Design of a Technology Ethics Serious Game: Cultivating Ethical Thinking

Technology Ethics (TE) is an applied normative branch of ethics concerning ethical evaluation of technical practices with a view to prescribing changes and potentially addressing ethical dilemmas. The importance of TE education for computer science (CS) is expressed through its acknowledgement in professional codes of practice, by accreditation bodies and in literature and survey findings. Challenges to its incorporation in CS programmes include lack of expertise to develop content and assess, lack of curricula space and potential technical naivety at early stage CS education1,2,3,4. This poster presents a literature informed first iteration design of a serious game, SimEthica. The game can be pedagogically entangled5 in a CS programme for cultivation of ethical thinking. SimEthica is designed to be entangled in a pedagogy for second year undergraduate Information Modelling (IM) students. Students learn how information models preserve information integrity and represent worldviews that seed AI algorithms. Virtuous practice design (VPD) proposed by Reijers provides an ethical basis for SimEthica 6. VPD arises from explication and synthesis of virtue ethics, technical practice, narrative technologies and the philosophies of Paul Ricoeur 7.The design was evaluated by a panel including ethical, information modelling and health research expertise. A diagram of SimEthica design is presented to highlight key literature findings informing the design. The design will evolve through continuous capture and encapsulation of teacher and learners purpose, value and context.