Ethical Issues in Computing (Syllabus Sample)

To be taught in Fall 2025 at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC).

Peer-Reviewed Papers

• Still assembling 🙂

Public Writing

• Why We're Not Using AI in this Course by Patrick Lin

Videos

• Search Engine Breakdown
  • A 21-minute PBS documentary overviewing the work of Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble and Dr. Latanya Sweeney in algorithm auditing / algorithmic bias
• 21 fairness definitions and their politics
  • A famous (by academic standards) tutorial by Arvind Narayanan that clearly explains the subjective processes involved in defining fairness
• Still assembling 🙂

Potential Units

(I did not set out to name every topic with alliteration, but after three or four I had to keep it going. We'll see how long it lasts.)

• Computing and climate
• Computing and communication
• Computing and cognition
• Computing and kids
• Computing and killing
• Computing and capture
• Computing and calamities
• Computing and capitalism

Potential Exercises

• "Black Mirror Writer's Room." I am unabashedly borrowing this one from Casey Fiesler, with minimal changes, because it is simply an excellent assignment. It can be divided into five steps, which I have lightly modified from Dr. Fiesler's slides about the exercise:
  • (1) Brainstorm a near-future technology based on a topic of your choice. For the most compelling results, choose a plausible technology that you might expect to see in the next decade or so.
  • (2) Consider the potential social implications and/or ethical issues and/or regulatory challenges with this technology. Try to come up with at least five.
  • (3) What do you think might be a cautionary tale related to this technology?
  • (4) Describe a fictional person (or group of people) in the future that could illustrate this cautionary tale.
  • (5) Tell a story about this person or group of people.
• "What are you searching for?" Students will use the "takeout" feature from Google (or another search engine) to download their search history, then explore the following questions based on five or fewer searches in their history:
  • What were you searching for when you entered this query?
  • If you knew someone else entered this query, what might you infer
  • What might Google (or other company) infer about you from this search?
• "Your Digital Rag Doll." Students will download and analyze internet browsing history and/or social media activities (again using "takeout" features), then make a physical craft that represents the interests expressed in these activities. We will discuss the viability of this approach to inferring interests, and compare the results with real data from Google and Facebook et al. about ad topics.
• "The Food in your Feed." Students will create a "feed diary:" a handwritten spreadsheet of the first twenty items that show up in their feed on a given day. Students will record the source account, a brief summary of the post, and some additional data about each post (was it an ad? were you following the account?), as well as any additional data they wish to collect.

Potential Books

The following will most likely serve as a menu to help students select a book for a report of their own. Some will be core texts that are read as a class. Still a work-in-progress...

• Computer ethics books with an emphasis on artificial intelligence
  • Atlas of AI by Kate Crawford
  • Empire of AI by Karen Hao
  • AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor
  • The AI Con by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna
  • The AI Mirror by Shannon Valor
• Computer ethics books with an emphasis on data science
  • Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil
  • Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein
  • Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez 
• Computer ethics books with an emphasis on communication
  • Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
  • Truth Decay by Jennifer Kavanagh and Michael D. Rich
  • Breaking the Social Media Prism by Chris Bail
  • Digital Disconnect by Robert W. McChesney
  • The Master Switch by Tim Wu
• Computer ethics books with an emphasis on race, class, and sociology
  • Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin
  • Black Software by Charlton McIlwain
  • Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Noble
  • Automating Inequality by Virginia Eubanks
  • More Than a Glitch by Meredith Broussard
  • Design Justice by Sasha Costanza-Chock
• Computer ethics books with an emphasis on psychology
  • Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
  • The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr
  • The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
• Computer ethics books with an emphasis on politics
  • If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore
  • After Democracy: Imagining Our Political Future by Zizi Papacharissi
  • Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Politics of Free and Open Source Software by Gabriella Coleman
• Computer ethics books with an emphasis on privacy
  • Obfuscation: A User's Guide for Privacy and Protest by Finn Brunton and Helen Nissenbaum
  • Data Science Ethics: Concepts, Techniques, and Cautionary Tales by David Martens