Colloquium: Doing Computer Science: The Case for Ethics Integration in Computing Education

The computer science colloquium takes place on Mondays from 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

This week's speaker, Casey Fiesler (University of Colorado), will be giving a talk titled "Doing Computer Science: The Case for Ethics Integration in Computing Education".

Abstract

Considering the constant stream of new controversies surrounding technology, it is no longer in question that concepts like ethics, responsibility, and justice are relevant to computing practice and research. However, these topics are still often framed as specialties rather than as foundational for every aspect of the field.  In this talk, I will provide an overview of the current state of ethics education in computing and make a case for an integrated approach that embeds ethics content into existing technical classes, with concrete strategies as well as preliminary lessons from implementing this approach in introductory programming courses. Finally, I will show more generally how broadening our idea of what "counts" as computer science can help broaden participation in computing.

Biography

Dr. Casey Fiesler is an assistant professor and founding faculty in the Department of Information Science as well as Computer Science, by courtesy, at University of Colorado Boulder, where she researches and teaches in the areas of technology ethics, internet law and policy, and social computing. Also a public scholar, she is a frequent commentator and speaker on topics of technology ethics and policy, as well as women in STEM (including consulting with Mattel on their computing-related Barbies). Her work on research ethics for data science, ethics education in computing, and broadening participation in computing is supported by the National Science Foundation, as well as Mozilla and Omidyar Network as part of the Responsible Computer Science Challenge. She is a member of the SIGCHI Research Ethics Committee and the legal committee for the Organization for Transformative Works. She holds a PhD in Human-Centered Computing from Georgia Tech and a JD from Vanderbilt Law School.