
Alvaro Monge
California State University, Long Beach, USA
,
Judithe Sheard
Monash University, Australia

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Published: 05 March 2021

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639572
Rivera VSu NStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Teaching Ethics & Activism in a Human-Computer Interaction Professional Master's ProgramProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630939(1140-1146)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630939
Johri AHingle A(2024)Case Study Based Pedagogical Intervention for Teaching Software Engineering Ethics2024 36th International Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T)10.1109/CSEET62301.2024.10663046(1-10)Online publication date: 29-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSEET62301.2024.10663046
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Smith JPayne BKlassen SDoyle DFiesler CDoyle MStephenson BDorn BSoh LBattestilli L(2023)Incorporating Ethics in Computing CoursesProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569855(367-373)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
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Zegura CShapiro BMacDonald RBorenstein JZegura E(2023)“Moment to Moment”: A Situated View of Teaching Ethics from the Perspective of Computing Ethics Teaching AssistantsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581572(1-15)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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