Enhancing the social issues components in our computing curriculum

Abstract

The acceptance and integration of social issues into computing curricula is still a work in progress twenty years after it was first incorporated into the ACM Computing Curricula. Through an international survey of computing instructors, this paper corroborates prior work showing that most institutions include the societal impact of ICT in their programs. However, topics often concentrate on computer history, codes of ethics and intellectual property, while neglecting broader issues of societal impact. This paper explores how these neglected topics can be better developed through a subtle change of focus to the significant role that ICT plays in addressing the needs of the community. Drawing on the survey and a set of implementation cases, the paper provides guidance by means of examples and resources to empower teaching teams to engage students in the application of ICT to bring about positive social outcomes -- computing for the social good.

On the Integration of Ethical, Legal, and Societal Issues into a Computer Science Senior Design Capstone Program

“…Our program was only recently accredited by ABET, which motivated in large part the need for our department to formalize and expand the ethics curriculum of our program (which others have identified as one of the main reasons programs begin teaching their own ethics content 1,2 ). Historically in our program, professional ethics was taught within a dedicated software engineering course.…”

“…Godweber et al 1 argue that while many programs cover topics relating to computer history, codes of ethics, and intellectual property, many do not cover issues of societal impact having to do with cultural issues, accessibility issues, computing and public policy, the impact of free and opensource software, and so on. The authors argue that one approach for introducing such topics into a curriculum is through capstone projects, e.g., that develop products to serve the public good.…”

“…The authors argue that one approach for introducing such topics into a curriculum is through capstone projects, e.g., that develop products to serve the public good. A number of authors 1,2,7,8 have developed "best practices" for teaching computer science ethics. Best practices typically involve the use of case studies, handson exercises, roleplaying, discussion sessions, written assignments, and project work.…”

“…We plan to do a similar survey next year, expanded to include additional before and after data on the influences of studying ethics on design. According to Goldweber et al 1 , "the efficacy of strategies for introducing professional and social issues into the [computing] curriculum is not well understood". While few computer science programs integrate ethics within their capstone programs, we hope our strategies can be reused by other programs and that our ongoing assessment of these strategies can contribute to the broader goal of developing approaches for incorporating ethics into computing education.…”

“…To help address these outcomes and to further develop topics in professional ethics within our program, we have developed a set of modules covering ethical, legal, and societal issues in computer science that we have integrated into our yearlong senior capstone program. According to other studies 1 , a lack of technical knowledge and sophistication are often seen as barriers to student engagement in ethics courses taught in lowerlevel courses. Thus, one of our reasons for covering ethical considerations at the senior level is to help make ethics more concrete and tangible for students by leveraging their experience and maturity in software development (gained through coursework, internships, and in thinking about their own careers).…”