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Responsible Computing.

We are involved with the Responsible Computer Science Challenge, dedicated to strategies for ethics integration throughout computing curriculum. See below for a list of publications, assignments and teaching resources.

Teaching Resources

  • Speculative Ethics Classroom Exercises

    Students create their own Black Mirror episode premises or do threat modeling activities to promote critical thinking about ethics in technology.

  • Computer Science Assignments

    Browse our ethics-based computer science teaching materials, ranging from non-coding computational thinking exercises to intermediate programming assignments.

  • Tech Ethics Curricula

    View our compiled spreadsheets including tech ethics syllabi and readings that the community is using to teach ethics in technology.

Why Integrate Ethics?

Publications and Writings on Responsible Computing & Ethics Education

Noah Q. Cowit, Vidushi Ojha, and Casey Fiesler. How do Computing Students Conceptualize Cybersecurity? Survey Results and Strategies for Curricular Integration. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2024.

Noelle Brown, Benjamin Xie, Ella Sarder, Casey Fiesler, and Eliane S. Wiese. Teaching Ethics in Computing: A Systematic Literature Review of ACM Computer Science Education Publications. ACM Transactions on Computing Education 24, 1, Article 6, 2024.

Casey Fiesler, Samantha Dalal, and Joshua Paup. Passwords and Python: Introducing Security Concepts in Lower-Division Programming. In ACM EngageCSEdu. 2023.

Jessie J. Smith, Blakeley H. Payne, Shamika Klassen, Dylan Thomas Doyle, and Casey Fiesler. Incorporating Ethics in Computing Courses: Barriers, Support, and Perspectives from Educators. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2023.

Julie Jarzemsky, Joshua Paup, and Casey Fiesler. "This Applies to the Real World": Student Perspectives on Integrating Ethics into a Computer Science Assignment. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2023.

Ella Sarder and Casey Fiesler. Entering the Techlash: Student Perspectives on Ethics in Tech Job Searches. CSCW 2022 (poster).

Shamika Klassen and Casey Fiesler. “Run a Little Wild with Your Imagination”: Ethical Speculation in Computing Education with Black Mirror. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2022.

Casey Fiesler. The Black Mirror Writers Room: The Case (and Caution) for Ethical Speculation in CS Education. Medium, 2022.

Casey Fiesler, Mikhaila Friske, Natalie Garrett, Felix Muzny, Jessie Smith, and Jason Zietz. Integrating Ethics into Introductory Programming Classes. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2021.

Casey Fiesler. What “counts” as computer science? Medium, 2021.

Casey Fiesler. Innovating Like an Optimist, Preparing Like a Pessimist: Ethical Speculation and the Legal Imagination. Colorado Technology Law Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2021.

Casey Fiesler. What do we teach when we teach tech and AI ethics? Medium, 2020.

Casey Fiesler and Natalie Garrett. Ethical Tech Starts with Addressing Ethical Debt. WIRED, 2020.

Natalie Garrett, Nathan Beard, and Casey Fiesler. More Than “If Time Allows”: The Role of Ethics in AI Education. Proceedings of the ACM AIES Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society, 2020.

Casey Fiesler, Natalie Garrett, and Nathan Beard. What Do We Teach When We Teach Tech Ethics?: A Syllabi Analysis. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCSE Conference on Computer Science Education, 2020.

Casey Fiesler. What Our Tech Ethics Crisis Says About the State of Computer Science Education. How We Get to Next. December 5, 2018.

Casey Fiesler. Black Mirror, Light Mirror: Teaching Technology Ethics Through Speculation. How We Get to Next. October 15, 2018.

Jeffrey Saltz, Michael Skirpan, Casey Fiesler, Micha Gorelick, Tom Yeh, Robert Heckman, Neil Dewar, and Nathan Beard. Integrating ethics within machine learning courses. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE) 19, no. 4: 1-26, 2019.

Michael Skirpan, Nathan Beard, Srinjita Bhaduri, Casey Fiesler, and Tom Yeh. Ethics Education in Context: A Case Study of Novel Ethics Activities for the CS Classroom. Proceedings of the ACM SIGCSE Conference on Computer Science Education, pp. 940-945, 2018.

Other Resources

Responsible Computer Science Challenge

Intro programming assignments from Evan Peck: The Ethical Engine, Hiring Algorithms

Middle school AI ethics curriculum @ MIT

Roleplay for ethics in CS classes @ Georgia Tech

Embedded EthiCS @ Harvard

This research has been funded by the Responsible Computer Science Challenge (a partnership of Omidyar Network, Mozilla, Schmidt Futures and Craig Newmark Philanthropies), and continued support comes from two National Science Foundation grants: Scaffolding Ethical Speculation in Technology Design (CISE CAREER) and Integrating Cybersecurity into Artificial Intelligence Education (SaTC-Edu).