Collaborative Research: Educational Simulation for Computing and Information Ethics

现代全球社会越来越依赖计算和信息专业人员在创建、管理和维护对研究、教育、商业和生活质量至关重要的全球计算和信息基础设施方面发挥关键作用。因此，计算和信息专业人员不仅需要学习技术技能，还需要学习如何解决道德问题，如内部/外包、知识产权和信息隐私。在新的全球经济中工作要求计算和信息专业人员能够考虑以亚里士多德、边沁、佛陀、孔子、吉利根和康德等领先思想家为代表的文化价值观和伦理观点的范围。为了拓宽和深化计算和信息专业人员的伦理视角，有必要开发和教授计算和信息伦理课程，作为计算机科学和跨学科信息领域专业研究生课程的一部分。此外，为了使当前和未来的计算和信息专业人员能够欣赏和理解道德在其工作中的相关性，有必要找到具有教育激励作用的方法，让研究生参与专业计算和信息项目，以考虑关键的道德问题。在这个项目中，私人投资机构希望通过开发和评估计算和信息伦理教育模拟来实现这一目标，这是一门创新课程的基石，该课程侧重于价值观和伦理在全球社会中计算和信息方面的作用。在之前研究的基础上，PIS将探索三个主要的研究问题：计算和信息伦理课程的研究生如何使用教育模拟软件来了解和实践重要的计算和信息伦理问题，如全球社会中的知识产权？在面向国际的计算和信息伦理学研究生课程中，地理位置是否会对模拟的使用产生影响？研究生级别的计算和信息伦理课程的学生从与同行的互动中受益最大，还是与通过该项目开发的软件代理互动受益最大？更广泛的影响：项目成果将包括一个免费的开源计算和信息伦理模拟，它允许学生参与并从中学习，并开发和实施他们自己的案例，然后他们可以与同行分享。PIS将围绕模拟开发一门新的、参与度很高的课程，该课程将在全国和世界各地的专业计算和信息硕士课程中实施，并将更好地为计算和信息专业人员在其职业生涯中处理伦理问题做好准备。

Modern global society is increasingly reliant on computing and information professionals to serve key roles in creating, managing, and maintaining the global computing and information infrastructure that is critical to research, education, commerce, and quality of life. As such, computing and information professionals need to learn not only technical skills but also how to resolve ethical issues such as in/outsourcing, intellectual property, and information privacy. Working in the new global economy requires that computing and information professionals are able to consider the range of cultural values and ethical perspectives as represented by leading thinkers such as Aristotle, Bentham, Buddha, Confucius, Gilligan, and Kant. To broaden and deepen the ethical perspectives of computing and information professionals, it is essential to develop and teach courses in computing and information ethics as part of professional graduate programs in computer science and the interdisciplinary information field. Further, to enable current and future computing and information professionals to appreciate and understand the relevance of ethics in their work, it is necessary to find educationally motivating ways to engage graduate students in professional computing and information programs to consider key ethical issues. In this project the PIs hope to accomplish this goal through development and evaluation of an educational simulation for computing and information ethics, which serves as the cornerstone for an innovative course focusing on the role of values and ethics in computing and information within a global society. Building on their prior research, the PIs will explore three main research questions: How do graduate students in a computing and information ethics course use educational simulation software to gain understandings of and hands-on experiences with important computing and information ethics issues such as intellectual property in a global society? Does geographical co-location have an impact on use of the simulation in the context of an internationally-oriented computing and information ethics graduate course with a diverse range of students? Do students in a graduate-level computing and information ethics course benefit most from interaction with peers, or with the software agents developed through this project?Broader Impacts: Project outcomes will include a free and open-source simulation for computing and information ethics, which allows students both to participate in and learn from cases, and to develop and implement their own cases that they can then share with peers. The PIs will develop a novel and highly participatory course built around the simulation, which will be implemented in professional computing and information master's programs across the country and the world, and which will better prepare computing and information professionals to deal with ethical issues throughout their careers.