Five Years Teaching Ethics and Computing

• Published in: IEEE design and test Vol. 41; no. 1; p. 1
• Main Authors: Partridge, Craig, Gorin, Moti, Easley, Eric, Gray, Jesse
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01-02-2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Computation; Computer science; computer science education; Data science; Education; Ethics; Information technology; Philosophical considerations; Privacy
• ISSN: 2168-2356; 2168-2364
• DOI: 10.1109/MDAT.2023.3277814

Deciding how best to teach ethics to computer science, data science, and engineering students remains a challenge. Broadly, two approaches are suggested: embedding ethics into courses throughout the curriculum or placing most of the ethics education into a free-standing course. Both approaches have strengths and weaknesses. In this article we describe our experience teaching a free-standing course that is placed in the university core curriculum and is a joint effort between the Philosophy and Computer Science departments. We suggest that material from Philosophy beyond moral theory has played a key role in making our course a success and that students are deeply interested in applying themes from moral theory and philosophy more generally to both life and career.