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Track Report:
Teaching Computer Ethics
Keith Miller
I am sure that the presentation given to the conference on Friday morning was unique in style, and I hope that it was effective in raising some issues that were important to the participants in our track. I thought it was fitting that the members of the teaching track attempted to communicate in a non-traditional manner to the rest of the conference. The content of computing and values is complex and many layered; the power relationships in computing and the power relationships in academia are complicating factors in teaching about computing and values; and the methods necessary to communicate about these issues in the classroom are still exploratory. Faced with all of these challenges, I maintain that people interested in teaching about computing and values must exploit their creativity and be willing to take risks.
Having advocated creativity and risk, I will now appeal to structure to avoid the risk of sacrificing content to style. The ideas and work of the participants in the teaching track deserve, in my opinion, careful consideration by people interested in teaching computing and values. In our group presentation, we tried to communicate ideas using a method at least designed to engage and provoke people directly. In this written report, I will try to organize the ideas in a more traditional essay form:
• Introduction
In his charge to the track coordinators, Terry Bynum, Co-Chair of the NCCV Conference, asked us several questions that we could dwell on when summarizing our group efforts:
- How can we identify major issues and problems in the area of teaching computing and values?
- What can the Research Center on Computer & Society do in the future to encourage progress in the teaching of computing and values? What do you need and how can the center help?
- The NSF funded the NCCV. What other projects might be appropriate for NSF funding in the area of teaching computing and values?
In the essay that follows, we’ll describe several issues identified in group discussions, and suggest answers to the three questions above.
• Teaching Computing and Values: Three Themes and Many Challenges
The teaching track participants were adept at discovering thorny problems. These problems are not only numerous, they are interdependent and often ill-defined. In trying to understand these problems better, we tried to discern themes that recurred in our discussions, meta-problems that appeared in different forms in many specific issues. Three such themes that seemed particularly significant were pedagogy, philosophy, and power. These themes surface often in the discussions below.
A. What Should Be Taught about Computing and Values?
Before we can determine the best way to teach computing and values, we must agree on what should be taught. Many terms are included when discussing what should be taught: classical ethics and computer ethics, computers and society, computer crime and legal issues, professionalism and professional codes; each of these has some claim to legitimate inclusion. Presently, most educators are not completely convinced that anyone has found an ideal mix of topics or a single best approach to computing and values. It’s unlikely that universal agreement will emerge, but its disturbing that the questions are still being discussed at a fairly superficial level.
Many computer science educators do not include computing and values in their individual courses or in their overall curriculum. Part of that reluctance can be traced to a confusion, even among those well versed in the field, about what computing and values includes. The resulting inactivity in this area sends a strong negative message to our students: the human values involved with computing are not important enough to include in our programs.
Surely this is not the message we, the attendees at NCVV, want to send. Such a message encourages computer scientists (and computer science students) to think of themselves as technocrats without responsibility to other people. Such a message suggests that it is always someone higher up in an organization that determines what is right or wrong – we are merely implementing their plan.
The message of inactivity is in one sense easy: we need not wrestle with the many difficulties in teaching computing and values. But ignoring values is difficult to justify when we consider our responsibilities as professionals, citizens, and teachers. Thus it is important that we try to give more satisfying answers to the fundamental question: what is valuable in computing and values, so valuable that it MUST be included in any reputable computing curriculum?
The teaching track participants did not uncover an easy answer to the question of what should be taught, but they did discuss several avenues to explore. First, the difficult theoretical questions about computing and values require a disciplined, scholarly exploration. We will not be able to identify the most important questions until we have explored them more deeply than we have thus far. In order to encourage this scholarship, we must support scholars in this area. For example, computer science departments must recognize the importance of teaching in general and teaching computing and values in particular. This includes expanding the boundaries of acceptable research, and recognizing at tenure time that computing and ethics is a legitimate academic pursuit. This may require a rethinking of educational issues that are campus wide. Recent calls for a return to an emphasis on teaching in universities may signal that at least some are ready for such a rethinking.
To deserve more academic recognition, current researchers in computing and values must raise the scholarly level of work in this area. Researchers can initiate joint projects with scholars in other disciplines, and make concerted efforts to publish in reputable journals. As the level and quantity of scholarship rise, a journal devoted to this field could be initiated.
As we struggle with the question of what to teach about computing and values, we must include non-academics in our deliberations. End users of computing systems, employers, and government officials all have a stake in the professionalism of our students. They may offer new ideas and new resources in the teaching of computing and values. If students are to be sensitive to human values, they must be more aware of different perspectives on computing. We, the teachers, must be equally aware of these concerns.
The Research Center and the NSF can help support the scholarly activity necessary to make progress on this question. Certainly NCCV, a cooperative effort of the Center and NSF, has stimulated thinking and research about this question. The NSF could increase the resources available for individual and group research efforts in this area. As results are published, the Center can keep us informed, and can challenge us with new and deeper questions that result from the research.
B. What Resources Are Available for Teaching Computing and Values?
The track materials include many suggestions for teaching resources, and the group discussions include several more. Several efforts are beginning to facilitate the sharing of resources. The Center’s huge effort to produce and disseminate materials from this conference is an excellent example of support for teachers of computing and values. Continued effort in this area, with NSF support, could be a major force in promoting the study and development of this area.
There are several other resources mentioned in the group notes above: all the books in the NCCV bibliography; science fiction literature, especially the cyberspace emphasis; SIGCAS and its publications; CPSR and its publications; comp.risks and SE Notes; ETHICS-L e-mail list; CACM self-assessment; IEEE Annals of the History of Computing; special issues and single articles in the computer science research literature (January 92 issue of Journal of Systems and Software is devoted to computer ethics); video tapes of news reports and analyses of current computer issues; and so on. The Center can facilitate sharing of these resources by acting as a clearinghouse for the information or for pointers on how to obtain them from elsewhere.
Peter Danielson, a participant in the teaching track, volunteered the following announcement regarding resource sharing:
The Centre for Applied Ethics at the University of British Columbia has a special interest in business and professional ethics, including ethics and computing technology. Two current projects may be of special interest to those teaching computing ethics.
The Canadian Business and Professional Ethics Network (CBPENet) is a three year research project funded by an Applied Ethics Strategic Grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The network is intended to facilitate research in the field by providing computer assisted communication for researchers and research users and the collection, storage and dissemination of materials, including computing ethics. Those interested should contact the moderator, Louis Marinoff at the Centre for Applied Ethics at CBPENET@unixg.ubc.ca
Computer Ethics through Thick & Thin is a three year research project funded by an Applied Ethics Strategic Grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The project will investigate the ethical potential of computer mediated communication by creating two virtual colloquia that differ in the information available to their members. The Thick group will know each other only as continuing pseudonyms; the Thin group will be able to access whatever information its members will contribute. The two colloquia are based on e-mail in order to encourage wide membership. The groups will discuss ethical issues raised by computer technology, such as privacy and ownership and control. For a description of the project and information about how to join either group, please contact Peter Danielson at danielsn@unixg.ubc.ca
For more information about the centre and its projects, please contact:
Centre for Applied Ethics University of British Columbia
1866 Mail Mall E-16? ?
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z1
Phone: (604) 822 5139
FAX: (604) 822 8627
E-mail: ethics@unixg.ubc.ca
C. What Curriculum Adjustment Is Best for Teaching Computing and Values?
This question received a great deal of attention in our track. There were arguments for the following kinds of organization: a computer science course devoted to computing and values (or some variation thereof), modules or single lectures integrated into a course or courses in a traditional curriculum, a capstone course combining software engineering and computer ethics, and encouraging other departments (e.g., philosophy and sociology) to offer courses in this area. Most participants agree that ALL these organizations could be useful, and that none excludes the others. Since the teaching of computing and values is in a nascent stage, I think that efforts should continue in all these different methods, and that we should share our positive and negative experiences as we develop expertise in them.
The Center and NSF can encourage the development in one or more of these alternative organizations by funding pilot projects in teaching computing and values. Teachers with experience in one method could be invited to write proposals to develop materials for others to use. These materials could include detailed course outlines, overhead transparencies, case studies, test materials, video taped lectures, video interviews with the principals in either factual or fictional cases, textbooks or experimental book chapters, and so on.
The Center can also cooperate in the ongoing effort of CPSR in collecting, editing, and distributing course syllabi in the area of computing and values. This effort, along with electronic mail sharing, has been significant in popularizing many useful curriculum materials in the past few years.
D. How Does Computer Ethics Differ from Traditional Ethics?
The tension between the study of philosophical ethics and ethics applied to computing generated lively discussion in the teaching track. Computer science teachers are worried about “the paralysis of analysis” and other pitfalls traditionally associated with theoretical ethics. On the other hand, many computer science professionals recognize the need for increased sophistication in reasoning through problems associated with complex technologies and with increasingly critical human interactions with computing.
The participants in the track came to no consensus on this issue, but I will venture some personal observations. In order to do a credible job in teaching (and research) about computing and values, we cannot ignore the huge body of scholarship that exists in ethics. We need to become familiar with the existing literature, and we need to gain the critical skills necessary to do ethical analysis. However, we cannot become so enamored with the dilemmas posed by theoretical ethics that we lose our effectiveness in applying the ethics. (Don Gotterbarn made this point several times at NCCV, and he convinced me of its importance.) I think we should look to other fields of applied, professional ethics as we attempt to tread the fine line between over-analysis on the one hand and shallow analysis on the other. I think the subgroup #2 report said it well: “computer science should have control, although others may be involved.”
I have mentioned ethics specifically because that is the discipline most often discussed in our track. However, a similar question can be asked of other disciplines which have something to say about computing and values: sociology and law are two examples which were prominent at NCCV. How can computer scientists assimilate important ideas from all these areas yet still maintain credibility as computer scientists? Similarly, how can researchers in philosophy, sociology, and law gain sufficient knowledge about computing to make meaningful contributions in the area of computing and values? Again, I cannot speak for the group but instead must make personal judgment’s. I think NCCV itself is a prime example of how scholars can efficiently explore other disciplines: in cooperation with scholars from other areas. We need to foster interdisciplinary exchanges and collaborations.
The Center and the NSF can support this collaboration financially, by sponsoring conferences and workshops and by funding research projects that explicitly require researchers from more than one discipline. The Center can also encourage this work by initiating such projects, suggesting interesting collaborations between scholars the Center has identified in different disciplines. With the pervasiveness of e-mail, such collaborations can take place at a distance with a minimum of inconvenience. If the Center organizes another interdisciplinary conference, such scholarly duets could add a new dimension – feature pairs of scholars in a single collaborative presentation as keynotes.
E. How Do We Strike a Balance Between Emphasizing Personal Responsibility and Awareness of Societal, Organizational Aspects of Computing and Values?
Two of the keynote speakers (Judith Perrolle and Gary Chapman) spoke at length about the power relationships involved in computing and ethics, and about the societal role in promoting or discouraging ethical behavior in the area of technology. These issues, not surprisingly, became an important part of our track discussions as well. Again, the only consensus I discerned was that both emphases – personal as well as societal and organizational responsibilities – were important. Their relative importance in a teaching situation were controversial. My suspicion is that advocates for both positions learned more about the opposing position during the discussions.
F. Revival, the Ethical Computer, and Juggling
In his keynote speech, Terry Winograd discussed the question of whether computer ethics did or did not fit the three models: “revival, the ethical computer, and juggling.” It struck me as interesting to look for ways in which these three models did capture some of the content of the teaching track discussions.
• Revival:
A major benefit of the group discussions was a sense that others were committed to to teaching of computing and ethics; many of us feel isolated from our local colleagues about this subject, and it was encouraging to hear so many other people speak with conviction and intelligence about this subject. NCCV served as a revival as well as a resource, and I think this was important to many teaching track participants.
• The Ethical Computer:
It’s true that many issues concerning computing and values are complex and ambiguous. But members of the teaching track also discovered that many other situations ARE fairly clear and amenable to reasonable solution when computing professionals and students are sensitive to the values dimension of their work. Thus, the existence of ethical dilemmas that will not yield to any single systematic approach should not discourage us from attempting to organize and perhaps formalize techniques for exploring possible solutions to ethical dilemmas. Thus, an unwarranted bias against “algorithms for ethics” may be premature. No, machines cannot think about human values for us, but we may be able to use computers to help organize our thoughts and retrieve relevant information about computing and values.
Furthermore, with commitment to human values and with technical ingenuity, there may be technical solutions to thorny situations. Again, the computer is not ethical, but computers may be part of a solution to an ethical problem. For example, the empowerment of nurses by a computer system that enforced their professionalism is a case where computers supported human values.
• Juggling:
An important part of the juggling analogy is the aspect of public performance. Certainly teaching requires attention to this aspect, and the track participants shared many ideas for more effective presentations. We even tried some of these out. In addition, juggling cooperatively seems appropriate to teaching computing and values, since we need to cooperate with our students (even more than when we are teaching programming), other computer science faculty (who should support the emphasis on values in their courses), and with researchers in other disciplines (with whom we must share).
In summary: The teaching track, like the NCCV as a whole, benefited greatly from the diversity of the participants and the intensity of the week long conference. The Research Center on Computing & Society Center and the National Science Foundation are to be commended for enabling us to learn from each other. We hope they will continue their efforts to promote the teaching of computing and values.
The College of William and Mary
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