{"650101":{"#nid":"650101","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Study Seeks to Bring More Diverse Voices into Computing Ethics Education","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Study Seeks to Bring More Diverse Voices into Computing Ethics Education\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EJason Borenstein of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/spp.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Public Policy\u003C\/a\u003E, Ellen Zegura of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scs.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Computer Science\u003C\/a\u003E, and Charles Isbell, dean of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECollege of Computing\u003C\/a\u003E, will lead a three-year, National Science Foundation-funded study seeking to \u0026ldquo;better understand and amplify the diverse range of voices that may have been absent during the development of a traditional computing ethics curriculum.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBorenstein is the project\u0026rsquo;s principal investigator. \u0026ldquo;The main goal of this grant is to enable groups historically underrepresented in computing to have more of a direct say in what\u0026rsquo;s offered in the computing ethics curriculum,\u0026rdquo; said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/jason-borenstein\u0022\u003EBorenstein\u003C\/a\u003E, who teaches ethics in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/a\u003E and is the director of graduate research ethics programs for Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBlack, Hispanic, and Indigenous individuals represent just over 15% of bachelor\u0026rsquo;s degrees awarded in computer science in the United States and fewer than 4% of doctoral degrees, according to the most recent \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cra.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/2019-Taulbee-Survey.pdf\u0022\u003ECRA Taulbee study\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;As computing expands to touch everyone\u0026rsquo;s lives, it becomes more and more important to have people from a diverse set of backgrounds doing that work,\u0026rdquo; said Isbell, a co-principal investigator on the study. \u0026ldquo;What we do in the classroom and in our careers must be responsible to all of the different groups affected by our work. I am looking forward to this project and eager to see what impact we can make.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBy learning more about how changes to the curriculum might change students\u0026rsquo; perceptions of ethics in computing, the hope is the team will be able to develop recommendations for changes instructors could implement to make the curriculum more diverse, inclusive, and attentive to thorny ethical issues that many students may never personally experience, Zegura said. Such efforts are foundational to Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s mission to educate leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We\u0026rsquo;re educating many future software developers. We have a chance through these students to do more to make computing responsible to all parts of society. An important piece is educating future developers to think broadly and carefully about the software they are building,\u0026rdquo; \u0026nbsp;said Zegura, also co-PI on the study.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBorenstein, Zegura, and Isbell hope to survey minority faculty at a number of U.S. universities about what they are teaching and what they think should be taught as part of the computing ethics curriculum. They are working with senior advisors from the faculties of Georgia State University, Morehouse College, and Florida International University and an advisory board.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EA key step will be to create sample course syllabuses incorporating the views of surveyed faculty and measure to see if the proposed additions would change students\u0026rsquo; perceptions of the computing fields and the classes they might take.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Our hope is that it might help with retention rates,\u0026rdquo; Borenstein said. \u0026ldquo;If, for instance, you talk about issues more directly related to social justice in your computing courses, is that going to resonate with different student populations and potentially make them more interested in staying in computing?\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe project is funded by a $398,288 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/nsf.gov\/awardsearch\/showAward?AWD_ID=2124745\u0022\u003ENSF grant\u003C\/a\u003E through its Ethical and Responsible Research (ER2) program.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers hope to \u0026quot;enable groups historically underrepresented in computing to have more of a direct say in what\u0026rsquo;s offered in the computing ethics curriculum.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The researchers hope to \u0022enable groups historically underrepresented in computing to have more of a direct say in what\u2019s offered in the computing ethics curriculum.\u0022"}],"uid":"34600","created_gmt":"2021-08-25 20:39:13","changed_gmt":"2021-08-27 23:26:10","author":"mpearson34","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2021-08-26T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2021-08-26T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"650100":{"id":"650100","type":"image","title":"Computing Ethics Grant","body":null,"created":"1629923735","gmt_created":"2021-08-25 20:35:35","changed":"1629982279","gmt_changed":"2021-08-26 12:51:19","alt":"\u0022\u0022","file":{"fid":"246755","name":"computing ethics grant.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/computing%20ethics%20grant.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/computing%20ethics%20grant.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":316072,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/computing%20ethics%20grant.jpg?itok=4zE-GyAj"}}},"media_ids":["650100"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1289","name":"School of Public Policy"},{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMichael Pearson\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nmichael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}