EAGER: Teaching Computer Ethics through Literature

这个探索性项目的目标是使计算机科学专业的学生能够理解伦理学的关键资源，而不是作为一个事实体，而是作为一套分析和评估工具，从而使这些材料的教学方式能够帮助学生培养道德思维的批判性能力，并说服他们在课堂之外继续使用这些批判性能力对他们既有益又相关。为了达到这些目的，PI将利用文学作品，特别是科幻小说，让学生们参与到由计算机技术的现状和潜在影响引起的伦理问题中来。项目成果将包括一本教科书和相关的教学指南，其中包含对故事的分析，这些故事将承载文学伦理阅读的丰富知识传统，以及对计算机科学和技术在社会中的作用的深刻和实际的理解。这些材料将牢牢扎根于伦理学、文学和工程学的教学方法，并将使更大的计算机科学界能够从一个新颖的、跨学科的、更具包容性的角度教授伦理学。也许同样重要的是，这种对传统计算机伦理课程的重新规划将使没有受过伦理教育的教师能够成功地这样做，从而大大降低进入门槛，允许许多机构的教师以更有吸引力的方式教授计算机科学伦理，这最终将帮助更多的计算机科学家深入思考他们职业的伦理问题。PI和她的团队将编写一本伦理学教科书，通过阅读科幻小说为教授计算机科学伦理学提供全面的课程，将深入的伦理学知识与当今计算机科学家所面临的特殊问题和挑战结合起来。教科书将包括高质量的科幻故事选集，这些故事提出了与技术开发专业（包括工程和计算机科学）相关的伦理问题。这些故事将以新制作的伦理批判材料为开头和伴奏，旨在帮助stem学生吸收伦理理论。这种新颖的材料将使用所包含的故事作为训练学生使用伦理理论认识，理解和评估复杂问题的手段。该团队还将为教师制作指南，将文学和哲学的教学策略与计算机科学的教学方法结合起来，帮助教师帮助学生从故事中获得最大的收获。这本书的创作将为如何在计算机科学和工程课程中教授伦理学提供一个根本性的转变，从而为未来从一个新的跨学科视角研究伦理学的有效性奠定基础。

The goal of this exploratory project is to make the critical resources of ethics intelligible to Computer Science students, not as a body of facts but as a set of analytic and evaluative tools, and thereby to enable the teaching of this material in ways that help students develop critical faculties of ethical thinking and persuade them that it is both helpful and relevant to them to continue to use these critical faculties beyond the classroom. To these ends, the PI will use literature, particularly science fiction, to engage students on the ethical issues that arise from the current state and potential impacts of computer technology. Project outcomes will include a textbook and associated teaching guides containing analyses of stories that bring to bear the rich intellectual tradition of ethical readings of literature as well as a deep and practical understanding of computer science and the role of technology in society. These materials will be firmly rooted in the pedagogies of ethics, literature, and engineering, and will enable the larger computer science community to teach ethics from a novel, interdisciplinary, and more inclusive perspective. Perhaps of equal importance, this reformulation of the traditional computer ethics course will enable faculty not trained in teaching ethics to successfully do so and thus will significantly lower the barrier for entry, allowing instructors at many institutions to teach computer science ethics in a more engaging way, which ultimately will help more computer scientists think deeply about the ethical issues of their profession.The PI and her team will develop an ethics textbook that offers a comprehensive curriculum for teaching computer science ethics through the reading of science fiction, which integrates an in-depth knowledge of ethics with the particular concerns and challenges that confront computer scientists today. The textbook will include an anthology of high-quality science fiction stories that pose ethical issues related to the technology development professions including engineering and computer science. These stories will be prefaced and accompanied by newly-produced critical material on ethics that is designed to help STEM-oriented students absorb the ethical theory. This novel material will use the included stories as a means of training students to use ethical theory to recognize, understand and evaluate complex problems. The team will also produce guides for instructors that synthesize pedagogical strategies from literature and philosophy with the teaching methods of computer science, to help instructors help their students get the most out of the stories. The creation of the book will offer a fundamental shift in how ethics can be taught in computer science and engineering courses, thereby laying the groundwork for future studies in the efficacy of teaching ethics from a novel interdisciplinary perspective.