Education

Teaching Data Ethics: We’re Going to Ethics the Heck Out of This

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Author: Tristan Henderson; Publisher: Association for Computing (ACM) Machinery Digital Library; Publication Year: 2019. The following paper outlines a new Data Ethics & Privacy module that was introduced to computer science students in 2018. The module aims to raise student awareness of current debates in computer science such as bias in artificial intelligence, algorithmic accountability, filter bubbles and data protection, and practical mechanisms for…

Discrimination in a Sea of Data: Exploring the Ethical Implications of Student Success Analytics

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Author: Maureen Guarcello, Linda Feng, Shahriar Panahi, Szymon Machajewski and Marcia Ham; Publisher: Educause Review; Publication Year: 2021. The following article pertains to the ethics of using artificial intelligence (AI) and/or machine learning (ML) to predict student success. Many algorithms that we come across are relatively harmless, but those with an impact on a student’s success and career trajectory must be approached with extreme caution to avoid biases that may creep into the…

Data Ethics for the Digital Education Age

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Author: Lou Blouin; Publisher: University of Michigan-Dearborn News; Publication Year: 2022. The following article describes the ethical issues inherent in data-driven education, particularly in the context of digital learning. Blouin notes that student privacy is often overlooked, particularly when instructors require students to install and use third-party software that tracks user data. In this case, the institution is not at risk, while the students are…

Report: Campus Police Use AI to Track Student Protests

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Author: Katherine Knott; Publisher: Inside Higher Ed; Publication Year: 2022. The following article talks about Social Sentinel (now Navigate360), a company offering social media monitoring services to universities. This report talks about how multiple universities have used/are using this service to monitor protests on campus…

Critical Questions for Facial Recognition Technologies in Higher Education: A Handbook for Stakeholders and Decision-Makers

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Author: Jillian Kwong, Stefanie Demetriades, Ali Rachel Pearl, Noy Thrupkaew, Jef Pearlman, Colin Maclay; Publisher: MASTS “Mobilizing Controversy” Working Group; Publication Year: 2021. The following resource provides insight into what facial recognition is and how it should be used in higher education settings, whether it is for security purposes, tracking health such as during COVID-19, and also for proctoring exams. The article includes research and the rationale for banning facial recognition based on ethical concerns. Shifting norms…

Key Concepts for a Data Science Ethics Curriculum

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Author: Jeffrey Saltz, Neil Dewar, Robert Heckman; Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library; Publication Year: 2018. The following article features reviewed published codes of conduct and ethics in data science by the authors to create a list of the top 12 areas that should be covered in a data science ethics curriculum. They note that no single code or framework published address all 12 themes simultaneously. They encourage educational programs in data science…

Data Science Education Lacks a Much-Needed Focus on Ethics

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Author: Jeffrey C. Oliver, Torbet McNeil; Publisher: The Conversation; Publication Year: 2021. The following article discusses how undergrad training in data science was found to be subpar in training students in the proper use of ethics in data science. In the study, undergraduate curriculums were compared with expectations for ethical training specified by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; and found that only 50% of…

Gendered Language in Teacher Reviews

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Author: Ben Schmidt; Publisher: Ben Schmidt (Personal Website); Publication Year: 2015. The interactive visualization here allows users to input words to query 14 million Rate My Professor reviews and see the splits in occurrence for gender across different school departments, as well for positive and negative reviews. Negative words generally occur more often for female professors, such as ‘horrible’, ‘awful’…

Data Ethics for the Digital Age

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Author: Autumn Caines; Publisher: University of Michigan-Dearborn News; Publication Year: 2022. The following article discusses common ethical issues regarding data as the digital age has become more and more prevalent in society. She goes into depth about how there have been examples of potential overreach with how much data is being collected on people even when they don’t always realize it, like when Canvas…