Integrating Ethics into Computer Science Education: Multi-, Inter-, and Transdisciplinary Approaches

In this episode I unpack Goetze’s (2023) publication titled “Integrating ethics into computer science education: Multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary approaches,” which unpacks three approaches to integrating ethics with computer science education.

Spoken quite extensively on this podcast
about how there are many ways that you
can integrate computer science with
other subject areas what about
integrating computer science with ethics
what kind of Frameworks might we use to
explore that topic today's paper
actually explores that it's titled
integrating ethics into Computer Science
Education multi-inter and
transdisciplinary approaches this was
written by Tristan Getz here's the
abstract for the paper quote while calls
to integrate ethics into Computer
Science Education go back decades recent
high-profile ethical failures related to
Computing technology are 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 programs
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 list
of case studies and essential topics to
cover while proponents of computer
ethics education often emphasize the
importance of closely connecting at the
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 for
cross-disciplinary studies that
categorizes academic projects that work
across disciplines as multi-disciplinary
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 program I argue that computer FX
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 end
quote brought a summarizes article into
a single sentence I say that this
article unpacks three approaches to
integrating ethics with Computer Science
Education now this article is talking
about ethics in relation to higher
education Computer Science Education I'm
going to talk about this in relation to
K-12 Computer Science Education now I
come from this from a background with
having worked with every single grade
kindergarten through doctoral students
in a variety of contexts and having
designed professional development and
curricula that's been used by hundreds
of thousands of students around the
world and teachers as well so in episode
real world colon student perspectives on
integrating ethics into a computer
science assignment we talked about how
some undergraduate students gave some
feedback on an Ethics assignment in a
higher education course I talked about
how that might relate to K-12 education
for computer science Educators who are
interested in including ethics but one
of the things that I talked about is
that there are many ways that you could
integrate ethics into Computer Science
Education so this paper is specifically
going to focus on that now you can find
a link to this paper in the show notes
which is at jaredaliri.com or by
clicking the link in the app that you're
listening to this on as well as a bunch
of other computer science education
resources like this is episode 180 of
the CIA Sk8 podcast but there's a bunch
more content on the website that is
related to Computer Science Education
social sponsor of gaming drumming stuff
because I'm a full-time content creator
so if you haven't been on my website yet
check it out just search for my name or
go to jaredleary.com now in the
introduction the author mentions on page
interdisciplinary transdisciplinary and
so on are often used interchangeably
without reflecting on differences these
Concepts might capture and without
explicit reflection on how the different
disciplines in question are to be
integrated by fixing the meaning of
these terms in place we can see more
clearly the particular advantages and
challenges of multiple approaches to
computer ethics education and even
imagine new ways of doing so end quote I
totally agree with that one of the
problems that I ran into when I was
doing my dissertation is there were so
many different ways to kind of explore
these intersections of multiple
disciplines or domains some might call
it cross-disciplinary or
interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary
transdisciplinary Etc there's also other
types of integration like plural
disciplinary or metadisciplinary or an
interdiscipline or looking at it from
Frameworks such as like embedded
thematic integration knowledge
integration or even learner-initiated
integration all of these kind of like
work together and kind of like muddy the
Waters of what it looks like when two
domains in some way intersect with each
other this might be like a Venn diagram
where only a little sliver is kind of
intersecting or it might merge all the
way over into like an interdiscipline
where they create a new discipline or
transdisciplinary where it's kind of
like there's many different disciplines
together so we're going to kind of
unpack these and talk about it in
relation to the intersections of ethics
and computer science education so in
section two the author talks about some
of the goals of computer ethics
education so here's a quote from page
ethical values those of the Computing
professions those of their society and
the variety of value systems that exist
in the world two be able to analyze and
produce ethical arguments three be able
to describe the positive and negative
ways in which a variety of computing
Technologies impact the environment
individual group and groups of people
especially marginalized groups four be
able to identify the values and
assumptions embedded in a variety of
Technology five be familiar with the
values codes and standards of
professionalism expected of a Computing
practitioner end quote so graduates of a
computer science program should be able
to do that according to this kind of
framework now I would argue that these
could kind of serve as like big ideas
that could help guide conversations of
Ethics in K-12 education as well but how
you explore explore these different
broader ideas or questions or topics Etc
depends on the goals of your program of
yourself of your students various
stakeholders Etc so section three of
this paper talks about different
cross-disciplinary typologies that might
be used when exploring this intersection
and so the author Begins by kind of
talking about how there are many ways
you can do this so it's like a Continuum
of how much this will kind of intersect
on the different Venn diagrams if we
only focus on ethics and computer
science education it could be just a
one-off little intersection it could be
like an entire unit it could be an
entire semester or a course or it could
be an entire degree on just the
intersections of ethics and computer
science and there's many different
varying degrees in between each of those
little examples that I gave but let's
talk about the three different
cross-disciplinary typologies that are
mentioned in this particular article so
here's a quote from page 646 quote multi
and plural disciplinary work juxtapose
multiple disciplines where the former
puts seemingly disconnected disciplines
together such as history and Mathematics
and the latter juxtaposes disciplines
that appear to have some Affinity such
as French and Latin interdisciplinary
work by contrast requires interaction
between the disciplines through the
distinctive Concepts methods results
data and so on finally transdisciplinary
work provides a meta framework of
concepts for understanding different
disciplines from the perspective of
philosophy or sociology of knowledge end
quote and so the author mentions that
there is kind of like a bit of a
hierarchy there in that multi and plural
disciplinary are kind of like the lower
levels of integration and then
interdisciplinary is kind of like the
step up from that and then
transdisciplinary can be like an end
result of like moving beyond disciplines
or Beyond silos in general having also
explored a variety of like integration
work which I do link to in the show
notes there are several episodes that
talk about integration I will say that
there's not a consensus on how each of
these different methods or typologies
are defined within the field of
curricular studies so while one author
might describe multidisciplinary one way
another might describe it a different
way so section four of this paper is
titled A cross-disciplinary framework
and so it kind of outlines the three
different approaches that are unpacked
here so I'm going to read off a
paragraph that kind of unpacks each one
of these and kind of talk about them
after the fact so this is from page 647.
quote a multidisciplinary collaboration
involves researchers who work in
parallel or sequentially from discipline
specific bases to address a common
problem in these collaborations
researchers from different disciplines
recognize that they have a common
interest in some subject of research and
would mutually benefit from multiple
inquiries from different disciplinary
approaches however each researcher or
team engages independently in the
inquiry from within their own
disciplinary context using their
disciplines methods background knowledge
and conceptual Frameworks reporting
their findings to their collaborations
in other disciplines only after their
own work is complete the inquiries
happen either in parallel or
sequentially with one disciplines
experts handing off the results to the
next end quote now one way that I've
heard multidisciplinary described is
kind of like how a high school is set up
where you go to different classes and
you are learning all these classes in
parallel with each other but they don't
necessarily intercept so one of the
things that could be done to kind of
like create the more of the intersection
with multi-disciplinary is to kind of
have a theme across the different
classes that are kind of explored so I'm
going to go explore the theme of like
the Harlem Renaissance from an Arts
perspective then I'm going to explore it
from historical or sociological
perspective and then I'm going to
explore it from I don't know like a
science perspective whatever that might
be all disconnected and then maybe
you'll bring it together at the end
through some kind of culminating project
but not necessarily the case depending
on how you define multidisciplinary now
this approach to multidisciplinary
contrasts with interdisciplinary which
again is also discussed on page 647
quote an interdisciplinary research
project involves researchers who work
jointly but still from discipline
specific basis to address a common
problem in contrast with
multidisciplinary research
interdisciplinary collaborations require
all disciplinary experts to work on the
same project instead of pursuing
discrete inquiries in doing so however
each disciplinary expert or team still
employs their own disciplines methods
and conceptual Frameworks as in
multidisciplinary research experts from
different disciplines might work
sequentially one disciplines findings
being reported to the next but instead
of being essentially separate inquiries
on the same subject that are brought
together only at critical milestones in
an interdisciplinary collaboration every
stage of work informs the next
regardless of its disciplinary home end
quote so this might be a kind of project
where you actually collaborate with
another teacher so for example you might
be collaborating with a science teacher
and you're going to create some kind of
like device that's going to measure the
I don't know soil temperature and
weather blah blah blah if students are
working on that same project in both
your computer science class and the
science class or maybe you're like an
elementary teacher who teaches both
simultaneously that might be an example
of interdisciplinary research or an
interdisciplinary project so that
overlap on the Venn diagram is much
stronger there but then we can get rid
of the whole idea of silos begin with if
we explore transdisciplinary which again
is talked about on page 647 so here's a
quote from there quote a
transdisciplinary research project
involves researchers who work jointly
using a shared conceptual framework
drawing together discipline specific
theories Concepts and approaches to
address a common problem in a
transdisciplinary project the
collaboration extends Beyond
contributing to the same project using
discrete disciplinary methods the nature
of the project requires integrating at
the level of the conceptual framework
and methods used in order to address a
complex subject in the process a
distinctive approach May emerge that
could become a new discipline itself
such as a reproachment of philosophy
psychology Neuroscience computer science
Linguistics and other fields that
produce the discipline of cognitive
science end quote okay now again because
there are many different ways of
conceiving of these like
cross-disciplinary approaches and
whatnot with a way I've heard like
interdiscipline and transdisciplinary is
a little bit different than what was
described here and this is not a knock
on the author by by any means so when I
explored the intersections of computer
science and music making in chiptunes in
for my dissertation we were looking at
this like online discussion forum
there's like 10 000 members like 11
million words of data something like
that and they were making music with old
retro video game consoles Hardwares Etc
in order to do that they had to engage
in computer science practices explore
different concepts Etc like to be able
to modify the hardware or even design
and create new hardware or to just be
able to like reprogram old Hardware to
be able to like perform with like a Sega
Genesis or Mega Drive as an instrument
and a modern computer or laptop whatever
if we were to look at this from like a
problem based approach it would be
transdisciplinary in that the problem is
people wanted to be able to make music
with Hardware that previously was not
designed to be able to make music so the
way they did that was exploring like
electrical engineering exploring
programming exploring Visual Arts
practices also engaging entrepreneurial
practices like they explored all these
different ways to be able able to do
that this could be described as
transdisciplinary in that they are
exploring a problem without thinking of
disciplinary silos but thinking of how
to be able to solve the problem using
whatever Concepts practices Etc that
they could come up with or find so if
you focus on the problem it's
transdisciplinary but if you focus on
that intersection that merging of
computer science and music to be able to
create chiptunes that might be an
entirely new interdiscipline of
chiptunes so the way that I can kind of
conceive of an interest discipline
versus trans disciplinary is
transdisciplinary is more of a verb it
is a process that you engage in when you
are exploring a problem or different
practices Etc from many different fields
whereas an interdiscipline is more of a
noun where it is like the new thing the
new discipline that is a merger of
former disciplines so for example like
bioengineering is a merging of biology
with like engineering or bioethics which
is a merger of biology and ethics those
in my opinion are interdisciplines now
that I've nerded out on those three
different ideas is let's talk about how
we can use them to kind of explore the
intersections of ethics and computer
science so in Section 5
multi-disciplinary computer fxc author
unpacks well what would ethics look like
from a multi-disciplinary perspective
here's a quote from page 648 quote a
multi-disciplinary computer ethics
initiative integrates ethical education
in parallel or in sequence with
technical instruction but keeps these
disciplines separate within the degree
program as a whole ethical Concepts and
skills are taught separately from
technical Concepts and skills and they
are brought together only at Key
milestones in the course of the study
ethics is treated as something that can
inform and improve technical Computing
work but not as essential to the work of
computing per se and quote so the author
unpacks many different ways that you
might be able to explore this within a
computer science class so for example
like a an assignment that might have
like a little connection with ethics
like okay so you're going to program
this thing but also think about the
ethical implications of the results on
users or whatever could be a single
assignment like that it could be like an
entire unit but it could also be like an
entirely separate course that is
specific to ethics maybe it's just a
broad ethics course or a course that's
specifically on Computing ethics or
ethics and computer science but again it
is disconnected from all of the other
classes or the all the other degree work
so as we talked about in last week's
episode episode 179 this is an approach
that you could also use in your K-12
classes as well you could have a class A
unit a semester
Etc that is specific to ethics and
computer science or as simple as a
single assignment that does that now the
author notes is this approach has an
advantage in that it is relatively easy
to be able to add this into existing
technical curricula but there are some
disadvantages to this so here's a quote
from page 648 that unpacks that quote
these approaches fail to take on
Miller's Insight that Technical and
ethical issues are best taught in
connection with one another rather than
separately this artificially isolates
subjects that in the professional World
always co-occur Computing always takes
place in Social context and ethical
issues arise is in connection with
specific aspects of technical Computing
work and a little bit further down
multi-disciplinary computer ethics
education risks presenting ethics as
supplemental to the real world of
computer science namely the technical
skills with the bulk of the curriculum
dedicated to technical instruction
independent of Ethics instruction and
ethics interventions limited to one-off
courses or assessments students are
often given the impression that ethics
is an afterthought burden or box to tick
end quote I really appreciate the
author's framing of this in terms of
like both what are some of the
advantages and disadvantages or the
affordances the constraints of such an
approach again as I mentioned many times
I like to focus on multi-perspective
approaches to education there are many
ways of doing things so we will look at
something like multi-disciplinary
computer ethics and go this works this
does not but let's talk about the next
potential way of integrating which is in
section 6 interdisciplinary computer
ethics this is from page 648 quote a
closer integration of FX and Computing
education would produce an
interdisciplinary program where both
disciplines are taught concurrently in
service of the same shared goals each
discipline remains distinct in the
concepts background and skills that they
bring to bear that both sets are used by
instructors and students to engage with
the same material in interdisciplinary
Computing ethics education ethics is a
skill set that is presented as a
requirement for doing quality work in
the Computing professions despite being
different in kind from technical skills
interdisciplinary computer ethics is
perhaps easier to achieve in the context
of Ethics modules which are taught in
the midst of ongoing technical courses
end quote now they often talks about
advantages in terms of like it makes it
so that when you're exploring both the
ethical and the technical at the same
time you are trying to unpack the
impacts of computing from the programs
that you're creating or the hardware
software you are developing but again
the author notes that there are some
disadvantages to this approach it can
require faculty members to be able to
have an expertise in both Computing and
ethics or collaborating with other
people who have expertise that they
don't have it can also take more time
like I mentioned previously a a boot
camp approach is very different than a
broader CS approach where in the boot
camp you might just be weren't learning
like one IDE one programming language
for the purpose of just getting a job so
all you're doing is just coding all day
long whereas computer science you might
actually Explore More Than Just the
technical and explore some of the ethics
and the impacts as well as the
theoretical and there's a Continuum
clearly in between those two and the
same thing applies into K-12 education
as well so again are you going to focus
on the technical or are you going to
focus on mainly the theoretical or the
ethical are you going to focus on
somewhere in the middle we'll talk about
that a little bit more when I do my
lingering questions and thoughts at the
end of this episode but again it is
difficult to explore these different
intersections if you do not have subject
area expertise in both domains a reason
why I am able to talk about with
confidence the intersections of music
and computer science education is
because I have a background in both so
all my degrees are in music education
but then I've also taught Computer
Science Education and developed
curricula professional development etc
for computer science Educators so
because I have that experience in both
domains I can confidently go into an
interdiscipline like chiptunes and be
able to speak confidently about the
concepts practices Etc that are within
both domains and how they intersect or
don't which is one of the things that
many curriculum Scholars don't talk
about with integration is well what
about the stuff that doesn't fit neatly
within that little shared space in the
Venn diagram what about everything
outside of that but I've talked about
that ranted about it in other integrated
podcast episodes Linked In the show
notes okay so interdisciplinary sounds
cool it's like beneficial from a student
perspective but it's a little bit harder
from an instructor perspective the
author next unpacks in section 7 the
transdisciplinary computer ethics what
does that mean there is a quote from
page 649 quote the prefix trans in
transdisciplinary suggests that such a
project transcends the conventional
divide between the disciplines involved
going over and beyond their limitations
and perhaps creating a new field of
study better equipped to tackle some
range of problems for example one way to
interpret the emergence of cognitive
science and of Science and Technology
studies as distinctive Fields is that
the various upon studying the mind and
the social aspects of technoscience
respectively came together to create new
Concepts methods and theories that could
not be produced within their progen
enter disciplines similarly we might
wonder what may emerge if ethics and
Computing were to become so closely
integrated as to produce a new
discipline of research and education
transdisciplinary work requires that
practitioners in multiple disciplines
use their distinct expertise to craft a
new conceptual and methodological
framework to tackle a shared inquiry end
quote now a little bit further down on
page 649 the author further emphasizes
an important point that I think we
should also consider in K-12 education
quote a transdisciplinary approach to
computer ethics would make ethical
success at least as important as
technical success in Computing generally
on this approach ethical reflection is
no longer a supplemental consideration
as multidisciplinary interventions
positions it nor is it an aligned but
still alien skill set as it is
positioned by transdisciplinary
initiatives rather a on a
transdisciplinary vision ethical
reflection is a core skill for computing
as important as other specialized areas
of computing practice a technological
innovation would not be considered
technically sound unless it is also
ethically responsible to deploy the
conceptual Frameworks are not just
running in parallel they have merged end
quote Yeah so again another way that you
can think of this like if you think of
it as the noun that would be the
interdiscipline the intersection of
computing and ethics as a new discipline
to explore if that is something that you
are interested in cool you could totally
do that another way of thinking of this
is like broader than just ethics but
also social justice which is obviously
very related to it is looking at like
what does a socially just Computer
Science Education Program look like or
as like the K-pop centers framework
culturally responsive sustaining
Computer Science Education Program what
does that look like how do you merge
those together those different
perspectives from like Scholars like
Geneva gay Gloria Ladson Billings Paris
and lean Etc which I've talked about in
some other episodes and I'll link to
that in the show notes for example
episode 40 which is titled toward a
theory of culturally relevant pedagogy
so the author provides multiple examples
of well what would this kind of look
like in a higher education context I'm
not going to read them off because again
I want you to read this article I think
it's very interesting and there's a lot
of applications that could be relevant
to K-12 Educators as well as higher
education but there are some problems
with this so and while there are many
advantages in terms of being able to
explore things from a holistic manner
not having disciplinary silos Etc like
the problems again with having the
expertise in multiple domains maybe not
even just two domains but several
domains it becomes harder from an
instructional standpoint and from a
preparation standpoint but if you listen
to the podcast episodes that I talk
about on rhizomatic learning or even
like the Affinity space characteristics
episode that I link to in the show notes
that kind of gives you an idea of how
you might explore from a
transdisciplinary standpoint or even
design curricula from a rhizomatic
standpoint that supports
transdisciplinary learning even if you
are required to do standards in your
K-12 classes so if you want to dive down
that rabbit hold make sure you check out
the links in the show notes in
particular check out episode 150 which
is titled fostering intersectional
identities through rhizomatic learning
as well as a panel of discussion for
episode 75 rhizomatic learning with
Catherine bornhurst John Stapleton and
Katie Henry whereas the first episode
kind of talks more of a curricular
standpoint the second episode that I
just mentioned that panel discussion
talks more of like a pedagogical
approach but then you can also explore
episode 89 applications of affinity
space characteristics in computer
science education which kind of talks
about how to design a class and
facilitate a class that kind of supports
this ability to explore many domains or
interests simultaneously but this kind
of approach can be difficult especially
if you have like a lot of administrative
pressures pressures from different
stakeholders and whatnot in terms of
what they expect students to be able to
do and learn within your classes are
they expecting everyone to come out with
the same understanding are they
expecting students to focus just on the
technical rather than on a broader
understanding of computer science and
its impacts of computing now the last
quote that I want to read from page 650
kind of gives you an idea of what it
might mean to be successful if some
somebody were to go through some kind of
a transdisciplinary Computing ethics
course or degree or whatever quote a
transdisciplinary computer ethics
education program would be successful
were to reliably produce experts in
computer ethics and experts in other
subfields of computing each of whom have
enough complementary technical or
ethical knowledge to be interactional
experts with the others a certain
Baseline level of ethical skill would be
expected of all but there would remain
an important role for computer ethics
Specialists whose backgrounds might be
subdivided further into those who focus
on philosophy social science area area
studies or stakeholder engagement end
quote now that really resonates with me
so again if you're going to like merge
together and really focus on like ethics
and Computing or social justice and
Computing Etc or equity and Computing
however you want to think of this like
those different categories that all kind
of resemble and blur together and
Divergent in different ways in each one
of those you have the ability to dive
deeper into different avenues like if we
look at the lgbtq umbrella so like as
somebody who's in that who is pansexual
I could look at it from like a sexuality
perspective and dive deeper into that I
could also look at it as somebody who's
non-binary and and look at the like the
the issues around trans rights etc those
are two very different directions that I
could specialize and go into within the
lgbtqia plus umbrella Etc so whenever
thinking of Ethics think not only of the
macro but also the micro in terms of
like what are the different subdomains
or subfields within the broader areas of
Ethics that could be explored within a
classroom or within a particular
assignment now that might not
necessarily be something that you have
to come up with like if you think back
to episode 179 that released last week
you could have students come up with
their own little Explorations within a
broader topic or even like a smaller
topic and specifically find a niche that
they are interested in exploring within
that domain now at the end of this
unpacking scholarship episodes I'd like
to share some lingering questions and
thoughts so one of them is how might we
communicate and develop shared
understandings of the integration of
computer science and ethics so for
example what about students admin
parents Etc who think that computer
science programs or classes should focus
on the technical rather than the
explorations of Ethics or social justice
or Equity how do we communicate the
value of exploring that and the
long-term impact not only for the
individuals taking those classes but for
society as a whole and how do we develop
that shared understanding to say look
your goals will be met as well as the
goals that I am putting forward or
designing into this unit or class or
assignment or whatever just like I've
mentioned in the other integration
episodes there are many different ways
of conceiving of things or talking about
things but if you come into a computer
science class and say we're going to
explore computer science well one person
envisions in terms of is only going to
focus on the technical versus your own
which might focus on like the technical
and the ethical that is something that
needs to be communicated so that way
there is a shared understanding of going
ah yes I see what you're doing here so
if an administrator walks into your
class and goes why are you talking about
ethics you should be learning how to
program you can confidently say hey
we're learning how to program while
talking about ethics or however you end
up embedding it within the classes that
you work with another question that I
have is what other Frameworks might we
utilize when exploring the intersections
of computer science and ethics so as I
mentioned at the start of this episode
there's other areas as well as like
plural disciplinary metadisciplinary
cross-disciplinary there's the embedded
thematic knowledge learner initiated Etc
forms of integration there are many
different ways of conceiving of how
people kind of create that Venn diagram
between domains or disciplines and I'm
sure there are plenty that I'm not
thinking of that fall within those
little categories or types that I listed
off that might be beneficial or might be
useful for the field now what we could
do is look in other domains to see okay
well how does social studies like
Envision what integration might look
like with other domains or what do the
Arts look like but when we end up
exploring those Integrations we have to
think back to the things that I
mentioned in episode 123 which is titled
the subservient co-equal effective and
social integration Styles and their
implications for computer science quite
a mouthful but is an important episode
to Think Through are we doing this in a
way that makes one domain subservient to
another domain if so that could be
problematic so if you haven't listened
to that episode again 123 I highly
recommend taking a look at that so in a
little mini series on integration like
episode 125 and episode 126 images of
curriculum and contemporary venues of
curriculum inquiry all kind of like dive
deeper into some things to consider when
doing integration but a final question
that I have after reading this is when
is there too little or too much of
Ethics in computer science so each
educator that you work with or yourself
every student you work with every class
degree Etc however macro micro you want
to think of this might have a different
answer to when there is too little or
too much of Ethics in computer science
it's important for you as an educator or
as like a curriculum developer to Think
Through what you intend for the
saturation point to be E when it comes
to that intersection of ethics and
Computing or social justice and
Computing or equity in Computing
whatever variation you want to think of
sitting down and thinking through and
being intentional with that saturation
point this is going to be where I'm
aiming for in terms of a benchmark with
each student or anyone who uses the
lessons that I create or whatever it's
important for you to think through that
in advance so that way you can design
for it if you actually intend to
integrate Computing and ethics I do
highly recommend taking a look at this
article I also recommend taking a look
at all the podcasts that are linked
within the show notes at jaredolary.com
but thank you so much for listening to
this episode if you have any questions
feel free to leave a comment on the
YouTube video and maybe share this and
other episodes with other Educators who
might enjoy listening to this stay tuned
next week for another episode until then
I hope you're all staying safe and are
having a wonderful week

Article

Goetze, T., (2023). Integrating Ethics into Computer Science Education: Multi-, Inter-, and Transdisciplinary Approaches. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - SIGCSE ’23, 645-651.

Abstract

“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.”

Author Keywords

Ethics education, embedded ethics, data justice, ethics course, higher education, cross-disciplinary studies, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, responsible computing, transdisciplinary studies, interdisciplinary studies

My One Sentence Summary

This article unpacks three approaches to integrating ethics with computer science education.

Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

How might we communicate and develop shared understandings of the integration of computer science and ethics?
What other frameworks might we utilize when exploring the intersections of computer science and ethics?
When is there too little/much of ethics in CS?

Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode

Other podcast episodes that were mentioned or are relevant to this episode
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- Contemporary Venues of Curriculum Inquiry
  - In this episode I unpack an excerpt from Schubert’s (2008) publication titled “Curriculum inquiry,” which describes different venues or types of curriculum that educators and education researchers should consider.
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- The Subservient, Co-equal, Affective, and Social Integration Styles and Their Implications for [Computer Science]
  - In this episode I unpack Bresler’s (1995) publication titled “The subservient, co-equal, affective, and social integration styles and their implications for the arts,” which “examines the different manifestations of arts integration in the operational, day-to-day curriculum in ordinary schools, focusing on the how, the what, and the toward what” (p. 33).
- “This Applies to the Real World”: Student Perspectives on Integrating Ethics into a Computer Science Assignment
  - In this episode I unpack Jarzemsky, Paup, and Fiesler’s (2023) publication titled “‘This Applies to the Real World’: Student Perspectives on Integrating Ethics into a Computer Science Assignment,” which explores student perspectives on an undergraduate ethics assignment in a CS class.
- Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
  - In this episode I unpack Ladson-Billings’ (1995) seminal publication titled “Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy,” which influenced much of the discourse around culturally relevant pedagogy in computer science education.
- More episodes related to ethics
- More episodes related to integration
- More episodes related to rhizomatic learning
- All other episodes
Check out my dissertation to learn more about what I was describing in this episode
Find other CS educators and resources by using the #CSK8 hashtag on Twitter