[liberationtech] [cpsr-activists] CPSR Curriculum?

Fri Feb 1 09:51:32 PST 2019

Interesting. In a related vein, from my experience, I'll note the following:

   - When underrepresented minorities started getting minimal
   representation at research-one universities, these universities started
   creating programs specifically focused on helping underrepresented
   minorities transition to their new environment. Over the years, mostly
   members of the non-minority community began to argue that having two
   different admit weekends -- one for underrepresented minorities and one for
   everyone else -- was a form of segregation and recommended eliminating such
   programs.
   - While serving on the admissions committee as an undergrad at Yale, I
   proposed that we have multicultural days during the regular admit weekend
   and require that members of the non-minority community attend it, rather
   than have a "minority admit weekend." Members of the non-minority community
   objected stating that such events should be optional only (even though all
   other admit weekend events were required) or that they shouldn't be held at
   all because otherwise other events would have to be removed from the
   schedule. Members of the minority communities also opposed the proposal,
   saying that the status quo of having an extra minority weekend beyond the
   admit weekend served the communities better. But once the members of the
   minority communities realized that the members of the non-minority
   community opposed the plan, they began to like it more.
   - Pondering on what you wrote below, it might be better for the teaching
   of ethics to require that every course have an ethics component. That way,
   students take whatever courses they want but are still exposed to ethics.

But I wonder what the pedagogical research literature says about the best
way to teach ethics? I'm data-driven, so I'd rather see empirical evidence
guide educational policy or someone conduct a study to assess the best
course of action.

My two cents.

On Fri, Feb 1, 2019 at 9:34 AM Doug Schuler <douglas at publicsphereproject.org>
wrote:

>
> I probably shouldn't have dragged Dick's name into this but here's my take
> on what he was saying.
>
> IF the ethics / social responsibility material presented in college is
> relegated to a single, required course (and is not integrated with more
> technical material throughout) then it likely to be disparaged by students
> and teachers alike in the department — and thereby have little effect.
>
> This is evidence from many many years ago but the engineers I worked with
> at Boeing who had had an ethics course acted like it was total BS, a waste
> of time, and not their concern. I'm not saying that they all felt this way
> but their views seemed to be fairly commonplace — which is why I thought
> that Dick's comments were probably pretty relevant.
>
> — Doug
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 9:34 PM Yosem Companys <ycompanys at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Why did he think it was a bad idea?
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 9:29 PM Doug Schuler <
>> douglas at publicsphereproject.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Good info!
>>>
>>> I had been talking to Dick Sclove about this recently and he said that
>>> adding ethics or social responsibility as a class that graduates had to
>>> take was essentially a bad idea. Louis Bucciarelli  apparently was using
>>> this in the engineering department at MIT.
>>>
>>> I wonder if this approach is being taken in any other CS departments.
>>>
>>> — Doug
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 8:55 PM Paul (via cpsr-activists list)
>>> <cpsr-activists+tallpaul=gmail.com at lists.cpsr.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> speaking of curriculum:
>>>> Harvard works to embed ethics in computer science curriculum – Harvard
>>>> Gazette
>>>>
>>>> https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/01/harvard-works-to-embed-ethics-in-computer-science-curriculum/
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 8:01 PM Yosem Companys (via cpsr-activists
>>>> list) <cpsr-activists+ycompanys=gmail.com at lists.cpsr.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Wow, I'd love to see that, even if for historical reasons...
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 6:33 PM Jeff Johnson (via cpsr-activists list)
>>>>> <cpsr-activists+jjohnson=uiwizards.com at lists.cpsr.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> CPSR Folks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I seem to recall that educators in CPSR developed a “Socially
>>>>>> Responsible Computing” curriculum for college courses.  Am I remembering
>>>>>> correctly?  If so, please refresh my memory, or point me to anything online
>>>>>> about it.  Of course, it probably is decades old.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Jeff Johnson
>>>>>> ____________________________________________________________
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Douglas Schuler
>>> douglas at publicsphereproject.org
>>> Twitter: @doug_schuler
>>>
>>>
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>
>
> --
> Douglas Schuler
> douglas at publicsphereproject.org
> Twitter: @doug_schuler
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Public Sphere Project
>      http://www.publicsphereproject.org/
>
> Mailing list ~ Collective Intelligence for the Common Good
>      * http://scn9.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci
> <http://scn9.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci>4cg-announce*
>
> Creating the World Citizen Parliament
>
> http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament
>
> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution
> (project)
>      http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/lv
> <http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/>
>
> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution
> (book)
>  http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601
> --
> Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major
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