Posts about ethicshttp://cestlaz.github.io/categories/ethics.atom2018-09-19T23:47:47ZMike ZamanskyNikolaTime To Create An Ethics Coursehttp://cestlaz.github.io/posts/time-to-create-an-ethics-course/2018-07-21T16:52:21-04:002018-07-21T16:52:21-04:00Mike Zamansky<div id="outline-container-orge1be1f1" class="outline-2">
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I think it's time for me to start developing a CS Ethics class.
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An ethics course isn't a replacement for having teachers that live and
model good behavior and weave ethical issues throughout the curriculum
but still, adding a separate course on top of that has its merits.
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I'm not in a rush to create this course. I might be done in a month or
it might take a couple of years. When I'm done, I'll add it as an
option in my CS Teacher education programs but hopefully it will be an
attractive course for undergrad CS majors as well.
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While it's easy enough to come up with possible topics - privacy,
moral responsibilities, biased algorithms, net neutrality and on and
on I'm looking for this course to have a serious coding component. I
want the students to build things to really understand the
implications of what they're studying.
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One topic I definitely want to cover is <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/10/youre-not-so-anonymous/">anonimity</a>. I'd love to find
the right combination of data sets and have the class discover that
some hidden information in the sets isn't nearly as hidden as it seems
to be. When I was at Stuy, I was thinking about
having the kids give me permission to use their class schedules since
even with names removed we could probably identify many kids by
electives and overlapping classes. I have no idea what I'll be able to
do at Hunter. If I can come up with something good I think this will
form the basis of a pretty amazing part of the class.
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Another project I'd love to put together is something dealing with a
biased algorithm. Again, I don't know where this will go, maybe
something where I can seed the class so that different groups
implement some project differently and we can then analyze each groups
biases, hidden or otherwise.
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Beyond these two, I'm not sure.
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How about you? Anyone out there have any good ideas for programming
projects for an ethical CS course? If so, please share. It might be a
while but when I do finish putting this together I'll be sure to
publish whatever the end result is.
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